Horses 'used to launder drug money'

A shootout between a group of alleged Zetas drug cartel members and the military left 15 gang members and six marines dead in northern Mexico, the Ministry of the Navy said.The shootout in the northern state of Zacatecas began when the gunmen engaged the troops. It lasted all Friday morning and also resulted in the arrests of 17 alleged gang members, according to the ministry.

Mexican authorities said that they had arrested a group of 25 people, including a local police chief and nine soldiers, for suspected ties to the notorious Zetas drug cartel.The members of the Mexican security forces, detained over two days in the central Hidalgo state, were allegedly protecting Zetas members, said Damian Canales, the state's top public safety official.

HSBC, the British banking giant, said Tuesday it will pay $1.9 billion to settle a money-laundering probe by federal and state authorities in the United States. The probe has focused on the transfer of billions of dollars on behalf of nations like Iran, which are under international sanctions, and the transfer of money through the U.S. financial system from Mexican drug cartels.

US companies and individuals have been prohibited from doing business with Mexican oil company ADT Petroservicios and the company’s US assets have been frozen due to owner Francisco Antonio Colorado Cessa’s links to the Los Zetas drug-trafficking cartel.

Authorities in Spain and the United States have busted an international drug money-laundering ring and seized buildings, cars and cash valued at more than $140 million, the Spanish National Police said Monday.

It's an odd question, we know - especially ahead of today's Stress Tests, but given today's testimony on assessing the bank secrecy act, apparent trouble-maker Elizabeth Warren pokes and prods (correctly we would add) at the surreality that exists between the Department of Justice, The Treasury, and the financial system.

Authorities have arrested 45 police in a town in northern Mexico over alleged ties to the Zetas drug ring, a state investigating agency reported on Wednesday."There have been 45 of them (police) arrested in Cadereyta," a spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state investigating agency said, noting the arrests were made late Tuesday.The detained are being investigated for links to the Zetas, whom the government has blamed for killing the 145 people whose remains were exhumed from mass graves this month in neighboring Tamaulipas state.

US authorities charged 35 Mexican gang members with murder, drug smuggling and other crimes Wednesday, including 10 accused in a deadly 2010 shooting at the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez.An indictment unsealed in federal court in El Paso, Texas, detailed the charges against the so-called "Familia Azteca," or Barrio Azteca, as law enforcement agents arrested 12 of those who were not already in custody in Texas and New Mexico.El Paso is across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's crime capital.