UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

JOINT TASK FORCE NORTH

OPEN SOURCE REPORT

27 July 2010
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Compiled and Edited by: CW3 Brian Woodworth

Reviewed by: Mr. Bruce Truesdale
Approved for Release by: Mr. Sotero G. Reyes

CONTENTS: (Note: All active hyperlinks have been removed)

NORTHERN BORDER
A. Border Guards Are At Risk without Guns
B. Man Arrested For Scattering Explosives on Beaches
C. Canada Toughens Sanctions against Iran

SOUTHERN BORDER

D. Police Attacked in Nuevo Leon

E. Mexican Police Investigate Possible New Drug Gang
F. Members of La Familia Arrested in Jalisco
G. Jail in Durango is Safe Haven for Criminals
H. Mexico Expecting Deportee Surge
I. Stash House Raided In Tucson, Arizona
J. Drug Traffickers Control Western Part of Chihuahua
K. Border Crime Is Getting Out Of Hand
L. Explosion at Police Base in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas

CENTRAL and SOUTH AMERICA

M. Money Laundering in Guatemala

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A. BORDER GUARDS ARE AT RISK WITHOUT GUNS

25 July 2010
Canada.com

Border guards across Canada say their lives are at risk because the federal government is
refusing to allow them to carry firearms on joint operations with other police forces. Customs
officers, expert in searching for drugs and other contraband, want to carry their guns when
helping police forces on raids outside ports, airports or regular areas of border guard jurisdiction
but their bosses in Ottawa at the Canada Border Services Agency say they must go unarmed. The
dispute will come to a head in the next few weeks when the Occupational Health and Safety
Tribunal of Canada will rule in the precedent-setting case of a Montreal border services
employee — backed by his union — who lodged a complaint after refusing to take part in a joint
operation with Montreal city police. If he wins, all joint operations across Canada — there are
dozens a year — are likely to grind to a halt.

Ron Moran, president of the Customs and Immigration Union representing Canada’s 4,800
border guards, said there is no rationale for sending firearm-trained guards into dangerous
situations without their weapons. “These people are well-trained and firearms are an integral part
of that training,” he said. “If there is a confrontation they have only a fraction of a second to
react. We call it empty holster syndrome and it’s dangerous.” Border guards have worked,
unarmed, on joint operations for decades.
Commonly using sniffer dogs, the guards are often brought into high-risk joint operations to
search for drugs imported by organized crime — Hells Angels clubhouses, for example — where
police officers have been undercover and are in street clothes and the border guard is the only
officer in uniform. The guards’ searching expertise makes them a valuable asset and there have
been searches where CBSA guards and their dogs have uncovered caches of drugs, cash and
diamonds that accompanying police officers have missed. “But the border guard, in uniform, is
often the only identifiable officer in the room,” said Moran. “The uniform makes them a target.”
To avoid leaks about planned raids, border guards are rarely given details about a search until it
is about to begin. Participation in joint operation is voluntary, but many border guards are keen
to do the work. “Our people want to participate,” added Moran. “They are like trained soldiers
who want to be among the action. But they also want to be as safe as possible.”

The Canada Border Services Agency refused to discuss the issue with the Ottawa Citizen and
would not give its reason for opposing its guards being armed on joint operations. Sources say,
however, that the agency’s position is based on a legality and that it is taking the position that
border guards are not police officers so should not adopt that role. At the Vancouver Olympics,
border guards worked with the RCMP — doing the same work as RCMP officers — using X-ray
machines to examine vehicles on the highway from Vancouver to Whistler, B.C. The border
guards wore bulletproof vests, but were unarmed. “The RCMP was basically babysitting our
guys,” said Moran. The union also claims the agency’s stance is in conflict with its political
bosses.

The Harper government enthusiastically promoted the arming of border guards five years ago
and pushed through the necessary legislation. Moran claims that senior CBSA bureaucrats in
Ottawa were against arming its guards in the first place and their resistance to joint operation
arming is their “last stand.” “I don’t think this is the government’s position,” he said. “I think it’s
spite. Everything is a scrap with them. This is an absurd situation.” The CBSA issued an order a
year ago telling guards they had to go unarmed into joint operations and that responsibility for
their safety would rest with the accompanying police officers. Canada armed its first border
guards three years ago after pressure from the union to be allowed to carry sidearms like their
U.S. counterparts. The Harper government, citing security concerns, agreed and allocated $ 101
million to pay for ongoing weapons training which in most cases is a three-week course. The
first armed border guards were deployed in July 2007 in Surrey, B.C., and Fort Erie, Ont., and
today, about 1,500 of the 4,800 border guards are armed. If the tribunal rules in favor of the
guard and his union, which appears likely, the government could amend legislation or allow the
RCMP and other police forces to appoint border guards as special constables for the duration of
an operation. “We need an answer to this, one way or the other” said Moran.

