Los Viagras Videotape Forced Confessions before Beheadings

December 3, 2017, 3:59 pm

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Posted by Yaqui from: Daily Beast

TIERRA De La MUERTE

      Cartel hitmen Force "Confessions" From Victims Before ISIS-Style Beheadings in Mexico

By: Jeremy Kryt
Dec 3, 2017

One of at least three decapitations last week was caught on camera as cartel violence continues to soar. Members of the Viagras cartel videotaped a rival hitman confessing to “sins” in  the western Mexican state of Michoacán last Thursday, then bent his neck backward over a block of wood and sawed off his head with a carving knife.

The beheading video was posted to social media, along with a warning to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). In the clip, the decapitated victim also claims to be the brother of Juan Carlos Márquez Pérez, a.k.a. “El Duende” (The Goblin), a CJNG operative arrested back in 2015.

Mexican mafiosos appear to have borrowed the practice of beheading their enemies from Middle Eastern terrorists such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS). Decapitations in Mexico have risen dramatically over the last several years due to their perceived shock factor. Head cutting has become the signature move for crime groups looking to intimidate opposing factions, pressure law enforcement, and cow local citizens.

Alleged CJNG Hitmen / Assassins

In a separate incident on Tuesday of last week two more severed heads were found in a cooler at a television station in the nearby City of Guadalajara ( already reported here on BB). The heads were accompanied by a note signed by CJNG and addressed to a high ranking officer. Another "Cartel Cooler" was left at the federal courthouse building that same day, but officials refused to disclose the contents.

Mexican mafiosos appear to have borrowed the practice of beheading their enemies from Middle Eastern terrorists such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS). Decapitations in Mexico have risen dramatically over the last several years due to their perceived shock factor. Head cutting has become the signature move for crime groups looking to intimidate opposing factions, pressure law enforcement, and cow local citizens.

There have been dozens of beheadings by the cartels in 2017, which is on pace to be the bloodiest year in the country’s decade-long Drug War. (October, the latest month for which there are statistics, saw the homicide rate rise to an average of almost 90 murders per day.)

Arroyo El Thule near San Jose del Cabo, BCS "Cartel Cooler" and Clandestine Burials

One recent, high-profile decapitation case involved the discovery of two heads—and fourteen additional dead bodies—in the popular resort area of Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, last June. In another incident, the freshly removed heads of two men and a woman were found inside decorative sombreros during the run-up to the nation’s Independence Day in Veracruz state.

Heads for Tales:

Last week’s brutal decollation video was filmed in the scorching valley called Tierra Caliente (The Hot Lands). Located smack in the middle of the troubled state of Michoacán, the Hot Lands are claimed by both the home-grown Viagras cartel and the invading CJNG from neighboring Jalisco state.

The valley and surrounding mountains are home to large-scale drug production and shipping zones, and the local timber and mining industries provide lucrative sources for extortion, making Tierra Caliente a prize worth fighting over for both crime syndicates.

In a 2016 interview Viagras leader Nicolás “El Gordo” (The Fat One) Sierra admitted his outfit was “fighting a crusade” against the CJNG, which is now reported to be Mexico’s largest cartel. According to experts, the recent video segment could indicate the gang from Jalisco might have  "El Gordo"Sierra and his sicarios (hitmen) on the ropes.

“This execution video is definitely out of character for the Viagras and appears to be an escalation in their use of violence [against] the CJNG cartel,” said security analyst Robert Bunker, who teaches at the U.S. Army War College, in an interview.

“A safe guess would be that their fight with CJNG may not be going well and they see the need to ‘ramp up the terror’ against that group in order to better protect their territories and illicit interests,” Bunker said.

Gustavo Fondevila, a professor who specializes in organized crime at Mexico City’s Center for Economic Research and Teaching, said such “trophy killings” are often aimed at controlling the black-market economy.

“Beheading captured members of a rival cartel has a direct effect on the black market,” said Fondevila, who went on to call decapitation a “technique of conquest” aimed at a given geographic region.

“The rationale of the beheadings, abuse, and torture [ . . .] is to persuade the other cartel to leave a place, give up, or surrender without using weapons. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to win and take the market.”

The method used to decollate the CJNG footsoldier in the Viagras’ video post, and the way it was filmed, combine to tell a menacing tale about the motive and mindset of those involved.

“Beheadings where the victim is kneeling or thrown on the ground with the head lifted up to expose the neck and then beheaded beginning with a throat cut are a visceral and bloody type of execution,” said Bunker, author of the book Narcoterrorism and Impunity in the Americas.

Book Cover Photo: Narcoterrorism and Impunity in the Americas A Small Wars Journal BY: Robert J.Bunker and John P. Sullivan

“They really portray a sense of the victim’s heightened terror to the viewing audience as the terrorist or cartel enforcer begins working on them with a large knife,” Bunker said. “A shooting or stabbing execution just doesn’t have the same horror.”

Officers Implicated?

In case anyone missed the point of the multiple head-lopping demonstrations that occurred in western Mexico last week, the respective killers also included textual aids, ie narco mantas/messages.

A crawl along the bottom of the Tierra Caliente video specifically addresses the CJNG and its leader, Rubén “El Mencho” Cervantes, for whose capture the U.S. Justice Department is currently offering a six million dollar reward.

“Featherless chickens,” the message reads in part, “If you want to interfere here you will end up like this beheaded victim. This plaza (drug trafficking zone) has an owner. Michoacán is ours.”

Another individual mentioned by name in the video’s subtitles is former state police officer Pepe Méndez. After admitting on camera to killing and dismembering two people, the captive Marquéz brother (whose first name has not yet been released) says he and his cartel cohorts received financial support from Officer Pepe Méndez, who is now serving time for narcotics trafficking.

The soon-to-be-headless CJNG hitman also claims to have conspired with a “militar”,ie soldier, with the 43rd Battalion of the Mexican Army, currently stationed in the nearby market town of Apatzingán.

The heads delivered to the broadcasting center in Guadalajara also came with written hints that pointed to collusion between organized crime and security forces. The note found with the cooler was addressed to Jesús Humberto Boruel Neri, the Inspector General of the Jalisco police, and  was intended as an open warning, according to the Mexican newspaper El Proceso.

“You know that the deals are to be fulfilled or you must want us to remind you why you are in this role and who put you there,” read the message from the CJNG.

“Mexican security personnel cooperating with the cartels is nothing new—it has literally been going on for over a decade now and is pretty much due to human greed,” said Bunker.

“This is one of the dilemmas faced by the Mexican government,” he added. Security forces “have in the past been known to provide information to the cartels, allow drug loads to pass through and even provide security for them, and handed over prisoners belonging to one cartel to an opposing one for execution purposes.”

The heightened frequency of cartel execution via head-chopping is no coincidence. Fragmentation of established cartels has caused conflict between newer crime groups to grow ever more ferocious. Warring capos have in turn come to rely on decapitation as a tool of psychological warfare aimed at breaking the will of their opponents.

“The beheading technique is quite similar to ISIS and has a long tradition in military combat as a strategy to terrorize the enemy,” said analyst Fondevila, who explained that the humbling admissions of guilt wrung from the hitman Márquez as he was brought to the block were likely just for show.

“It should not be seen as a punishment,” he said, “but rather as a message to others.”

How that message will be received by rival cartels, or by the superiors of those officials accused of colluding with them, is anybody’s guess.

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The PRI: I dont want to know anything about them, Jose Manuel Mireles

December 4, 2017, 2:50 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article

Subject Matter: Jose Manuel Mireles
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Angel Soto
With a serene but imposing face, Jose Manuel Mireles has the look of someone who has seen the horror in the first person. He came to FIL de Gguadalajara to present his new book "Todos Somos Autodefensas" from Random House publishing.

Among a small crowd that he made his way through while entering, he answered some of the questions put to him by Milenio.

With what historical character do you identify yourself?

I do not identify with any. I know the history of Mexico, I know the greatest men the country has had, but honestly and humbly, I would not put myself in any of their shoes.

What do you like most and hate most about Mexico?

From Mexico, I can not hate anything, because I am Mexican. If I hated something, from Mexico I would hate myself. I like my country. We only have one Mexico, we will never have another, even if we flee from this nation, we will continue to be Mexicans wherever we are.




What is it that makes you happy in this moment in your life?

That I am free.

What characteristics should a person have to be your friend?

Wanting the nation to have freedom, and seeking the truth above all things.

Will the PRI maintain the Presidency?

I do not know, I do not want to know anything about these people.

Dr Mireles then posed for photographs with those present.

It is available in Ebook from Google
Todos Somos Autodefensas
Also available most book stores and for the Iphone.
Amazon has it too for the Kindle

A synopsis for the book
In 2004 Michoacan broke down
That year, the cartels, dissatisfied with the profits obtained from drug trafficking, diversified their activities and included extortion, kidnapping, looting and rape and torture. After a decade of unleashed violence, the inhabitants of the area reacted. Impoverished by the ravages of crime, forgotten by the authorities, furious and fed up, they decided to take justice into their own hands.

Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde is a central figure in this panorama. Founder of the self defense groups in the Tierra Caliente, he fought for more than a year against the cartels, but was arrested in June of 2014 during a Federal operation that was harshly criticized. Then it had to undertake other battles: the legal one: to get out of prison, and the morality, to break his spirit but he triumphed.

Dr Mireles has turned that dignified rage into the complete chronicle of the Michoacan auto-defensas. In this book, which goes back to the Purepecha inheritance and the fight that the Terracaliente gave during the Mexican revolution and the Cristero war, the doctor and commander narrates in detail the genesis of the self defense movement, as well as the adrenaline of the combatants and frustrating negotiations with the Government, which culminated in a historic betrayal.

Mexico’s Government Is Blocking Its Own Anti-Corruption Drive, Commissioners Say

December 4, 2017, 10:11 am

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Posted by El Profe for Borderland Beat from NY Times

President Enrique Peña Nieto touring an area hit by an earthquake in September. Mr. Peña Nieto agreed to the creation of an anti-corruption commission last year, but its members say they have been stymied.Credit Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg   by AZAM AHMED

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s landmark anti-corruption drive, inaugurated by President Enrique Peña Nieto under intense pressure to answer the scandals jolting his administration, is being blocked by the government’s refusal to cooperate on some of the biggest cases facing the nation, according to members of the commission coordinating the effort.

Attempts to look into the use of government surveillance technology against civilians, the embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars through public universities and allegations of widespread bribery to win construction contracts have all been thwarted, commission members say.

