Drug cartel suspected in massacre of 72 migrants

A Mexican drug cartel massacred 72 Central and South American migrants within 100 miles of the U.S. border that they were trying to reach, according to an Ecuadorean survivor who escaped and stumbled wounded to a highway checkpoint where he alerted marines, official said Wednesday. The marines fought the cartel gunmen at a ranch in the northern state of Tamaulipas on Tuesday, a battle that left one marine and three suspects dead. They found the bodies of 58 men and 14 women in a room, some piled on top of each other. The Ecuadorean migrant told investigators that his captors identified themselves as members of the Zetas drug gang, said Vice Adm. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican Navy. Authorities believe the migrants were from Honduras, El Salvador, Brazil and Ecuador. It is the biggest massacre to date in Mexico's drug war and the most horrifying example yet of the dangers faced by immigrants trying to get to the U.S. Authorities did not say why the gang killed the migrants. Mexico's drug cartels frequently kidnap migrants and threaten to kill them unless they pay fees for crossing their territory. Sometimes, gangs contact relatives of the migrants in the U.S. and demand they pay a ransom...more

Grenade attack near Brownsville bridge has authorities on high alert

Mexican authorities responded Tuesday night to a shootout at Mexico’s attorney general’s office (PGR) in Matamoros and to a grenade that was thrown near B&M International Bridge. Sources say the incident began when a brief firefight broke out between Mexican military and armed gunmen at approximately 8 p.m. at the PGR offices on Sixth Street in Matamoros. It was not clear if anyone was injured or killed in this latest attack. During the attack, a grenade exploded near the Junta de Aguas y Drenajes facility a few yards away from B&M International Bridge. Because of the explosion, a number of federal, county and local law enforcement officials on the U.S. side of the border rushed to secure the area around the bridge. According to Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio, the sheriff’s department SWAT team was deployed to the bridge to help secure the area and prevent any possible spillover of violence...more

Sheriff questions BP line patrol strategy

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever directed his attention to the Border Patrol last week. During an interview with KFI AM 640 on Aug. 18, Dever said it has come to his attention that Border Patrol agents are avoiding certain areas along the Southern Arizona border to avoid conflict. "Agents have told me - this isn't second hand - that there are places where they don't work right along the border because it's too dangerous," Dever said. "There is concern at the management level, at a certain level, that it's too dangerous right there on the fence." Dever said it is his understanding that management is concerned about Border Patrol agents getting into a fight with illegal immigrants and smugglers and fear such a confrontation could spark an "international incident." Dever stressed that not all management is taking this approach, but some are. If this is the case, Border Patrol agents are basically being told, "not to do their jobs," Dever said. "I've been hearing this anecdotally for some time, but now I have Border Patrol agents and their families telling me that this is the case," he added. In a written statement to Capitol Media Services, last week, the U.S. Border Patrol denied Dever's allegations. Dever said calls reporting dead bodies in the desert, drugs, home invasions and break ins related to illegal immigration will continue to increase and bog down law enforcement until something is done to secure the border...more

Mexico: bleeding to death in the war on drugs

The shootout left four people dead; but that was just the beginning. As dust began to settle on a ranch in north-eastern Mexico, thought to have been owned by one of the world's most powerful drug cartels, the battle-hardened Marines stumbled upon their first decomposing corpse. Minutes later, they found a second; then a third. By the time troops had finished searching the remote property, roughly 90 miles from the US border, a total of 72 contorted bodies had been laid out in rows, beneath the summer sunshine. The discovery on Tuesday afternoon marks a new low in a brutal conflict that has taken the lives of an estimated 28,000 Mexicans in the three-and-a-half years since the country's President, Felipe Calderon, declared "war" on the nation's wealthy and extraordinarily well-armed drug cartels. Mass graves are becoming an increasingly common by-product of the wave of drug-related violence sweeping the country. In May, 55 bodies were pulled from abandoned mine near Taxco, just south of Mexico City; last month, 51 more were unearthed from a field next to a rubbish tip near the northern city of Monterey. They provide stark reminders of the growing cheapness of life in a conflict that is constantly plumbing new depths of barbarity. Over the weekend, four decapitated bodies, their genitals and index fingers cut off, were hung upside down from a bridge just outside the nation's capital. Two more were dumped nearby on Tuesday. Although most Mexicans support Mr Calderon for now, a growing minority believe that the drug war will be impossible to win. Earlier this month, former president Vicente Fox, a staunch supporter of the US crackdown on drugs, declared that recent events had won him over to the cause of legalisation...more