Source:
[www.canada.com/news/Border+guards+their+lives+risk+without+guns/3321793/story.html]

B. MAN ARRESTED FOR SCATTERING EXPLOSIVES ON BEACHES

26 July 2010
Edmonton Sun
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ontario: Police have arrested an Elliot Lake, Ontario man for scattering
homemade bombs on local beaches - a case that has frightened the Northern Ontario community.
Sean Michael Pitre, 18, faces a pair of bomb-making charges and mischief under $ 5,000. Police
in Elliot Lake warned the community last week to be aware of homemade explosives being left
on area beaches. The explosives were in glass and plastic bottles, and police said they were
strong enough to cause serious injury to adults or children. The investigation continues.

Source: [www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2010/07/26/14828196.html]

C. CANADA TOUGHENS SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN

26 July 2010
National Post

The federal government announced Monday further tightening of Canadian sanctions against
Iran, accusing that country of moving a step closer to building nuclear weapons in continued
defiance of international resolutions. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the
sanctions, announced in co-ordination with other countries, are intended to “send a strong signal
to Iran: the international community is united in purpose and commitment.” “No state can
threaten international peace and security without consequence,” Mr. Cannon said at a news
conference. The announcement comes a month after Canada tightened earlier sanctions. Now, as
then, it appears the measures will have little, if any, impact on Canada’s economic relationship
with Tehran, consisting mostly of Canadian wheat exports to Iran. The government noted that the
new measures are targeted against the government, not the Iranian people. “These additional
sanctions are in no way meant to harm or punish the Iranian people. They are aimed at Iran’s
irresponsible and aggressive government,” said Mr. Cannon.

The measures, effective immediately, prohibit dealings with designated persons involved in
nuclear, chemical, biological and missile proliferation and they ban the export of proliferation-
sensitive goods, items for refining oil and gas, all remaining arms, and technology related to
these goods. They prohibit any new investment in Iran’s oil and gas sector. They bar Iranian
financial institutions from establishing a presence in Canada, and vice versa, while banning
correspondent banking relationships with Iranian financial institutions and the purchase of
Iranian government debt. “Iran’s continued disregard for successive United Nations Security
Council and International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions calling on it to comply with
international nuclear obligations and suspend its (uranium) enrichment activities is
unacceptable,” Mr. Cannon said. “Iran’s actions and aggressive statements are an affront to the
efforts of Canada and like-minded countries to ensure peace and security worldwide.” Mr.
Cannon noted that on July 11, Iran announced that it had produced 20 kilograms of uranium
enriched to nearly 20% “in flagrant violation of previously imposed resolutions.” “These actions
bring Iran closer to building nuclear weapons that threaten us all,” the foreign affairs minister
said. (…) The European Union also imposed more sanctions on Iran Monday that include
widespread limits on dealing with Iran’s financial institutions, and shipping and air cargo
companies.
Source:
[www.nationalpost.com/news/Canada+toughens+sanctions+against+Iran/3323746/story.html]

D. POLICE ATTACKED IN NUEVO LEON

26 July 2010
El Universal

One police officer was executed and another was wounded as the result of two nearly
simultaneous attacks early Monday morning. In Allende, a municipality located more than 50
kilometers to the south of the capital, gunmen executed a police officer while he was traveling in
his patrol car. The victim, Juan María Peña Castro, was killed by gunfire from a caliber AR-15
weapon. A second attack took place in the municipality of San Pedro Garza García which is part
of the Monterrey metropolitan area. Gunmen in three vehicles fired upon a police officer who
was traveling in his patrol car on Lázaro Cárdenas Avenue. The wounded officer is identified as
José Luis Roman Sandoval, age 26. At present, an operation is being conducted in San Pedro by
federal forces and the Army to find and arrest those responsible for attacking an officer there.
Hours after these attacks, a shooting took place in Colonia Hidalgo in Monterrey which left two
people wounded.

