Mexico arrests top cartel suspect

6 October 2011 Last updated at 02:44 Police say Noel Salgueiro Nevarez was taken in a carefully planned operation Mexican forces have arrested a man they say is a key figure in the country's most powerful drugs cartel.

Noel Salgueiro Nevarez is accused of running the Sinaloa cartel's operations in the northern state of Chihuahua, where drug violence is rampant.

Defence officials said his arrest would seriously weaken the cartel in Mexico and abroad.

The arrest was made on the same day as that of Martin Rosales Magana, who is accused of leading the La Familia gang.

The army said Mr Salgueiro Nevarez was seized in a carefully planned military operation, without a shot being fired.

Defence Ministry spokesman Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said Noel Salgueiro Nevarez was behind much of the extreme violence which has plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital.

He said the suspect, also known as El Flaco (The Skinny One), led a gang of hitmen who extorted local businessmen, kidnapped for ransom, and tortured and killed members of a rival gang, the Juarez cartel.

'Criminal career'

Continue reading the main story Ignacio de los Reyes BBC Mundo, Mexico City

The Sinaloa Cartel controls the production of large quantities of heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine (in the US) and boasts an extensive network of associates to facilitate its US trafficking operations, US officials say.

On Saturday, Texas Governor Rick Perry said he would even consider sending US troops into Mexico to combat drug-related violence and "keep the cartels off the border".

This is why the arrest of "The Skinny One" could be a severe blow to the Sinaloa cartel activity both sides of the fence.

It is also a public relations boost for Mexican President Felipe Calderon at home and in the US, amid growing criticism of his government's strategy to fight criminals and the drug trafficking.

Yet, the Sinaloa Cartel leader is still free. Joaquin "The Shorty" Guzman escaped from a maximum security prison in 2001, embarrassing the Mexican government.

Since then, he's become the number one target with a $3m reward for his capture.

The security forces say the bitter war between the two gangs was the trigger for most of the 3,000 killings in Ciudad Juarez last year.

Prosecutors said Mr Salgueiro Nevarez started his criminal career 15 years ago, producing marijuana for the Sinaloa cartel.

They said his gang had been exporting up to 15 tonnes of marijuana and two tonnes of cocaine per month to the United States.

The government had offered a three-million-peso ($220,000; £130,000) reward for information leading to his capture.

Security officials said his arrest, in the city of Culiacan in northwestern Sinaloa state, was a major blow to the Sinaloa cartel and its leader, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Mr Guzman, 54, is Mexico's most wanted man and thought to be one of the country's richest.

Two years ago, he made Forbes magazine's list of the 67 World's Most Powerful People. At number 41, he was just below Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Crumbling cartel

Mr Salgueiro Nevarez's arrest was announced at the same time as that of another top figure in the Mexican drugs trade.

Police say Martin Rosales Magana lead the remnants of the La Familia cartel

Martin Rosales Magana, 47, was seized in Mexico state on Tuesday. Police say he is one of the founders of the once-powerful La Familia cartel.

Until the beginning of this year, La Familia ran much of the methamphetamine trade in Mexico.

It claimed to protect local communities and promote family values, but also engaged in gruesome violence.

The security forces say it has been almost entirely dismantled, with its top leaders either in jail or dead.

They say Mr Rosales Magana lead a number of small cells still loyal to the cartel, which had holed themselves up in a rural area between Michoacan and Mexico state.

At a news conference, federal police counter-narcotics chief Ramon Pequeno described how La Familia splintered after the security forces killed the cartel's then-leader Nazario Moreno in December 2010.

He said part of the gang set up a rival cartel, which they named Knights Templar, and which quickly took over many of the methamphetamine labs in the west and south-west of the country.

Mr Pequeno said Mr Rosales Magana and those loyal to him tried to regain control of the drugs trade in Michoacan state by forging an alliance with their long-time rivals, the Zetas cartel.

