Global Ganja Report

Some "gun trafficking 'higher-ups'" who supply weapons to Mexican drug cartels may have been "paid as informants" by US government agencies, according to a letter two ranking US Congress members sent US attorney general Eric Holder on July 5. "The evidence we have gathered," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) wrote, "raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department"—which Holder heads—"not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in such activities." The "other agencies" may include the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the letter said.

In three separate incidents in 24 hours July 6, Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector seized more than 3,000 pounds of cannabis, claiming an estimated value of $1.5 million. In the first bust, a canine unit alerted to a vehicle during an inspection at the Hwy. 80 checkpoint, turning up 88 small bundles of cannabis concealed in the vehicle's compartments. The driver, a US citizen, is facing federal charges.

Speaking at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics on Feb. 7, US Army Undersecretary Joseph Westphal—the army's second highest ranking civilian official—invoked an "insurgency" mounting in Mexico. His talk focused on the Middle East and South Asia, but in response to a student's question about strategic blind spots in US foreign policy, Westphal said: "One of them in particular for me is Latin America and in particular Mexico. As all of you know, there is a form of insurgency in Mexico with the drug cartels that’s right on our border."

The security chief at Topo Chico prison in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey was assassinated Feb. 5, his mutilated body found in a plastic box in an abandoned car near the facility. Francisco Martínez Ramírez, who had worked there for three decades and was nearing retirement, had been abducted from his home the previous day. He is the third employee to be murdered in recent months at the prison, which has also been the target of a series of grenade attacks. (Diario de Coahuila, Feb. 6; BBC News, Feb. 5)

US authorities discovered a 1,800-foot tunnel linking drug warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana that led to the seizure of more than 25 tons of cannabis Nov. 2—one of the largest-ever drug seizures in San Diego. Mexican soldiers raided the warehouse at the other end of the tunnel the following day, and found about four tons of cannabis. "I can promise you there are some very unhappy people in the cartel," said John Morton, director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which leads the multi-agency San Diego Tunnel Task Force. About 75 tunnels under the US-Mexico border have been unearthed in the last four years, most in various states of construction. (LAT, Nov. 4)

Mexican navy officials June 9 confirmed the arrest of a Brownsville man near Matamoros who is accused of guarding a stash house with approximately 550 pounds of marijuana.

Laredo police, acting on a tip, made their largest weapons seizure in 10 years after pulling over a truck laden with 147 brand new assault rifles, 200 high-capacity magazines, 53 bayonets and 10,000 rounds of ammunition that they believe was headed to Mexico on May 29.

The New York Times in a front-page story May 26 said that President Barack Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and seek increased spending on enforcement there to combat drug smuggling. The decision was disclosed after Obama met the previous day with Republican senators.