Narco gangster reveals the underworld

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.

In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins.

In an in-person interview arranged by intermediaries on the condition that neither his name nor the location of his Texas visit be published, the trafficker also admitted to helping push cocaine worth $5 million to $10 million a month into the United States.

Law enforcement sources confirm he is a cartel operative but not a fugitive from pending charges.

His words are not those of a federal agent or drawn from a news conference or court papers.

Instead, he offers a voice from inside Mexico's mayhem — a mafioso who mingles among crime bosses and foot soldiers in a protracted war between drug cartels as well as against the government.

If what he says is true, gangsters who make commonplace beheadings, hangings and quartering bodies have managed an even crueler twist to their barbarity.

Members of the Zetas cartel, he says, have pushed passengers into an ancient Rome-like blood sport with a modern Mexico twist that they call, "Who is going to be the next hit man?"

"They cut guys to pieces," he said.

The victims are likely among the hundreds of people found in mass graves in recent months, he said.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/topstory/7607122.html#ixzz1PPkUwjcT

Dispose of those unwanted prescriptions

The Beach City, Brewster, Navarre and Wilmot police departments and the Drug Enforcement Administration will be collecting unwanted prescription drugs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, April 30, at the Brewster Fire Department at 110 E. Main St.

The service is free and anonymous, with no questions being asked.

This will give the public an opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by bringing the potentially dangerous, expired, unused and unwanted prescriptions to the fire station. This collection addresses a vital public safety and health issue. Medicines that are kept in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse and abuse.

According to information provided, studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends. It has been suggested that unwanted medicines can be flushed down the toilet or thrown into the trash, both posing potential safety and health hazards.

Last fall, Congress passed the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow an ultimate user of controlled-substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized to accept and dispose of the drugs in a proper manner. The DEA is drafting regulations to implement the act.

In September 2010, Americans disposed of 242.000 pounds, or 121 tons, of prescription drugs at more than 4,000 sites operated by the DEA and 3,0000 state and law-enforcement partners.

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http://www.indeonline.com/news/x481364821/Dispose-of-those-unwanted-prescriptions

Mexicans protest drug war as more graves found

Thousands of Mexicans protested the country's raging drug war on Wednesday as dozens of bodies were found in graves near the country's border with the United States.

Demonstrators marched in cities across Mexico, holding signs condemning the wave of killing that has claimed more than 37,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched a military-led crackdown against drug cartels.

"We are fed up with this war that nobody asked for," said protester Leticia Ruiz in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, where some businesses have closed because of gunbattles in the streets and rampant extortion by cartel members.

Although recent estimates suggest the violence may have peaked last summer, Mexicans are jarred by daily news stories of beheadings and executions as cartels war for control of cocaine smuggling routes. Most cocaine consumed in the United States goes through Mexico.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday they discovered 59 bodies in a series of graves in the northern state of Tamaulipas, not far from a ranch where 72 Central and South Americans were executed late last year by drug gangs preying on migrants traveling north through Mexico.

Authorities said one grave held 43 bodies, with the rest of the bodies spread among seven other graves.

Investigators believe the recently discovered victims may have been abducted from a bus on March 25, the state prosecutor's office said in a statement.

'NO MORE MURDERS'

Protest organizers said more than 10,000 people participated in the nationwide marches, but numbers could not be confirmed.

The bloodletting has hurt Calderon's conservative party and strained relations with the United States, which is providing Calderon with equipment and intelligence to fight drug gangs.

In Mexico City, several thousand protesters held signs saying: "No more murders" as they filed into the city's central plaza. Smaller protests were held in New York and Barcelona.

Body counts published by Mexican media indicate the death toll has fallen for two consecutive quarters for the first time since Calderon began his campaign.

The tallies point to about 3,220 murders in the first three months of 2011, down from 3,690 in the last quarter of 2010. The government has yet to publish an official estimate.

Demonstrators also marched through the northern business capital of Monterrey. But the impetus for the national protests came from the weekend getaway city of Cuernavaca.

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http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/idINIndia-56175720110407