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Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican drug lord extradited to US
2011-04-30
[Iran Press TV] Mexican prosecutors say they have extradited the leader of the Tijuana narco mob, Benjamin Arellano Felix, to the United States to stand trial.

Felix who was handed over on Friday, is one of the highest-profile cartel members extradited since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, AP reported.

Felix will face charges of conspiracy, money laundering, controlled drug trafficking, aiding and abetting, and operating a criminal organization.

In October 2008, Mexican security forces captured Felix after a three-hour shootout with more than 100 coppers and soldiers in the border city of Tijuana.

More than 5,000 people have been reported missing in Mexico, and many are presumed to be victims of the drug war, according to According to Mexico's National Human Rights Commission.

Mexico says more than 34,200 people have been killed in violence and bloody wars between narco mobs since December 2006. Attorney General Arturo Chavez says criminal gangs and narco mobs killed more than 15,000 people in 2010, making it the deadliest year ever.

The spike in drug-related violence comes despite a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon against narco mobs. He has ordered the deployment of about 50,000 troops across Mexico to combat narco gangs. President Calderon has announced that four additional battalions would be deployed to the northeast of the country.

The Mexican president has successfully pushed the United States to acknowledge its own responsibility in the violence in Mexico since it is the American market that fuels drug-trafficking and American guns smuggled into Mexico that are used by narco gangs.

"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of coppers, soldiers and civilians," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Tallyrand ...
said in 2009.
Posted by:Fred

#4  The entire administration is a joke.
Posted by: newc   2011-04-30 14:55  

#3  "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of coppers, soldiers and civilians," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

How much longer did her nose grow when she said that?

Tell the truth, Hill - your only concern is your inability to cover up that the Administration YOU serve sent the weapons south on purpose.

Hmmm. Wonder if there's any way to check if any of Bambi's "donations" came from the Mex cartels? I'd at least check the bank accounts of the higher-ups in the ATF.

/conspiracy theory
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2011-04-30 14:20  

#2  "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals"

I seem to recall that the Department of Justice deliberately let those weapons through to the narco gangs despite the expressed concerns of the gun sellers, some of which were used to kill two Border Patrol agents in Mexico. It is the job of the secretary of state to announce the president's position on a given subject, but when the plot and the perpetrators have been publicly revealed, she really ought to display a bit of principle and spine.
Posted by: trailing wife   2011-04-30 11:18  

#1  "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade."

A stopped clock is right ....

"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals"

Inability? Or unwillingness? And how can one make a border a one-way membrane to smuggling (keep things from moving south, while allowing illegals to move north?)
Posted by: Glenmore   2011-04-30 09:44  

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