mexican mafia.one of byrd billings' former business partners who police say owed the mexican mafia thousands of dollars. >> richelle, thanks for the update on that. still so many questions. we'll take yours, by the way, 1-877-tell-hln is the number. our guests joining us, criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, mike eiglarsh. rob williams in pensacola. rob, first off, let's hit mexican mafia ties. can you tell us anything else about that and that possibility? >> well, yeah, i'm kind of laughing, because i've looked at this same information and i'm scratching my head. believe me, gonzalez sr. and gonzalez jr., mike, are as anglo, or more anglo than you or i. so that doesn't really register at all. the mex ka mafia trusts people, their pie sans, if you will, good buddies, their relatives. so that one, that's a head scratcher. but i'll tell you what, $12 million rumor, it's a shame that those people were killed, if that was the real motive to get $12 million. that's enough money to fill a really

sean callebs reports investigators are looking at business debt and connections to the mexican mafia. >> reporter: 61-year-old henry "cab" tice was a long time friend and business associate of byrd and melanie billings according to the escambia county sheriff david morgan. >> they were business partners in a series of businesses, in a finance company that financed cars and other things and a couple of car dearly ships. >> reporter: the relationship soured. tice owed billings and was arrested or writing bad checks to the billings. the sheriff also says he's not ruling out that the billings murders could be a contract hit. another in freaking connection, tice was close to patrick gonzalez jr., the man authorities portray as the ringleader in the killing of the florida couple that adopted children with special needs. >> he's had an ongoing relationship, he described it as a father and son relationship where they spoke on a daily business. >> reporter: the sheriff says he's surprised by information volunteered like connection to organized crime. >> he affirmed that because he got into fin

why police think the mexican mafia may have links to the billings family murders. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm dan weston. we're experts at getting you the scooter or power chair you need. in fact, if we pre-qualify you for medicare reimbursement and medicare denies your claim, we'll give you your new power chair or scooter free. i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. call the number on your screen for free information. >>> all right. before we went to the break, we saw a report from cnn's michael ware about the zetas, mexico's most dangerous drug cartel. michael ware joins us now. michael, thank you very much. the drug violence seems like, you know, extremely u

. >>> what does a mexican mafia have to do with the murder of a florida couple?t's one of the latest leads investigators are chasing. >>> president barack obama heads to guadalajara, mexico, tomorrow night to meet with leaders of mexico and canada. a critical item on the agenda, the increasingly deadly mexican druck cartels. mexican president calderone declared war two years ago. since then an estimated 10,000 people -- 10,000 people have died in drug-related violence. and president obama has pledged $700 million to help out. which sounds like a lot, until you consider drug cartels generate up to $40 billion a year. cnn's michael ware recently visited the mexican coastal city of veracruz where one drug cartel in particular has recently emerged as law enforcement's worst nightmare. they are known as los zetas, the zeros. a name that strikes fear across mexico and perhaps one day right here inside of the u.s. >> reporter: the dead always tell a story. and here in mexico, that story is the war raging on america's doorstep, being fought for the right to supply americ

the investigators asked me if i thought bud billings had dealings with the mexican mafia.row money from the mexican mafia. >> reporter: then there's tice's relationship, the father-son thing he calls it, with the alleged triggerman leonard patrick gonzalez jr. tice admits gonzalez came to see him the very afternoon of the murders. he admits he phoned gonzalez right about the time the murders were going down. >> reporter: you phoned him at 7:15 that evening. >> yes, sir. a friend of mine -- >> reporter: see why that might seem suspicious? it's pretty bizarre, isn't it? >> well, it's not bizarre when you realize i had no knowledge of anything that was going on. as far as i had been told that's when the robbery was occurring. >> reporter: in fact, says tice, he now realizes that when gonzalez tried to borrow a van from him before the murders -- >> reporter: was he setting you up? >> i think when he came to the lot he was trying to get a van from me to set me up. >> reporter: a setup? tice says gonzalez might have used the van to tie him to the murder. was that the plan? who k

and then some of that goes to the mexican mafia. now, you all know better than i do generally and in response to gangs. i will talk about two things. first general path of reform of law enforcement agency over the next century. if you look at the history of police agencies, in particular 100 years ago they were widely recognized as the corrupt tools of basically political bosses. if you had not gone on line and read the los angeles police department official history i would suggest you do it. they are very candid about what things were like 100 years ago. that has all changed. now we have the professional highly-trained organization that you all represent. part of that development and training has been learning about gangs and reacting to gangs in different ways. los angeles police department use to deal with the latino gang problem in the 1940's. they had a few, what they called mexican officers. they sent them down into the barios. there were some cataclysmic events that happened in los angeles. police had to change the way they d

