Drug Trafficking

The death toll from the Mexican government's three-year war on drug cartels is far higher than previously reported -- more than 22,000, according to news reports published Tuesday that cited confidential government figures. The figure is significantly higher than tallies assembled by Mexican media. They estimate that more than 18,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug-trafficking groups after taking office in December 2006. The unofficial media tallies have often been cited by foreign news outlets, including The Times.

SAN DIEGO - Alleged drug kingpin Victor Emilio Cazares, among the most wanted trafficking suspects in the United States, has been arrested in Mexico, U.S. and Mexican officials say, despite having changed his appearance through plastic surgery. A senior U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico confirmed this week that Cazares was captured April 8 at a highway checkpoint near the western city of Guadalajara. Mexican authorities on Friday confirmed Cazares was in custody. Mexican authorities did not make the arrest public at the time, and it has not been previously reported.

A prison riot Wednesday killed at least 23 inmates in the northern Mexican state of Durango, which has been the scene of increasingly violent feuding between drug-trafficking groups during the last year. Authorities said fighting broke out early in the morning between inmates affiliated with rival drug-trafficking groups who were held in the penitentiary in the state capital, also named Durango. The clashes left an undetermined number of inmates injured. The Durango state prosecutor, Daniel Garcia Leal, declined in a radio interview to identify the rival cartels.

The man with eight pounds of methamphetamine in his carry-on bag stood in the snaking security line at Los Angeles International Airport's Terminal 4, inching toward the checkpoint, when a TSA screener approached. But it wasn't to stop the contraband, according to prosecutors. It was to make sure it got through. The screener, John Whitfield, allegedly told the man to get to the back of the line so he and his luggage would get to the X-ray machines when Whitfield's shift started.

Mexico agreed to extradite a top leader of a Tijuana-based drug cartel to the U.S., dismissing a judge's opinion that it would mean trying him on the same charges twice. Benjamin Arellano Felix was arrested in 2002 and has already been sentenced to 22 years in prison in Mexico on drug-trafficking and organized crime charges. He also was sentenced to more than five years for weapons possession. His brother Ramon was killed in 2002 in a shootout with police.

In what was billed as the largest U.S. dragnet in the war on drugs from the Southwest border, senior federal law enforcement officials said Thursday that they had arrested more than 2,200 people including a top Mexican cartel leader, seized nearly 75 tons of drugs and confiscated $154 million in cash. The massive takedown, dubbed "Project Deliverance" and executed around the United States, was hailed as part of a nearly two-year, multi-agency operation in the Obama administration's effort to fight Mexican drug trafficking operations.

Authorities arrested 10 members of the Vagos motorcycle gang suspected of drug trafficking and a rash of violence during a series of raids early Thursday across Southern California, a crackdown that comes less than two weeks after a Vagos member allegedly killed a rival Hells Angels member at a Nevada casino. The arrests were the result of an 18-month investigation led by state investigators into one of the most "violent criminal" motorcycle gangs in the nation, authorities said.

A Santa Ana gang leader was found guilty of federal drug trafficking charges Thursday, capping a two-year investigation that authorities said broke the back of one of Southern California's largest drug distribution networks. Jose Castellon faces life in prison when sentenced March 19. He was convicted of heroin and cocaine trafficking, and manufacturing methamphetamines. The Castellon-led ring, authorities said, was responsible for making $1 million worth of methamphetamines a month.

A Colombian woman accused of running a female-dominated drug trafficking ring that distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine in the United States since 1986 has been extradited from Brazil to face federal charges in New York and Los Angeles. Known among her associates as La Senora, Mery Valencia, 44, operated a sophisticated crime organization from her home base in Cali, Colombia, U.S. authorities said.

The Juarez police lieutenant was recovering from three gunshot wounds, the result of an assault by hit men for a drug cartel. His name was on a death list brazenly posted at a monument for fallen peace officers. Lt. Salvador Hernandez Arvizu didn't like his odds of surviving in Mexico. So he fled his hospital bed, hoping to take refuge in the U.S. At a border post in El Paso, he filled out immigration paperwork, made a formal request for political asylum -- and was taken directly to jail.

