Drug cartels spill over borders…

Reports in the international press today are highlighting the infiltration of dangerous Mexican drug cartels into Central America, including one that has been linked to a murder in Belize. U.S. President Barack Obama is on an overnight trip to Mexico and his visit is being used to bring attention to the battle against the drug trade and violence. Countries south of Belize such as Guatemala and Honduras are being named by the U.S. as places where drug king pins are operating in concert with Mexican cartels. Marion Ali has more on this story.

Marion Ali, Reporting
“Close to home, it is believed the notorious Mexican drug cartel, Los Zetas, murdered Wilhelm Braun in execution style last August twentieth at the Corozal Free Zone. No one was ever arrested on this side of the border but on August twenty-ninth, Mexican authorities did get Carlos Leonel del Angel Moctezuma, the suspected Zetas hit man in the Free Zone murder. When he was detained at the Subteniente Lopez border crossing on Mexican territory, Moctezuma was said to be leaving Belize apparently under the influence of alcohol. When Mexican police asked him to exit the vehicle, he pulled out an Uzi submachine gun with a silencer from under his seat and the weapon accidentally discharged. Moctezuma was charged with Possession of Illegal Weapons but was never charged with Braun’s murder because Belizean and Mexican police have not yet determined whether the expended shells retrieved from Braun’s murder scene were fired from the same Uzi seized from Moctezuma the night he was apprehended. The cartel with which Moctezuma is linked, Zetas, is one of three that the U.S. has just listed as suspected international drug kingpins. Zetas is made up of ex-military men trained in rapid deployment, aerial assaults, marksmanship, ambushes, intelligence collection and sophisticated communications. The other two cartels now appearing in the U.S. black book are La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloas Cartel.”