Former sheriff's arrest in Co-for-sex case bewilders friends lorado meth

[Political Junky]

Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan's arrest in a meth-for-sex case left longtime law officers at a loss for words Wednesday, though court records paint a picture of a man who has been living a double life.
Sullivan, 68, remained behind bars in a jail that bears his name, accused of trading methamphetamine for sex with a man Tuesday, a transaction monitored by deputies working with a confidential informant. During a brief morning court appearance Wednesday, a judge doubled his bail to $500,000.
The arrest of the married father and grandfather sparked shock — even bewilderment — among longtime law officers.
"It's very, very distressing," said Colorado's U.S. marshal, John Kammerzell.

Read more: Former sheriff's arrest in Colorado meth-for-sex case bewilders friends - The Denver Post Former sheriff's arrest in Colorado meth-for-sex case bewilders friends - The Denver Post
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[waltky]

Meth addicts become psychotic, kill...

Horrific murders a norm for meth
Mon, Jan 23, 2012 - CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL VALLEY: An expert says once people who are on meth become psychotic, they are very dangerous, with normal brain function altered

When a 23-year-old woman fatally shot her two toddlers and a cousin, critically wounded her husband then turned the gun on herself on Jan. 16, investigators immediately suspected methamphetamine abuse in what otherwise was inexplicable carnage. It turned out the mother had videotaped herself smoking meth hours before the shooting. In family photos, the children are adorable, the mother pretty. They lived in a large apartment complex near a freeway with neatly clipped lawns and mature trees. The father was recently laid off from a packing house job. “When you get this type of tragedy, it’s not a surprise that drugs were involved,” said Lieutenant Mark Salazar, the Fresno Police Department’s homicide commander. “Meth has been a factor in other violent crimes.”

A mother in Bakersfield, California, was sentenced on Tuesday for stabbing her newborn while in a meth rage. An Oklahoma woman drowned her baby in a washing machine in November last year. A New Mexico woman claiming to be God stabbed her son with a screwdriver last month, saying, “God wants him dead.” “Once people who are on meth become psychotic, they are very dangerous,” said Alex Stalcup, who treated Haight Ashbury heroin users in the 1960s, but now researches meth and works with addicts in the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs. “They’re completely bonkers; they’re nuts. We’re talking about very extreme alterations of normal brain function. Once someone becomes triggered to violence, there aren’t any limits or boundaries.”

The Central Valley of California is a hub of the US methamphetamine distribution network, making extremely pure forms of the drug easily available locally. And law enforcement officials say widespread meth abuse is believed to be driving much of the crime in the vast farming region. Chronic use of the harsh chemical compound known as speed or crank can lead to psychosis, which includes hearing voices and experiencing hallucinations. The stimulant effect of meth is up to 50 times longer than cocaine, experts say, so users stay awake for days on end, impairing cognitive function and contributing to extreme paranoia. “Your children and your spouse become your worst enemy, and you truly believe they are after you,” said Bob Pennal, a recently retired meth investigator from the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Methamphetamine originally took root in California’s agricultural heartland in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a poor man’s cocaine. Its use initially creates feelings of euphoria and invincibility, but experts say repeated abuse can alter brain chemistry and sometimes cause schizophrenia-like behavior. Meth’s availability and its potential for abuse combine to create the biggest drug threat in the Central Valley, according to a new report from the US Department of Justice’s Drug Intelligence Center. From 2009 to 2010 methamphetamine busts in the Central Valley more than tripled to 1,094kg, the report says.

Large tracts of farmland with isolated outbuildings are an ideal place to avoid detection, which is why the region is home to nearly all of America’s “super labs,” controlled by Mexican drug trafficking organizations, said John Donnelly, resident agent in charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration office in Fresno. “They have the potential to make 150 pounds [68kg] per cook,” he said. “There are more super labs in California than anywhere else. We’re slinging it all over the country from here.”

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[waltky]

Mexico nabs meth kingpin...

