Police arrest 13 suspected Zetas cartel members in Guadalajara

Vasquez Zetas Member

Police arrest 13 suspected Zetas in Guadalajara

One of the detainees received between 100 and 150 thousand dollars to be paid to the services of other members of the cell

GUADALAJARA, Feb. 20. – Mexican authorities today seized 13 people, including two women, who allegedly made up a cell of the group “Los Zetas” in the western state of Jalisco, officials said.

The suspects were arrested this morning in the town of Tlajomulco, about 15 kilometers from Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, following some traders complained that sought to extort money, reported the Ministry of State Security.

According to the first statements of the group leader, Alfredo Vazquez, detainees were recruited by a “chief zeta”, identified as “Don Jose”, which led to the town earlier this year in order to “execute some criminal actions “.

In addition, Vasquez said he received between 100 thousand and 150 thousand pesos (between 7 thousand and 11 thousand U.S. dollars) every two weeks, which was distributed to members of the cell as payment for his services.

The Security Ministry announced that seven of those arrested are from the state of Guanajuato (central Mexico), four of Durango, (north) and two of Jalisco, and some of them have criminal records.

In the operation state police seized a AR-15 rifle, five handguns and two trucks with plates of Durango.

Military personnel have dismantled, in the same municipality, various laboratories for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, including an industrial type with more than 18 hectares in which were found about 20 tons of chemicals, and seized 15 tons of methamphetamine.

In this region the Zetas operate a group that until 2010 was the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, and Jalisco band New Generation, created following the divisions between drug trafficking organizations after the death of Ignacio Coronel, aka “Nacho Coronel“, a leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

 

“Czar of the Casinos” raised funds for Obama’s re-election!

Casino Money goes into Obama Re-election campaign

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 6. – Three American brothers and a relative of Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, known as the “Czar of the Casinos” raised funds for the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama, reports the American newspaper The New York Times.

According to a note of reporter Mike McIntire, Rojas Cardona disappeared in 1994 when he was charged in Iowa on charges related to drug trafficking and fraud, and has since sought a pardon from the U.S. government.

But it also cites a 2009 cable from the State Department, which states “that Rojas Cardona is suspected of orchestrating the murder of a rival business and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican authorities,” for which there is no indication any identity.

The paper explains that when requesting information about the operation of the Rojas family for raising funds, the office said he did not know the link between the Leticia brothers, Carlos and Alberto with Juan Jose, and later claimed to have returned more than $ 200,000 that had been delivered.

In the extensive article is detailed than last year, Carlos Rojas asked by Gordon Fisher, former president of the Iowa Democratic Party a pardon for his brother, an initiative which failed.

In the fall, precisely, Rojas Cardona “out of nowhere arrived in the political sphere” and began to raise money for the Democratic Party.

Alberto and Carlos would have given up to $30,800 dollars to the Democratic National Committee and another amount to an account of the party. Leticia Rojas Cardona gave $ 13,000 in Tennessee, and another relative in Illinois donated $12,600 dollars, records show.

Campaign officials told the newspaper that most of the money raised by the brothers Cardona came from his own pocket and the other family members.

The diary describes part of the story of Juan Jose Rojas Cardona and allows for the defense that makes him one of his sisters, Sarah Westall, married to Gabriel Rojas.

“Based on the questions raised, we will return the contributions of these individuals and other donors to the campaign,” he told The New York Times, Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign.