When Cocaine and Broccoli Collide

U.S. Border Patrol agents in Laredo say they've seized nearly $8 million in drugs after searching a bus and a truck laden with frozen broccoli.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday the bus was packed with more than $4 million in cocaine and driven by a 30-year-old from Conroe. No arrest was immediately made after the Thursday seizure, but the agency reports the investigation is ongoing.

A separate search of a truck turned up more than a ton of marijuana and nearly 50 pounds of cocaine worth more than $3 million. Authorities say the man driving the truck was turned over to immigration authorities on federal drug charges.

--via Associated Press

Investigations and Awards

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City

Last month Francisco Gomez, an investigative reporter for the national daily El Universal, received honorable mention for uncovering that the U.S. Embassy had found a spy for the Beltran Leyva cartel among its ranks last fall. The spy flipped and was given the codename "Felipe." He became one of the primary protected witnesses that the Mexican government used to furnish its "Operacion Limpieza" (Operation Cleanup) investigation, the anti-corruption sweep that brought down 30 employees of the Attorney General's office, not to mention the head of Interpol and the drug czar. I contributed reporting to a Rolling Stone feature on the topic. Gomez took pity on me at the time and shared the sealed court documents that he'd used as the basis for his stories.

Mexico doesn't have a great tradition of investigative reporting. The press is still working out how to deal with its new freedoms since the end of one-party rule in 2000. But there are a few publications like Proceso, Rio Doce, and Reporte Indigo that aren't afraid to keep a check on power. And then there are the invidivual reporters like Gomez.