Borderline Psychosis Update- Vigilantes Oust Police, Take Over Guerrero Village; Sinaloa Cartel Seeks More Direct Involvement in Colombian Cocaine Production; Dirty Peruvian Cops May Have Played Role in 2012 Mexico City Airport Shootout

GUERRERO- Hundreds of armed vigilantes in the town of Villa Colorado have detained police officers, seized weapons and set up checkpoints on the main highway through town after the body of one of the 'community defense' commanders was found dumped in the middle of a street last month.

The self described 'community police' and arrested 12 officers and the town's former director of public security, who they accuse of taking part in the killing of Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of a local organised crime group.

The 1,500-strong force has also set up improvised checkpoints on the major road running through Tierra Colorado, which connects the capital Mexico City to Acapulco, a coastal city popular with tourists less than 40 miles away.

The takeover of the police station also enabled the vigilante group to seize far more modern weaponry- such as semiautomatic rifles and pistols- than the single shot hunting rifles or antiquated revolvers that many of these groups had started off with- some members were spotted with the much newer rifles at improvised roadblocks shortly after the officers and public security director were turned over to state officials.

At least one tourist was wounded after vigilantes opened fire on a carload of tourists destined for Acapulco for the Easter weekend after the car refused to stop for the checkpoint in Villa Colorado.


COLOMBIA- According to reports published in Colombian daily El Tiempo, the Sinaloa Cartel is assuming control of an increasing number of Colombia's illegal cocaine production facilities in anticpation of an accord between the Colombian government and leftist guerilla group FARC.

An anonymous official told the Colombian daily El Tiempo that a number of mid-level FARC commanders have sold off their shares in the drug trade in anticipation of the continuing peace negotiations between the guerrilla group and the Colombian government, which is taking place in Havana. Under the agreement, Sinaloa would own and operate illegal cocaine production facilities in South America.

The sale of the so-called drug trafficking franchises marks a move by the Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “ El Chapo” Guzmán into the production of cocaine. Mexico’s cartels had previously relied on processed cocaine to be transported to the country from various points in South and Central America.

Crackdowns by Colombian authorities have forced the Mexican drug trafficking organization to take a more hands-on approach on the trade in the Andean nation. The Sinaloa Cartel is allegedly operating processing labs near the border with Ecuador, in the departments of Antioquia, Córdoba and in Norte de Santander, near the country’s border with Venezuela.

The Colombian government and the FARC are looking for points of agreement upon which to build a peace accord. In a joint statement, they said talks will begin with agrarian reform, the first item on the agenda.

FARC- whose acronym translates to Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in English- is thought to be the western hemisphere's oldest active guerrilla army, having been started shortly after a bloody 1950's civil war in Colombia that was known only as La Viiolencia. The Marxist guerillas reportedly enjoyed financial and materiel support from the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. The armed group had turned to protecting cocoa plantations and production facilities as well as kidnapping and extortion to raise funds at least as far back as Pablo Escobar's heyday. FARC has most recently been active in south central Colombia as well as along the border with Venezuela.


TEXAS- Game wardens with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department have seized more than two tons of marijuana in the border county of Starr County this week.

A total of 409 bundles of marijuana weighing 4,719 pounds were seized at a home in Starr County near the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas.

The Wednesday night drug seizure also resulted in the arrest of two individuals who were at the home. A third person escaped.

Officials say some of the marijuana was hidden in an underground bunker at the home.

The crop and two suspects arrested at the scene were turned over to the Border Patrol. The pot seizure is reportedly among the largest in the Texas state agency's history.

PERU- Prosecutors in Lima have charged at least ten Peruvian drug enforcement agents for allegedly conspiring to smuggle cocaine out of the country via Lima International Airport. The narcotics were reportedly destined for a group of Mexican federal officers assigned to Mexico City's Benito Juarez international airport on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel.

Cocaine being smuggled in from Peru is what reportedly sparked a deadly June 2012 shootout between Mexican federal agents at Benito Juarez International Airport that killed three.

“The killers were part of a gang of officers on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel that worked at the airport in the Mexican federal capital and allowed drugs arriving from Peru to pass through. They knew which flight the cocaine was arriving on because the criminal organization also included Peruvian drug enforcement agents assigned to the international terminal” at the airport in Lima, the newspaper said.

Mexican officials notified the Peruvian government after the incident and the Dirandro launched an operation in August 2012 to identify the agents allegedly working for the Sinaloa cartel.

