Feds seize marijuana, cocaine and heroin at Guadalajara airport
Sniffer dogs led federal PGR agents to the illicit marijuana shipment that was en route to the US.
Federal agents have seized illegal drug shipments at the Guadalajara International Airport for the last two Fridays in a row.
Following a public tip off, on October 24, agents from the federal Attorney General’s Office (PGR) seized ten packages containing 2.58 kilos of cocaine and 1.69 kilos of heroin that were on their way to Houston, Texas.
The following week, agents accompanied with sniffer dogs found seven packages containing 9.43 kilos of marijuana hidden in secret compartments inside wooden tables and chairs. All of the shipments were en route from Morelia, Michoacan, to the United States. They were being shipped by a courier company that operates out of the Guadalajara airport.
Sending drugs by courier is not a new method of trafficking. Infamous Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is said to have sent shipments via Fedex in the past.
The PGR did not comment on who was behind these drug shipments, but it is most likely to be the work of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which has grown in influence in recent years and now controls most of Jalisco state and parts of neighboring Michoacan.
The marijuana was hidden in secret compartments in the wooden furniture being shipped by courier.
Conflicting stories and more mass graves, but still no sign of Mexico’s missing students
Five weeks since they disappeared, the fate of Mexico’s 43 missing students remains a mystery. The investigation has been characterized by a lack of urgency and transparency, while a whirl of rumors and contradictory statements have left the public with little sense of what to believe.
One of the only constants has been the seemingly endless stream of mass graves uncovered in the southern state of Guerrero. Thirteen corpses were exhumed from the most recent site in the town of Ocotitlán on Wednesday.
The reaction in Mexico has been one of overwhelming public anger. Meanwhile, the story continues to make waves around the world, with Pope Francis praying for the missing students and the White House declaring this week that “reports of the situation are worrying.”
President Enrique Peña Nieto met for five hours with the parents of the missing students at Los Pinos, his official residence in Mexico City, on Wednesday evening.
“We’re living a nightmare,” one of the parents told the press after the meeting. “We’re desperate but we’re not going to tire until we find them.”
Click here to read this story in full at Latin Correspondent.
The Perfect Dictatorship will make Mexico’s politicians sweat
The content of The Perfect Dictatorship will feel familiar to anyone who follows Mexican current affairs.
For Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto it must feel like an eternity since he basked in the glory of capturing the nation’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and the front cover of TIME magazine declared he was “saving Mexico” earlier this year.
Peña Nieto’s approval ratings have since collapsed as Mexico’s economy has stumbled, while the recent disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero has destroyed his efforts to draw attention away from the nation’s problems with organized crime. To make matters worse, a major new movie that lampoons Peña Nieto, his party and their powerful media allies is currently taking Mexico by storm.
The fourth film by controversial Mexican director Luis Estrada, La Dictadura Perfecta (The Perfect Dictatorship) is a scathing satire that lays bare the cozy relationship between Mexico’s media barons and the political elite. It takes its name from the famous phrase coined by Peruvian intellectual Mario Vargas Llosa to describe the way the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) governed Mexico throughout most of the twentieth century.
The movie’s content, which entails crooked politicians mixed up in sex scandals, kidnappings, murders and organized crime, plus a healthy dose of political manipulation by the nation’s most powerful broadcaster, will feel instantly familiar to anyone who follows Mexican current affairs…
Click here to read this article in full at Latin Correspondent.
The Tequila Files 