Marred by scandals that have embroiled his administration, his allies and even his own family, Mr. Peña Nieto agreed to the creation of a broad anti-corruption system last year that was enshrined in the Constitution, a watershed moment in Mexico.

But after nine months of pushing to examine the kind of corruption that ignited public outrage and brought the new watchdog into existence, some of its most prominent members say they have been stymied every step of the way, unable to make the most basic headway.

After announcing the new system with great fanfare, they say, the government is now refusing to allow any serious investigations into its actions.

“They are panicked that maybe we will go too hard and unravel something, find individuals responsible for corrupt acts,” José Octavio López said. He worked in the administration the last time Mr. Peña Nieto’s party held the presidency, in the 1990s, and is now part of the new National Anti-Corruption System.

“They are used to appointing someone they control,” Mr. López said of the government. But when officials learned that he and others on the new commission wanted to act with impartial independence, he added, “they didn’t like that.”

The effort started more than a year ago, when advocates presented the government with hundreds of thousands of signatures backing a nationwide campaign to combat corruption. The president, facing tough questions about his administration and personal conflicts of interest, including his wife’s purchase of a multimillion-dollar custom home from a major government contractor, conceded.

In principle, regular citizens are at the helm of the new system, giving them the power to ensure that it works in the interest of the Mexican people, not the government.

But in interviews, all five members of the special citizen commission recited a long inventory of obstacles placed before them by the government.

None of the 18 judges who are supposed to oversee anti-corruption cases have been appointed by lawmakers. The prosecutor empowered under the new system to pursue investigations independently has not been named. And members of the citizen commission say they have been routinely shut out of discussions about big corruption cases.

“It is a bad joke,” said Luis Manuel Perez de Acha, a tax lawyer on the commission. “I was naïve when the system launched. I believed and had hope that it would work.”

“I know now that they are trying to sabotage everything we do,” he added.

A big part of the problem, the commission members contend, is that their power is rooted in title only. All significant decisions have to be made by a collection of seven agencies. But six of them come from different branches of government, leaving the citizen’s commission, which technically oversees the entire process, heavily outvoted.

“I’ve been given all the responsibility, with none of the power,” said Jacqueline Peschard, the president of both the citizen commission and the overall anti-corruption system.

The government strongly denies the allegations, saying that it has fully supported the commission members and that they have misinterpreted their mandate.

The citizens involved in the process are not supposed to investigate corruption, the government says. 

Rather, they are there to help set policy and coordinate the various authorities who have the legal responsibility of prosecuting crime.

But Mrs. Peschard and other members say they have been prevented from doing exactly that because information is regularly withheld from them, like when they tried to discuss the hacking scandal that has engulfed Mr. Peña Nieto’s administration this year.

Outside the attorney general’s office, activists and journalists in June protested government spying.Credit Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Sophisticated spying technology sold to the Mexican government for the purpose of tracking terrorists and criminal networks has instead been deployed against dozens of journalists, academics, human rights lawyers and anti-corruption advocates, a potential violation of Mexican law.

But when Mrs. Peschard and others called for a simple briefing on the issue, she said she was voted down by every representative of the government agencies.

One of the representatives voting on whether to discuss the hacking scandal was Arely Gomez, the attorney general in office when the government was using the surveillance technology.

“I would say there is in fact coordination on the committee,” Mrs. Peschard said with a dry laugh. “It’s them against me.”

In a statement, Mr. Peña Nieto’s office acknowledged that any “illegal intervention of communications” is widely viewed as a pressing issue. But, it said, Mexican law does not treat spying as a “corruption crime,” so government representatives had argued that it should not be handled within the new system.

Mrs. Peschard and other commission members say they have tried, unsuccessfully, to check on other cases that have raised troubling questions for the Mexican public.

Last December, the United States Department of Justice announced that Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction behemoth accused of paying nearly $800 million in bribes to government officials across Latin America, had given about $10.5 million in “corrupt payments” to Mexican officials to win public contracts. The department said $6 million of that money had gone to a single “high-level official of a Mexican state-owned” company.

Court documents in Brazil contend that Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Mexico’s state-owned oil company and a close ally of the president, received bribes directly from Odebrecht. Mr. Lozoya helped to run Mr. Peña Nieto’s 2012 presidential campaign.

Deepening the intrigue, the government fired a Mexican prosecutor who had been looking into the use of illicit money in the president’s campaign — just days after the prosecutor said that Mr. Lozoya had secretly pressured him to be cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mrs. Peschard and other commission members said they repeatedly asked for briefings on the matter. The government denied that any such request had been made. But in separate interviews, several commission members cited letters they had sent to the attorney general’s office requesting an update on the case.

Each time, they said, they were told there could be no briefing because an investigation was underway, prompting them to wonder how they could do their jobs if sharing information about investigations was prohibited.

After consistently being blocked, Mrs. Peschard and the others decided on another approach. When local news reports revealed that nearly $200 million had been embezzled through the nation’s public universities, the commission sent requests to 99 government departments, asking for the information directly.

Only one government agency has responded so far.

In another instance, the commission tried to establish a single account to disburse money for earthquake victims— to ensure that the funds could be rigorously accounted for. Once again, it was told to stand down.

Since the commission is not technically part of the government, the president’s office says, it cannot coordinate government resources.