Among those under investigation include a major, two captians, a lieutenant and six other officers in the Dirandro- Peru's anti-drug agency.

The charges were filed around the same time a Peruvian "mega comission" accused former president Alan Garcia of issuing more than 400 pardons to convicted drug traffickers.

Blue State Graft Watch- Feds Ordered to Delay Arrest of New Jersey Senator's Staffer Until After Election

Recently released documents obtained by the Associated Press show that federal agents investigating an unpaid intern working for Sen Robert Menendez (D-NJ) for being in the country illegally and aggravated sexual assault were under pressure to postpone any arrest until after the November 2012 elections.

[A]ccording to the internal agency documents, the agents were ordered by Washington to hold off after officials warned of "significant interest" from Congress and news organizations since the suspect was a volunteer intern for New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez.

Luis Abrahan Sánchez Zavaleta was an immigrant from Peru who had overstayed a visitor visa that allowed him to enter the United States. He eventually was arrested at his home in New Jersey on Dec. 6. He has since been released from an immigration jail and is facing deportation.

When The Associated Press first disclosed the delayed arrest of last month, Sanchez, 18, the Homeland Security Department said AP's report was "categorically false."

According to those documents, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Newark had arranged to arrest Sanchez at the local prosecutor's office on Oct. 25. That was fewer than two weeks before the election.

Noting that Sanchez was a volunteer in Menendez's Senate office, ICE officials in New Jersey advised that the arrest "had the possibility of garnering significant congressional and media interest" and were "advised to postpone the arrest" until officials in Washington gave approval. The documents describe a conference call between officials Washington and New Jersey to "determine a way forward, given the potential sensitivities surrounding the case."

In a letter Monday, Assistant DHS Secretary Nelson Peacock said an allegation that the government delayed Sanchez's arrest "for political purposes" was categorically false. Neither the unnamed U.S. official cited in AP's original story or the senators in their letters to the department had specifically alleged that the arrest had been delayed for political purposes. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss details of Sanchez's immigration case, told AP last month that the department had instructed federal agents not to arrest Sanchez until after Election Day.

The documents provided to Congress do not indicate why the arrest should have been delayed or whether anyone outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement — such as in the headquarters offices of the Homeland Security Department — was consulted.


According to police records, Sanchez was 15 when he was arrested on a charge of aggravated sexual assault in 2009. The records show he was accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy at least eight times and sentenced to two years' probation and required to register as a sex offender. The AP is not reporting the boy's relationship to Sanchez to avoid identifying the victim.

The agency documents show that Sanchez failed to update his sex offender registration, and local prosecutors considered arresting him for that. During the same time, immigration officials learned that Sanchez had applied for the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which would have allowed him to stay in the country and legally work for two years. He did not disclose his arrest or status as a sex offender on the application and was eventually denied, according to the documents.

Prior to the 2012 election, Sen Menendez was enmeshed in a sex scandal when two women from the Dominican Republic said that the Senator paid to have sex with them, reportedly short-changing one of the women.

A high-ranking Dominican official confirmed that both Sen Menendez and a donor identified as Dr Salomon Melgen were frequent visitors to the island nation and attended parties at Megen's villa where orgies were said to hake place.

Suspect In Holloway Disappearence Arrested in Chile

I'm not normally one to pounce on top of some of these sensationalistic tabloid stories, but since one of my favorite Latin America nations is in the headlines without having large chunks of it slide into the ocean, I figured it would be worth a mention.

Do you remember Natalie Holloway- the Alabama teenager who disappered during a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005? Well, it looks as though the on-again off-again suspect, Jordan Van Der Sloot, is in trouble with the law on an unrelated matter.

21 year old Stephany Tatiana Flores was found dead in a Lima, Peru hotel room over the weekend. The room was registered under the name of none other than Jordan Van Der Sloot who was in Lima for a poker tournament at the Atlantic City Casino. A hotel guest and an empoyee at the Tac Sac Hotel in Lima told Peruvian investigators they saw Flores and Van Der Sloot head into the same room and Flores is last seen with Van Der Sloot on the casino's survaillance cameras.

Peruvian investigators names Van Der Sloot as the prime suspect and issued an international arrest warrant. The 22 year old Dutchman was reportedly spotted entering Chile at the northern border town of Arica and was arrested earlier today in a taxi on the busy highway (Ruta 68) linking the coastal cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar with capital city of Santiago. Chilean investigators plan on questioning him before extraditing him back to Peru.

