It could be years before patients have access to medical marijuana in Pennsylvania despite a bill to legalize it clearing the House with overwhelming support on Wednesday. Before officials can start implementing the bill, it first has to pass the Senate and be signed into law. The legislation, Senate Bill 3, is now back in the Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee and is awaiting a concurrence vote on the floor. Since the bill was essentially gutted in the House, where at one point more than 220 proposed amendments were attached, senators will likely thoroughly vet the alterations. [continues 470 words]
"You lost my load. You're a dead man and so is your family." That threat, and one made five months later in a face-to-face showdown with U.S. agents in Mexico, led the U.S. government yesterday to put a $2 million bounty on Osiel Cardenas Guillen in a major campaign to dismantle his organization. Authorities in Mexico and the United States say Cardenas is a new breed of drug don who murdered his way into the upper echelons of Mexico's narcotics elite and has no qualms about threatening U.S. drug agents with death, on either side of the border. [continues 559 words]
Next Mexican Chief's Drug Stance Awaited The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is "cautiously optimistic" about the commitment of Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox to tackle the twin problems of drug trafficking and corruption. At the same time, however, DEA Administrator Donnie Marshall said yesterday that he was "not happy with the results we have seen out of Mexico." "They have not been able to really dismantle any of the major drug trafficking organizations on their own," Marshall said. In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with the Union-Tribune editorial board, Marshall said the DEA will watch closely to see how Fox, who takes office Dec. 1, responds to U.S. efforts to extradite major Mexican drug traffickers. [continues 374 words]
A high-ranking Mexican narcotics agent in Tijuana has been missing since April 10, the same day three other anti-drug agents disappeared in Baja California, a U.S. government official said yesterday. The other agents were later found dead. The U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, identified the agent as Felipe Perez Cruz, a Mexican army major who at one time headed the Federal Judicial Police office in Tijuana. "He is missing. We have been notified (by the Mexican government) that he has been missing since then," the official said. [continues 589 words]
TEMECULA -- Border Patrol agents used to seizing bales of marijuana were momentarily stumped by the rolled-up banana leaves on the floor of the Toyota Corolla. But one veteran agent recognized what was inside the banana fronds -- khat, a shrublike plant from central and southern Africa. The leaves of the plant act as a narcotic stimulant when chewed. "We don't see much of this stuff," said Vince Bond, U.S. Customs spokesman in San Diego. The Corolla's two occupants -- one a naturalized Canadian citizen living in Toronto, the other a legal resident U.S. alien from Los Angeles -- were stopped at the Border Patrol's checkpoint on northbound Interstate 15 Saturday afternoon when agents noticed the banana leaves, rolled up in newspaper. [continues 456 words]
They say evidence links hotel to cartel; owners deny charge TIJUANA -- With its whitewashed buildings, Mediterranean architecture and seaside views, the Oasis Resort Hotel & Convention Center could be taken for some peaceful, sun-washed vacation spot on one of the Greek islands. But this resort, about two miles north of Rosarito Beach, has become the site of a tug of war between a Mexican government bent on rooting out drug traffickers and a hotel ownership that feels it is being unjustly harassed. [continues 520 words]
Alleged drug figure shielded; cooperation claims questioned The road to U.S.-Mexico cooperation against drug trafficking, never totally smooth to begin with, may be getting a bit rockier over the issue of extradition. A Mexican judge has rejected a request by the United States to send an alleged major figure in the Arellano Filix drug cartel to this country for prosecution. Judge Jorge Luis Silva denied the U.S. petition to extradite Arturo "Quite" Paez Martmnez on the ground that he is a Mexican citizen. The ruling itself was made a week ago, but made public only Friday. [continues 933 words]
Drug flow from Mexico now more frequent, deadly TIJUANA -- Mexican police at a checkpoint outside Mexicali stop a truck loaded with rustic furniture bound for Tijuana. Under the tables and chairs are more than 800 pounds of marijuana. Just across the border in Calexico, U.S. Customs agents at the port of entry are near the point of collapse after seizing 13 loads of marijuana in one day. A few miles inland, Border Patrol agents staffing a highway checkpoint nab one of the few loads the customs agents let slip past them, more than 3,500 pounds of the illegal herb the Mexicans call mota, hidden in the bed of a pickup truck. [continues 815 words]