Summary Translation of Spanish Source:[www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/697684.html]

E. MEXICAN POLICE INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE NEW DRUG GANG

26 July 2010
Associated Press

ACAPULCO: Mexican authorities are investigating the possible emergence of a new drug gang
that appeared to take credit for six killings through a message left with the bodies Monday,
officials said. The six men were found inside a car in the southwestern city of Chilpancingo,
Guerrero state police said in a statement. Next to them lay a message reading: "This will happen
to all rapists, extortionists and kidnappers”. Signed by the New Cartel of the Sierra. Authorities
are investigating the authenticity of the gang, said an official with the state prosecutors’ office,
who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the
case. The official said authorities had no previous knowledge of such an organized crime group.

The car was reported stolen hours before the bodies were found, according to the police
statement. The owner told police that armed men intercepted him on a highway and forced him
out of the car. One body was found stuffed inside a black bag and the rest were tied up. At least
seven major drug trafficking cartels operate in Mexico, but there are many smaller gangs
throughout the country, often affiliated with one of the bigger groups.

The cartels have increasingly splintered since President Felipe Calderon launched an intensified
crackdown after taking office in late 2006, deploying thousands of troops and federal police
across Mexico. Mexican authorities have blamed the infighting for a surge of gang violence that
has killed nearly 25,000 people in less than four years. Most recently, a fight for control of the
Beltran Leyva cartel has increased violence in central and southwestern Mexico, including
Guerrero state, which is home to the resort city of Acapulco. The Beltran Leyva cartel splintered
after its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a gun battle with Mexican marines in
December. That split occurred only a year after the Beltran Leyva gang broke with the Sinaloa
cartel, which remains one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking organizations.

Violence has also surged this year along Mexico's northeastern border with the U.S. since the
Gulf cartel split with its former gang of enforcers, the Zetas. In that region, the bodies of four
men were found dumped in a plaza Monday in Nuevo Laredo, a city across the border from
Laredo, Texas, the Tamaulipas state police said in statement. The bodies had signs of torture and
were found with the remains of a dog and a cat and several threatening messages.

Source: [news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_drug_war_mexico]

F. MEMBERS OF LA FAMILIA ARRESTED IN JALISCO

26 July 2010
El Universal
Summary Translation of Spanish Source: CW3 Brian Woodworth

Federal Police arrested six suspects who said they belonged to the Familia Michoacana cartel.
The suspects may be involved in criminal activity in Ciénega and in the southeastern part of the
state. At 19:00 hours, state police officers who were conducting patrols arrested six gunmen
traveling on a dirt road which leads to the Las Tecatas Ranch near the municipalities of
Quitupan, Mazamitla and Valle de Juárez in the state of Jalisco. The suspects under arrest were
traveling in two vehicles described as an orange colored Chevrolet Cheyenne with plates from
the State of Guerrero GY-03141 and in a blue Chevrolet Yukon without plates. The suspects are
all from the State of Michoacan. Gunmen in a third vehicle escaped. Six of the gunmen were
arrested without resistance and are identified as:

Andrés Rentería Torres, age 31

Iván Nicolás Paredes, age 20
Valdemar Hernández Barajas, age 20
Cámero Mendoza Chávez, age 19
Rolando Cruz Aguilar, age 27
Oscar Omar Ayala Morales, age 18

At the time of their arrest, the gunmen were dressed in camouflaged clothing and were in
possession of seven AK-47 rifles, 4 caliber .38 handguns, nine M67 anti-personnel fragmentation
grenades, 43 magazines and 2,000 cartridges of various calibers including 29 cartridges for a
caliber 50 Barret rifle.

Spanish Source: [www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/697686.html]

G. JAIL IN DURANGO IS SAFE HAVEN FOR CRIMINALS

26 July 2010
El Universal
Summary Translation of Spanish Source: CW3 Brian Woodworth

The federal government revealed that inmates at the jail in Gómez Palacio, Durango had support
from authorities to carry out acts of revenge and even had use of the guards’ weapons and
official vehicles. The spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General for the Republic
(PGR), Ricardo Nájera, reported that the inmates from this jail are believed to be responsible for
crimes committed in recent months in Torreón, Coahuila. The official reported that in addition to
the massacre of 17 people at the Italia Inn, the criminals are also linked with acts of violence at
bars in Durango and Coahuila. The inmates were allowed to leave at night with the approval of
the prison director, Margarita Rojas, in order to carry out acts of revenge. “They were allowed to
leave jail and use the guards’ weapons for these executions, using official vehicles to travel and
using the guards’ weapons for these murders. The criminals carried out their executions to settle
scores with members of rival (organizations) linked with organized crime. Unfortunately, during
the executions of criminals, they also cowardly killed innocent civilians only to later return to
their cells” stated Nájera. Under arrest are:
Rojas Rodríguez, the director
Roberto Enrique Sahuayo, chief of security
Francisco Carlos Alberto Uranga, assistant director
José Guadalupe Rivas Ordaz, chief of security
The Federal Public Ministry, in coordination with authorities from Durango and Coahuila,
conducted an operation at the Gomez Palacio jail to identify the weapons and to compare the
shell casings which were found at the scene of the murders. “It was determined that four AR-15
Colt caliber .223 rifles were used on July 18 at the Quinta Italia Inn. These weapons were also
used in executions at the Ferrie bar on February 1, 2010 and at the Juanas bar on May 15, 2010,
both of which are located in Torreon.