For many Mexicans, the new anti-corruption system — and particularly the power of citizens to coordinate it — showed that the government, when pushed hard enough, might finally combat the impunity that defines much of life in Mexico.

But many civil society leaders, including some who helped engineer the creation of the anti-corruption system, say they have fallen prey to a familiar trick: The government creates a panel to address a major issue, only to starve it of resources, inhibit its progress or ignore it.

“The Mexican government feeds us placebos and we believe they will cure us,” said Juan Pardinas, the president of the Mexico Institute for Competitiveness and one of the chief architects of the anti-corruption system. “I drank the Kool-Aid and I passed the jar to a lot of people, believing it was a path to change.”

Mr. Pardinas has been one of the most prominent public voices fighting corruption, its corrosive effect on democratic institutions, and the lives it sometimes claims. He ultimately became a target of the spying technology purchased by the Mexican government to surveil criminals and terrorists.

“I killed myself for three years to achieve this, and it’s basically broken,” he said of the anti-corruption effort. “Well, maybe the system isn’t broken. It’s actually working perfectly to allow impunity.”

The anti-corruption drive is still missing its independent prosecutor, arguably the most important person in the entire operation. The selection has been frozen in the legislature, which was already up in arms over the president’s contentious choice for attorney general: Raúl Cervantes, a close ally of Mr. Peña Nieto and the main lawyer for his party during the 2012 campaign.

After a long battle in Congress — and news articles about properties and a Ferrari owned by Mr. Cervantes, registered outside of the capital to avoid higher taxes — his name was withdrawn.

Beyond that, many Mexican states have still not enacted the mandatory systems meant to duplicate the federal anti-corruption effort on a local level.

One of the commission members, Mr. Perez de Acha, says he has sued the states that have not set up their anti-corruption systems, which were supposed to be in place by July 19. He has also sued the Senate to force the appointment of the 18 anti-corruption judges.

“We can’t sit with our arms crossed,” he said. “We have constitutional legitimacy.”

Other commission members agreed.

“I’m not going to give up,” said one of them, Mariclaire Acosta. “There is no quick fix here.”

Mexico Militarized?

December 5, 2017, 12:00 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: Militarization of Mexico
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

These are the measures of the Law of Internal Security approved by deputies and that have been questioned by the Opposition and Non Governmental Organizations

The application of the Law of Internal Security will correspond to State and Federal forces, and in exceptional cases to the Armed Forces.

Where there is major violence, more soldiers

The armed forces could participate in work to combat crime when the civilian authorities do not have the resources




The presence of Armed Forces: by order of the President

The President could petition the State Legislature or Governors, to order the deployment of Armed Forces to a territory for around a year, and the executive could in exceptional cases prolong the stay of the elements past this time.

The Army can also be deployed to streets anywhere in a national emergency, without any other requirements, as an immediate reaction of the Armed Forces.

Civilian Protests will not be considered threats

Social protests or electorial political motives will not be considered as threats to the internal security.

Defense of the country with respect to Human Rights

At all times, the authorities must respect the Human Rights and the constitutional guarantees.

Exceptions

In the case of no emergencies, the Armed Forces can only intervene in any territory during the emission of a Declaration of Protection of the Interior Security.

Segob in command of Interior Security

The Secretary of the Government will be in charge of implementing collaboration schemes for the coordination and execution of security actions.

Work compliance

Federal authorities must comply with policies, programs and preventative actions that are given by the Program for National Security and the National Risk Agenda.

The National Risk Agenda is approved annually by the head of the Executive within the National Security Council at the proposal of the Technical Secretary.

The ANR identifies alerts and threats to the National Security, the probability of its occurrence, the vulnerabilities of the State in respect of diverse phenomena and the possible manifestations of the same.

" We urge alternative thoughts, like the gradual exit of the Armed Forces, with nothing immediate. They also must reinforce the Police."Jon Jarab, representative of the high commission of the United Nations for Human Rights.

"The great challenge for Mexico is the security problems that come from organized crime. This challenge should be solved by designing a policy of Police control."Jose Miguel Vivanco, Director of the Human Rights Watch of the Americas.

Don Chelo of CJNG gunned down in firefight ten days after leaving prison

December 5, 2017, 4:17 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article.

Subject Matter: Don Chelo, Jose Luis Gutierrez Valencia
Recommendation: Readthis articleby BB reporter DD

Jose Luis Gutierrez Valencia, who organized a narco party in the Puente Grande prison in 2013, died in a gunfight with the Mexican Marines at Rancho La Esperanza in Jalisco

Reporter: Milenio Digital
Ten days after being freed from the Puente Grande prison, Jose Luis Gutierrez Valencia, Don Chelo, alleged member of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion died during a confrontation with the Secretary of the Marines on a ranch in Tonala, informed sources from the Attorney Generals Office of Jalisco.

Around 03:00 am, Marines carried out an operation on the La Esperanza ranch and had a confrontation with armed men, that left two Marine elements wounded and three civilians dead, among them Don Chelo.

On the 9th of May, Milenio published fragments of a video of two hours duration of a party organized in 2013 inside the Puente Grande prison organized by Don Chelo who during the years of his incarceration controlled the prison.

Don Chelo dead

One of the members of Los Buchones de Culiacan, a band that played at the party, grabbed the mic and said: " Viva Jalisco Nueva Generacion", while the prisoners shouted and applauded. One day after, the then Attorney General of Jalisco, Eduardo Almaguer, said that Don Chelo, doesn't have any privileges and does not control the prison of Puente Grande.

