I, Porn Lord

(The following may or may not be truth. Take it as comedy and with a grain of salt. It's just a story.)

When I was in elementary back in the early to mid 90's, my friends and I would talk about Naked Ladies. The thought and prospect of nude women was barely enticing our fresh and young minds. The thought of voluptous older women (ie: High School girls) made us giggle, laugh and wonder out loud.

Sex and naked ladies (we didnt use the term "bitches" for females yet, we had some sort of respect, imagine, elementary kids calling girls, ladies, go figure). Stealing Playboys was the ultimate thrill and a friend of mine oftentimes told the legend of that one magical day when his older brother (he was 13) went to a local park and found the mother lode of Porn: a stack of Playboys stashed in the bushes that he promply took home.

Well one fine day in Fifth grade, I was talking to a class mate and he told me that he had found a stash of Playboys and Hustlers in his basement. Probably belonged to his dad. For a low low price, he could provide me with said pornographic literature.

After all, I just wanted them for the articles: "Oliver North and the Iran-Contra Affair"...um, what? Yes, the issues were old and retro. By retro I mean bush.

So for three bucks he provided me with a copy of Playboy . We met clandestine-like after school, on a lonely hallway, by the Boys restroom, like we were two secret agents meeting for some shady deal. It was a shady deal. Trading, Buying and Selling pornography in an elementary school.

Hey, we were kids.

Pretty soon with my allowance money I would buy copies of smut mags from that kid. Three bucks a pop. Not bad. But um... They were just pictures. After a while they got old and sat stashed in some secret dark corner of my room, away from the scornful eyes of the parents.

Then I got a bright idea. Why not sell them to other kids.

So I approached friends and classmates. Hey wanna buy some Playboys and Hustlers? "Playboys are cool but Hustlers have some real gross stuff in them. Hardcore Naked Ladies "DOING IT". The kids were sold !

And so I established my schools first (I think? ) porn pipeline. I would buy the mags from the kid for 3 bucks a pop. Sell them to others for 5 bucks a pop. Two dollar profit from my friends. Other kids I'd charge six bucks.

Thats how most of my friends and classmates learned about naked ladies, bush (the pubic kind not the one- term president), Oliver North, Iran-Contra, doing it, and other weird crap our young minds didnt understand.

We knew they were taboo, we werent supposed to see this filth. Some guy Ron Brown had died in a plane crash, There was a war in some place called Bosnia, "Tutus" were killing people in Rwanda, Lawanda, somewhere, with machetes. Just like Jason in the Friday the 13th movies!. So, we needed to distract ourselves with porn

This went on until the end of Fifth grade. It started in Fifth and ended that year. In middle school I would move up to "heavier" stuff.

One night I found out we had Spice Channel after 10 pm. Now, Spicie Channel was the shit. Back in the day it was THE porn channel. For some reason we had it free? Huh. It was channel 0 on those big bulky brown Cable boxes from the 90's so my entrepeneuring mind had another idea.

Go to Safeway. Buy cheap packs of 6 hour blank VHS tapes. Tape 4 or 6 hours of Spice Channel Programming. Sell them for 10 bucks a pop. Profit.

So I did. I spread the idea among my friends. "Who among ye will partake in this opportunity to watch some smut in the conforts of your own rooms?" "Blessed are ye whose parents bought ye your own VCRs and had locks on your doors. "

So I'd check the listings. See what sounded enticing. "Big Booty Bikini Babes VI". Perfect. Then I'd tape 6 hours of programming. From 10 pm to 4am. Id program the TV and VCR , leave it recording and go to sleep. Go to school and sell the video to whoever asked or wanted one. Id take requests and that same night I'd get to recording.

You didnt get this from me, got it?

So I made my money. Didnt make hundreds of dollars but for a middle schooler I was good for about a year or too. Bought shoes, clothes, went to the movies, the arcade. Stashed my money somewhere secret and made sure to only spend as much as my "allowance" allowed me as to not attract attention from the Authorities (Parents).