He told reporters how "they met with the Zetas to ask for operational assistance, weapons and salaries [for gunmen] and expenses money, in order to recoup important cities held by the Knights Templar".

However, according to police, the alliance soon faltered because Mr Rosales Magane no longer had access to the precursor chemicals needed to make methamphetamine, their main source of income.

Mr Pequeno said with La Familia severely weakened, police would now focus their attention on taking down the Knights Templar.

Suspect named in family murders

3 May 2011 Last updated at 19:44 Jifeng Ding and Alice Ding died from stab wounds, police have revealed A suspect in the investigation into the murders of a couple and their two daughters has been named by detectives.

Police said Anxiang Du, 52, was being sought in connection with the deaths of the family who were found stabbed in their home in Pioneer Close, Wootton, Northampton, on Sunday night.

The family was named locally as college lecturer Jifeng Ding, his wife Helen Chui, and daughters Alice and Xing.

Police said Mr Du, from Coventry, had left a suicide note.

Mr Du left a note to his family implying it was time to say goodbye.

He is understood to have been a business associate of Ms Chui dealing in herbal remedies.

The 52-year-old left his home in Coventry at 1030 BST on Friday to go to work in Birmingham but never returned.

He was last seen on 29 April in Birmingham City Centre, Pallisades Shopping Centre and was wearing a white baseball cap, brown waist-length coat, grey trousers, a blue woollen top and black leather shoes.

He was described by police as being of slim build with a bald patch.

Police said they were still looking for a murder weapon.

The bodies were found in a house in Pioneer Close, Northampton

Det Supt Glyn Timmins said: "The public should be cautious. The reason being is that, obviously having left a suicide note Mr Du had a particular state of mind.

"What I can say is that he's likely to be frightened, he's likely to be quite desperate and certainly when, and if, he sees this in the media he's certainly going to be very anxious and nervous.

"Therefore I think the prudent thing to do would be to assume that Mr Du should not be approached and that's a job for the police if and when he's sighted."

Earlier, police said they did not think the family were victims of a random attack.

They are believed to be investigating the background of the family - who are of Chinese descent - to try to establish a motive for the murder.

Police also want to trace a silver five-door Vauxhall Corsa, registration BG60 PMO, that was hired by one of the family members and was last seen on Friday.

'Shocked and saddened'

A tribute page set up on Facebook to Nancy, 18, who has the Chinese name of Xing, and Alice, 12, has been joined by more than 1,500 people.

On a separate page, comments have been made by students at Manchester Metropolitan University in praise of Xing and Alice's father Jifeng, who was known as Jeff.

Helen Chui is believed to have worked locally as a teacher.

Manchester Metropolitan University said it was "shocked and saddened by the news of the death of Dr Jeff Ding".

"As a senior lecturer, Jeff was a popular and dedicated member of staff who joined the university in 2004," a university spokesman said.

"Jeff will be very sadly missed by all his colleagues in the division of chemistry and environmental sciences, all our staff, students and his friends at Manchester Metropolitan University and by the wider academic and research communities."

Babatunde Adekoya, from the student union at the university said: "You wouldn't find anyone as delightful as him throughout the university. He was always ready to help students in their time of need."

Det Supt Glyn Timmins said police want to question 52-year-old Anxiang Du

Civilian Court Convicts Terror Suspect of a Single Crime

The White House is currently facing criticism after a federal jury convicted former Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Ghailani of just one out of 285 charges. Critics assert that the single conviction is an example of why suspected terrorists should be tried in military court instead of civilian court. Others, however, cite the conviction as evidence that civilian courts effectively deliver justice.

Ghailani was convicted on November 17 of conspiring with al-Qaeda in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, a crime punishable by 20 years to life in prison, though the Justice Department assures skeptics that it will seek the maximum punishment.

Conservative pundit Laura Ingraham, one of the critics, contends: “Military tribunals are much more effective in these cases because of the sensitivity of the evidence, and their less stringent admissibility rules.” For example, in Ghailani’s case, explains Ingraham, “One key witness was excluded by the judge because his identity was discovered through enhanced interrogation.”

