December 17, 2009
Mexican navy kills
top cartel kingpin in shootout
Reuters – More victims in Mexico’s drugs war
AP – In this undated handout image from Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, Arturo Beltran Leyva is seen. …
CUERNAVACA, Mexico – Two hundred Mexican Navy marines stormed an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon’s drug war.
Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses,” and six members of his cartel died in the shootout Wednesday in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, according to a navy statement Thursday.
The body of one cartel member was found on the ground outside the third-floor apartment, after he apparently committed suicide during the shootout.
Cartel gunmen hurled grenades that killed one marine and wounded two others, one of whom is in serious condition, the navy said. Two women and one man were detained during the raid, and five assault weapons were seized.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene heard at least 10 explosions during the firefight, which residents said lasted at least 90 minutes. Witnesses said the raid began when marines rappelled down ropes onto the roofs of some of the apartment buildings at dusk.
Reporters were briefly allowed inside the apartment where Beltran Leyva’s body still lay early Thursday; his skull and one arm were mangled by bullet wounds, and in one hand he clutched a large gold-colored medallion.
“First they were asked to surrender, but they didn’t yield and they opened fire,” said one of the ski-masked marines who participated in the raid, and who was not authorized to give his name.
President Felipe Calderon, speaking from the Copenhagen climate summit, said “this action represents an important achievement for the government and people of Mexico, and a resounding blow against one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in Mexico, and on the continent.”
Calderon described Beltran Leyva as “one of the three most-wanted” drug suspects in Mexico. By most estimates, the other two — both still at large — are Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Residents of the apartment complex said the raid appeared carefully planned. Sailors went door-to-door before the gun battle to quietly evacuate residents to the gym.
Beltran Leyva is the highest-ranking figure taken down under Calderon, who has deployed more than 45,000 troops across Mexico to crush the cartels since taking office in December 2006. Mexico’s navy often has been used in the battle as well. The offensive has earned Calderon praise from Washington even as 14,000 people have been killed in a wave of drug-related violence.
Beltran Leyva had narrowly escaped attempts to arrest him in recent months, including a Friday raid on an alleged drug cartel holiday party at mansion in the town of Tepotzlan, near Cuernavaca, where they killed three alleged Beltran Leyva cartel members and detained 11.
They also detained Ramon Ayala, a Texas-based norteno singer whose band was playing at the party, on suspicion of ties to organized crime. His lawyer, Adolfo Vega, denied Ayala had ties to the Beltran Leyva gang, saying the singer didn’t know his clients were drug traffickers.
The last time Mexican authorities killed a major drug lord was in 2002, when Ramon Arellano Felix of the Tijuana Cartel was shot by a police officer in the Sinaloa resort of Mazatlan.
Beltran Leyva was one of five brothers from the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa who once worked side by side with Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. The brothers split with Guzman several years ago and aligned themselves with Los Zetas, a group of former soldiers hired by the rival Gulf Cartel as hit men. The split is believed to have fueled much of Mexico’s bloodshed of recent years.
One of the brothers, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, was arrested in January 2008.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says the Beltran Leyva cartel has smuggled tons of cocaine into the United States, as well as large quantities of heroin.
The Mexican government had offered a $2.1 million reward for Beltran Leyva’s capture.
U.S. officials say the Beltran Leyva Cartel has carried out heinous killings, including numerous beheadings of rival traffickers or kidnappers invading what the gang considered its turf.
The gang also has had great success in buying off public officials, including employees of the federal police and prosecutors, to protect their business and get tips on planned military raids.
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Olson reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Julie Watson also contributed to this report from Mexico City.
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December 19, 2009
Prison population to have
first drop since 1972
DALLAS – The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.
The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.
“It’s a reversal of a trend that’s been going on for more than a generation,” said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. “In some ways, it’s overdue.”
The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.
Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.
In the past, prison populations have been lower when drafts were enacted, including during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
“People who go to war are young men, and young men are the most likely to get arrested or prosecuted,” said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a research organization that advises states on prison issues.
The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven’t involved in a draft.
Instead, the economic crisis forced states to reconsider who they put behind bars and how long they kept them there, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
In Texas, parole rates were once among the lowest in the nation, with as few as 15 percent of inmates being granted release as recently as five years ago. Now, the parole rate is more than 30 percent after Texas began identifying low-risk candidates for parole.
In Mississippi, a truth-in-sentencing law required drug offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences. That’s been reduced to less than 25 percent.
California’s budget problems are expected to result in the release of 37,000 inmates in the next two years. The state also is under a federal court order to shed 40,000 inmates because its prisons are so overcrowded that they are no longer constitutional, Austin said.
States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.
Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10 percent to 30 percent less than it costs to send someone to prison.
“I don’t think they work. I know so,” said Judge John Creuzot, a state district judge in Dallas.
The reforms in many state prisons and courts come even as crime rates continue to drop nationwide.
“It’s economically driven, but the science is there to support it,” Austin said. “They are saving money, but not doing it in a way that jeopardizes public safety.”
One exception to the trend is Florida, which has enacted a law requiring all convicts to serve a high percentage of their sentences. The law is straining the state’s prison resources.
“They know that they are stuck in a time bomb they can’t get out of,” Austin said.
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Jaycee Lee Dugard was 11 years old 