He explained that in July of 2015, when he took office, there were 6200 inmates at the prison, despite only having an official capacity for 2744.

The narco party, he explained, was carried out in 2013 with the permission of the head of custody of that prison, Enrique Huerta Balcazar, who was fired on November 21st of that year, for committing various irregularities in his functions.

Unofficial sources say that Don Chelo is the father of the partner of Ruben Oseguera, son of Nemesio Osegura, El Mencho, leader of the CJNG. He was released on 24th of November by a Judge of the Third District after being absolved of the crimes of carrying arms for the exclusive use of the armed forces, possession of grenades, and corruption of minors.

An anonymous call leads to horror: thousands of scorched human remains found in Coahuila

December 5, 2017, 4:20 pm

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Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from SinEmbargo

                     

Silvia Ortiz, mother of the disappeared Fanny and who heads the group Vida, says that an anonymous call warned one of the members of the group that a plot of land of the San Antonio El Alto farming co-op was used by alleged organized crime members to disappear their victims.
 

The group went to the place Ortiz indicated and found thousands of skeletal remains and a leaky drum, similar to those used by organized crime to burn bodies. In addition to the drum and bone remains, they found dental pieces and a series of non-biological objects of great importance to the group.

Coahuila / Mexico City, December 4 (Infobae / SinEmbargo) .- Following an anonymous report, members of the group searching for missing persons, Victims for their Rights in Action (VIDA), located approximately 3,000 remains on a plot of land located in Coahuila. Apparently, the victims were burned in diesel drums.

An anonymous call warned one of the members of the VIDA group that a plot of the San Antonio El Alto farming co-op was used by alleged members of organized crime to disappear their victims.

Relatives of missing persons went to the site for the first time on Saturday to conduct the search. In the location they found shell casings, shoes, clothes, teeth and 3 thousand burned bone remains, the organization reported.

Based on its finding, the group presumed that the bodies of the victims were placed in 200-liter drums, then they added gasoline and burned them. Later they emptied the containers and finished breaking the remains with shovels, explained the treasurer of the organization, Óscar Sánchez Viesca.

The number of people killed could increase because the remains were found without digging or retrieving.

Experts from the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) will send the remains to a special laboratory in Mexico City to obtain their identification.

The spokeswoman for the VIDA group, Silvia Ortiz, said they will request the authorities' support to carry out an operation such as the one carried out to recover the 3 thousand 844 charred remains in the Patrocinia co-op, in October 2016.

Silvia Ortiz explained then that the Zetas burn the bodies of their victims to make the process of identification difficult.

Since 2015, the search organization for missing persons has located 90,000 skeletal remains in at least 40 clandestine graves in the towns of Santa Elena, San Antonio de Gurza, San Pedro and in Estación Claudio, in the La Laguna area.

According to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), in Coahuila, only the Sinaloa Cartel criminal group operates. Although the director of the Latin American Initiative of the University of Texas, Ariel Dulitzky, said in November that the Zetas also dispute the territory.

Dulitzky mentioned in the report "Control ... Relating to all of Coahuila State” that the Zetas, military and officials of the PGR were involved in threats to witnesses to investigate the drug trade and the disappearance of people in the entity.

AeroMulas: The Women Drug Mules of Heroin

December 5, 2017, 4:29 pm

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Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Zeta

"Don't Be A Drug Mule "

By: Luis Carlos Sainz /Nov 2017
Zeta Investigations

Mothers of families, often poor, become "human mail carriers", traffickers of the derivative of opium, ie heroin. They are arrested with the drug in double bottoms of suitcases, attached to the body, in their footwear, or in the vagina. About 70 percent of the secured heroin and criminal cases against "chiva" traffickers on commercial flights in the country are registered in Baja California. Women heroin transporters get, on average, 10-year  prison sentences. Three sisters imprisoned at the end of 2015 were strangely acquitted.

As soon as she got off the plane, she was greeted by the icy January wind on the border.  She  went to
get her suitcase from the baggage area and hurried to the exit. The slim, white-skinned lady -like her name- drew attention for her wide striped skirt in black and gray tones, her black scarf and her multicolored suitcase, but above all, for her peculiar way of walking.  She took short, wide steps.

A federal surveillance policeman in the air terminal flanked her front and informed the woman that he wanted to ask her some questions. She lowered her eyes, and dodged, tried to continue her march as if she had not heard the agent. The uniformed officer repeated his direction and the woman agreed. Although nervous, the lady was cooperative and talkative. He identified himself with his Issstecali credential.

"What is your name? How old are you? Where are you going ? Where do you come from? How much did your ticket cost you? ", the officer asked. "I am 42 years old, I live in San Luis Río Colorado and I come from Mexico City. I went to a friend's wake. Her husband called me and came to the airport for me, "said Dona Blanca. "What is the name of your friend's husband? How did  he contact you? What did you pick up in that city? " The officer's chain of questioning continued.

The woman stumbled. "Well, I actually found out that my friend died, through Facebook. Had cancer. I don't remember the name of the widower. A friend sent another friend of his for me, and he took me to the hotel." She could not continue with his answer. 

