Mexican Police Chief DECAPITATED By Drug Cartel

MONTERREY, Mexico — The decapitated body of the police chief of a northern Mexico town and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck Friday, authorities said. Hours earlier, gunmen killed a deputy police chief and his bodyguard in another part of Mexico's north.

The body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, was found on the bed of a patrol pickup truck, which was left on a dirt road in the nearby town of General Trevino. His head was on his lap, said a spokesman for Nuevo Leon state prosecutors who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The body of the chief's brother, Jesus Cerda, was found inside the truck, the official said. He didn't say how Jesus Cerda was killed.

Nuevo Leon state secretary general Javier Trevino told reporters that Cerda and his brother had been reported missing Thursday.

The windshield and driver's door of the patrol car had "C.D.G.," an acronym for the Gulf drug cartel, written in blood, photos showed.

The border state of Nuevo Leon, where Agualeguas and General Trevino are located, has seen an upsurge in violence that authorities say is the result of a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas, the cartel's former hit men.

The slayings came a day after Mexican marines on patrol in the Nuevo Leon town of Cerralvo came under fire after ordering a convoy of gunmen traveling in six vehicles to stop. Six of the assailants were killed.

Nearly 18,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an assault on cartels after taking office in December 2006.

In the northern state of Sonora, gunmen in a pickup truck fatally shot the deputy police chief and his bodyguard in the city of Nogales, which sits across the border from the Arizona city of the same name, authorities said Friday.

Sonora state police said gunmen opened fire on the victims with Kalashnikov rifles Thursday night.

Late Friday, gunmen opened fired on a hotel in downtown Ciudad Juarez where federal agents stay, killing one and wounding two, authorities said.

Enrique Torres, a spokesman for Chihuahua state police, said the assailants shot into the hotel's restaurant. Hours earlier, a state investigator was shot to death in a residential area, Torres said.

Ciudad Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, is the most violent city in Mexico.

Comments

[Gary Lloyd]

04:31 AM on 04/02/2010

As we've shown here, the pro-Amnesty people don't have a leg to stand on -- not one.

All their lies, half-truths, and irrational arguments are almost instantly dismantled. All their slogans are readily shown to be entirely unsupportable.

And their civil rights arguments has come back to bite them on the ass. Calling the very people they'll need to support amnesty "racist" was not a smart thing to do.

Besides pissing off a lot of people, it revealed how integrity-challenged groups like La Raza truly are.

Amnesty is good for the illegal, it's good for the people who employ them, it's good for the Democratic party, but it's not good for the average American and that's because 20 million is just too huge.

The second reason is if the 20 million are granted amnesty, 40-60 million illegals will take their place in a heartbeat.

How would we stop it if the only way of stopping them -- jail employers -- is something we don't have the backbone to do?

Jailing the employers is the only way to fix the immigration problem. It's also the cheapest and most humane way.

[mmsuki]

10:32 AM on 05/17/2010

Please don't go for the old lie that "it's good for the Democratic party". Your points are well thought out and valid, but trying to score cheap political points hurts your argument. There are Republicans as well who have put forth some sort of amnesty as a solution.

[Gary Lloyd]

08:23 AM on 03/31/2010

I'm sure you'll agree, Alex, the dismantling of your half-baked thesis should proceed in an organized fashion, so for your next question I'd like you to tell us how you propose we go about background checking our 20 million uninvited guests.

Take as much time as you need on this on, son.

[research]

02:50 PM on 03/31/2010

instant id.

any one found without an id, or a suspected id, has their finger prints, photo and name entered into an online database.

that database must be used by employers to verify their right to work.

simple.

[Gary Lloyd]

04:56 PM on 03/31/2010

The Mexican criminal justice system is thoroughly infiltrated by the drug cartels; this is the dirty little secret La Raza doesn't want you to know about.

This means we have absolutely no way of knowing who among the 20 million is a felon, fugitive, pedophile, gang member, drug lord.

Estimates of felons among the 20 million run as high as 250,000. If we add drunk drivers, it bumps to about 500,000.

This shows the depths of Sen. Chuck Schumer's ignorance when he states "each applicant must undergo a background check."

The man is dreaming.

The Mexican government is trying to get rid of all its felons -- dump them on us.

Why on earth would they help us send them back -- even if they could?

[Gary Lloyd]

06:43 PM on 03/30/2010

This is for the moderator, and need not be posted:

I liked to know why you repeadedly cut off discussions by removing the reply button.

These discussions are within the bounds of Huffpost policy, so unless informed otherwise, I'm convinced you are doing something you shouldn't be doing -- censorship.

[e-mail]

[research]

11:14 PM on 03/30/2010

The reply button is automatically removed after 6 levels of response.

[Gary Lloyd]

12:23 PM on 03/30/2010

Look, alex, et. al, if you're going to keep telling us immigration "reform" is a civil rights issue, don't you think you should be able to back up the claim?

Present your case.

Tell us why you think immigration reform is a civil rights issue.

[alexunlv]

01:30 PM on 03/30/2010

**** side note: Did my possessive form vs. contraction upset you? I saw your rant reply. Don't let it get to you. At least you learned something today right? =)

You are the epitome of "Us" vs "them"

"Tell us why you....."

I think what you mean to ask is..."tell me." What is this? Insecurity 101? Think for yourself, stop having others feed you talking points.

You jump from immigration, drug cartels, bankrupt townships and the boogie man, La Raza. Now you want a historical analysis of civil rights?

You have no substance. You don't have a problem with immigration reform, you have a problem with La Raza. Your boggie man, La Raza, is the Jeremiah Wright of the teabaggers.

[EndRacismNow]

01:36 PM on 03/30/2010

You still are avoiding what Gary asked you to back up. You just attack him for using 'talking points'. You don't have an argument except that illegals are the same as blacks from the 50's-60's. Which is absolute nonsense. You're not gonna be able to ride the coattails of black victim hood to push your amnesty agenda through.

[Gary Lloyd]

01:48 PM on 03/30/2010

And there you have it: Alex can repeat La Raza civil rights doggerel by rote, but when pressed to defend it, he runs the way Dracula runs from the morning sun.

We're done here.

Last person get the lights on the way out.

[TheFobster]

02:03 AM on 03/30/2010

Legalize marijuana.

[research]

09:47 PM on 03/29/2010

Legalize.

End Nixon's war on Hippies.

End DuPont's war on Hemp cloth, paper and rope.

end the big pharmaceutic's war on medical marijuana.

[Gary Lloyd]

09:17 PM on 03/29/2010

Don't know why this moderator arbitrarily removes the reply button when two people start debating. It's really pointless censorship.

I'm responding to this:

[QUOTE] The Civil Right's movement was not premised on African Americans. It was premised on social injustice, inequality, and a fight against bigotry, hate, and intolerance.

The problem with your ideology? Your ideology is fixed on this idea of black/white mentality. A simplified view on the issue. You know - They are breaking the law, therefore the laws don't apply to them. Just like the law doesn't apply to AAs who broke the law during the CR's movement right?
[/QUOTE]

"The Civil Rights Movement was not premised on African Americans. It was premised on social injustice, inequality, and a fight against bigotry, hate, and intolerance." -- Alexunlv

"Not premised on African Americans"?

Yeah, well, I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to figure out why you're trying to convince us the Civil Rights Movement had noting to do with African Americans, but here's a little advice: If you think the immigration reform debate is about Civil Rights why not stop trying to re-write the Civil Rights Movement and tell us why?

You might start by telling us how the Mexican illegal is treated worse than, say, European illegals, the idea being if you're going to play Al Sharpton, at least be good enough to present evidence.

Sabes...?

[Phreejazz]

09:59 PM on 03/29/2010

1. The immigration issue and the drug cartel issue, while connected to some extent, are not nearly as connected as you seem to think.

2. Immigration is a problem, and neither side is willing to face up to real solutions. All the talk about border enforcement and building a wall is political theater. It serves to heat up a debate to get people out to the polls for certain politicos, but no one with any sense actually believes that it's a practical solution or will ever get done. There's too much profit at stake for anyone to really address the problem and work on a real solution, the first step of which is hitting businesses hard for employing undocumented workers. The corporate abuse of the H1b visa program needs to be addressed, too.

Of course, none of that helps Dobbs et al., who feed off of anger and fear rather than interest cultivated by thought and effective policy.

[alexunlv]

02:32 AM on 03/30/2010

Civil Rights is about skin color only? Sorry, no. It had to do with inequality of others. Skin color just happened to be a characteristic. Try putting things in perspective, maybe it will help a bit.

Try thinking, women, men, gays, gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, sexual preference, etc. You see, it is the "they" vs. "us" mentality. The idea behind civil rights is social justice, a struggle against bigots, hatred, and intolerance. You know, the typical generalizations -- "20 million illegals" who cause the bankruptcy of townships, as you mention.

Again, ideology blurs your ability to comprehend. Civil Rights is about civility, it is about a fundamental right of equal treatment against bigotry, hatred, and intolerance. Your misconception that Civil Rights is about skin color alone is simply wrong.

The irony in your fear mongering is flabbergasting. Evidence? This coming from the guy who yells 20 million illegals......from the guy who makes blanket statements that illegals are to blame for bankrupt townships? And you ask for evidence? Laughable.

Stop letting your ideology keep you from thinking. Try to be more engaging as opposed to spewing talking points and generalizations. Your points are no different than teabaggers claiming Blacks are to blame for failing Detroit, New Orleans, or as Trent Lott put it.....had we voted for Thurmond (a segregationist) "and if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either."

[Gary Lloyd]

08:17 AM on 03/30/2010

All that bloviating and not a single word about how the 20 million illegals are being denied their civil rights.

And it's attempts at misdirection like yours, alexunlv, that explains why Americans are starting to see through the immigration "reform" farce.

You're playing the race card.

You're trying to Al Sharpton the thing.

You and pro-amnesty groups like La Raza know your demand for "reform" has no legal standing so you fabricate a civil rights one -- "The undocumented worker is being denied citizenship because he's brown Latino!"

"We shall overcome! I have a dream! God Almighty, let my People Go!"

Eh ... yeah... Rev. King...

Of course, the fact our immigration law is applied equally to everyone seeking entrance -- Latino, Europeans, Asians, Africans -- you ignore.

The fact that you can't present a single case of a non-Hispanic illegal getting amnesty over a Latino, you dismiss.

In other words, facts that disprove your civil rights argument you pretend don't exist. The illegal is being denied amnesty because he's a brown-skin Latino; that's your battle cry and you're sticking with it.

Which is why you and La Raza haven't an speck of integrity, as I say.

[Gary Lloyd]

06:40 PM on 03/29/2010

Yesterday a police chief was decapitated. Today 10 children ages 8 -12 were gunned down. See articles below.

Here's the riddle none of the pro-amnesty people have yet sorted out: How do we weed out from the 20 million murderers like those involved in these two crimes?

[QUOTE]

Ten children, youths and young adults between the ages of 8 and 21 were gunned down, presumably by drug traffickers, in the northern Mexican state of Durango, the state's attorney general said Monday.

The incident happened Sunday on a road near the town of Pueblo Nuevo in southern Durango.

Attorney General Daniel Garcia Leal said that unknown gunmen who had set up a fake checkpoint on the road shot and even threw grenades at the victims, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.

The victims were in a pickup truck, returning to their homes after having traveled to pick up money to support their school as part of a government social program, Garcia Leal said. The gunmen motioned the truck to stop but the victims, out of fear of being robbed or assaulted, did not comply, the attorney general said.

No arrests had been made in the incident, which is the latest in which children have found themselves caught in the middle of the country's violent drug wars. In January, in a case of mistaken identity, 15 people, mostly teenagers, were killed when gunmen attacked a house party in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico./[QUOTE]

[sixyfivepercentwater]

04:48 PM on 03/29/2010

Why is the word "decapitated" all in caps in the headline? Is it the word of the day? Do we have to use it in a sentence three times?

[greenygenie]

02:38 PM on 03/29/2010

In reference to the below discussion with WYHKTai-Tai and PhreeJazz, I should make it more clear that I am FOR legalizing marijuana.

I did read through those links (thank you), but again, I do not think that legalizing marijuana would be enough to change the violence of the cartels.

Cartels are warring not only against Mexican and US authorities, but also against one another for control of the lucrative transit corridors. (I should have been more specific about that below.)

The Colombian cartels still are the lead producers of the cocaine and heroin supplies that enter the U.S., but the more profitable part of the trade - transport to the US, and distribution here - has come under control of various Mexican cartels. Those organizations include: Cárdenas' Gulf cartel, Guzmán's Sinaloa cartel, Arellano Felix's organization in Tijuana, and the Juárez cartel.

According to the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, as much as 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the US is smuggled through Mexican territory. Mexico is also the number two supplier of heroin, and the largest producer of methamphetamine (in ADDITION to being the largest foreign source of marijuana). Moreover, Mexican criminal groups now dominate operations in the US, and control most of the 13 primary drug distribution centers in the US.

CONT'D...

[greenygenie]

02:39 PM on 03/29/2010

CONT'D:

I don't think legalizing marijuana here would greatly disaffect their operations or trade route wars of the other drugs. In other words, something else needs to be done to get them under control.

One of the proposed solutions, which Mexico for the most part has not been amenable to, is extraditing Mexico's top drug criminals to the US for trial and incarceration. Columbia has done this, and it has made a huge dent. However, when the major drug lords of Mexico are put into Mexican jails, their business is not impeded.

On another note, in regards to GaryTaylor, I don't see any connection between giving amnesty to illegals and an increase in cartel-related crime.

[greenygenie]

02:40 PM on 03/29/2010

Sorry - I meant "Gary Lloyd".

[Gary Lloyd]

03:20 PM on 03/29/2010

The point is this: anyone we can't produce a reliable background check for should not be granted citizenship.

Because of the drug cartel's thorough infiltration of the Mexican criminal justice system, we can not produce reliable background checks on any Mexican national.

In other words, Congressman Chuck Schumer's fourth principle of immigration reform, "All applicants must submit to background checks", is a requirement not a single of the 20 million can satisfy.

Also, and perhaps even more disturbing, it points to Schumer's profound ignorance of the subject he purports to be an expert in.

[Gary Lloyd]

02:04 PM on 03/29/2010

Pro-Amnesty groups like La Raza want us to abandon all immigration screening and that's because using the standards we use to let other groups in, less than 10% of the illegals would pass muster -- 18 million of them would be deported.

But rewriting our immigration laws to allow applicants like the 20 million in is a recipe for disaster. We would immediately be deluged with 40, 80, 100 more illegals prepared to wait for the next amnesty cop-out.

Pro-Amnesty groups like La Raza tell us our country benefits from the 20 million, that trillions have been pumped into our economy thanks to the 20 million, but if that's so, why are 20 million Americans out of work?

Why are the rate of business failings the highest in 25 years?

Why are townships -- most where the illegal is in abundance -- going bankrupt?

The bottom line is this: accountability deems we use sound immigration law principles when writing or "fixing" immigration law.

The propaganda, anecdotes, and rhetoric of the pro-amnesty crowd is not based on sound immigration priciples; it is based on anecdotes, half-truths, fudged statistics, basterized civil rights ideals, and blatant lies.

[alexunlv]

03:48 PM on 03/29/2010

A bastardized civil rights ideal? Your poor choice of words resembles the bigoted hate mongering amongst Southerner's degrading a "Bastardized" class of people who were inferior, biologically, socially, historically, and culturally.

Civil Rights groups fought for equal treatment of African-American's on the basis equality. They emphasized equality as a means of progress for the United States.

Business groups and anti-civil rights advocates premised their views on lack of education amongst this group of "uncivil people." They questioned the intelligence and abilities of a class that served no purpose but servitude to Whites. These people were the root of all evil and were seen as a mere burden on government services.

Are you so constipated that you fail to recognize the "welfare mom" analogy? The monumental disproportionate education, prison and income disparities between blacks and whites? With your line of reasoning, it appears you would support the idea that blacks are simply more criminally inclined than whites as demonstrated by the black prison rate population? I take it you would conclude that blacks are biologically and intellectually inferior because of their poor educational achievements? Don't be such a hypocrite.

Your sorry attempt in rhetoric fails. Clearly, your bigoted ideology blurs your failed insinuation that this country's problems are a result of immigration.

Why are townships-most where the illegals are abundance - going bankrupt? You mean like Detroit? How about New Orleans? Stop with the hypocrisy. Sound immigration principles? Laughable.

[Gary Lloyd]

04:08 PM on 03/29/2010

Usually when someone swings and strikes out as much as you do, they luck-up and hitt a homerun. Your bat didn't even touch the ball.

La Raza's problem is it has no integrity. A good example of this is how on its website La Raza calls itself a "non-partisan civil rights" organization.

"Non-partisan" ...?

Well, that's a flat-out lie, you know it, and I know it.

"Civil rights?"

Illegal immigrants have no civil rights. They're not supposed to be here. When caught they're supposed to go straight to jail and then deportation.

What part of that does La Raza not understand?

[comebackid]

01:29 PM on 03/29/2010

Ever since Toto pulled back the curtain, the professional prohibitionist's lies have been revealed.