One day a friend called me "Porn Lord", a take on the term Drug Lord. I wasn't a drug lord but I was making a business smuggling porn videos to school and selling them to horny teenagers. Porn Lord. I liked it.

Pretty soon we all got girlfriends. Started dating chicks. Losing our "V" cards. Porn wasn't as exciting as once before. The business declined. I started mowing lawns and getting legit teen jobs here and there. My criminal porn business empire came to an end.

"Have a great summer, Porn Lord" signed one kid in my yearbook at the end of Seventh grade.

Terrorism Before September 11th

September 11th changed our lives. Horrible act of terrorism. But people act like it was a new thing. There was terrorism BEFORE 9-11. Heinous acts of horror with American in the cross hairs. Let us recall those shameful and terrible tragedies BEFORE 9-11 that I'm sure the newer generations have never heard of but the families of victims will never forget.

The Attack on the US Marine Barracks in Beirut Lebanon- October 1983
The US Marines were on a peacekeeping mission in war torn Lebanon and their HQ and Barracks were near the Beirut International Airport. On the morning of October 23, 1983 a Mercedes truck loaded with a huge bomb rammed the gate and raced inside the building smashing through the entrance where the suicide bombed detonated its deadly cargo, obliterating the building. 241 American Marines killed in the worst single day loss of life for Marines, ever.

Bombing of the US Embassy- Beirut, Lebanon - April 18, 1983.
A truck bomb drove up to the United States Embassy and blew up, collapsing several floors, and blowing a huge crater, killing 63 people.

The Hijacking of TWA Flight 847 - June 15, 1985
A Trans World Airlines 727 en route from Athens, Greece, to New York City via Rome, was hijacked by two Palestinian terrorists. The plane was flown to Algiers and Beirut where one of the hostages, a US Navy Diver, was brutally beaten and executed, his body tossed onto the tarmac in Beirut.

The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro - October 5, 1985
The Italian Cruise Liner Achille Lauro was hijacked by a team of Palestinian terrorists armed with grenades and AK-47s taking more than 400 passengers and crews hostage, including many Jewish and American passengers. Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair bound Jewish retiree was executed, shot in the head and tossed overboard. The four terrorists escaped the ship but their escape jet, an EgyptAir jetliner, was intercepted by American commandos and forced to land in Sigonella, Sicily

Hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 648 - November 23, 1985
Flight 648 from Athens to Cairo was hijacked by 5 members of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization and forced to land on the island of Malta. There the terrorists began the sumarilly execution of hostages, killing or wounding 5 Israeli and Americans and tossing their bloody bodies down the steps. An Egyptian Army Commando team failed to storm the jet which resulted in the terrorists opening fire and tossing grenades into the cabin killing more than 70 people.

Simultaneous Attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports - December 27, 1985
Abu Nidal terrorists spray AK-47 fire and toss grenades at American and Israeli Airline counters at the Rome and Vienna airports, mowing down 30 Holiday travellers in both attacks.

Storming of Pan Am 73 in Karachi, Pakistan - September 5, 1986
Abu Nidal operatives dressed as Pakistan Security Agents drive a van up to Pan Am 73 bound for Bombay, India and take over the 747 jetliner. The hijackers open fire on the hostages after learning of a take over operation by US and Pakistan Commandos. 22 killed.

Bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland - December 21, 1988
A Pan Am 747 Jetliner from London to New York explodes over the scottish village of Lockerbie, raining debris and bodies over the countryside, killing 270 passengers and crew and 11 Lockerbie residents. A Radio stuffed with Semtex inside a suitcase which originated in Libya and ended up on 3 planes and 3 airports finally reaching Pam Am 103 caused the blast .

First Bombing of World Trade Center - February 26, 1993
A Ryder Rental Truck packed full of explosives explodes in the parking garage of the WTC. The plan had been to weaken support columns, resulting in the crash of one tower into the other and causing both to collapse. The plan failed but six people were killed. A precursor for the horror of 9-11.

Bombing of Khobar Tower, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia - June 25, 1996
19 Americans are killed in a bombing outside the Khobar Towers military complex.

Massacre at Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor, Egypt - November 17, 1997
A terrorist commando assaults the ruins of Hatshepsut Temple in Deir el Bahri, Egypt disguised as Egyptian Security and armed with assault rifles and machetes, they systematically slaughter more than 62 tourists at the site. The killings go on for an hour in which the bodies, particularily of women, are mutilated with machetes. Although no Americans were killed in the attack, it was a particularily heinous one.

Bombing of the US Embassies in Africa - August 7, 1998
The US Embassies in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania and Nairobi Kenya are destroyed by truck bombs killing 200 people. The attacks are linked to Al Qaeda.

Bombing of the USS Cole- Aden Yemen - October 2000
A dinghy packed with explosives explodes alongside the USS Cole, killing 19 American servicemen

Salvador Del Toro: Crime's Number One Enemy

The drug war raging in Mexico is nothing new. The war was bloody in Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey in the early 1970's Things were out of control. Well, by today's standards things back then out of control meant a dead cop here and there meant all hell was breaking loose. The heat back then seems like a tea party with heavily armed mustachioed men, compared to the horrors befalling the nation now.

In Nuevo Laredo a hard ass woman named Simona Reyes de Pruneda ran the drug trade. the 72 year old woman had her buttload of sons and nephews working for her. They ran shit in the northern border back then, killing Comandantes and rivals alike and not taking no shit.

Born poor, the Reyes-Pruneda clan were forced to turn into a life of crime, having no other options. Being dirt poor campesinos didnt pay. Smuggling goods, marijuana, cocaine and heroine up north, did. Hmm. decisions, decisions.

By 1972, the clan ambushed and killed the top cop in Nuevo Laredo, Everardo Perales. The city had enough. They couldnt put up with the Reyes Pruneda and their cronies. They called Mexico City who sent a bad ass lawyer and cop to keep the criminal in line in the northern border.

That man was Salvador del Toro Rosales. The infamous "Iron Prosecutor".

Why was he called Iron Prosecutor? Well because Del Toro made Iron look like silly putty. He was a hard ass and a mean shot. He beat up perps first and asked questions later. A good Trafficker was a dead one. His methods were brutal, harsh and downright rude, but he got results every time.

Del Toro was sent to clean up Laredo. His position there was too dangerous which is why he was given a home on the US Border. Every morning he drove to Laredo in a convoy, full of armed guards. Del Toro himself carried a 44 magnum and a AR-15 assault rifle.

The Reyes Pruneda didnt flinch at this law dog. They sent their lawyer/drug dealer, Antonio Bernal to talk to him. Perhaps the Iron Prosecutor was like all the rest, flash a suitcase of pesos and Del Toro would turn a blind eye to the crime and maybe have a Pina Colada or two with Simona Reyes.

No Dice. It was said that Del Toro not only smacked Bernal for insulting his integrity by trying to bribe him but he also kicked him in the balls for being a dumbass drug dealer passing himself off as a respectable lawyer. Del Toro was a Lawyer. You didnt fuck with him.

Salvador Del Toro rounded up all the drug dealers in the city, killing most of them. He didnt want to waste taxpayer money and clog the city jails with scum. They would be let out soon enough by crooked judges so he just shot them and said they fell and tripped on his bullets.

Soon enough crime dwindled in Nuevo Laredo. He had one of Simona's son's, Cuco Pruneda Reyes lured out of his hideout by one of his lovers while he was getting his groove on and he was cut down in a hail of bullets. His body was dumped on a hill in a pile of a trash to add insult to injury. Simona Reyes Pruneda didnt appreciate this much.

Simona Reyes was eventually captured, with her gang of sons and nephews, dead, in jail or crippled. Peace came back to the north.

Salvador del Toro Rosales "El Fiscal de Hierro" had made crime his bitch and kicked its ass.

Amazingly Del Toro was not murdered in retaliation for his badassery. Corridos were composed in his name and the Mexican classic "El Fiscal de Hierro" starring Mario Almada as Eduardo Lobo and Lucha Villa as Ramona Pineda was a fictionalized account of the war between Del Toro and Pruneda.

Salvador del Toro continues to be active in Mexican politics. Simona Pruneda died of old age in prison.

"El Halconazo"- brutal repression of the State

June 10, 1971 is a dark day in Mexican history. To some, the events didnt even happen. Or they didnt happen the way it was told at least.


That day, democracy was crushed in Mexico City. Died, the flame extinguished along with the lives of more than one hundred protestors. Just when they had thought the nightmare of Tlatelolco would never happen again, two years later, it did, at the massacre of Jueves de Corpus.


That Thursday afternoon, Corpus Christi day, a huge protest was planned in downtown Mexico City by students in support of student protests in the northeastern city of Monterrey. The plan was to go down Avenida de los Maestros all the way to the main square el Zocalo.


The students protested peacefully, yelling pro democracy slogans and shouting barbs aimed at President Luis Echeverria Alvarez and the totalitarian dictatorship the country was under, under the rule of PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party.


The side streets were blocked by Mexico City anti riot police troops and buses. Regular beat cops also patrolled the street but were under orders to "not participate" in the march.


Near La Normal Subway Station some armed youths emerged. They were armed with long bamboo sticks, 2 x 4s and chains. They rushed the protestors and started mercilessly attacking them.


These thugs, wearing white and wielding sticks and beating up everyone, even the women and girls, were Los Halcones, a paramilitary group put together by the PRI to crush student demonstrations after the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968.


They were trained in martial arts, weapons handling and crowd control tactics by the Mexican CIA, the Directorate of Federal Security, and by American agents of the Central Intelligence Agency.


The student protestors werent docile this Thursday afternoon and counterattacked. The youths fought a massive street battle in the streets. Some Halcones retreated.


The attack wasnt over, it had just begun. Some Halcones now brandished submachine guns, pistols and shotguns.


They started to open fire on the crowd, chasing down fleeing women and men and shooting them dead in the street. Chaos reigned.


The Halcones took over police squad cars and buses in a bloodthirsty hunt for hiding and fleeing protestors. Most were shot point blank in the head or shot in the back as they ran for their lives.


The injured and dead were taken to Ruben Lenero Hospital. The nightmare wasnt over. Halcon thugs entered the hospital and shot dead the injured on gurneys and inside recovery rooms and in operating theaters. They intimidated the staff and doctors and after killing a dozen or more victims they left.


More than 120 people died in the Jueves de Corpus Massacre. The State controlled media reported a gang of thugs from the university, friends of the protestors, had turned on their own group and had attacked and killed them. Some 20 people were dead.


The truth was repressed for years under the PRI government. Only those who survived that afternoon and night of horror knew the facts. Their own government had plotted to exterminate, not only their dreams of freedom and democracy but their very lives.


Neither President Echeverria, members of his cabinet nor any members of the Halcones paramilitary group were ever arrested or put on trial for the brutal slaughter.


According to some historians, Los Halcones never even existed.

Interview with Rafael Caro Quintero, Mexico's First Superstar Drug Kingpin

Hey DEA: Nyah Nyah !


When Rafael Caro Quintero, the 29 year old millionaire drug kingpin from Sinaloa was arrested in Costa Rica with his teenage girlfriend for being a suspect in the torture and murder of a US DEA agent in Guadalajara, Mexican society at large was captivated by his charm and humor.

How a young drug baron, born dirt poor in a Sierra Madre mountain village had done so much for the underpriveleged and had managed to outsmart and laugh at US and Mexican authorities for a decade, surprised them.

