Mexico has welcomed a massive US operation targeting Mexican drug gangs that included the arrest of 303 people and the seizure of tonnes of narcotics over two days of raids.
The operation saw more than 3,000 federal agents and police officers deployed across 19 US states as part of the longer-running “Project Coronado,” which has netted nearly 1,200 suspects since 2005.
“This operation has dealt a significant blow to La Familia’s supply chain of illegal drugs, weapons and cash flowing between Mexico and the United States,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Mexico’s attorney general’s office issued a statement welcoming the news.
“The government of Mexico recognizes and appreciates the efforts of the United States that resulted in the arrest, in US territory, of the 303 alleged members of La Familia,” it said.
US President Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, have vowed to cooperate against deadly drug cartels.
But despite deploying 50,000 troops in a nationwide crackdown on drug gangs, Calderon has so far failed to stem Mexico’s spiraling drug violence, which has killed some 14,000 people since late 2006.
La Familia controls drug production and distribution in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan and from there ships vast quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to the US, US officials say.
The pseudo-Christian, cult-like drug organization made a dramatic entrance in Mexico in 2006 when its members rolled five decapitated heads onto a dance floor at a nightclub.
“The sheer level and depravity of violence that this cartel has exhibited far exceeds what we unfortunately have become accustomed to from other cartels,” Holder said.
“By seizing their drugs and upending their supply chains, we have disrupted their business-as-usual state of operations,” he said.
Since Coronado began, US authorities have seized US$32 million in cash, more than 1,225kg of methamphetamine, nearly 2,000kg of cocaine, 13kg of heroin and about 7,300kg of marijuana.
Nearly 400 weapons were seized in the past two days alone.
“These are drugs that were headed for our streets, and weapons that often were headed for the streets of Mexico,” Holder said, adding that arrests were ongoing.
La Familia’s operations “reach far into the United States,” he said, calling the gang the “most violent” of the five main Mexican drug cartels.
“Today, we have all taken a step forward to disrupt a group that hides behind a shield of ideology while terrorizing communities in Mexico and peddling drugs in our neighborhoods here in the United States,” FBI chief Robert Mueller said.
Drug trafficking between the US and its southern neighbor “is not a one-country problem, and solving it will take more than a one country solution,” said Holder, who praised the Mexican government’s “heroic” effort to combat the violence.
Mexican police, meanwhile, announced they had arrested alleged La Familia hitmen Jose Roberto de la Sancha, alias “El Chivo” (the goat), and Juan Estrada, who goes by the name “Charmin.”
Mexico has complained that weapons from the US are helping fuel the brutal drug war and in a criminal complaint filed in Dallas, Texas, US federal investigators charged that La Familia operatives shipped hundreds of firearms from the US to Mexico in the past year.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS