Drug Cartel

Seventeen people, including a husband and wife from Puerto Rico, have been arrested in connection with a drug ring that officials said was trafficking cocaine from New York City to Philadelphia. Officials said 28 kilos of cocaine- an estimated $2.8 million street value in Philadelphia - were seized, along with 5 handguns, 11 properties, 16 vehicles and one motorcycle and nearly $300,000 in U.S. currency. The Philadelphia District Attorney's office held a news conference Wednesday afternoon to announce the bust, which they said came about after a defendant arrested in relation to the Sinaloa drug cartel became an informant for investigators.

An associate of Mexico's infamous Sinaloa drug cartel who became an informant for city and federal authorities helped derail a New York-to-Philadelphia cocaine pipeline, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said Wednesday. The 17 arrests announced Wednesday followed a three-month sting operation involving an alleged ring that was trafficking cocaine from New York City to Philadelphia, using secret compartments in vehicles. On May 13 and 20, 10 kilograms (22 pounds)

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's army said it had detained a third general for questioning on Thursday, hours after a judge placed the two other officers under a form of house arrest pending an investigation for possible links to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. A Defense Department statement did not say specifically whether retired Gen. Ricardo Escorcia was detained in connection with same allegations pending against the other two generals, who were brought in on Tuesday. But it did note that the detention order for Escorcia's was issued "simultaneously with the two previous detentions, with the aim of having him testify in the investigations" being carried out by civilian prosecutors.

MONTERREY, Mexico - Forty-nine decapitated and mutilated bodies were found Sunday dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border in what could be the latest outburst in an escalating war of terror among drug gangs. Mexico's organized crime groups often abandon multiple bodies in public places as warnings to their rivals, though Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants.

If President Obama had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. And the president's son would thereby find himself at significantly greater risk of running afoul of the so-called "war on drugs" than, say, a son of George W. Bush. A Trayvon Obama might be 57 times more likely than a Trayvon Bush to be imprisoned on drug charges. This is not because he would be 57 times more likely to commit a drug crime. To the contrary, white men commit the vast majority of the nation's drug crimes.

EL PASO, TEXAS - An Army sergeant and an ex-lieutenant believed they were negotiating with members of a Mexican drug cartel when they agreed to kill members of a rival gang and recover stolen cocaine in exchange for $50,000 and drugs, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday. Sgt. Samuel Walker, 28, and former Lt. Kevin Corley, 29, were arrested in Texas after being caught by undercover federal agents agreeing to the murder-for-hire plot, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in the complaint.

TOLUCA, Mexico - The three tiny squirrel monkeys led a life of luxury on a 16-acre ranch, surrounded by extravagant gardens and barns built for purebred horses. More than 200 animals, ranging from mules to peacocks and ostriches, lived on the ranch in central Mexico and hundreds more stayed on two related properties, many in opulent enclosures. Also kept on the grounds were less furry fare: AK-47 assault rifles, Berrettas, hundreds of other weapons, and cocaine. The ranch's owner was Jesus "The King" Zambada, a leader of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.

WELL, that didn't work. The Sinaloa drug cartel, one of the largest in the world, had been trying to re-establish a drug pipeline from Mexico to Philadelphia, which could have flooded the city with cocaine, heroin and marijuana, according to city and federal authorities. After hashing out the details with three Philly drug dealers, the cartel allegedly sent an initial 10-kilogram shipment of coke to the city as a way to ease into the process. But it was confiscated. Turns out, investigators from the District Attorney's Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI were running wiretaps that enabled them to shut down the local operation before it even began.

Three people with alleged connections to a Mexican drug cartel were arrested in Philadelphia last week, but who they are remained secret even as prosecutors held a news conference to announce they had blocked a new drug pipeline. The three, two Philadelphians and a Texan, are in city custody, said Brian Grady, head of the Philadelphia District Attorney's special operations unit. Their names are not being released to avoid inadvertently helping the Sinaloa drug organization, authorities said.