An officer who took part in the operation said that dozens of soldiers travelling in military vehicles arrived early Saturday at an upscale home in the Residencial Chipinque neighbourhood of San Pedro, which has the highest income per capita in all of Latin America.

The soldiers burst into the residence during a party attended by presumed members of the Sinaloa drug cartel, a powerful crime syndicate led by Mexico’s most-wanted fugitive, Joaquin Guzman, for whom the US has offered a $5 million reward.

The soldier said that 15 suspects, including men and women, were arrested inside the home, and that weapons, drugs and money were also confiscated from them.

The detainees have been kept at a military installation and later will be handed over to the federal Attorney General’s Office for processing.

Meanwhile, six people have been killed by a group of suspected drug cartel hit men inside a garage in northern metropolis of Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua state.

According to prosecutors, the incident occurred Friday afternoon and the cause of slayings remained unclear.

With the latest killings the gangland murder toll in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s most violent city, raised to 1,600 this year.

Since taking office, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed more than 30,000 soldiers and federal police to nearly a dozen states in a bid to crush the cartels.

The operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence because of the drug gangs’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking prosecutors.

The US is the main market for the illegal drugs and also the source of most of the weapons that flow to the heavily armed cartels.

Battles over smuggling routes to the US and internal power struggles within the cartels have left more than 5,400 dead nationwide.

Eduardo Arellano is one of eight siblings in the infamous Arellano Felix family, which runs Mexico’s most powerful drug ring, the Tijuana cartel. Eduardo was said to be one of the bosses after several of his brothers were arrested or killed.

Just days before, Jesus Zambada Garcia, one of the leaders of the rival Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in the Mexican capital.

President Felipe Calderon declared war on organized crime and violence two years ago when he took office, sending tens of thousands of soldiers into the especially dangerous regions in the north, near the US, the main market for illicit drugs.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in bloody wars between the cartels and criminal gangs this year so far, many of them civilians caught in crossfire. In recent weeks, particularly gruesome group murders have been carried out in the northern towns.

Though the victims were yet to be identified, police believe they may include Mexicans, Guatemala or Colombians, he said.

Officials said, the bruise marks on the bodies suggested they were tortured before being killed by shooting to the back of thier head from a close range.

Meanwhile, police in the northern state of Nuevo Leon have also found two burned human heads on a road in the city of Escobedo, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

An anonymous caller tipped off authorities to the location of the human remains, the AG’s office said, adding that the condition of the heads made it impossible to determine the gender or age of the victims.

On Sunday, the decapitated bodies of eight army soldiers were found along an urban boulevard in the southern state of Guerrero.

Brutal slayings by drug cartels are on the rise in Mexico, and officials estimate that more than 5,300 people have died in organized crime-related slayings this year.

Mexico has been plagued in recent years by drug-related violence, with powerful cartels battling each other and the security forces, as rival gangs vie for control of lucrative smuggling and distribution routes.

Armed groups linked to Mexico’s drug cartels murdered around 2,700 people in 2007 and 1,500 in 2006, with the death toll this year already at more than 5,300, according to governemnt data.

Last Sunday, the police chief of Praxedia G. Guerrero, another municipality near this violent metropolis just across the US border from El Paso, Texas, was found decapitated.

Also Tuesday, a group of armed men shot dead in Ciudad Juarez two officers with the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office who were in their official vehicle outside a shopping centre.

The two men are the first law enforcement personnel killed this year in Juarez, a city where about 70 officers were killed last year.

According to press reports, so far this year, more than 65 people have been murdered in incidents linked to organised crime.

Ciudad Juarez was Mexico’s deadliest city in 2008, reporting more than 1,600 homicides blamed on drug cartels and other organised crime elements.

And if you’re also buying bleach, matches and coffee filters, the clerk might follow you into the parking lot, write down your license plate number and call the police.

The call won’t necessarily prompt the police to follow you home, said Sgt. Eric Schober of the Portland police Drugs and Vice Division.

But, Schober said, the police might run a background check if you appear to be buying a lot of the items.

“If you’re buying enough, we might check you out,” he said.

That could be one possible result of Meth Watch, a new program announced Monday to help combat the epidemic of methamphetamine abuse that law enforcement say is sweeping the state.

The Meth Watch program aims to discourage large-quantity purchases of precursor ingredients such as the pseudoephedrine found in Sudafed and other over-the-counter allergy medicines Ñ that are used to manufacture meth, a highly addictive drug. Under the program, retail employees will be taught to identify products that can be used to produce meth and to help law enforcement agencies identify customers who appear to be buying large quantities of them.

If particular customers are buying large quantities of such products, the employees are instructed to try to identify them and pass their names onto law enforcement agencies. This is the case even when customers are repeatedly buying small quantities of the items.

Participating businesses also will post Meth Watch signs in their stores saying they are part of the program.

