Cartels

A recent surge in arrests and cocaine seizures in Peru points to an increased presence of Mexican drug cartels, counter-narcotics officials say. The cartels have also contributed to more drug-related violence in Peruvian cities, ports and in remote valleys in this Andean country where coca, cocaine's base material, is grown, the officials say.

The reputed head of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel is threatening a more aggressive stance against competitors and law enforcement north of the border, instructing associates to use deadly force, if needed, to protect increasingly contested trafficking operations, authorities said. Such a move by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, would mark a turn from the cartel's previous position of largely avoiding violent confrontations in the U.S.

Two weeks after federal judges ordered California to reduce its prison population, an arm of the Schwarzenegger administration is set to vote on increased funding to police anti-drug units, potentially putting even more offenders behind bars. An advisory board for the California Emergency Management Agency is expected to decide today whether to channel $33 million in federal money to narcotics task forces around the state that have proved particularly adept at apprehending drug criminals.

As a high-ranking U.S. anti-drug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held front-line posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara. While in Mexico, however, Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords, according to federal investigators. Cramer allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats.

A Los Angeles gang member and Mexican drug cartel enforcer who, authorities say, killed four people, including the mother of his child, is now on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted fugitive list. Jose Luis Saenz, a Cuatro Flats gang member, shot and killed two rivals from the East LA Trece gang in a Boyle Heights housing project a decade ago, authorities say. He then allegedly kidnapped, raped and killed his girlfriend -- who was also the mother of his infant daughter -- because he feared that she would talk to authorities.

Drug agents swept through Los Angeles and dozens of other locations Wednesday and Thursday, arresting more than 300 people and seizing large quantities of drugs, weapons and money in the biggest U.S. crackdown against a Mexican drug cartel. The months-long offensive, the fruit of dozens of federal investigations over the last 3 1/2 years, will put a significant dent in the U.S. operations of La Familia Michoacana, one of Mexico's fastest-growing and deadliest cartels, authorities said.

A convicted Colombian drug baron with links to two major smuggling cartels was shot dead in a Madrid hospital where he was being treated for a lung disease, officials said. Leonidas Vargas was arrested in Madrid in July 2006 and convicted of possessing more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine, a police spokesman said. The Colombian Embassy said he had worked with drug lords linked to the Medellin and Cali cartels. Vargas had been sentenced to 19 years in prison and was transferred to the Doce de Octubre hospital for treatment on Jan. 2.

Mexican authorities on Thursday announced the capture of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a suspected top leader of a family-run drug gang based in Ciudad Juarez and one of the country's most wanted figures. Federal law enforcement officials said Carrillo Leyva, the 32-year-old son of deceased drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested Wednesday while exercising in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City. The younger Carrillo was listed among the country's 24 most wanted drug suspects last week when the federal government offered $2-million rewards for each.

A Houston man was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for buying military-style firearms that ended up in the hands of Mexico's violent drug cartels. Prosecutors said John Phillip Hernandez was a leader of an organization that purchased 339 weapons over 15 months, many of them military-style weapons. At least 40 weapons have been recovered in Mexico and three have been found in Guatemala, according to court documents. Hernandez, 26, was sentenced after pleading guilty in July to one count of making a false statement to a gun dealer.

Re "He let Mexico down," editorial, April 18 Reinstating the ban on assault weapons in the U.S. may very well help ease drug violence in Mexico. No one can deny that thousands of guns purchased in the U.S. end up in the hands of Mexican cartels each year. But the oft-cited statistic espoused by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other politicians -- that 90% of the guns recovered by Mexican authorities originate in the U.S. -- is not accurate. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has found that about 90% of the guns traced by Mexican police can be traced back to U.S. gun dealers.