Mexican federal police said on Wednesday they detained one of the US’ most-wanted drug traffickers, Luis Rodriguez Olivera, at Mexico City’s international airport.
US authorities had offered a reward of up to US$5 million for Rodriguez Olivera, who is known by the nickname “Blondie,” according to Mexico’s Public Safety Department.
Olivera and his brother Esteban are accused of smuggling tonnes of cocaine and methamphetamine into Europe and the US, mainly through Texas. Esteban was extradited to the US in March.
Luis Rodriguez Olivera, 39, was indicted in US federal court in 2009 on cocaine-smuggling conspiracy and related charges. The red-haired suspect was arrested on Tuesday, officials said.
His gang, known as “The Blondies,” formed temporary allegiances with bigger Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, officials say. He is being held until a hearing on a US extradition request.
Also on Wednesday, Mexican authorities seized 120 tonnes of a precursor chemical used to make methamphetamines at the Pacific coast port of Lazaro Cardenas, the fifth such large shipment seized so far this month.
The Attorney General’s Office said the shipment, like the previous four, came from China and was destined for Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala.
The chemical, which filled eight shipping containers, was identified as methylamine.
The latest bust brings to almost 675 tonnes the amount of meth precursors seized in Mexico this month, more than half of the entire amount — 1,200 tonnes — seized in Mexico in all of this year.
Experts familiar with methamphetamine production call the seizure a huge amount of raw material, noting that under some production methods, precursor chemicals can yield about half their weight in uncut meth.
Authorities said they seized 205 tonnes of the chemical at Lazaro Cardenas over several days early this month, and on Dec. 19 they announced the discovery of almost 100 tonnes. On Dec. 23, authorities announced the seizure of 229 tonnes of precursor chemicals at the port, and on Dec. 26, another 21 tonnes were found at another port.
Authorities have not said which cartels the shipments may have belonged to.
The port of Lazaro Cardenas is located in the home territory of the Knights Templar drug cartel, but the Sinaloa and Zetas cartels have been more active in Central America. Officials say the Sinaloa cartel in particular has moved into meth production on an industrial scale.
Mexico has busted a few huge meth laboratories and traffickers could be looking for other locations to install production.
“When controls over precursors were strengthened in the United States, manufacture shifted to Mexico,” according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime 2011 World Drug Report.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS