Drug Runners Had Maps of Patrols, Prosecutors Say
October 4, 2008
By Benjamin Weiser
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/world/americas/04maps.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
When Colombian authorities boarded a ship in January 2006, they found more than just narcotics. They also discovered a map with crucial information: the current locations of Colombian and United States Navy and Coast Guard patrol boats.
The Colombians investigated, American officials said, and uncovered a ring of cocaine smugglers who also trafficked in navigational charts, selling them to drug organizations that used them to plan routes and avoid interdiction by law enforcement as they moved drugs on the high seas.
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Israeli has 3-6 months to hit Iran’s nuclear sites if Moscow sells Tehran S-300 systems
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5635
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
October 7, 2008, 11:39 AM (GMT+02:00)
Russian military experts calculate that the window for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will shrink to 3-6 months if Moscow sells Iran (and Syria) the sophisticated S-300 system for guarding those sites against air, missile or cruise missile attack. DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert failed in the key missions of his Moscow trip to persuade Russian leaders to discuss Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and to refrain from selling this advanced weapon to Iran and Syria.
President Dmitiry Medvedev’s bureau issued a noncommittal statement Tuesday, Oct. 7, saying that his talks with Olmert were “an exchange of opinion on threats, including terrorism and nonproliferation.” The word “nuclear” was avoided.
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Independent.co.uk
Poker-game execution as Italy declares war on Mafia
By Peter Popham in RomeTuesday, 7 October 2008
Italy's Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, has described it as a civil war – and 18 bullets pumped into an innocent man playing cards on a Sunday morning proved him right.
Stanislao Cantelli was the uncle of two supergrasses and distantly related to another local mafia boss but he had led a blameless life. Having recently retired from his job as a technician in a mozzarella cheese factory, he was often seen pottering around the town of Casal di Principe in his battered Fiat Punto. For relaxation, he repaired to the Circolo Sociale Ricreativo, a shop converted into a social club on Via Umberto I, to play poker.
But two of Cantelli's nephews have turned state's counsel, and the evidence of one of them, Luigi Diana, was crucial in leading to the issuing of arrest warrants for 107 gangsters and the confiscation of more than €100m (£78m) worth of gang-owned property. So on Sunday, Cantelli's card game was interrupted by two men on a motorbike, one armed with an automatic pistol, who burst into the club and repeatedly fired on him. All the witnesses to the killing fled.
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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/06/Mexico_drug_slayings_show_cartels_woes/UPI-25581223320061/
TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The slayings of 57 gang members in Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks is a sign of the breakup of the city's Arellano Felix drug organization, authorities say. The Tijuana cartel, named for the Arellano Felix brothers, has ruled the city's lucrative drug trafficking business for two decades, but is now fractured and facing deadly attacks from other contenders, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday."We are now seeing the tail end" of the Arellano Felix organization, John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, told the newspaper. "They're losing what was left of their grip on Baja California."Law enforcement observers said the gang is under siege from alleged trafficker Ismael Zambada, known as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/10/06/Mexico_drug_slayings_show_cartels_woes/UPI-25581223320061/
TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The slayings of 57 gang members in Tijuana, Mexico, in recent weeks is a sign of the breakup of the city's Arellano Felix drug organization, authorities say. The Tijuana cartel, named for the Arellano Felix brothers, has ruled the city's lucrative drug trafficking business for two decades, but is now fractured and facing deadly attacks from other contenders, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday."We are now seeing the tail end" of the Arellano Felix organization, John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, told the newspaper. "They're losing what was left of their grip on Baja California."Law enforcement observers said the gang is under siege from alleged trafficker Ismael Zambada, known as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
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