Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Phantom CEO busted for encrypting Blackberry for cartel use

The chief executive of a company that created highly-secure smartphones allegedly used by some of the world’s most notorious criminals has been indicted.

Canadian-based Phantom Secure made “tens of millions of dollars” selling the modified Blackberry devices for use by the likes of the Sinaloa Cartel, investigators said.

The charges marked the first time US authorities have targeted a company for knowingly making encrypted technology for criminals.

The Department of Justice arrested Vincent Ramos in Seattle last week. He was indicted on Thursday along with four associates.
. . .
They are charged with racketeering and conspiracy to aid the distribution of drugs. Both crimes have a maximum penalty of life in prison. Mr Ramos is the only one of the group currently in custody.

“This organisation Phantom Secure was designed to facilitate international drug trafficking all throughout the entire world,” US attorney Adam Braverman told the BBC.

“The difference is this company was specifically-designed to aid international drug trafficking organisations,” and new customers needed a referral from an existing customer. A six-month subscription cost $2,000-$3,000, easily affordable by their target customers.

The only surprising thing is that it took this long to create the business.

UPDATE
Linked to by The Other McCain. Thank you!

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Mexico: CJNG kidnaps two special agents

Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (Jalisco New Generation Cartel) is on the move. Here are two articles:

Two members of a special investigative police force who disappeared in Mexico a week ago have been shown in a video posted on YouTube.

The two agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency appear sitting in front of five masked men who force them at gunpoint to read a statement.

The armed men are believed to be members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

The cartel has been expanded rapidly and aggressively across Mexico.

Mexico’s Attorney General Raul Cervantes recently declared it the nation’s largest criminal organisation and it has been blamed for a series of attacks on Mexican security forces and public officials.

Here’s the YouTube (in Spanish),

Jesús Pérez Caballero analyzes at InSight Crime, Mexico’s CJNG: Local Consolidation, Military Expansion and Vigilante Rhetoric

The CJNG is expanding its presence and influence throughout Mexico. In each of the states where the group operates, it continues to successfully exploit its defining features: the flexibility to combine a military perspective with its historical criminal ties, a strategic commitment to become involved in pre-existing conflicts, and the promotion of vigilante rhetoric through propaganda.

At the moment, the rewards of this strategy seem to outweigh the risks assumed by the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) and its leader, Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho.”

Read the full report.

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Mexico: Cartels infiltrating Texas

This should come as no surprise, New report shows how Mexican cartels are infiltrating Texas

The Gulf Cartel has a hold on cities in Texas’ tip and coastal bend. McAllen, Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Galveston, Houston and Beaumont are impacted most by the Gulf Cartel which mostly brings marijuana and cocaine into the area, according to the DEA. Drugs smuggled through the Gulf Cartel are mostly brought in through the area between the Rio Grande Valley and South Padre Island.

Every week in Houston, a relative of a Gulf Cartel leader receives 100 kilograms of cocaine, according to the DEA.

Moving West, Los Zetas control two cities and the Juarez Cartel has a hold on Alpine, Midland, El Paso and Lubbock.
. . .
The Sinaloa Cartel, formerly run by prison escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman,” is most found in Dallas, Lubbock and Fort Worth, according to the DEA.

Read the whole thing.

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Mexico: Cartels are using explosive drones

The case has stoked fears drug cartels could soon target the U.S.

Mexican Federal Police arrested four men Oct. 20 in Guanajuanto who were driving a stolen vehicle equipped with a 3DR Solo Quadcopter drone attached to an IED, Small Wars Journal reported. The drone had a range of about half a mile, but modifications would have allowed it to fly farther.

Narco-Terror: Mexican Cartel Operators Busted with Explosive Drone

Gunmen belonging to a Mexican cartel planned to use a drone as a weapon by strapping an improvised explosive device to the popular flying tech. The new tactic was unveiled in a region seeing a sharp spike in cartel violence.

The drone was seized by Mexican authorities during a vehicle inspection in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Authorities stopped a white 2015 Mazda transporting an AK-47, ammunition, and a FLY 3DR drone with explosives attached. Inspectors found a cell phone they suspect would be used to detonate the device.

In the war between the Zetas and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, another player,

The seizure comes at a time when members of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) are working to take control of Guanajuato. The region was previously controlled by Los Zetas. A local cartel known as the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima, believed to be made up of Zetas, is openly challenging the CJNG. As Breitbart Texas reported, Guanajuato is a prized territory for the theft of fuel. The cartel violence has manifested itself in attacks against police officers to boost recruitment for the CJNG.