Mexico drugs: cartel 'meth boss' Jaime Herrera arrested
14 February 2012 - Police said drugs and weapons were seized when Mr Herrera was arrested

Mexican police say they have captured one of the country's main producers of the illegal synthetic drug, methamphetamine. The suspect Jaime Herrera Herrera was detained in Culiacan in Sinaloa state along with an alleged accomplice. He is alleged to have close links to Mexico's most-wanted drug trafficker, the fugitive Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Mr Herrera, 43 - known as "the Old Man" - is also wanted in the United States. "It is a powerful blow because Jaime Herrera was one of the main producers of methamphetamine, or ice," Federal Police anti-drug chief Ramon Pequeno said. "With the monthly production he had, he was a strong generator of money for the organisation," he added.

The production of methamphetamine is on the rise in Mexico, with huge amounts smuggled into the US. Last week the Mexican army seized 15 tonnes of the drug in the western state of Jalisco. Over the past few months, the authorities have also seized a record amount of the chemicals used to produce it.

BBC News - Mexico drugs: cartel 'meth boss' Jaime Herrera arrested

 

[editec]

It's an old story and it never really changes.

Power corrupts.

 

[waltky]

Mutilated bodies found in Mexico...

Mexico police find 15 mutilated bodies in Jalisco
9 May 2012 - Police and forensic experts are searching the cars in which the bodies were found for clues.

Police in Mexico have found 15 mutilated bodies dumped in two cars in the western state of Jalisco. A threatening note left with the bodies suggested they were victims of a gangland killing. The region has seen a rise in violence as the Zetas drug cartel tries to wrest control of the area from its rival, the Sinaloa cartel.

Around 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon came to power in 2006. Jalisco State Prosecutor Tomas Coronado did not rule out there could be more victims. He said 15 heads had been found, but that judging by the number of other body parts, the number of dead could rise further.

Extreme violence

The bodies were so badly mutilated, forensic experts have not yet been able to tell if they are male or female. Police found the remains in two abandoned cars by the side of a road leading to Lake Chalapa, an area popular with foreign tourists. Officials said they had received an anonymous tip-off early in the morning leading them to the bodies. They said a threatening note found in one of the cars suggested the Zetas drug cartel was behind the gruesome killing.

According to US geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor, the Zetas have become Mexico's largest drug cartel operating in more than half of all Mexican states. The Zetas are infamous for resorting to extreme violence in their battle to take over control of drug-trafficking routes Jalisco, once under the influence of the Sinaloa cartel, has witnessed a series of multiple murders over the past year. In one of the most recent, the bodies of 26 people were found in three cars in the state capital, Guadalajara, in November.

BBC News - Mexico police find 15 mutilated bodies in Jalisco

See also:

US blacklists sons of Mexico drug lord Joaquin Guzman
9 May 2012 - The US treasury department details the Guzman brothers' position in the Sinaloa cartel

The US treasury department has put two sons of Mexico's most wanted man Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman on its drugs kingpin blacklist. The move bars all people in the US from doing business with Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and freezes any US assets they have. Joaquin Guzman, on the list since 2001, runs the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. Mexico has seen an explosion of violence in recent years as gangs fight for control of trafficking routes.

The US administration "will aggressively target those individuals who facilitate Chapo Guzman's drug trafficking operations, including family members," said Adam Szubin, director of the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control . "With the Mexican government, we are firm in our resolve to dismantle Chapo Guzman's drug trafficking organisation." Ovidio Guzman plays a significant role in his father's drug-trafficking activities, the treasury department said.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzman was arrested in 2005 in Mexico on money-laundering charges but subsequently released. As well as the Guzman brothers, two other alleged key cartel members, Noel Salgueiro Nevarez and Ovidio Limon Sanchez, were listed under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. They were both arrested in Mexico in 2011 and are still in custody.

Under the Kingpin Act, US firms, banks and individuals are prevented from doing business with them and any assets the men may have under US jurisdiction are frozen. More than 1,000 companies and individuals linked to 94 drug kingpins have been placed on the blacklist since 2000. Penalties for violating the act range include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $10m (£6m). The US has offered a reward of up to $5m a for information leading to the arrest of Joaquin Guzman, who escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18002071