This is the interview Caro Quintero gave the Mexican press, from Reclusorio Norte Prison in Mexico City in April 1985. Vague like a good mafioso, and humorous like a typical Mexican, he regaled the public with a "Press Conference" never before seen in the annals of Mexican crime.

Press Question: How was your childhood?

Rafael Caro Quintero: "A bit sad, and I cant explain to you in detail everything that happened. I have 9 brothers and sisters"

P: Can you describe how your family is?
RCQ: No I cannot.

P: What would you like to talk about?
RCQ: "well, ive had a bad stay here, the truth. I dont have anything, no food, nothing. The Warden wanted to talk to me yesterday and told me the problems were solved but I dont see anything happening"

P: What do you expect from Life?
RCQ: Nothing. Everything going forward, is what I expect. Life has treated me good, I'm still alive.

P: What Dreams Do You Have?
RCQ: I cant explain but Im just happy that I am well and alive. After the bad, comes the good!.

P: What do you think about Politics and Politicians?
RFC: I dont know anything about those topics.

P: Do you feel a sense of satisfaction?
RCQ: Yes, of course, Im very happy. I feel content with the time ive lived and the time ill keep on living.

P: Do you consider yourself a lucky man?
RCQ: Well yes, thank God I am.

P: Excuse me, but how did you get into Cattle Ranching and Agriculture?

RCQ: I've always liked all that.

P: When you meditate, or reflect, what do you think about?

RCQ: Nothing much, everything is moving forward. About the years Im going to keep living.

P: We've seen you smile many times, do you consider yourself charming?

RCQ: "No, not charming, Im just confident, sure of myself. Im here locked up but I will be free. My (problem), well, its nothing, I dont owe anything. They didnt catch me with anything. I dont know the reason why I'm being treated the way I'm being treated. The warden is a person that has something against me, something personal, I dont know why..."

P: You think with you, theyre (the government) is trying to solve an even bigger problem?
RCQ: From what Im seeing, yes. They have me wearing this *signals to his jacket and pants* for days on end. Im sick since i've gotten here.

P: Sick from what?
RCQ: I have a cold, and a fever and all that.

P: Have you seen a doctor?
RCQ: Well yeah, but he said he would come back in five or ten minutes and it took him three or four days.

P: Are you in love?
RCQ: *smiles* I always live in love.

P: Really?
RCQ: Of course, yes.

P: Many women or just one?
RCQ: I love all women because I was born of a woman.

P: Do you consider yourself a bad person?
RCQ: No, no. If anything my heart is for the world.

P: You've never done any harm to anyone?
RCQ: No, and I dont plan on doing any either.

P: As a Mexican citizen, Caro, what do you think of the crisis the country is going through?
RCQ: "Its going to keep getting worse because we don't see anything clear happening. Right now, everyone is looking at my problem, that is a political one, when my problem calms down...if a kilo of Sugar costs 100 pesos, when they stop watching me, its going to cost 200 pesos! Right?"

P: Why do you say that your problem is a political one?
RCQ: Because Ive done nothing, sir, nothing of what they accuse me of. And I see everything as being hard. The treatment we've received is not how you treat a person.

P: Have you seen anyone in your family?
RCQ: Nobody, sir, I dont have opportunity to do anything.

P:You have become one of the most famous men in the country and your fame has traveled around the world. What do you think of your newfound fame?

RCQ: Its a very bad ting that shouldnt have happened, because Im a person just like any other, like any other man from the country, a farmer. Thats what I am.

P: Has prison depressed you?
RCQ: Well no, sir, Im still the same, because he who owes nothing, fears nothing.

P: Do you fear being killed?
RCQ: I dont have anyone to kill me. First of all, enemies, I have none. If anything, I have friends. Thats why I feel bad, for the treatment ive received here. We're all human. Im made of flesh and bone, living flesh, just like any other person.

P: Are you religious?
RCQ: I believe in God, first of all.

P: What do you think of the Mexican Campesinos (farmers, people of the country). You worked in the Cattle industry?

