Drug Traffickers

A retired Mexican army officer widely credited with restoring law and order as the top police official in Tijuana was named Thursday to a similar post in Ciudad Juarez, the country's most violent city. Julian Leyzaola, who was a lieutenant colonel, was appointed public safety secretary by Ciudad Juarez Mayor Hector Murguia, who was elected last July. He takes over security in a city where fighting between drug cartels has sent killings skyrocketing, with more than 6,400 people slain since late 2006.

First they killed activist Josefina Reyes. Then her brother. Then they burned her mother's house. Two and a half weeks ago, gunmen dressed in black kidnapped Reyes' sister, sister-in-law and another brother. On Friday, their bodies were discovered, shot and dumped on the side of a windswept road in Chihuahua state. The Reyes family has become a case study of the unrelenting violence ravaging northern Mexico. Surviving relatives Friday angrily blamed government authorities for failing to protect a family "so historically aggrieved.

U.S. authorities launched a nationwide sweep of drug trafficking suspects, declaring the crackdown a retaliatory strike against the U.S. operations of Mexican drug cartels after the killing of an American agent in Mexico last week. More than 100 suspects were arrested in nine cities across the U.S. during coordinated raids by federal, state and local police that began Wednesday and continued Thursday. Mexican drug cartels have distribution channels in every major city in the U.S., said Derek Maltz, special agent in charge of special operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In a mob bust described as the largest in FBI history, law enforcement officials Thursday said they had charged 127 members of the nation's leading Mafia groups with crimes such as murder and drug trafficking and had arrested 110 of them in early-morning sweeps in three states and Italy. DOCUMENTS: Read the unsealed indictments Some of the crimes linked to the suspects date back 30 years, including a barroom quarrel over a spilled drink that led to a double murder. Atty.

Four years and 50,000 troops into President Felipe Calderon's drug war, the fighting has exposed severe limitations in the Mexican army's ability to wage unconventional warfare, tarnished its proud reputation and left the U.S. pointedly criticizing the force as "virtually blind" on the ground. The army's shortcomings have complicated the government's struggle against the narcotics cartels, as the deadliest year of the war by far comes to a close. Though long employed to destroy marijuana and poppy fields in the countryside, the army hadn't been trained for the type of operations needed to fight groups trafficking cocaine through border cities.

Mexican authorities said Friday that they believe a top leader of the violent La Familia cartel was killed during two days of pitched fighting in the home state of President Felipe Calderon. In violence that erupted Wednesday afternoon and raged until early Friday, federal forces deployed in the western state of Michoacan battled scores of gunmen from La Familia who set vehicles on fire and barricaded roads in a dozen cities. At least 11 people were confirmed killed, including five federal police officers and an 8-month-old.

President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua has received "suitcases full of cash" from Venezuela and is believed to have used money from drug traffickers to finance electoral fraud, according to secret U.S. diplomatic cables disclosed this week. Ortega's fawning and lucrative relationship with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez prompted a U.S. diplomat to dub Ortega a "Chavez 'Mini-Me,'" a reference to a diminutive movie character, the cables say. In the latest leak from the cache of U.S. diplomatic communications released by the WikiLeaks website, officials paint a harsh picture of Ortega, a long-time foe of Washington, his politics and the secretive, abusive way he runs his government.

A 14-year-old boy who says he's been killing or working for drug cartels since he was 11 has been captured by the Mexican army after a monthlong hunt, authorities said Friday. Edgar Jimenez Lugo, who authorities said was born in San Diego, was wanted on suspicion of killing rivals ? allegedly beheading some of them ? as part of his work for an especially violent drug-trafficking cartel. Jimenez was attempting to board a flight for Tijuana with two sisters Thursday night when authorities detained him in Morelos state south of Mexico City.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon strongly opposes the California ballot measure that would legalize small amounts of marijuana, saying it reflects softening attitudes toward drug consumption in the U.S. that are undercutting efforts to control organized crime groups in Mexico. Calderon, in an interview in Tijuana, said he was disappointed that the U.S. federal government, which for years has pushed Mexico to crack down on drug traffickers, has not done more to oppose the measure.

Families were out for the night air, taking a stroll in the central plaza in the northern Mexican city of Guadalupe when presumed drug traffickers hurled grenades into the crowd. At least 14 people, more than half of them children, were injured, authorities said Sunday. The assailants in the attack Saturday rode in two SUVs and quickly escaped the plaza. Several witnesses told Milenio television that local police blocked traffic after the explosion to clear the way for the attackers.