Mexican Drug War

Pfc. Jose Gil Hernandez, a Texas National Guard soldier, was gunned down in violent Ciudad Juarez. He crossed the border despite the Guard urging soldiers not on active duty to stay out of Mexico. Hernandez is at least the third American serviceman killed in Juarez since the drug prohibition war began.

Mexico's national security spokesman Alejandro Poire trumpeted 'the largest seizure in the country's history of marijuana prepared and packed for sale and distribution.' But will this make a dent in the bi-national effort to stem the power of drug trafficking organizations in Mexico? Weapons, cash, and drug seizures, as well as top arrests of drug traffickers, are always touted by the government as signs of success, but they do little to impact the overall structure of the organizations, experts say.

Mexican drug prohibition war: In part one of a two-part special on the unregulated drug trafficking organizations consuming Mexico, Joseph Woby travels to one of its most dangerous and poverty-stricken cities.

Despite millions in U.S. aid, forces continue to be outgunned, overwhelmed — and often purchased outright — by drug prohibition gangsters. Many in Mexico consider the American investment little help so far against the bloody tide wrought by drug prohibition gangs. Mexico's top federal policeman, Genaro Garcia Luna, has estimated gangsters pass out some $100 million each month to local and state cops on the take.

Gunmen in the drug prohibition violence-ridden border city of Ciudad Juarez killed Rito Grado Serrano, regional president of the community of El Porvenira, and his son, Mexican officials said Sunday.

A radio station broadcast what it described as a telephone conversation in which Mexican congressman Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano and one of Mexico's biggest drug prohibition lords, La Familia leader Servando "La Tuta" Gomez, express support for each other and discuss bribing a reporter. Godoy represents the western state of Michoacan, La Familia's stronghold. He already faces federal charges for allegedly protecting the drug trafficking organization but has immunity from arrest because he is a congressman.

Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw issued a travel warning advising Texans that nobody should head to Mexico at this point. McCraw stressed the advisory due to the increased drug prohibition violence and threat from drug trafficking organizations.

A Mexican drug trafficking organization already raking in hefty profits trafficking drugs to the United States under drug prohibition has discovered a new business in the western state of Michoacan -- illegal mining.

A Mexican police commander investigating the reported shooting of an American tourist on a border lake was decapitated and his head was found in a suitcase outside a Mexican Army base.