We see the little guy standing there pulling the levers and we see the truth!

[Gary Lloyd]

08:50 AM on 03/29/2010

Dispell the notion illegal immigration is a civil rights issue.

People like Obama and Chuck Schumer seem to think they're great liberators; nothing could be further from the truth.

Schumer's schtick is especially pernicious and false. He draws parallels between the illegals and Jews fleeing Nazi Germany casting himself as a latter-day Oskar Schindler from the movie Schindler's List.

Of course playing this role requires him to ignore the mountain of evidence that 20 million illegals will have catastrophic consequences if given amnesty.

Schumer talks of no-nonsense enforcement of his immigration "reform" postulates, while rewarding with citizenship the 20 million who thumbed their noses at our current laws. How much sense does that make?

Even the illegals are laughing at him, I'm sure.

[ramblin jack]

10:04 AM on 03/29/2010

HUH????

[DakotaMinnesota]

11:08 AM on 03/29/2010

Learn about what our military and corporate people do in these Latin American countries and then consider whether it's just a case of our chickens coming home to roost.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

03:14 AM on 03/29/2010

In light of the 'legalize vs. don't legalize' discussion below, I thought it would be useful to see how The Netherlands is doing with their legal use of MJ. (Note: Harder, "unacceptable risk" drugs are not legal there; There is still a problem, but not close to the problem in the US.)

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/67

http://www.ukcia.org/research/DutchPolicyAndCrimeStatistics.php

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/Com-e/ille-e/library-e/dolin1-e.htm#3.%20%20Schedule%20I%20Drugs%20%96%20Heroin,%20Cocaine%20and%20Amphetamines

http://proxychi.baremetal.com/csdp.org/research/dutch.pdf

[Phreejazz]

03:26 AM on 03/29/2010

Thanks for the links.

[greenygenie]

03:36 AM on 03/29/2010

All of those links lead to fact sheets that are arguments against prohibition and for legalization/decriminalization -- of MARIJUANA, which is not really the issue at hand with the cartels. (And the last link is to a sheet of statistics from 12 years ago.)

Again, these cartels are not fighting over pot territory, folks. Moving to legalizing marijuana - which is fine - will not change the cartels' behavior one iota.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

03:51 AM on 03/29/2010

There is a poster down below who asserts that MJ is 70% of the trade, which is a very big bite, but no, not all, and I agree, without it, they would just step up production of the harder drugs and human trafficking. Especially as Holland has experienced, MJ use becomes 'boring' and falls off; other drugs would possibly become more prevalent.

I also posted links earlier to the CIA funding their black-ops with black market $. There are many many links out there attesting to this practice in the 80's, and if that is still happening, I cannot see how this 'war-on-drugs' will ever ever end.

The links are in response to the discussion below, as it keeps cropping up here with great regularity.

Cheers,

[Phreejazz]

06:52 AM on 03/29/2010

Actually, the largest bulk of the profits in Mexico's drug trade are from marijuana. 60% according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. I've seen it estimated at closer to 80%. It's a fast growing (as in crop rotation), huge demand, low process and low risk drug.

Even the simple mom-and-pop pot growers in California are eating into the cartels' profits to the point that they've changed their distribution models here. MM grow sites are popping up all over the place to cut back on transport/delivery costs. For the Mexican cartels, the marijuana trade is their bread and butter. Legalizing it would damage them, and badly.

[Gary Lloyd]

02:55 AM on 03/29/2010

The engine that drives this insane violence in Mexico is the huge drug market north of the border -- us.

The closer we get to amnesty for the 20 million illegals, the more the cartels are going crazy over the unimaginable riches this means.

Make no mistake about it, cartel soldiers are now set-up in every mid-size to large town in America. They're not open for business, however, because they're bosses have ordered them to wait until the 20 milion are granted amnesty -- stopping that from happening is the last thing they want.

But when amnesty becomes the law of the land, watch out -- American becomes one sprawling battle-field: all the insane violence you now see in Mexico will be happening here.

Count on it.

[greenygenie]

03:09 AM on 03/29/2010

I'm not really following you.

Are you trying to say that ALL 20 million illegals would obligingly join these groups of cartel soldiers?

[WYHKTai-Tai]

03:16 AM on 03/29/2010

I'm with greengenie. I don't see the connection between amnesty for illegals who are already here and an explosion of drug violence in US cities.

Please explain.