RCQ: I think theyre all pure noble people, like me and my colleagues and Senor Ernesto (Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, fellow drug kingpin, business partner and compadre) and all his people. We're all people who help Mexico, meaning that we put schools, clinics, we bring electricity to the ranches and villages, potable water. What the government doesnt do, we do ourselves. We dont do it to receive anything, or to be noticed by the world. We only do it because it makes us feel good to help.

P: With what funds did you pay for such works?
RCQ: I had businesses fattening cattle. I have many cattle ranches, in which I make a lot of money. Here they tell you its all from drug trafficking, but its not like that.

P: In reality, how rich are you?
RCQ: No, im not rich. I dont have....ok, I live well, like people, thank God, since I was born, but no, I'm not rich. (Caro's wealth was estimated at $650 million dollars)

P: Can you calculate how much your fortune is?
RCQ: No, that I cannot do.

P: Being a Cattle Rancher allowed you to travel the world?
RCQ:Yes, to many places. All they talk about is drug trafficking, not from Cattle Ranching. What ive made having fleets of tractor trailers. I have Brick making factories. We make about 100,000 bricks daily. But they dont talk about any of that. Its all "drug trafficking", from what I've heard!

P: Then nothing is from Drug Trafficking?
RCQ: Well, no. Not like they say, no.

P: What do you mean by "they say"
RCQ: Well, say for example I do have all that. That I may have seven, eight houses. Say, two of them are from drug trafficking, but the other six arent..."

P: Why did you dedicate yourself to Drug Trafficking?
RCQ: I liked it.

P: Why? Because you earned easy money?
RCQ: *laughing* Nothing is easy, Senorita.

P: How long ago did you start?
RCQ: A year ago? Two?

P: Do you feel remorse?
RCQ: Well what can I say? I dont feel regret. Whats done is done and Im here. What do you want me to do?

P: What is your true relations to Don Neto (Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo)
RCQ: Yes, I know him since I was born.

P: And what relationship do you have with him?
RCQ: We're compadres but business partners we've never been. Its false everything they say.

P: Have you tried drugs?
RCQ: No, never and dont plan on trying any.

P: Excuse me, Caro, but do you have politician friends?
RCQ: No, I dont have anything.

P: What your relationship with Felix Gallardo (Miguel Felix Gallardo, Mexico's cocaine king)
RCQ: None, I dont know him.

P: Did you help people, using drug trafficking as your means? Is that why you liked it?
RCQ: Well no, not because of that. I always wanted to help the poor because I suffered a lot as a child, and im still suffering. But i feel good and comfortable helping poor people. I do a lot of charity that MUST be done. In exchange for what? Nothing. Just so I can feel good.

P: Why didnt they ever arrest you?
RCQ: Because they never wanted to. I was there, and they could of caught me.

P: Do you have friends in the Federal Judicial Police?
RCQ: No.

P: So about Pavon Reyes, not true? (Comandante Pavon, bribed by Caro with 60 million pesos)
RCQ: No, its not true

P: So Pavon is unjustly imprisoned here?
RCQ: Many, not just him. Pavon has nothing to do with me and I have nothing to do with him.

P: What about your confession? (RCQ declared bribing Pavon so he could flee Guadalajara airport in plain view of US drug agents)
RCQ: Yes, but how they treated me (torture), how was I not going to say that? AND MORE!

P: Is it true you took over the best cell?
RCQ: Go see it ! *laughs* oh how decorated it is *sarcastically*. You can go see it anytime you like.

P: Is it true you got divorced?
RCQ: I cant talk about that. Private lives...

P: What do you say to teen drug addicts?
RCQ: That they stop. Its the only thing I can say, because drugs lead nowhere.

P: Are you going to retire from the Drugs business?
RCQ: Yes Im going to retire. I wanted to be in it, (the biz) but I didn't make it.

P: Why did you go to Costa Rica?
RCQ: They told me it was a peaceful country. And from what Ive seen it is.