Consulate Warning of Zeta Kidnappings

The US Consulate is warning Americans who travel to Monterrey Mexico they face a greater risk of being kidnapped. The warning was issued after the possible kidnapping attempt of a college student. The incident is raising new concerns about the danger of being kidnapped and held for ransom in Mexico. Organized criminal groups like the Zetas are trying to make more money to fight the drug war through kidnappings and extortions. The Zetas have military training and are very resourceful. They are not just targeting people in the drug business. Business owners, their families and anyone who can pay a large ransom is being targeted. Federal law enforcement sources say the Valley is also seeing a sharp increase in kidnappings...more

Cartels' cash flows across border

Stashing cash in spare tires, engine transmissions and truckloads of baby diapers, couriers for Mexican drug cartels are moving tens of billions of dollars in profits south across the border each year, a river of dirty money that has overwhelmed U.S. and Mexican customs agents. Officials said stemming the flow of this cash is essential if Mexico and the United States hope to disrupt powerful transnational criminal organizations that are using their wealth to corrupt, terrorize and kill. Despite unprecedented efforts to thwart the traffickers, U.S. and Mexican authorities are seizing no more than 1 percent of the cash, according to an analysis by The Washington Post based on figures provided by the two governments. The major Mexican drug organizations write that off as the cost of doing business - losing a percentage far smaller than the fees for an ordinary wire transfer or ATM withdrawal, Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials said. The drug traffickers and their Colombian suppliers smuggle $20 billion to $25 billion in U.S. bank notes across the southwest border annually as they seek to circumvent banking regulations and the suspicions aroused by large cash deposits, studies by federal officials, regulators and academics show...more

Sounds like the money would stay here if it weren't for the prying bank regs created by our own ineffective war on drugs.

Drillers May Face Months of Waiting Even After Obama Lifts Deep-Water Ban

President Barack Obama’s administration may agree to an early end for its moratorium on deep-water oil and gas drilling while backing new regulations that may keep rigs idle for months afterward. Obama is likely to lift the drilling ban in October, ahead of its scheduled Nov. 30 expiration, said Michael McKenna, president of MWR Strategies, an oil industry consulting firm in Washington. Heightened scrutiny of drilling’s risks may delay the resumption of operations by companies such as BP Plc and Apache Corp. until mid-2011, McKenna said. The administration halted drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet after BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico blew out April 20. Government officials from Gulf Coast states say the moratorium is ravaging a regional economy already hit hard by the spill, putting the White House under political pressure to end the ban early, McKenna said. “Lifting the moratorium is almost unimportant,” McKenna said in an interview. “It’s how different the regulatory regime is going to be after. The end game here is to make it a very, very difficult and time-consuming regulatory process.”...more

3 Ex-Forest Chiefs Back Rocky Mountain Land Plan

Three former chiefs of the U.S. Forest Service are asking Montana's congressional delegation to protect the Rocky Mountain Front, a plea they say marks the first time they have united to urge passage of a land measure. The request was made in a letter, sent earlier this month, that urges the delegation to "take a leadership role in the passage of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act." It was signed by Dale Bosworth, Forest Service chief from 2001-2007; Michael Dombeck, the agency's chief from 1997-2001; and Jack Ward Thomas, who headed the Forest Service from 1993-1996. The Rocky Mountain Heritage Act is proposed legislation written last year by wilderness advocates, farmers, ranchers and others living where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains between East Glacier and Lincoln. The act aims to preserve existing uses for the land, like grazing or outfitting, while protecting species in the area. It would designate six new wilderness areas and create a large management area that would protect the land but still allow some timber cutting and use by livestock. It also includes a provision to fight noxious weeds over hundreds of thousands of acres...more

Company regrets Ruby Pipeline conservation deal

An El Paso Corp. spokesman expressed regret that the company struck a deal setting aside some $22 million in conservation trusts to alleviate environmental opposition to a Wyoming-to-Oregon natural gas pipeline. El Paso's subsidiary, Ruby Pipeline LLC, began construction of the $3 billion pipeline the day after receiving federal approval on July 30. Just weeks before receiving approval, El Paso struck a deal with the Western Watersheds Project and Oregon Natural Desert Association setting up two conservation trusts. The trusts, managed by a third party, would be used to buy out federal grazing allotments and otherwise curb activities along the 680-mile Ruby Pipeline route to protect habitats for sage grouse and other wildlife. El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley said the company felt that the level of opposition brought by the two groups left no other choice but to strike a deal. "We did not expect the backlash we have received from the counties and states concerning our agreements with Western Watersheds on the trust," Wheatley said Monday. "Had we done more homework ... perhaps we would have gained more insight to the opposition to those two groups and how they operate." Now El Paso finds itself in hot water with several state and county governments despite mostly enthusiastic support from government officials at the onset of the project. County governments across four western states, including four southwest Wyoming counties, say El Paso Corp. betrayed their support by striking the conservation trust deal at the last minute. They say any trust fund established to mitigate impacts of the pipeline ought to benefit all stakeholders and not just single out one interest group...more

