ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center
SOURCE: Federal News Radio
04April2011 4:00amEST
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE:
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Two headless bodies are dumped on a street in suburban Mexico City along with a message sent by a mysterious group called "The Hand with Eyes." Days later, a severed head shows up in a car abandoned outside an elementary school in the same suburb.
For drug lords, this sprawling metropolis of 20 million has been a favorite hide-out and place to launder money, making Mexico City somewhat of an oasis from the brutal cartel violence along the border and in outlying states.
Now a spate of killings and decapitations never before seen have authorities batting down fears that a once-distant drug war is making its way into the capital. Instead, they say, the violence since late last year comes from street gangs fighting for an increasingly lucrative local drug market. (read full report)
The Chandler police report also reveals that the victim believed in Santa Muerte, a Mexican saint of death, and had bragged to his companions shortly before his beheading that he had died and come back to life five times and could kill with a look.
obliterated serial number. Separately, according to information contained in one complaint, Mexican officials recently seized three firearms that were used in the deadly shooting on Feb. 15, 2011, of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. One of the firearms recovered was traced by ATF to Otilio Osorio.
A federal complaint is a written statement of the essential facts of the offenses charged, and must be made under oath before a magistrate judge. A defendant is entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. If convicted, the penalty for possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count. The penalty for knowingly making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count. The penalty for dealing in firearms without a license is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said the sophisticated operation, uncovered as part of a law enforcement initiative known as Operation Phalanx, was managed in this country by Israel Cruz Millan, 28, of Raleigh, N.C., who oversaw the production of false identification cards that sold on the street for $150 to $200 each — which netted his Mexican bosses more than $1 million from January 2008 to November 2010.
Chief of Operations Mike Braun, adding that the group "is developing relations with those responsible for operating those smuggling operations and then forming close relations with them, so that they can move anything they have an interest into virtually anywhere in the world." He goes on to tell me that the Middle East terror group is "rubbing shoulders" with drug cartels around the globe.
The four were among 13 people slain Friday in Guerrero, which has seen a spike in violence since rival factions of the Beltran Leyva cartel began fighting over territory after leader Arturo Beltran Leyva died in a battle with Mexican marines in December 2009.
in Querétaro, Mexico to support its global production network, further reinforcing the company’s manufacturing capabilities while also augmenting its presence in the Latin American marketplace.
GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is anticipating an armed conflict between his deputies and cartel members within the next 30 to 60 days.
pesos ($658,000) for information leading to the capture of two suspects in the massacre of 72 illegal Central and South American migrants.
scans for identity cards, according to the government, which claims the scheme will be highly secure.
GCIS Briefing Room 