Police in Mexico seize a three-tonne homemade tank from the Zetas gang amid an escalation in drug-related violence.

Police found the tank during a raid on a remote ranch in Jalisco, western Mexico.The armour plated vehicle, dubbed "Monster Zeta" has a revolving gun turret and welded metal sheeting designed to withstand explosions.Drug violence has been increasing across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon deployed the army to fight the cartels in December 2006.The Jalisco region had been spared the worst of the mass killings and beheadings, but drug-related murders more than doubled last year to 600.&nb...

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authorities have caught the suspected local leader of a group of drug gang hitmen accused of killing and beheading nearly 30 field workers on a ranch near Mexico's border.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom says authorities have caught the suspected local leader of a group of drug gang hitmen accused of killing and beheading nearly 30 field workers on a ranch near Mexico's border.Mr. Colom told reporters Tuesday that the person in custody appears to have been responsible for directing the group that killed the workers.  Authorities have identified the suspect as Elder Estuardo Morales Pineda.  The massacre took place in Guatemala's Peten province earlier this month.  Officials have blamed Mexico's Zetas drug gang for the incident, which has been described as one of Guatemala's worst mass killings...

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The dismembered and ravaged body of a prosecuting attorney was found in northern Guatemala on May 24

The dismembered and ravaged body of a prosecuting attorney was found in northern Guatemala on May 24, just one day after he had been abducted. The victim, Allan Stowlinsky Vidaurre, is presumed to have been murdered by Los Zetas - a Mexican criminal organization that has become increasingly powerful and violent as it seeks further control of the narcotics trade in Guatemala. The same narcoterrorist organization has been blamed for the mass murder of 27 persons on May 14 in a region of Guatemala bordering Mexico.According to official sources, "the murdered individual is Assistant Prosecutor Allan Stowlinsky Vidaurre who was abducted yesterday...

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head and the man's arm had been placed on the hood of a truck Explorer with Texas license plates.

Yesterday, shortly after 19:00 pm Police were called to the Lomas de Morelos, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, right on Diamond Street, they found the remains of a man who had been dismembered.Locals were responsible for alerting the authorities of the terrible discovery, as the head and the man's arm had been placed on the hood of a truck Explorer with Texas license plates.Inside the vehicle were still other parts of the dismembered, so we requested the assistance of the Forensic Medical Service personnel, who were responsible for lifting the wrecka...

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The municipality of Gran Morelos, Chihuahua, was taken over by gunmen

The municipality of Gran Morelos, Chihuahua, was taken by an armed 13 on Friday, witnesses say the officers left the village for fear of being attacked. That day, a group of gunmen arrived at the premises of the City Hall, the Municipal Police Headquarters, and up to the house of Pedro Efren Montes, a former mayor, and attacked blast facades. The gunmen shouted that they would kill the officers if they did not the town, and from that day they would take control of everything. It was so villagers decided to protect themselves and felt a great fear. There were hundreds of shell casings, but no people were reported killed or injured, only property...

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Nine are executed in Durango

In the final minutes of yesterday, elements of the Durango Municipal Police received the report of several bodies outside the Plaza de Toros, so they moved to the place and found nine people executed, and confirmed by the Ministry of Public Security State.The Plaza de Toros Alejandra had been used by gunmen in the past, this time left nine bodies, so the Medical Examiner conducted a survey of them and took them to their facilities, where they remain unidentified.The Mexican Army and State Police guarded the area while performing the first inquiries.&nb...

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The Interior Ministry fired seven top officials in charge of immigration matters in regions where the abduction of undocumented migrants by organized gangs has been rampant

The Interior Ministry fired seven top officials in charge of immigration matters in regions where the abduction of undocumented migrants by organized gangs has been rampant and local officials increasingly are being implicated as complicit in the crimes. The ministry said in a May 12 statement that National Immigration Institute employees in seven states with a large northward flow of undocumented migrants would be subjected to additional screening and oversight. The move follows revelations from judicial and human rights officials that immigration officers allegedly hand over migrants to criminal groups, who then demand ransoms from the victims’...

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man shot dead in a gangland-style killing has been named as Duncan Morrison.

The 56-year-old was targeted at a house in Hazelbrook Avenue, Bangor, Co Down, shortly after midday on Friday.Police believe the gun attack could be linked to the drugs trade.Another man was taken to hospital with wounds which are not life-threatening.A man was later arrested in Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, by officers investigating the killing.Eyewitnesses said several police cars surrounded the suspect's vehicle and the man was immediately put into a forensic boiler suit.Police said no members of the security forces were involved.Detectives from PSNI Serious Crime Branch investigating Mr Morrison's murder later appealed for information on several...

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andy and Nikki Hodson will do what they have done every May 15 since 2004 - visit the Springvale Cemetery gravesite of their parents, murdered seven years ago this weekend in Melbourne's most contentious gangland killing.

The sisters visit on birthdays too, and Mother's Day, to lay flowers. Their parents, Terence and Christine Hodson, are buried together at Springvale with no gaudy headstones, just a simple plaque bearing their names.Their father was inextricably tied to Melbourne's secret nexus between bad crooks and bad cops; he was a drug dealer turned police informer who was about to go one step further by blowing the lid off police corruption in the drug underworld.Advertisement: Story continues below The Hodsons were the 27th and 28th victims of Melbourne's notorious gangland war although, in many ways, the most significant because the aftershocks continue...

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