Her throat closed. Her eyes reddened and were wet. She was visibly trembling, and her voice broke when she said: "Help me Sir, I am in a very difficult economic and sentimental situation. My two youngest children are in school  and I do not have a job. "

"Do you bring any illicit substances ?" The agent asked with the same reasonable suspicion that had motivated the interception. "Yes. I bring drugs hidden under my clothes, between my legs, "the woman replied collapsing. With the classic "follow us" and reading the woman  the card of rights, the police took her to the agency of the Federal Public Ministry to resolve her situation.

In the PGR facilities of Mexicali, female staff accompanied the woman to the bathroom, where she  extracted, from between her panties and lycra shorts, a package wrapped in cinnamon tape, and deposited it in a yellow envelope that had been provided. The package contained one kilo 500 grams of a pasty substance of dark brown color, with the characteristics of heroin. An expert in forensic chemistry confirmed that it was the enervant.

Because of these events, Blanca has been deprived of her liberty in a state prison for nine months, at the disposal of the judicial authorities of the New Criminal Justice System. First, a Control Judge issued a writ of attachment to the trial, and then the magistrate of a Unitary Court confirmed the ruling. She is on remand for her probable responsibility in crimes against health, in the mode of transport of diacetyl morphine hydrochloride, better known as heroin.

If she does not prove her innocence, the woman will face a minimum sentence of 10 years, or maximum of up to 25 years in prison, in addition: one hundred to 500 days fine. It is what establishes the sanctions of the Federal Penal Code for those who produce, transport, traffic, trade, supply or prescribe any of the narcotics listed in a catalog, including heroin, prohibited by the Mexican General Health Law.

70% of cases in BC:

Blanca is just one of the so-called "mules," used by drug traffickers to transport drugs aboard commercial flights, from one geographical point to another. There are, moving marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, codeine and of course the popular heroin, a drug that is wreaking havoc on the health of Americans, according to the authorities of that country.


There are dozens of men and women who, during the last decade, have been discovered transporting the opiate through the air terminals of Baja California, near the border with the US, the International Airport "Abelardo L. Rodríguez" in Tijuana and the "Roberto Sánchez Taboada", in Mexicali. They also arrive in private planes with clandestine landings in Ensenada and Tecate.

Many other "mules", usually male, transport the drug via land, hidden in the huge tires or double bottoms conditioned trucks with cargo trailers. In the fuel tank or the engine parts of other types of vehicles. In passenger buses, or by sea in lanchas rapidas, ie speedboats, or deep-sea vessels island hopping through the Sea of ​​Cortez.

In the case of women, such as Blanca, it is common for the authorities to discover their role as "mules" on commercial flights that arrive at this border. They are also discovered, less frequently, at the Chihuahua airport, and even more rarely at the Sonora and Sinaloa terminals. Strange the lack of assurances of this drug in Tamaulipas and Coahuila, where there will be one or two processes.

ZETA had access to 95 cases or criminal cases filed in federal courts in the country against people linked to various criminal modalities related to heroin. The result is impressive. In 66 of the cases, they know courts of the Fifteenth Circuit of the Council of the Federal Judicature (CJF), with residence in Baja California, which includes bordering municipalities in the State of Sonora, such as San Luis Río Colorado.

The investigation was reduced to the mode of transport, and even more, it focused on passengers of both sexes who arrive at the two airports mentioned, with emphasis on the situation of women.

Profile of traffickers:

The "aeromulas" are indistinctly men and women. The figures are very even, there are 51% women heroin traffickers on airplanes, and 49% are men. This is clear from the data obtained by Zeta in ten final judgments and in fourteen other cases, even under active criminal proceedings, because they are events that occurred in the last year. In nine cases the sentences were condemnatory. And in one, acquittal for three accused in a single criminal case.

The women involved are usually between 22 and 45 years old, although most are around 40 years  of age. They belong to a medium-low socioeconomic level, with petty income, an average level of secondary education and a work activity as employees or traders. In some cases unemployed. Many of them claimed to be heads of family, with children still dependent on them.

Although in the majority of cases they do not accept their responsibility of committing crimes, when they do, the women do not give up their contractors. They do not even know what criminal organization they serve. National and North American authorities primarily suspect the Sinaloa Cartel. Today prisoners became "human couriers" in exchange for money, transporting heroin in four primary ways:

- Adhered in strips or pretending to be part of your body.
- In the insoles, sole or heel of your footwear.
- Backpacks or suitcases conditioned with double bottom or lining.
- Inside the vagina.

The Federal Police and the Mexican Army, and occasionally private security elements of the airports, unmask the traffickers when they manifest nervousness. They also have take into consideration the city or region of origin and the planes that land from those places.

Based on the repetition of actions, it is known that the cities that pose a risk for the transfer of heroin in this modality are: Acapulco, Guerrero; Morelia and Uruapan, Michoacán; Guadalajara, Jalisco; Tepic, Nayarit; Culiacán and Los Mochis, Sinaloa. And stellarly, Mexico City.

The security techniques most used by law enforcement officers in the Tijuana and Mexicali air terminals are:

- Emotional profile of the passenger.
- X-rays.
- Pitazo (anonymous report).
- Dog trained in the detection of drugs and explosives.

Pretexts and sentences:

Before the Public Prosecutor's Office, 99% of the detainees said they were not aware of the incidents. The list of excuses of men and women apprehended with heroin within their scope of action is extensive.

