Consulate Staff Killings in Mexico May Be Mistaken Identity

The murders of three people with ties to a US consulate in Mexico was probably a tragic case of mistaken identity rather than a deliberate attempt to launch an offensive against American officials, the FBI believes.

Initial investigations into the attack, which saw hitmen in balaclavas attack two cars leaving the birthday party of a consular employee's child, suggest the assailants accidentally turned up at the wrong address in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, a bureau spokesman told reporters.

Members of the Juarez drug cartel had been ordered to kill the occupants of two white SUVs attending a different event in the city, on Saturday afternoon, it seems. But they opened fire when they saw similar cars leave a nearby venue.

via Mistaken identity blamed for drugs hit on US staff – Americas, World – The Independent.

German Police Seek Man Who Triggered Bomb Alert

Police are searching for a middle-aged man who fled after his computer sparked a security alert at a German airport.

Part of Munich airport was closed for hours on Wednesday as the traveller's laptop set off an explosives detector.

Some 1,000 police scoured the airport for the man, who hastily left the security area as the alarm was raised.

Police stress that they only want to talk to the man, who may just have been in a hurry to catch a plane and failed to realise more checks were needed.

Although the man was not found, police say they have a clear image of him on camera.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere described the incident as a serious security breach and ordered a thorough investigation.

via BBC News – Germany police seek Munich ‘bomb alert’ traveller.

Drug Cartel Stitches Rival’s Face on Soccer Ball

In one of the most shocking and gruesome discoveries you can imagine, the mutilated body of 36-year-old Hugo Hernandez was found on the streets of Los Mochis Mexico, cut into in seven pieces. The killing meant to serve as a chilling threat to members of the Juarez drug cartel. Reports state that a note left near the body read: “Happy New Year, because this will be your last”.

And to be certain that the frightening killing got the attention of the cartel, the assailants skinned Hernandez’s face and stitched it onto a soccer ball.

Confirmed Friday by Sinaloa state prosecutors, this brutal crime demonstrates a new level of brutality in the war between Mexico’s drug cartels.

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Terror At The Border – Mexico Drug Cartels Send Message of Torture and Death

The death squads of the drug cartels are killing in spectacularly gruesome ways, using the violence as a language to deliver a message to society.

Increasingly, bodies show unmistakable signs of torture. Videos of executions are posted on the Internet, as taunts, as warnings. Corpses are dumped on playgrounds, with neatly printed notes beside them. And very often, the heads have been removed.

When someone rolled five heads onto the dance floor in a cantina in Michoacan state two years ago, even the most hardened Mexicans were shocked. Now ritual mutilations are routine. In the border city of Tijuana, 37 people were slain over the weekend, including four children. Nine of the adults were decapitated, including three police officers whose badges were stuffed in their mouths.

“There is a new and different violence in this war,” said Victor Clark Alfaro, the founder of the Binational Center for Human Rights, who moves around Tijuana accompanied by bodyguards. “Each method is now more brutal, more extreme than the last. To cut off the heads? That is now what they like. They are going to the edge of what is possible for a human being to do.”

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Over 38 Murders In Tijuana Over The Weekend

At least 38 people have been killed in Tijuana since Saturday, nine of them decapitated, in escalating drug-related violence that appears to have left in tatters a Mexican military offensive launched two weeks ago.

The killing spree marked the end of the tenure of the city’s top law enforcement official. Secretary of Public Security Alberto Capella Ibarra was removed from his post Monday evening after a year marked by upheaval in the police ranks and increasing violence.

Dozens of soldiers and federal agents patrolling the eastern part of the city have failed to stop the killings between rival drug cartels, which continue brazen and brutal attacks across Tijuana.

Three of the nine decapitated bodies discovered in an empty lot Sunday were those of police officers, according to the Baja California attorney general’s office. On Saturday night, two brothers, 4 and 13 years old, were gunned down along with their father outside a grocery store, authorities said.

The nephew of Baja California’s tourism secretary, Angel Escobedo, was found fatally shot inside his car Saturday morning. In nearby Rosarito Beach, police over the weekend discovered a dismembered body in a car outside a taco stand, and another outside a small church.

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