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SHERIFF’S OFFICE
WAR ON DRUGS
Five arrested, charged with drug possession Daniel Berehulak / NYT
Carlos Saldana reaches to adjust the small shrine created in memory of his and Vicky Delgadillo's missing children, in the bedroom of their home in Xalapa, Mexico, Nov. 4, 2017. In Mexico, where the drug wars disappeared number in the tens of thousands, some families take up the search for loved ones on their own.
‘The entire state is a mass grave’ Courtesy photo / Zapata County Sheriff’s Office
A search warrant executed on Nov. 17 at a home in the Siesta Shores Subdivision yielded the items shown in this photo. Investigators found 6.29 ounces of hydroponic marijuana, 35 Clonazepam pills, one e-cigarette cartridge that contained cannabis oil and a .25-caliber pistol.
ro Avenue in the Medina Addition Subdivision. After obtaining a consent to search, investigators said they discovered about 5.17 ounces of hydroponic marijuana and an undetermined amount of cash. The suspect, Joan Zuñiga, was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana. A third case occurred Nov. 14 in the 1500 block of Roma Avenue. The execution of a search warrant yielded 67.87 pounds of marijuana. Sheriff’s Arrests continues on A11
Search continues on A11
By César G. Rodriguez TH E ZAPATA T IME S Courtesy photo / Zapata County Sheriff’s Office
Authorities said they seized the narcotics and cash shown in this photo after raiding a home on Nov. 20 in the 1600 block of Guerrero Avenue in the Medina Addition.
6.29 ounces of hydroponic marijuana, 35 Clonazepam pills weighing approximately 11.1 grams, one e-cigarette cartridge that contained cannabis oil and a .25-caliber pistol. Eduardo Javier Gonzalez Jr. and Liliana Guadalupe Espinoza were arrested in connection with the case on Tuesday. Each was charged with possession of marijuana and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. A second case unfolded Nov. 20 in the 1600 block of Guerre-
THE NEW YORK TIME S
XALAPA, Mexico — At 5 a.m., the couple stirred to the buzz of a cellphone alarm. They had hardly slept — Carlos Saldaña had been in the hospital the night before, betrayed by his fragile stomach. He had prayed that the pain would subside, that God would give him strength. Today was the raid, the culmination of years of tracking the cartels, of lonely reconnaissance missions to find where they had discarded his daughter. For so long, he had begged officials to do something, anything. Now, he wondered if he could even walk. “Why tonight, God?” he had murmured in the hospital, doubled over. He had spent the last six years searching for his daughter Karla, charging through every obstacle with an obsession that bordered on lunacy — cartel threats, government indifference, declining health, even his other children, who feared that his reckless hunt had put them in danger. Vicky Delgadillo watched as he eased out of bed and grabbed a cane. She had a missing girl as well, Yunery, whom Saldaña now thought of as his own. For the last two years, the couple had shared a home, a life and a love born of loss. She understood the raw fixation that defined his life. It defined hers too. Before dawn, their prayers were answered. If not fully recovered, Saldaña was at least well enough to go on the raid of the ranch where he knew, deep down, both girls were buried — two bodies among the thousands lost in Veracruz state, among the tens of thousands nationwide. They left before sunrise that humid June morning. Officially, the Mexican government acknowledges the disappearances of more than 30,000 people — men, women and children trapped in a liminal abyss — neither dead nor alive, silent victims of the drug war. But the truth is no one knows how many people are missing in Mexico.
Pot, pills and gun among items seized The Zapata County Sheriff’s Office narcotics unit has arrested five people and seized drugs in separate inciGonzalez dents over the last couple of weeks, officials said. In one case, authorities executed a search warrant on Nov. 17 in the 5100 Espinoza block of Grande Lane in the Siesta Shores Subdivision. There, investigators found
By Azam Ahmed
FEDERAL COURT
Federal judge blocks ban of common abortion procedure A S S OCIAT E D PRE SS
AUSTIN — A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a new Texas law seeking to ban a commonly used abortion method, the latest in a string of court defeats to the Legislature's attempts to make getting an abortion as difficult as possible in America's second most-populous state.
Austin-based U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel extended indefinitely a temporary ban he'd previously issued before the law was set to take effect Sept. 1. That overturns — at least for now — a law that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed in June banning a second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation. Texas is set to
appeal, but federal courts in at least four other states already had blocked similar laws. Yeakel's ruling followed a trial early this fall where the judge heard arguments from Texas, which defended the law, and from abortion rights groups who argue it unconstitutionally burdens women seeking abortions. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
filed an immediate notice of appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. "A five-day trial in district court allowed us to build a record like no other in exposing the truth about the barbaric practice of dismemberment abortions. We are eager to present that extensive record before the 5th Circuit. No just
society should tolerate the tearing of living human beings to pieces," Paxton said in a statement. Federal judges have already ruled against past Texas efforts to change the disposal of fetal remains and deny Medicaid funding to abortion provider Planned Parenthood over videos secretly recorded Abortion continues on A11