María Luisa "N" arrived in Tijuana on a Volaris flight from Guerrero. As she passed her suitcase through the X-ray machine, the screen marked an orange box. It was discovered a secret compartment where there were 2 kilos, 140 grams of drugs. It was heroin and codeine. In her defense, the woman told her captors: "The suitcase is not mine, they lent it to me in Acapulco to travel here." Her crime corresponds the highest penalty, because of the sentance for transporting two different drugs,  she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. All in all, others condemned in recent times received the minimum sanction of 10 years in prison.

 Two women and two men were arrested in the air terminal "Abelardo L. Rodríguez" for having drugs attached to their bellies, inside socks; packages containing seven kilograms of heroin. The women said they were surprised because they were offered a tip in their native Uruapan to take money to a "comadre" in the United States. "I thought it was money, I never imagined it was 'chiva'", expressed Alicia "N".

Gloria "N" is a 44-year-old passenger who arrived with her daughter at the Mexicali airport on an Aeroméxico flight from Mexico City, with a stopover in Guadalajara. A sergeant and a cavalry soldier intercepted her for questioning. Because of the fright, she forgot or intentionally denied her address.

She was transferred to an office, where, voluntarily, she delivered a package wrapped with yellow latex that she carried in her vagina. There were 550 grams of heroin in the bundle. The lady said that when leaving the capital of the country, during the stopover in the "Pearl Tapatia", two women who sat on both sides of the plane got on the plane. At one point "one of them said she felt bad and asked me to go to the bathroom with her. There she forced me to put the package in my vagina, threatening that she would hurt my daughter if I refused her and that they would be watching me. "

Another passenger who was carrying diacetyl morphine in a significant amount inside her genital cavity denied possession of the substance. "They locked me in a private room of the Federal Police where I was examined and they told me I was bringing drugs, which is not true. They took my cell phone and threatened to take my children away, torturing me psychologically, "she says.

The detained men also offered arguments:

Joel, who carried 739 grams of heroin in the insoles of his shoes, said: "These tennis shoes were given to me at the airport in Uruapan. I felt strange, but I did not check them. " Raymundo, with two kilograms of the same enervant hidden in a backpack: "I did not bring the drug. I would have been detected at the airport in Guadalajara. " While Edgardo argued that in Culiacan, some subjects assured him that he was a "maña" and, if he did not transport the 402 grams of heroin that were found in his shoes, they would kill him or one of his relatives. And Sidronio, coming from Mexico City, declared: "I bought the suitcase at the capital's airport, but I did not know that I was bringing drugs."

Mysterious liberation:

On December 13, 2015, an unprecedented case occurred. Three sisters of Guerreroian origin landed in Tijuana on board a Volaris plane . They had left from the Acapulco airport. Very determined, the three placed packages wrapped with heroin, inside condoms, inside their genitals and allowed to come to the border. Two kilos of the opiate well distributed.

It was 10:20 am when the federal agents assigned to random checks in the Baggage Claim area saw the three brunettes arrive. One of them was gesticulating and flexing with abdominal pain. One of the policemen asked her if she needed medical help. One of the women answered for the afflicted, "it hurts between her hip and her belly." The mannerisms alerted the officer on duty and he commented on the situation to his colleagues.

They supported the woman to the corporation's office in the airport unit. Her discomforts were increasing. Before a series of questions, one of the girls confessed that the three of them were carrying wrapped drugs in their vaginas and, mortified, she interceded for her sister, because "she feared for her health and her life".

In a private room, a noncommissioned female officer supervised the extraction of the packages of each one of the implicated women, which they complied with voluntarily.

The protocol that is followed regularly by the feds ended with the delivery of the confiscated drugs and the chain of custody belongs to the Public Ministry of the Federation. The women were admitted to the Tijuana Women's Social Reintegration Center, where a District Judge prosecuted them for crimes against health, in the form of heroin transportation, on December 20, 2015. The order was confirmed on appeal by a Unitary Court.

The three sisters had private defenders and promoted an indirect amparo trial against the resolution that kept them deprived of their liberty.

On May 31, 2016, the circuit magistrate granted them the protection of federal justice and ordered the responsible court and judge: Leave the act unclaimed (order of formal imprisonment). Issue a new resolution in which they revoke the order of good prisoners issued to the complainants, and instead, decree an order of liberty for lack of evidence to process without the reservations of Law. Dictate their immediate and absolute freedom.

What happened? The amparista magistrate argued that the officers of the Federal Police did not comply with the formalities of the procedure: "in order to safeguard the physical integrity and life of the incriminated, at the moment of the extraction of the evidence, for which the authorities " say" they brought in their vaginas."

"In fact, it was overlooked that any bodily intervention is prohibited, unless you have the consent of the affected party and, in the case of ordering that practice, you must take care of danger to the health of the alleged, in addition, such corporal intervention must have been practiced by a specialized expert (doctor) and research personnel, respecting the dignity and privacy of the person; and in the presence of a medical emergency team in a health center or nearby hospital that guarantees the least risk to the health of those involved. It has only been assumed that the defendants brought the drugs in their vaginas. "

The magistrate consulted Google and added to his sentence of amparo the transcript of an article published on June 13, 2014, in the digital version of the newspaper La Nación , of Argentina, which is entitled "How to handle the process by which drug- mules expel the drugs " ; located in this hyperlink: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1699049-como-es-el-proceso-por-el-que-pasan-las-mulas-para-expulsar- the-drug.