Mexican authorities consider the case a matter of national security.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Mexico: Location scout for Netflix’s Narcos shot to death

Netflix scout for Narcos TV show found shot dead in Mexico. Company confirms death of location manager Carlos Muñoz Portal in Temascalapa in central Mexico

A location manager working for the Netflix series Narcos has been killed while searching for places to film when the show moves from Colombia to Mexico for its fourth season.

Carlos Muñoz Portal, 37, had worked for many years finding locations for US film and television productions working in Mexico.

Muñoz was very experienced,

Muñoz had worked on films such as Man on Fire, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto and the fourth film of the Fast and Furious franchise.

He got too close.

(The gentleman in the tweet is actor Pedro Pascal.)

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17 LatAm and Caribbean countries in “Major Illicit Drug Producing and Major Drug-Transit Countries” list

At LAHT (emphasis added),

That list of countries, which does not necessarily reflect the counter-narcotics efforts of their governments or their level of cooperation with the US on illegal drug control, comprises Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Bolivia and Venezuela were designated as countries that had “failed demonstrably” during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements.

Count ’em:

  1. Bahamas,
  2. Belize,
  3. Bolivia,
  4. Colombia,
  5. Costa Rica,
  6. Dominican Republic,
  7. Ecuador,
  8. El Salvador,
  9. Guatemala,
  10. Haiti,
  11. Honduras,
  12. Jamaica,
  13. Mexico,
  14. Nicaragua,
  15. Panama,
  16. Peru,
  17. Venezuela.

Bad news on Colombia, which should not surprise readers of this blog,

But the novelty of this year’s memorandum was the decision to threaten Colombia, Washington’s closest ally both in the Latin American region and in the fight against drug trafficking, with decertification.

The US “seriously considered designating Colombia as a country that has failed demonstrably to adhere to its obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements,” the presidential memorandum stated, citing the “extraordinary growth of coca cultivation and cocaine production over the past 3 years, including record cultivation during the last 12 months.”

Record coca cultivation and cocaine production, that is, taking place as the FARC, the world’s largest narco-terrorist organization, becomes a political power.

In a somewhat related vein,
I’ve been watching the third season of Netflix’s morality tale, Narcos, where art imitates life. It takes place during the 1990s and, as the saying goes, “The more things change . . .”

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Mexico: National soccer team captain sanctioned by US Treasury

Rafael Márquez among individuals linked by Treasury Department to drug kingpin Raúl Flores Hernández of the two main Mexican drug cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel.

The sanctions are a blow to the image of Mexican soccer. It is also a sign of how deeply drug-trafficking has permeated Mexico’s civil society, from politics to culture and sports, analysts say. Mexican singer Julio César Alvarez, known as Julión, was also sanctioned Wednesday for acting as a frontman of Mr. Flores.
. . .
The sanctions freeze all U.S. assets of the people and entities named and forbid U.S. citizens from doing business with them. It also strips Mr. Marquez, 38, of his U.S. visa, meaning he can no longer travel to the U.S. to play games with the Mexican national soccer team. The sanctions don’t necessarily imply criminal prosecution.

In the largest Kingpin Act action so far, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a total of nine firms and 21 people for ties to alleged trafficker Raúl Flores Hernández and his organization.

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El Chapo vs Netflix

Netflix is playing a miniseries about the drug lord of the world’s biggest drug crime organization, and he will be suing because they

“defame” his character by adding salacious details to his life story.

I kid you not:
“El Chapo” Guzman Sues Netflix, Univision over Use of His Image.

I’m under the impression that he cannot sue for royalties, but would like to know if the actor gets to wear the Barabas shirt.

In other Chapo news,
Chapo’s alleged girlfriend, Mexican congresswoman Lucero Guadalupe López, was arrested on conspiracy charges at San Diego airport as she was entering the U.S. in search of asylum.

Mexico has its bloodiest month in 20 YEARS: May sees a record number of murders as violence intensifies between gangs vying to fill space left by El Chapo

  • Mexico’s May has seen the highest increase in homicides in over 20 years
  • The first five months of 2017 have seen an increase of about 30 per cent in homicides over the same period last year
  • The violence is in part due to the weakening of El Chapo’s cartel, Sinaloa since his extradition to the US last year, meanwhile the Jalisco cartel is on the rise
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