Although Sudafed, bleach, matches and coffee filters may be common household items, law enforcement officials say they also are used by criminals to produce meth.

“They might not sound like anything special by themselves, but if you know what you’re doing, you can use them all to make a very crude form of meth,” said Lt. Mike Shults of the Multnomah County sheriff’s office.

“Meth is everybody’s problem. It’s an issue that affects families, children, the environment and society as a whole,” Oregon U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut said at a Monday morning news conference to announce the program.

Immergut and other law enforcement officials describe meth use as the state’s most serious illegal drug problem. They believe meth addicts are responsible for most property and identity theft crimes in Oregon. In addition, the process used to create meth produces toxic waste chemicals that contaminate houses, apartments and even cars where the ad hoc laboratories are hidden.

Meth production is increasing dramatically throughout the state, including Portland, according to Lt. Craig Durbin, commander of the Drug Enforcement Section of the Oregon State Police. For example, Durbin says 83 meth labs have been seized in Portland so far this year, compared to 53 for all of 2003.

“We’re seeing a pretty sharp increase in labs, even though we’re losing drug teams because of budget cuts,” Durbin said.
Statewide support

The news conference to announce the Meth Watch program was held at Safeway’s new Museum Place store in downtown Portland. It was attended by federal, state and local law enforcement officials, along with representatives of the Oregon Partnership, a nonprofit anti-drug program that is coordinating the effort.

“Meth Watch is needed to discourage the bad guys in our society who are making meth,” Safeway public relations director Bridget Flanagan said.

According to Craig Campbell, a senior policy adviser for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, more than 350 Oregon businesses have signed up for the voluntary program. In addition to Safeway, they included Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Thriftway, Longs Drug Stores, Kmart, Minute Markets, OK Market, Country Store and the Korean Grocers’ Association.

Meth Watch also has a Web site, www.oregonmethwatch.org, that provides more information on the problems caused by meth and how to get involved in the program.
Spreading the word

Although the Meth Watch program is new, the Oregon Legislature already has taken steps to control the sale of products used to create meth. State law currently prohibits anyone from buying more than 9 grams of allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine at a time. The law prohibits retailers from selling more than that amount Ñ usually 60 tablets Ñ during a single transaction.

Any product that contains more than 2 percent iodine also is restricted by Oregon law.

According to the state police’s Durbin, all jail and prison inmates will be told that the Meth Watch program is under way.

“We want them to know that if they try to make meth when they get out, there’s a good chance someone will be watching them,” Durbin said.

Stephenville Police Chief Roy Halsell said Christapher Marc Spruill, 25, was first arrested Wednesday evening after concerned citizens reported that a suspicious man was roaming around a neighborhood, knocking on doors and offering to mow residents’ lawns. Officers quickly located the suspect and later described Spruill as being “extremely agitated” while shouting obscenities, clinching his fists and making strange noises.

“The officers believed he was intoxicated on something other than alcohol,” Halsell said. “He was placed under arrest and immediately began to resist. The officers subdued the suspect and took him to the county jail.”
He was charged with resisting arrest and public intoxication and later released after posting bond.

Less than 24 hours later, Spruill was arrested a second time after police responded to a disturbance. Again, he was “visibly intoxicated” and allegedly put up a fight.

Spruill was not booked into the jail following the second arrest due to extremely erratic, uncontrollable behavior, jail officials said.

According to Lt. Don Miller with the Stephenville Police Department, fingerprints obtained at the jail linked Spruill to the Jeep that was stolen from a residence in the Alexander Ridge area Tuesday. Miller said his prints matched those lifted from a toolbox that was recovered from the stolen vehicle. The automobile’s owner reported that the toolbox was not his own.

Miller said in addition to fingerprint evidence, investigators with the Erath County Sheriff’s Office identified Spruill as the man who had allegedly fled on foot after a chase involving Erath County Constable Larry Ciccarelli.

The constable first spotted the Jeep traveling in the area of South Lillian Street. As Ciccarelli followed, the driver attempted to flee, reaching an estimated speed of 80 mph. After crashing through a fence on CR 256, the driver fled on foot and later escaped by taking a 20-foot leap from a bridge.

In addition, Halsell said during the earlier arrest, Spruill allegedly possessed property taken from the stolen vehicle, giving officers the final piece of evidence needed in the auto theft case. He was taken to the sheriff’s office for questioning and a warrant was later issued.

Spruill was arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest, and remains in the Erath County Jail. Bond has not been set.

“This is another case of law enforcement agencies working together to catch a bad guy,” Miller said. “The sheriff’s investigators and Detective Sgt. Casey Heath pieced together the puzzle that led to the suspect’s arrest.”

Faces of Meth

Wow, now this one really says something for the kind of damage that meth does to the body.

Back to Meth Watch