Thursday, May 27, 2010

Mayor of Cancún arrested on drug and corruption charges

The Mayor of Cancún, Gregorio Sánchez, was arrested by Federal Police last Tuesday and charged with conspiracy to commit drug crimes and of money laundering. This arrest followed the May 10 extradition of Mario Ernesto Villanueva, the state's former governor, to U.S. authorities on charges of helping transport more than 200 tons of cocaine to the USA. Villanueva was mayor of Cancún from 1990-92.

Municipal police officers of the city of Nezahualcóyotl, who asked to remain anonymous, have complained that they are being asked for weekly money "quotas" by their superiors from between 20 USD to 300 USD depending on their job function...if they do not pay they are fired. They claim that the police commanders and the Director of Security, Victor Alejo Muñoz, garner at least 25,000 USD.

In the municipality of Gustavo A Madero, Mexico City, the head of police, Miguel Ángel Mancera states that nearly 160 police officers have been fired under his administration (3 years so far) for various offences. Yesterday, in this same municipality, a ministerial police officer, Victor Manuel Rangel Cabrera, was riding on his motorcycle with his wife and 4 year old son. He struck a Taxi and the family fell to the ground. In a fit of rage, Rangel drew his pistol and shot the taxi driver dead. Rangel is currently under investigation for homicide.

In the rich section of Monterrey, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, one of the leaders of the Beltrán Leyva splinter groups, Pedro Roberto Velázquez Amador (La Piña) was shot and killed during a confrontation with the military which lasted 15 minutes. Six other gunmen escaped despite the lock down that the military had applied to the neighbourhood. Velázquez was an ex-police officer from San Pedro Garza García who had been working for the cartels.

In other parts of Nuevo León, 215 state police officers have been removed from duty in the last 2 months by the state Secretary for Public Security, Luis Carlos Treviño Berchelmann, while 150 Federal Police officers have arrived to assist in policing the frontier of Nuevo León with Tamaulipas. The 215 police officers included 15 officers who refused to attend calls for assistance, in one case, in a barrio that had reports of gunfire.

Another penitentiary director has disappeared, this time in Guerrero. The director of "Cereso de Iguala", Daniel Bravo Mota as well as a psychologist, Igancio Suástegui Pérez, have both disappeared last Monday while on their way to eat at a local restaurant.

There were another 17 murders yesterday, bringing the yearly total to 4357 (5357). Among these was another lawyer, this time in Durango, 32 year old Armando Baca. Baca's murder brings to a total, in the last 2 years alone, 25 lawyers who have been murdered.

Seven people were killed in Juárez, including 2 who were executed in the Plaza de Los Toros as well as a campaign worker for the PRI while painting a slogan on a building. As well, the 4th police officer killed this week in Juárez was also gunned down. Two other state police officers were executed in the city of Chihuahua. Officer Javier Villalobos and Officer Fabiola Sosa were killed by gunmen in a parking lot. Five other people were also killed in the state of Chihuahua, 2 others in Sinaloa, 2 in Sonora, and 2 more in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.



For a map of the killings: click: Narco-killings

WITO

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1 comment:

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