In his hometown, fugitive Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' is a hero to many

LA Times: A new shipment of caps arrived at Isaias Rodriguez's Culiacan store, black canvas with the image of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman — once again the world's most-wanted drug lord — embossed in gold on the front.

The hats came in just a week or so after El Chapo escaped from a high-security prison in July, via a ventilated, well-lighted tunnel just under a mile long.

Rodriguez, 46, said this is the first time he has sold merchandise that depicts Guzman, who was born and made in Culiacan. The latter's escape has been good for business. Read more. 

Drug War: Top Sinaloa Arms Trafficker Captured

Justice in Mexico: "The Mexican Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) announced today the capture of Eduardo Ávila Ojeda, 34, in Culiacán, northern Mexico. Ávila, known as “El Lalo” is one of the Sinaloa cartel’s top arms smugglers. SSP called Ávila, 34, ”one of the main introducers the country firearms, cartridges and explosives”. SSP also reported that Ávila’s capture was the result of intelligence gathered from the December arrest of “The Ramy”, Ramiro Rivera Rendon of the Sinaloa cartel." read more

Mexico Drug War Bloodshed; 47,512 drug war deaths during during Calderon's presidency

MexicoBlog note: The statistics for 2011, as noted by El Universal, only include through September. If the average rate of 4,301 deaths per quarter continued, the total for all twelve months of 2011 would be 17,294. This would put the five year total at 51,816. The official total for 2010 was 15,273. That would mean a 13.3% increase in deaths in 2011 over 2010.

El Universal: The Mexico Attorney General Office released statistics today on the number of deaths related to "presumed criminal rivalries" from December 2006 to September 2011. The total given is 47,512. The breakdown is as follows: in

• December 2006 - 62 
• 2007 - 2,826
• 2008 - 6,858
• 2009 - 9,614
• 2010 - 15,273
• 2011 - 12,903 (through September)

While the Attorney Generals Office states that there has been an 11% decline in deaths from 2010 to 2011, the 2011 data only includes up until September. 

For the nine months of 2011, the states with the highest number of deaths were Chihuahua (2,276), Guerrero (1,533), Tamaulipas (1,153), Sinaloa (1,100), Veracruz (538), Baja California (250).

The municipalities with the highest number of deaths were Ciudad Juarez (1,206), Acapulco (795), Monterrey (399), Culiacan (365), San Fernando (292), Tijuana (183) and Veracruz city (155). Spanish original

Mexico Drug War: Rival cartels take bloody drug war to the heart of the country

McClatchy: "Mexico's two most powerful criminal gangs are locked in a titanic battle for control of the country's heartland in a struggle that's redrawn Mexico's map of violence. Violence has dropped along the U.S. border, with Ciudad Juárez, once considered the most violent city in the world, seeing a 35-per-cent drop in homicides this year.

That good news is balanced by bad news in Guadalajara, Culiacán and Veracruz, where the Sinaloa cartel, whose bulwark has always been Mexico's Pacific coast, and the Zetas, a violent gang that originally was created to protect the Gulf cartel along the Gulf of Mexico coast, are locked in a spiralling struggle that's seen each gang invade the other's territory." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: 24 killed in drug cartel-plagued Mexican state

The Associated Press: "CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — Attacks in the home state of Mexico's most powerful drug cartel left 24 people dead and 17 of the victims' bodies were found burned in two pickup trucks, officials said Wednesday." read more