P: Did you know there were DEA agents working in Mexico?
RCQ: No, I never knew. Because I dont spend time as an investigator or playing spy.

P: What did you do so they wouldnt catch you?
RCQ: Never any big jobs. I was barely starting out.

P: Working with "Weed"?
RCQ: What can I say? Ive always worked with it and I cant say anything more.

P: You work a lot. But in WHAT to make so much money?
RCQ: If I told you everything we'd be here all day.

P: How do you explain that the DEA has said that you are one of the major drug traffickers in the country?
RCQ *does not answer*

P: Have you travelled to other countries?
RCQ: To the United States, Costa Rica, many countries. I dont know Colombia. Europe, yes, many countries.

P: The US asks for your extradition
RCQ: Yeah what else do they want? I also want a lot of things...

P: They are going to make an official extradition plea. Did you commit a crime in the US?
RCQ: No, negative, I dont owe the US anything. Everything is a negative. I never commited a crime there. I dont remember how many times I went to the United States but I owe nothing. If I owe anything I owe it to Mexico. And what? Doesnt Mexico have laws where I can pay what I owe? When they caught me, they didnt find anything on me, first of all. Im going to keep working in Agriculture and with my Cattle Ranches.

C: Are you going to marry?
RCQ: Depends on how women treat me. If one doesnt love me, Ill find another. Whichever loves me is the one ill stay with. Right now I dont even like myself *laughs*.

C: Do you agree with the violence and revolutions in Nicaragua and El Salvador?
RCQ: No, no of course not. Guns are not the solution and fighting youre not going to achive everything. Whoever believes that, lives in ignorance.

C: Did they find arms on you when you were detained?
RCQ: My gun , used for security at the house, thats it.

C: The Gun was of gold and rubies?
RCQ: If I have weaknesses, they are women and gold.

C: Have you ever shot at anyone?
RCQ: Never and I dont plan on. If when we should of fired, we didnt. The commandos stormed in guns blazing like we were common delinquents. But we're just regular people.

C: You dont consider yourself a delinquent?
RCQ: No because I havent been nor do I plan on being.

So ended the Press Conference with Rafael Caro Quintero. The confused , vague, humorous and hurt Cattle Rancher/ boss of the Guadalajara Cartel.

A Godfather's Most Cherished Memory

Miguel Felix Gallardo on a sweet ass bike, during his heyday.

It was a bright and sunny Sunday Morning in May 1953.

I dreamt with a pretty girl from my class named Elsi.

On Monday morning, I wrote her a little something in my school notebook.

After morning chores, which consisted of feeding and giving water to the livestock, I put a saddle on a dark horse. I put on the best rein I had and I headed off to school.

I remember Elsi lived 2 kilometers away, In the village of Bacurimi to be exact.

The morning was beautiful. I saw her coming and she walked past me. She smiled at me. An arrow to the heart I will never forget...

I sped up on my horse and got to school. Later that day I saw her again and once again she smiled.

Because I was so shy, I never gave her the note I wrote for her. I know for a fact we were both in love for a while...

The timid boy was Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. He would grow up to be a notorious drug baron and godfather of the Guadalajara Cartel. Mentor to many of the future kingpins who would hold a chokehold on Mexico with a rule of bullets and blood.

Born in 1946 in Bellavista, Sinaloa, Felix Gallardo grew to be a Sinaloa State Judicial Policeman in his late teens. He would later be bodyguard to the Sinaloa state governor and befriend many of those in power, both state and federal.

Using his business saavy he created an alleged criminal empire, teaming up with infamous capos like Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo. His business would extend from the US to Colombia, to various countries in Europe.

Due to his alleged participation in the kidnapping, torture and murder of a DEA agent in Guadalajara in 1985, Felix Gallardo would be arrested and imprisoned in 1989.

In a 2010 interview he disclosed some of his past and deep secrets to journalists at Altiplano Penitentiary in Mexico City.