tice in his interview involvement with the mexican mafia in his car dealings and the fact that he had borrowed up to $50,000 at one time from the mexican mafia and was in debt in his payments back to them. >> seven men are facing first-degree murder charges in the couple's death and a woman is charged with being an accessory after the fact. >>> got some developing news to tell you about. affiliates in texas say an armored truck driver is recovering this morning. the people who did this left without any money. but, again, the guard has been shot and we wanted to get you that information. >>> the sister of one of the journalists freed this week in north korea say the women did enter that country illegally. laura ling and euna lee re-entered the united states earlier this week. lisa ling says her sister told her they touched north korean territory very briefly. >> it was something that, you know, they were never planning to do originally. i said this before that when they left u.s. soil, they never intended to cross into north korea and, you know, they -- i mean she said that it was mayb

tise in his interview involvement with the mexican mafia in his car dealings and the fact that he borrowedp to $50,000 at one time from the mentixican mafia was in debt to them. >> seven men are charged with first-degree murder and a woman is charged of being an accessory after the fact. >> the nomination of sonia sotomayor of new york to be an associate justice of the supreme court of the united states is confirmed. >> judge sonia sotomayor will become the nation's first hispanic justice on the supreme court when she is sworn in tomorrow. [ applause ] >> she had unanimous democratic support with nine republicans. most republicans opposed her rulings on gun control, affirmative action and property rights. she'll appear next week at the white house. >> with this historic vote, the senate confirmed that judge sotomayor has the intellect, the temperament, the history, the integrity, the independence of mind to ably serve on our nation's highest court. >> sotomayor will become the third woman in the court's history. she replaces david souter who is rereti retiring. >> buhler? buhler? buhler? >

speculation on an outrageous motive involving a gang of shady used car salesmen, possible links to the mexican mafia. we will hit that 1-877-tell-hln is the number. welcome back. don clark, former fbi special agent in charge and with us, rob williams, morning host, news radio 1620 in pensacola. all right, rob, let's start with the child here, just heartbreaking to hear this. i will read out some of the out. masks. by you as well, that his mom, melanie billings, got shot in her shirt. rob, how old is this child? what is this? >> 10 from what we understand. of course, this is all in the evidence released monday, that 700 pages of material put together by the prosecution. part of the discovery process, with all of these reports. and as i said, 700 pages. stuff is still being unearthed but that's one of the really tough passages you go through. but mike, understand, this the prosecutor will decide will he want to use this 10-year-old autistic child? and i don't know the kid's capacity for communicating. vel to make a very tough call, is this child going to be able to sit on the stand? is he going to be

allegedly has ties to the mexican mafia.not saying how if at all that connects up with byrd billings. >>> another window open into the mind of the pittsburgh health club killer. video surfacing on youtube. a kind of pep talk to himself about learning to connect with the opposite sex. there's also a hint of the desperation that led him to shoot 12 women, killing three of them tuesday night. >> it's easy for me to hide from my emotions for one more day. take a long drive in the car, listen to some music, daydream or do a mundane task around the house that really doesn't need to be done, that's not too important. there you go, one more day. one more day turns into one more year. >> so tragic. >>> john edwards former mistress there to open question before a grand jury. >>> 7-year-old daniela ernest wanted to earn her way to disneyland selling littlen aid. a sweet ending after learning about her story, a local radio station gave her family four passes to disneyland in exchange for 30 glasses of lemonade. >> not a bad deal. >> we'

billings in florida last month known for adopting their children, their deaths may be linked to the mexican mafia production of opium fueling the taliban insurgency. afghan farmers earn 730 billion a year for selling the drug. the question is can you apply what you're doing in afghanistan to what is happening south of the board irer? >> general mcaffrey joins us. can you? >> contessa sure got the facts right akris across the board on the issue in front of us. i'm on a panel with the mexican government. the secretary of public safely, luna, they are in a fight for the survival of the rule of law in mexico. 12,000 murders. high integrity people. the president, the attorney general, the army, there's been a lot of dr essentially armed confrontation throughout mexico. hopefully, president obama, attorney general eric holder and secretary napolitano will day engaged and stay supportive and win out for the rule of law. >> the concern, general, when you get an unregulated market like the market for cocaine or marijuana or anything, arms, any black market, it ends frequently with a violent culture, a few