By A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 7, 2015 - The Dallas Morning News by Alfredo Corchado Read the original article citing Arturo Fontes here. CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — In this border city across from El Paso, Mexican soldiers discovered and dismantled a car bomb this week in a highly populated neighborhood. The discovery came just days after the head of the Sinaloa cartel was captured in the state capital, Chihuahua City. Across the central Texas border near Laredo, thugs last month shot at a helicopter, apparently mistaking its occupants for Mexican marines. The personnel were members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, and[...]
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by Ginger Thompson ProPublica, July 20, 2015, 8 a.m. Over eggs at a San Antonio café, a reporter listens as former law enforcement officials and one ex-drug cartel operative swap theories about El Chapo’s latest escape and what it says about the U.S. and Mexico. This story was co-published with The Atlantic and ProPublica. The slight man at the breakfast table seemed more like an evangelical minister than someone who once brokered deals between Mexican drug lords and state governors. He wore a meticulously pressed button-down, a gold watch, gold-rimmed glasses, and a gold cross around his neck. His dark[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 17, 2015 - MSNBC LIVE WITH JOSÉ DÍAZ-BALART Watch the interview online. Report: ‘El Chapo’ got 18-minute head start Former FBI agent Arturo Fontes joins José Díaz-Balart to talk about the latest efforts to track down Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán a week after he escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico.
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 16, 2015 - The Takeaway with John Hackenberry Listen to Arturo Fontes Interviewed on The Takeaway Joaquin Guzman Loera, better known as El Chapo, broke out of his prison cell through a hatch in shower that led to a mile-long underground tunnel in an escape that highlights a deeply corrupted system. But he didn't do it alone. El Chapo could have had help from several sources inside and outside of the prison, says Arturo Fontes, a retired F.B.I agent who spent over a decade investigating El Chapo. Fontes says the escape demonstrates, in part, some of the weaknesses of[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
Jul 16, 2013 - From HNGN.com By Charlie Connell View original story citing Arturo Fontes. Mexican marines were able to capture the kingpin of one of the most brutal drug cartels in Mexico, the Zetas, on Monday but experts are warning that the capture will do little to curb the violence that had terrified residents of Mexico's border-states, according to the Associated Press. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, often known as "Z-40," was captured when he was stopped by Mexican authorities in both land vehicles and a helicopter. Authorities recovered $2 million in cash and nine guns with ample ammunition while[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
Aired July 15, 2015 - 07:00 ET - CNN Transcript of New Day CAMEROTA: New surveillances video shows the moment that Joaquin El Chapo Guzman escaped from his jail cell. A notorious drug lord left his prison cell Saturday. As you can see there, just by sneaking out through a hole in the floor. And now, a desperate search is under way. We have a former FBI special agent with a 28-year career with the bureau working in organized crime, intelligence, violent crime and drug trafficking. Thank you so much for being on "New Day." We understand that you... ARTURO[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 14, 2015 - The Seattle Times By Azam Ahmed, The New York Times by DAMIEN CAVE Read original articl citing Arturo Fontes. MEXICO CITY — Hours after the world’s most infamous drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, escaped Mexico’s highest security prison over the weekend, the United States offered marshals, drones, even a special task force to help find and recapture him. But the Mexicans have kept the Americans at bay, according to Mexican and U.S. officials. They say the delay has confounded law-enforcement agencies on both sides of the border and undermined efforts to recapture Guzman, the billionaire head of[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 14, 2015 - New York Times By AZAM AHMED and DAMIEN CAVE Read the original story. MEXICO CITY — Hours after the world’s most infamous drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, escaped Mexico’s highest security prison over the weekend, the United States offered everything it has — marshals, drones, even a special task force — to help recapture him. But the Mexicans have kept the Americans at bay, without giving an answer on the extra help, according to Mexican and American officials. They say the delay has confounded law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border and undermined efforts[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 13, 2015 - By Arturo Fontes in Time Magazine Original Article His escape could set Mexico's War on Drugs back 10 years I spent the majority of my 28-and-a-half years as an FBI agent working in drug trafficking and organized crime tracking Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and his network. The discovery of his escape from a high-security Mexican prison Saturday—his second such escape—is demoralizing for those of us in the U.S. and in Mexico who have worked so hard and risked our lives to bring him to justice. It threatens to unravel all the work that we’ve done. El[...]
Read MoreBy A Fontes on Jul 2015
July 12, 2015 - The Dallas Morning News Excerpt. Click here to read the full article. “Chapo knows too much, has too much information that would embarrass the Mexican government in general and I suspect that’s one reason the Mexican government was reluctant to put him on a plane to face U.S. justice,” said Arturo Fontes, a former FBI agent and president of Fontes International Solutions consulting firm. He spent more than a decade tracking down the former leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. “His escape is a joke, travesty of justice and demoralizing. Mexico lost another 10 years when it[...]
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