Feds tout griz health

Federal officials will appeal a court decision that returned grizzly bears to the Endangered Species List, calling the ruling “unbelievable” given the population’s three-fold increase since 1975. They announced their decision this week, saying they will challenge the decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, of Missoula, Mont., who ruled last year in favor of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. That conservation group said the alarming loss of whitebark pine, a grizzly food, plus unreliable state and federal management plans could not ensure that the species will sustain itself in the ecosystem. “The ruling was ... ‘unbelievable’ is probably the best word,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen said in a telephone interview from his office in Montana. “We disagree with every point [Judge Molloy] has.” Servheen acknowledged the decline in whitebark pine trees but said “whitebark pine has been declining for some time. During that time the grizzly bear population has increased and continues to increase every year.” “The grizzly bear is not a whitebark-pine-dependent species,” he said...more

Crapo, Risch asking feds to appeal wolf lawsuit

Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch are asking the U.S. Department of the Interior to appeal a district court decision that ended Idaho’s sanctioned wolf hunt and put gray wolves back on the endangered species list. The two GOP senators sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who was the lead defendant in the lawsuit to end Idaho’s wolf management and hunt. Crapo and Risch said in their letter that the judge’s ruling earlier this month should be challenged. “This ruling entirely ignores the successful recovery of the gray wolf in Idaho, as well as our state’s strong wolf management plan, which, as you know, has been approved by the FWS and has demonstrated Idaho’s role as a responsible and effective manager of gray wolf populations within our boundaries,” they said. “It is vital that Idaho be permitted to manage its wildlife populations.”...more

Dozens of burros die at dried-up spring

Nearly 60 burros were discovered dead in and near a horizontal mine shaft in a remote Mojave Desert wilderness area late last week, federal officials said Tuesday. The animals probably were seeking water from a spring inside the tunnel that apparently had dried up. In all, 56 burros died, most likely of thirst, BLM officials said. Some of the animals had been dead for as long as two weeks and were decomposing in the 100-degree-plus heat, said a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Land Management. Bureau officials saved the lives of another 13 burros that were suffering from severe dehydration. A helicopter delivered 750 gallons of water to the site, about 35 miles west of Needles, on Thursday. By the next morning, all of that water had been consumed. Another 4,000 gallons were brought in by helicopter and a county water tender and placed in portable troughs. The survivors remained at the remote site on Tuesday but probably will be moved to the federal corrals in Ridgecrest, nearly 200 miles away, officials said...more

So, would they have done the same if it were cattle?

Census Bureau: 94.6 Percent of U.S. Is Rural Open Space

Data newly available from the 2000 Census show that at least 94.6 percent of the United States is rural open space, calling into question one of the most common arguments made in defense of smart growth and compact urban development: that we are “running out” of open space. More than two out of three Americans live in urbanized areas. These areas collectively cover 2 percent of the nation’s land area. Counting urbanized areas and urban clusters together, nearly four out of five Americans live in an urban setting. Urbanized areas and urban clusters cover 2.6 percent of the nation’s land. Remaining “places” account for just 4.4 percent of the U.S. population, but they cover 2.8 percent of the land. Their density is far lower than the density of urbanized areas and urban clusters. The average urbanized area has nearly 2,700 people per square mile, and the average urban cluster has close to 1,500 people per square mile. But the average place (outside of urban areas) has just 133 people per square mile. Together, urbanized areas, urban clusters, and rural places occupy 5.4 percent of the nation’s land, while urban areas alone cover just 2.6 percent. Rural open space thus covers between 94.6 and 97.4 percent of the land in the United States...more

Song Of The Day #389

Ranch Radio stays Out West with The Ridge Runnin' Roan by Glen Rice.