WASHINGTON — Police and federal agents pulled the car over in a suburb north of Denver. An FBI agent showed his badge. The driver appeared not startled at all. "My friend," he said, "I have been waiting for you. " And with that, Jesus Audel Miramontes-Varela stepped out of his white 2002 BMW X5 and into the arms of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over the next several days at his ranch in Colorado and an FBI safe house in Albuquerque, the Mexican cartel chieftain — who had reputedly fed one of his victims to lions in Mexico — was transformed into one of the FBI's top informants on the Southwest border.

They were sellers of pastel-toned huggable plush toys with names like "Baby Frenz Forever" and "Jungle Pals. " At the same time, authorities say, they were receiving bricks of U.S. dollars wrapped in cellophane that were drug proceeds to be laundered into clean pesos for drug lords in Mexico and Colombia. On Monday, authorities announced charges against the City of Industry-based Woody Toys Inc. and seven owners, employees and customers in what marks the second case in two years involving toy exporters allegedly acting as conduits for the drug trade.

The Summit of the Americas is more often a photo opportunity than a forum for bold policy initiatives. When issues of substance are discussed, the meeting of the hemisphere's 34 leaders has generally yielded more clashes than regional pacts. But some saw a chance for a little more action this year when leaders from several Latin American countries came to this weekend's summit in the Colombian seaside city of Cartagena complaining of drug war fatigue. Over the last six months, that weariness has been spreading throughout Latin America.

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama sought Saturday to emphasize the robust economic relationship between the United States and Latin America, and he flatly ruled out legalizing drugs as a way to combat the illegal trafficking that has ravaged the region. Facing calls at a regional summit to consider decriminalization, Obama said he is open to a debate about drug policy, but he believes that legalization could lead to greater problems in countries hardest hit by drug-fueled violence.

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday told Mexican Catholics that renewed faith and a pure heart will help them stand up to "distressing times of human suffering" in a nation stalked by drug violence, crime and uncertainty. At a vast, sunbaked open-air Mass, with several hundred thousand people arrayed before him, the pope said Mexico faced "times of sorrow as well as hope" and he reiterated a call for the special protection of children. Of particular significance here, Benedict repeatedly invoked the Virgin of Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and Latin America.

A lawmaker and former federal prosecutor from Los Angeles has drafted proposed new penalties for criminals who illegally purchase and smuggle firearms into Mexico , saying he hopes his measure will bring "something positive" out of the uproar over the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation on the Southwest border. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said he will introduce legislation Thursday to create a two-year prison sentence for so-called "straw purchasers" who currently receive probation or very little jail time for acquiring weapons under false pretenses and then selling them to Mexican gun smugglers.

Immigrants from an obscure corner of Mexico are changing heroin use in many parts of America. Farm boys from a tiny county that once depended on sugar cane have perfected an ingenious business model for selling a semi-processed form of Mexican heroin known as black tar. Using convenient delivery by car and aggressive marketing, they have moved into cities and small towns across the United States, often creating demand for heroin where there...

A former star prosecutor who admitted providing sensitive information to Orange County's biggest methamphetamine dealer was released from custody Monday after almost three years of imprisonment. Bryan Ray Kazarian, 37, left federal court in Santa Ana on Monday evening to cheers and hugs from more than 60 friends and relatives. Kazarian, who wept as he hugged his wife, Tanya, had been held in an undisclosed prison because authorities feared he might become a target of the drug dealer or others.

  In a race widely deemed his to lose, Enrique Peña Nieto's greatest hurdle may be his own party. Mexico'sformer ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, hopes to ride back to power behind its handsome young presidential candidate and a rejuvenated image. But new allegations of drug payoffs to a former PRI governor have shoved the party's often-shady legacy to the forefront of the campaign, reminding voters of the sort of graft that marked the party's rule before it was booted in 2000 after seven decades of near-absolute control.

Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords visited the White House on Friday as President Obama signed into law her bill that clamps down on ultralight planes used in drug smuggling. The Democratic congresswoman has retired to focus on her recovery, but colleagues gave her legislation unanimous approval in an emotional send-off last month. “This bill gives our nation's law enforcement expanded authority to combat illicit drug trafficking on our northern and southern borders, and being able to sign it next to my friend Gabby Giffords gives me enormous pride,” Obama said Friday in a statement at the bill signing ceremony.  “The fact that it passed unanimously shows just how much Gabby is respected by her colleagues in Congress in both parties,” he said.