Greg's Ramblings LIV

[Bklyn]

Alfredo Beltrán Leyva was arrested on January 21 in Culiacán, capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The circumstances of his arrest lived up to his high standing in Mexico’s criminal underground, caught, as he was, driving a BMW S.U.V. in which federal police found eight pistols, an AK-47 assault rifle, and two suitcases containing about $900,000 in cash. Until his arrest, Beltrán Leyva was a top lieutenant in what may be the most profitable and far-reaching drug-trafficking organization in the world: the Sinaloa cartel, presided over by Joaquín Guzmán, often referred to as Mexico’s Pablo Escobar. Beltrán Leyva—known as El Mochomo after a vicious night-crawling ant—is thought by police to have been a Guzmán favorite, carrying out multiple murders while moving tons of drugs and millions of dollars for him.

One of the pistols taken from Beltrán Leyva’s truck was an American-built, silver-plated Colt .38 Super, long the preferred firearm of aesthetically inclined narco­traficantes. Originally made in the 1920s, the .38 is an iconic gun, with a sleek rectangular barrel, angled handle, and forward-thrusting look that give it a certain élan. Custom models like Beltrán Leyva’s can go for $10,000. A monogrammed, emerald-encrusted .38 Super that belonged to one infamous drug lord now resides in a Mexican museum.

Guns are nearly impossible to buy legally in Mexico, so when the Beltrán Leyva haul was brought into federal police headquarters in Mexico City, agents sent serial numbers to the American embassy. There, they were fed into eTrace, a network created by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the agency that investigates arms trafficking, and the information emerged seconds later at the A.T.F.’s National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The center receives more than 800 trace requests a day. Each usually takes two weeks to process, but in an urgent situation, one can be performed in a day or less.

To find Beltrán Leyva’s .38 Super, analysts at the tracing center sent the serial number to Colt, which produced the name of the wholesaler, who in turn dug up the location of the dealer. The pistol’s trail led back to X Caliber Guns on North Cave Creek Road in Phoenix, where it had been purchased three months earlier. From there it was smuggled over the border, probably at Nogales, Arizona. “Every gun has a story to tell,” as A.T.F. agents like to say. Beltrán Leyva’s Colt told not only its own story but also one that American and Mexican authorities and residents of the bloodstained border region know all too well—namely, that almost every gun fired in Mexico’s drug war comes from the U.S.

Read more: http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/i ... z1NlIg8ff1

[T Dot O Dot]

same goes for gun crimes in Canada

obviously we don't pop off at anywhere close to the rate the mexicans do, but pretty much any confiscated firearm in southern ontario gets traced back to Michigan or Illinois

[Jungle Rat]

More proof soccer is gay

[Bklyn]

Has anyone seen the hoes Berlusconi has been (allegedly) knocking off and/or providing political appointments to (chicks who were hostesses, models, dancers, etc. and are now in his parliament or cabinet)?

Ruby


Nicole Minetti


Mara Carfagna


I mean, dude is like 75 years old. He's horrible and a bit delusional...but quite admirable.

[Bklyn]

The stock market to come back down after 2Q2011? Most likely...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/qe2-wa ... atest_news

[Bklyn]

pretty good, if you have the time to read it...

[Red Bird]

How did you guys get pictures of me in a bikini?

[Jungle Rat]

They photoshoped a cow

[Kenny-Omo Orunmila]

LMAO JR!!!!!!!!

[Red Bird]

A most extraordinary cow.

[Chuck Nevitt]

Weiner's wifey is a good looking broad, if a little skinny. Guess she wasn't meeting his emotional need to send naked pictures of himself to strangers, or some shit.

[Red Bird]

I'm conflicted about Google-ing the pictures. I don't really want to see this guys pecker, but my curiosity is high.

[Bklyn]

I don't know if you see much. Either way, Weiner's actions have little to do with Huma. He was that cat before he got married. He loved the game and never got out.

[Chuck Nevitt]

True, true. What's up with progressive-leaning New York politicos and the tskandal, anyway?

Huma went from subject of Hitlery-lesbian-lover and creeping-Sharia-terrorist-sleeper rumors from the right to Victimized Political Wife in a flash.

[Red Bird]

"Hitlery-lesbian-lover"?

That's the first I've heard of that.

[Chuck Nevitt]

It's come up, out there on the fringe and not-so-fringe. And the creeping Sharia stuff is like, duh!

[Bklyn]

yeah, it was rumored for a while that Huma was Hilary's lesbian lover.

[Chuck Nevitt]

I went to a graduation at my kids' school, K through 8th. Gave everyone a round of applause.

I'm not really down with the whole Bernie Mac/macho conservative school of thought on kindergarten graduations. Let 'em do it. No big deal. If they don't kick everybody's ass in the Darwinian struggle to get ahead, it's probably not because they put on little paper mortarboards in kindergarten.

On the other hand, that child is too old to be in a damn stroller!

[Bklyn]

I have no problem with it, actually. I do have a problem with any graduations that come after Kinder until the 12th grade one.

[Bklyn]

I haven't read it yet, but this posits that "What Destroyed Rome Was Its Unfunded Government Employee Pensions"

http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/Wh ... 8-2011.pdf