Stray bullets from across border worry El Paso

The first bullets struck El Paso's City Hall at the end of a workday. The next ones closed a major highway, hit a building at the University of Texas at El Paso and struck a local charity. Shootouts in the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border are sending bullets whizzing across the Rio Grande into one of the nation's safest cities, where authorities worry that it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed. At least eight bullets have been fired into El Paso in the last few weeks from the rising violence in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, one of the world's most dangerous places. And all U.S. police can do is shrug because they cannot legally intervene in a war in another country. The best they can do is warn people to stay inside. "There's really not a lot you can do right now," El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles said. "Those gun battles are breaking out everywhere, and some are breaking out right along the border."...more

Baby shot dead, man and boy beheaded in Mexico border city

A six-month-old baby died after being shot in the head by hitmen in northern Mexico, where officials Tuesday also reported the discovery of two headless males, including a teenage boy. Hitmen chased a man into a house in the country's most violent city of Ciudad Juarez and killed him on Saturday before shooting the baby in another room, Chihuahua state justice officials said. The baby died two days later. At least 19 minors under the age of 10 have been killed as a result of violent attacks this year in the border city, according to a press tally. The heads of a 15-year-old and his uncle were meanwhile found in the centre of the town of Casas Grandes, in the north of the same state, officials said Tuesday. Their bodies were found on a road nearby...more

83 Police Killed in Mexican Border City This Year

Organized crime groups have killed 83 police officers this year in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital, raising to 214 the number of law enforcement agents murdered in the border city in the past three years, “Joint Operation Chihuahua” spokesman Jaime Torres said. A municipal police officer was gunned down on Tuesday as he was driving home, Torres said. Officer Cesar Marquez had just been named earlier in the day to be the operations coordinator of a police station in Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas. All the police agencies in the border city are on full alert due to the attacks being staged by drug traffickers, Torres said. Of the 83 officers murdered this year, 28 were municipal officers, 23 were federal law enforcement agents and 10 were state police officers, with the remainder being from the transit police and other agencies, Torres said...more

Police: U.S. teen randomly kidnapped, found in Reynosa

Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted, blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa field. The 18-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed by police, was walking to a friend’s house about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. A black van pulled up alongside her and three men hopped out, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. They snatched the girl, blindfolded her and took her to Reynosa. The kidnappers began calling the woman’s family demanding ransom money. “The kidnappers somehow missed it that she had a cell phone,” Gonzalez said. “We were able to keep communicating with her.” The chief said police investigators, FBI agents and Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies negotiated with the kidnappers. Once the abductors realized their victim’s family would not be able to pay a ransom, they dumped her in a random field. Customs officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents were put on alert to look for the teen and a helicopter surveyed Mexico from this side of the border, but found nothing. U.S. authorities did not contact their Mexican counterparts because they did not know whether they were corrupted or connected to the girl’s captors, Gonzalez said...more

Another tunnel discovery in Nogales

Another border tunnel has been found on Arizona's border with Mexico. U.S. Border Patrol agents working in cooperation with local and federal law enforcement agencies found a tunnel Friday in Nogales, under the southbound lane at the DeConcini Port of Entry. The weight of a passenger bus caused a collapse in the road. From Oct. 1, 2009, to July 31, 2010, five tunnels were identified within the Tucson Sector. During the same period last year, 20 tunnels were discovered...more

under the southbound lane at the DeConcini Port of Entry

This is almost funny. Dennis DeConcini is the former Senator from Arizona, and the illegals are using a Port of Entry named after him to tunnel their way into the US.

Not to be outdone, Senator Bingaman is wanting to designate the Potrillos as wilderness. That too will become a Port of Entry for the illegals. Perhaps we should name it after Bingaman. Any ideas?

Former BLM manager accepted gifts

The former district manager of the Bureau of Land Management's Farmington field office accepted trips to pro golf tournaments, donations to his son's youth baseball teams and other prohibited gifts from oil and gas companies he was charged with regulating, according to an Office of the Inspector General investigation made public this week. Steve Henke, after managing the Farmington field office for nine years, resigned from the BLM in May to accept a job as president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association. According to a government investigation initiated prior to his resignation, Henke accepted gifts from oil and gas companies and misused BLM funds. However, no evidence was found that Henke gave preferential treatment in exchange for the gifts, according to the report made public through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Henke in response to the investigation report said he did nothing wrong. "There's no evidence or indication of any quid pro quo or any inappropriate conduct with regard to the oil and gas (industry) on my part, that's the bottom line," Henke said. "If the lines between my professional responsibilities, my personal life and my civic responsibilities overlap, I think in the final analysis, the point that there's no indication that there was a quid pro quo of any sort is indicative of how I conducted business on behalf of the public at BLM."...more