Spanish Source: [www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion/179291.html]

H. MEXICO EXPECTING DEPORTEE SURGE

26 July 2010
USA TODAY

The other side of the border is also preparing for the implementation of Arizona's new
immigration law, which could lead to a surge of deportees back to Mexico. Migrant shelters
along the border in Mexico say they're bracing for new arrivals after the law goes into effect
Thursday. Mexico's government has added more workers to its consulate in Phoenix to assist
detained Mexicans. Migrants who have been deported say they're watching to see how the law is
enforced before deciding whether to try again to cross the border illegally into Arizona. "On the
plane, everybody was talking about the law," said Ernesto Gonzalez, a deportee who arrived here
last week on a U.S. government flight from Tucson. "Everybody knows it's coming."
Arizona's law makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. It requires police to check a
person's immigration status when the person has been involved in another offense and the officer
has reasonable cause to suspect the person is in the country illegally. The check can be made
only during the course of a lawful police action, such as a traffic stop or investigation of a crime.
The law also allows Arizona citizens to sue police departments if they feel the new law is not
being enforced — a provision related to so-called "sanctuary cities," where local government
officials refuse to enforce anti-illegal-immigration laws. (…)

Academics in Mexico say they are paying attention to the Arizona law and similar proposals in
other U.S. states, said Victor Manuel Sanchez, a researcher at the Latin American Faculty of
Social Sciences, a graduate school in Mexico City. "It's going to have an effect on the ways
people migrate," Sanchez said. The Mexican government has also made changes to its own laws
after some rights groups, such as Amnesty International, claimed it was mistreating illegal
immigrants in its country. This month, Mexico increased the punishment for migrant smugglers
from a maximum of 12 years in prison to 16 years. And the Mexican Interior Ministry said it
will step up efforts to protect migrants here in response to a report by the United Nations that
accused Mexico police of robbing migrants and extorting bribes from them. Many Mexicans
coming off the deportation flight here last week said the risk of being punished as criminals
under the Arizona law was making them think twice about trying to get back into the state.
Others, though, said nothing would stop them. "My wife is up there. My whole life is up there,"
said Efrén de la Paz, 34. "Of course I'm going to try again."

Source:
[www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20100726_222_A10_MEXIC
O24631&rss_lnk=1]

I. STASH HOUSE RAIDED IN TUCSON, ARIZONA

23 July 2010
Kold

A tip from a citizen helped Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents uncover a stash house
on Wednesday. Inside the house, according to a release from ICE, were 484 pounds of marijuana
and a revolver. ICE agents say the tip came from a neighbor concerned about drug smuggling
activity in the 200 Block of West Tennessee Street. An investigation revealed the house had been
searched before in April in an operation ICE says was the largest of its kind. Operation in Plain
Sight was an investigation into human smuggling in the area, the release detailed. "This is a great
example of an alert citizen having a positive impact on the community," a deputy special agent in
charge of ICE's home invasion unit said. "Denying drug smugglers the use of this residence will
certainly improve neighborhood safety." Since January 2010, ICE agents with the home invasion
unit have arrested 20 suspects and seized more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana, 10 weapons, and
124 grams of methamphetamine.

Source: [www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=12862223]

J. DRUG TRAFFICKERS CONTROL WESTERN PART OF CHIHUAHUA

25 July 2010
Diario
Summary Translation of Spanish Source: CW3 Brian Woodworth

Representatives Victor Quintana Silveyra of the PRD political party and Roberto Lara Rocha, of
the PAN political party agreed yesterday that organized crime controls the Madera region and
almost the whole western part of the State of Chihuahua along the border with the States of
Sonora and Sinaloa. As a result, both legislators are in favor of asking for intervention by the
Army in these areas due to the inability of municipal police (to secure the area) and the complete
absence or symbolic presence of CIPOL personnel. Representative Roberto Lara Rocha indicated
that military personnel need to burn drug farms and that the federal government needs to invoke
the Forfeiture Law to seize drug traffickers’ property. The PRD legislator indicated that the areas
in which drug trafficking is present are:
the community of El Cable de la Simona in Madera
Dolores
Moris
Yepachi area
Temósachic
Uruachi
Chínipas
Guazapares
The foregoing are drug production and processing areas as well as being a passageway for
anything coming from the states of Sonora and Sinaloa.