However, Salon.com contends that military tribunals bar the use of torture-obtained evidence to roughly the same extent, citing Rule 304 (a)(1) and (5) of the Military Commissions Manual. The first reads: “No statement, obtained by the use of torture, or by cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment ... whether or not under color of law, shall be admissible in a trial by military commission.” The second states, “Evidence derived from a statement that would be excluded under section (a)(1) of this rule may not be received in evidence against an accused who made the statement if the accused makes a timely motion to suppress or an objection.”  

According to Ingraham, the jury was confronted by mounting evidence that was wholly ignored: Ghailani purchased the flammable gas that made the bombs more deadly; stored the electric detonators; provided the cellular phone to the suicide bombers; and was a close associate with al-Qaeda and other convicted bombers; and spent some time in al-Qaeda safe houses. Yet despite the evidence against him, says Ingraham, he was convicted of solely “conspiring to blow up a government building.”

The backlash against the Obama administration following the conviction was fierce. Utah’s Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said, “It’s time for the administration to listen to the 9/11 families and the American people and change course by putting all terror trials through our military commission system.” And Representative Trent Frank of Arizona contends that Attorney General Eric Holder should “repudiate” the White House’s terror trial policy or resign immediately.

Frank went on to say, “If this insane policy of appeasing terrorists and granting them American constitutional rights to be tried as quasi American citizens continues, the cost of this failure will pale in comparison to the cost of the failure that will undoubtedly yet occur as a result of this ruling. Terrorists now have incontrovertible evidence that they can exploit the American justice system and they will use this knowledge to train new terrorist recruits and manipulate their cases if and when they are caught.”

On the other hand, New Yorker’s Amy Davidson argues that the outcry against the single conviction implies that Americans perceive the legal system to be “a machine for producing the maximum number of convictions, regardless of the law.” The fact of the matter is that our legal system is based on the concept that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, and in order for a jury to reach a guilty verdict every member of the jury must find the defendant guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. Both the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and the jury system are desgined to protect the rights of all of us, since anyone of us could be wrongly accused of commiting a crime. But it is not intended, and does not shield from justice, those for whom the evidence of having committed a crime is beyond a reasonable doubt. Consider Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was found guilty in a civilian court and got the death penalty.

Salon.com explains that it was the intent of America’s Founding Fathers to make it difficult to imprison individuals, and that they did it “with the full knowledge that clearly guilty and even extremely evil people would sometimes receive something other than the punishment they deserve.”

In response to the backlash, the Justice Department cites the likelihood that Ghailani will spend the rest of his life behind bars as an example of success.

Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, indicates, “I think the people who are criticizing the outcome of Ghailani are not paying sufficient attention to the fact that he was convicted, and he was convicted of a serious crime that will lead to a long sentence. That is our goal in these cases. Our goal is to incapacitate terrorists, to keep them behind bars, to obtain justice.”

Nevertheless, Sue Bartley, wife and mother of two of the bomb victims, claims she was “stunned” by the verdict.

According to Salon.com, however, “The verdict in this case — no matter what it was — would be largely inconsequential in terms of Ghailani’s imprisonment. He has already been imprisoned without charges for six years, including two years at a CIA ‘black site,’ and yesterday’s verdict means he will spend decades more in prison.”

The website adds, “Even had he been acquitted on all counts, the Obama administration had made clear that it would simply continue to imprison him anyway under what it claims is the President’s ‘post-acquittal detention power.’ ”

Meanwhile, five suspected 9/11 terrorists, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were considered for trials in civilian court, but, due to opposition from Congress and New Yorkers, are now put on hold while the administration ponders the next move.

Miller contends, “We make those decisions based on facts, based on the law. And we’ll continue to work through that with the detainees who are still at Guantanamo.”

Photo: Ahmed Ghailani

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