Time: Wed Oct 01 04:29:17 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id UAA22479; Tue, 30 Sep 1997 20:33:30 -0700 (MST) by usr09.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id UAA25830; Tue, 30 Sep 1997 20:22:54 -0700 (MST) Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 20:22:26 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: Report links Mexican police, car-drug ring, Sep 30 (fwd) <snip> > >San Antonio Express-News, September 30, 1997 > > > Report links Mexican police, car-drug ring > > > By Philip True , Express-News Mexico City Bureau > > MEXICO CITY - Federal authorities have uncovered a > ``stolen-cars-for-cocaine'' ring in which Mexican smugglers exchange > South American cocaine for cars stolen here, then send it north for > sale in the United States. > > State judicial police officers in the state of Morelos have set up a > network of chop shops that repaint stolen cars and change their > serial numbers, then send them in caravans to the Guatemalan border, > the Mexico City daily Reforma reported on its front page Monday. > > There, on a farm that ostensibly grows bananas for export, the cars > are exchanged for cocaine brought overland from South America by > Guatemalan smugglers, the newspaper reported. > > Accompanied by high-quality false documents, the cars are then sold > on the open market in Guatemala. > > At the farm, the cocaine is repacked, hidden among boxed bananas and > shipped in trucks to the United States, sometimes escorted by > Mexican federal highway police. > > The discovery last month of more than 130 pounds of cocaine hidden > in a government airplane carrying 19 drug-enforcement pilots working > for the federal attorney general's office - or PGR by its Spanish > initials - could be related to the ring's work, the article said. > > A spokesman for the PGR on Monday refused comment on the article, > and U.S. drug-enforcement officials working in Mexico couldn't be > reached. > > Reforma cited newspaper articles from the Morelos capital of > Cuernavaca that said the state judicial police official formerly in > charge of recovering stolen automobiles allegedly headed the ring. > > The official, Obet Lopez Rodriguez, who was sacked two months ago > after being discovered riding with a woman near Cuernavaca in a car > for which he had no documentation, has obtained an injunction > against his arrest. > > Several members of the band, now held by state authorities on car > theft charges, allege that Lopez was their leader. > > Lopez couldn't be reached for comment. > > The author of the Reforma article, Daniel Lizarraga, made headlines > here when he was kidnapped for several hours Sept. 5 while > investigating the cocaine found in the PGR airplane. > > Lizarraga said he thought his kidnappers appeared to be federal > judicial police from the PGR. > > He was driven around, beaten, asked about his investigation and told > his family would be harmed if he continued. > > > (c) 1997, San Antonio Express-News > <snip> ======================================================================== Paul Andrew Mitchell, Sui Juris : Counselor at Law, federal witness B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine : tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU website: http://supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this _____________________________________: As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. ======================================================================== [This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
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