Spanish Source: [www.diario.com.mx/nota.php?notaid=c36ed981a104a400e6468918c4427d9f]

K. BORDER CRIME IS GETTING OUT OF HAND

23 July 2010
Houston Chronicle

Along the newly fenced Mexican border, dangerous and heavily armed groups are increasingly
smuggling people as well as dope — and U.S. border investigators must dedicate more time to
dismantle their organizations, according to a Government Accounting Office report released to
Congress Thursday. Though Congress has increased the Border Patrol to an all-time high of
20,000 officers, a small cadre of specialized federal investigators assigned to Immigration &
Customs Enforcement devotes 16 percent of its time to probing the netherworld of border
smuggling. And some border specialists have gotten stuck shuffling detainees instead of
pursuing criminal leads, according to the GAO report presented Thursday to the U.S. House's
border subcommittee.

Zetas branch out

The U.S-Mexican human smuggling business generates billions, but ICE agents have never
managed to seize more than $ 17 million a year in smugglers' assets, said a representative of the
GAO's Homeland Security and Justice Issues office, told the committee. He called those results
"tepid." A decade ago, 90 percent of Mexicans and other would-be illegal migrants crossed into
the U.S. without using so-called coyotes. But with a new wall and twice as many border agents,
they increasingly use professional smugglers. That has meant higher prices charged by the
smugglers, which attracted organized crime gangs to a business once dominated by less-violent
operations rooted in migrant communities.

On the Texas border, the Zetas, the vicious former enforcers of the Gulf Cartel narcotics
smuggling organization, have branched into the human smuggling trade. "As we've done more to
secure our borders, alien smuggling organizations have increasingly become more bold, violent
and dangerous," a subcommittee member said Thursday. "Particularly troubling is the potential
for these organizations to smuggle terrorists into our country."

Signs of sophisticated, highly armed and well-financed smuggling operations and related
kidnapping and extortion rings have emerged in all U.S.-Mexico border towns, as well as large
cities like Houston and Phoenix. In Arizona, a pre-dawn battle between human smugglers and
gangsters killed 21 people on July 1 in the Sonoran desert south of Nogales. In Houston, agents
rescued 11 immigrants held at gunpoint in a house by one violent group of coyotes in 2009 and
later dismantled a network of 14 illicit transportation companies used by smuggling rings. The
GAO report suggests the U.S. government look to Arizona for inspiration on how to disrupt
smugglers' financial networks. (…)

Source: [www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7120928.html]

L. EXPLOSION AT POLICE BASE IN NUEVO LAREDO

26 July 2010
El Universal

An explosive device was detonated outside a Municipal Police base in Nuevo Laredo,
Tamaulipas causing damage to walls and a patrol car but no injuries. Initial reports from
authorities indicate that the explosion took place at 15:00 hours on Sunday when unknown
assailants threw the device. The device exploded almost immediately and caused panic and
confusion among municipal employees and police. Army and PGR personnel appeared at the
scene to collect evidence. Initially the device was reported as being a grenade but that report was
later refuted.

Summary Translation of Spanish Source: [www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/77081.html]

M. MONEY LAUNDERING IN GUATEMALA

26 July 2010
Latin American Herald Tribune

Police participating in an operation targeting money laundering seized $ 240,000 over the
weekend from two men in Guatemala City, the National Civilian Police, or PNC, said. Isaac
Rodriguez, 33, and Pablo de Jesus Schulz, 35, were arrested while transporting the money
Saturday through an upscale section of the capital. Officers also seized four cell phones, a
vehicle and other items from the suspects. The suspects were charged with money laundering
and the funds were turned over to prosecutors. Police arrested another suspect, identified as
Rolando Zarceño, in a separate operation and seized about $ 66,000 in counterfeit currency in the
southern city of Mixco, the PNC said. Guatemalan money laundering laws require citizens to file
a report with authorities any time they plan to transport or remove more than $ 10,000 from the
country. Money laundering is punishable by a prison sentence of six to 20 years and a fine
ranging from $ 10,000 to $ 625,000. The security forces have seized more than $ 1.2 million in
cash this year in operations in the capital targeting money laundering.

Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=361182&CategoryId=23558]

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