Iron Horse Roundup: December 2009/January 2010 Edition.

RUSSIA- Investigators from Russia's FSB and Transportation Police are looking for four suspects thought to be involved in the terrorist attack on the Moscow-St. Petersburg Nevsky Express on November 27, 2009. The blast and resulting derailment killed 27 passengers and used the equivalent of 15 lbs of TNT. A smaller bomb near the derailment site was detonated the following day, targeting rescuers and investigators. There were no fatalities in the second blast and security services believe that both bombs were detonated by remote. The suspects are thought to have rented a house in the nearby village of Lycoshino to monitor train movement on the Moscow-St. Petersburg Line.

This is not the first time the Moscow-St. Petersburg train has been the target of terrorists or saboteurs. Two men previously held on terrorism charges by authorities were found guilty of lesser charges of trafficking explosives and unrelated counts of armed robbery this week that carried 4 and 10 year prison sentences last week in connection with the August 2007 bombing of the Nevsky Express. The blast derailed the train just outside the town of Malaya Vishera, but resulted in no fatalities.

IRAN: Eight people were killed and twelve hospitalized when two coaches of a speeding passenger train derailed at the Azadvar Station in Joqati, in the northeastern part of the country some 430 miles east of Tehran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been experiencing problems with it's deteriorating transportation network over the last several years that have resulted in numerous and deadly plane crashes and derailments [YET- they'll somehow get it right with a 'peaceful' nuclear energy program- NANESB!].

(Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

PERU: Heavy rains in southern Peru earlier this week stranded over 2000 tourists in the area around the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu when floods and landslides blocked off the railway line connecting Machu Picchu and the nearby town of Aguas Calientes with the rest of the country. Peruvian military officals evacuated the visitors using seven helicopters flying between the town of Aguas Calientes and Cuzco on a rotating basis. The railway line between Cuzco and Aguas Calientes is said to be obstructed by at least 40 landslides and will require several weeks worth of work in order to reopen.

(Victoria Times Colonist)

CANADA: Canadian Pacific hosted a ceremony this week featuring the Olympic torch at Craigellachie British Columbia, site of the ceremonial last spike driven on Canada's transcontinental line in 1885. The Canadian Pacific [NYSE: CP] is a corporate sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The special train continued on to Revelstoke, BC where the torch resumed its journey through the Canadian Rockies. The 2010 Winter Games opening ceremonies are scheduled for Febuary 12, 2010.

USA: The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic has announced the layoff of 75 employees in their 315-employee workforce. The news comes a few months after one of the railroad's largest customers, the Katahdin Paper Mill of Millinocket, ME shut down due to increased fuel costs for the plant's $150 million No. 11 Machine. Currently, the Toronto based paper company is exploring alternative fuels for the No. 11 Machine, but more than 200 workers from the plant are out of work.

(Dan Tracy)

The Iowa Interstate has taken delivery of their two new ES44AC GEVO locomotives this month. What separates these two from the first dozen that IAIS ordered was that these two have been painted in vintage Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific colors.....on locomotives that were made nearly some 30 years after the Rock Island ceased to exist. Appropriately, the Iowa Interstate hauls commodities on the former CRI&P Blue Island, IL-Council Bluffs, IA line. Here, the Rock Island/Iowa Interstate #513 hammers the diamonds at Joliet, IL with a train of ethanol in tow on January 29, 2010. The #513 is using Metra trackage rights and the tracks in the foreground belong to Union Pacific and BNSF.

(Gary McLean)
A CSX track inspector in Alabama was in for a surprise when he was inspecting the tracks around the Birmingham, AL area in the wake of last week's cold snap down south. An unfortunate puppy, believed to be 8 weeks old was frozen to the rails after his wet fur froze to the steel rail. Track inspector Gary McLean was able to cut the puppy's fur free from the rails before a freight train was scheduled to traverse the line. McLean had the frozen pup warm up in his hi-rail vehicle while he sent some pictures of the critter to his wife. The couple already had 3 dogs and couldn't keep the puppy Gary found, but Mrs. McLean posted a photo on her facebook page when a local meteorologist got word of the little canine's plight and his tale made its way to the blog of the local ABC affiliate. The e-mails came pouring in and Terry Walls of nearby Bessemer, AL persuaded the McLean's that she could provide the best home for the baby pooch. Appropriately enough, the puppy's name is Track.
[Hat Tip: PiGuy]