Among those secrets in the old timey capo's head; Elsi's smile and the note he never got to give her.

57 years later, the memory is fresh.

Sabra and Shatila: A Lesson On Man's Inhumanity To Man

The night of September 16th, 1982, one of the most horrifying episodes of mass and wanton slaughtered happened in West Beirut, Lebanon. A terrifying lesson on how cruel and inhumane man can be to other human beings.

That ghastly night remembered by the survivors of one of the most terrible massacres in our century began as a raid by Christian Phlangists, led by Ariel Sharon on the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut.

The plan was to combat some 300 supposed Palestinian Liberation Organization guerrillas holed up in the camps. They were blamed for the assasination of Bachir Gemayel weeks before, leader of the Lebanese Christian Phlangists.

That night while the camps were surrounded by the Israeli Defense Force IDF, the 1,500 strong Phalangists assembled at Israel-controlled Beirut International Airport and were given weapons and radios. They entered the camps on the supposed mission to engage the PLO fighters and what culminated in an bloody atrocity .

Only the Phlangists did not engage the supposed terrorists. They went house to house and attacked civilians. The men were lined up against walls and mowed down in cold blood among a shower of bullets.

The women and girls were raped mercilessly and murdered. Children, babies and the elderly were slaughtered as well. Piles of dead infants and babies littered the dusty streets of Sabra and Shatila.

At 11 PM a report was sent to IDF headquarters detailing the deaths of 300 civilians during the "battle". At this time, the Israeli Forces fired bright flares into the night sky, illuminating the camps and allowing the miliatias to continue their wanton massacre of innocents. The attackers also carried bright flashlights, to help them illuminate dark corners were terrifyed survivors could be hiding.

"Dont worry, nothing will happen to you" they attackers called out among the piles of bloody and slashed bodies. "If you need a doctor or hospital we will take you, nothing will happen, come out so you can be treated".

Those who arose, injured and in need of attention, were summerarily shot or slashed to death on the spot. No relief ever came.

For the next 36 hours, the Phalangists continued their horror on the inhabitants of Sabra and Shatila. People had their bellies shashed open in the forms of Crosses. Pregnant women had their wombs ripped open and left bleeding to death in the streets. Babies were tossed against brick walls while their mothers or sisters were brutally raped. The men were simply led outside and machine gunned to death.

For two days. At one point at the start of the massacre, a miliatiamen questioned what to do with captive women; the response from Elie Hobeika, future Israeli cabinet minister was terse and to the point:

"You know what to do. Dont ever ask me that again". The rapes and murders went on for 48 hours.

The Miliatias did not terminate the operation at 5:00 AM Saturday September 18th as planned. This was time for cleanup. They used bulldozers to destroy homes with people still inside and to hastily bury some of the bodies. Other bodies were doused in chemicals and destroyed. By 8 AM cleanup plans were abandoned and survivors were hearded to a stadium to be interrogated. Most were executed as well at the station as the massacre continued.

At 9AM the first foreign journalists and officials entered Sabra and Shatila and discovered the horror. Red Crescent workers wore gas masks against the stench of death as Western journalists covered their nose with handkerchiefs and proceeded to make the first reports of the horrendous massacre that had occured.

By the afternoon of Saturday September 18th, 1982, the world was stunned at the atrocity that had occured at Sabra and Shatila.

Bruised and bloodied bodies littered the streets and homes of the camps. Men women and children in piles of dead broken corpses, already covered in flies. The images were shocked and the Western world was appalled.

According to Israel some 800 people died during those days of madness. According to Lebanese figures, the death toll was probably more than 3,500. Hundreds were reported missing and never seen again.

Those responsible for the massacres never saw justice. Elie Hobeika, who ordered the massacre despite Israels orders to behave like a dignified army took up important government positions. He was assasinated by a car bomb in January 2002.

Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister and he died in 2006.

The survivors of the massacre still await justice in World tribunals.