The policewoman denied having assisted in the extraction of the drugs from the private parts of the accused. News publications did not report it either. The case seemed to be exactly similar to other detainees in similar cases, with similar investigative methods, most are still in prison, some condemned, others prosecuted.

The three Acapulco sisters were released, during the court proceedings  they testified : "The officer of the Federal Police made us undress, put on some gloves and checked our vagina without finding anything."

Now they can boast that they are the only "aeromulas" exonerated in very strange circumstances.

7 Los Zetas Sicarios killed in Ciudad Mante

December 6, 2017, 3:04 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article with additional pictures from Epoca Violenta

Subject Matter: Los Zetas, Ciudad Mante
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

During a security operation in Ciudad Mante, implemented after an anonymous call, 7 alleged sicarios lost their lives, with arms and ammunition decommissioned.

Reporter: Milenio Digital
During a security operation in Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, elements of the Army and State Security had a confrontation with a group of alleged criminals, that left a total of seven aggressors dead.

In a communication, the PGJ of Tamaulipas informed that due to an anonymous call they had implemented an operation to locate an encampment in which, alleged illicit activities had taken place.

On arrival at the  location, in a breach known as El Nacimiento, in Ciudad Mante, the security elements received gunfire, which initiated the confrontation.

WARNING STRONG MULTIPLE BLOODY IMAGES ON NEXT PAGE VIEW WITH CAUTION




After the gun battle, seven aggressors had lost their lives, and the authorities had confiscated two AR15 rifles, three AK47's, a revolver, and a nine mm pistol, as well as tactical jackets, various magazines and ammunition of various calibers.

Two Army elements had received bullet wounds, but there had been no wounded on the part of the Police Corporations. In the operation, elements of the Army, PGJ and SSP of Tamaulipas had participated.

(Otis: One can speculate from the pictures below that this did not go down as a firefight, more than likely from my point of view these look like extrajudicial revenge killings, the last picture shows a guy who has been emasculated, one looks like he had the buckwheat treatment ( shot in the rear end ), others have only been shot in the legs and allowed to bleed out.)

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3 Policemen Shot Dead on the La Paz Malecon/ 6 in 48 Hours

December 6, 2017, 3:49 pm

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Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Zeta

Bienvenidos a La Paz, BCS

Dec 3, 2017
Extra material from Various Sources incl: BCS Noticias
El SudCaliforniano, Colectivo Pericue; RIP: Max Rodriguez

Around 5:00 p.m. this past Saturday, December 2, three officers assigned to the State   Tourist Police were killed in the middle of the Malecon in La Paz, Baja California Sur.

Commander Juan Polo Arreola, the supervising commander Christian Alberto León Aguiar, and Edmundo Vega Martínez, were left without life inside their patrol vehicle with the license number SSP 00001.

It should be noted that the State Tourist Police was recently inaugurated, a unit that is in charge of the Undersecretary of Public Security.

The Attorney General's Office of the State (PGJE) confirmed that "at approximately 4:35 p.m., the PGJE learned via C4 that in the  El Centro neighborhood in this capital, firearm detonations were heard. They located at the  corner of Calle Rosales and Álvaro Obregón (the Malecon), aboard their patrol vehicle, the bodies of the murdered policemen, three men, shot to death by a gun of large caliber".

The elements were attacked/ambushed  by an armed group of hit men while they were on the streets Paseo Álvaro Obregón (Malecón) at the corner of Antonio Rosales, El Parque Cuauhtemoc, in Colonia Centro, in front of the iconic Hotel Los Arcos, an enigmatic symbol of La Paz;  which sadly has been closed for a year due to a strike. The sicarios surprised the Police Patrol by opening fire upon them.

The police elements were on board their patrol unit when fired upon

Immediately, the red code was activated to search for the alleged perpetrators, who could be seen by a surveillance video camera located on the corner of the attack. So far, there are no reported detainees.

SEMEFO arrived and removed the bodies for forensic analysis and PGJE collected and sent the spent bullet cartridges to the lab for identification and analysis.

This is the second armed attack against police forces, just yesterday two agents of the Ministerial Police were injured and one killed after an ambush when they were on board a unit near  City Hall, ie, in La Paz on Friday Dec 1, 2017; the criminals fled the scene rapidly. A civilian reported that his car was damaged by the gunfire. This occurred at the corner of another new OXXO.

Sadly, students at La Preparatoria Ceyte 08 ran for their lives when the heard more than 15 detonations of gunfire.

Unofficially, the attackers have been identified as "El Dimas". Perhaps they are carrying out the threat of "cleaning the plaza" that was written on the narco mantas around town last week in the wake of the horrific murder of Human Rights Commissioner Sylvester de la Toba, his son, and the wounding of his wife and daughter who were all traveling in the car together. "Los Tegoripenos and Los Guzmans" left the mantas threatening all gov't officials with the same fate as the de la Toba family if they did not "align themselves".

"Times to Pray":

President of the Municipality of La Paz Armando Martinez Vega

On Dec 5th, Armando Martinez Vega, President of the Municipality of La Paz made a statement in which he said that: " These are times for prayer, as one more citizen of the La Paz it pains me greatly what is going on in my city, my municipality, my state, I have children , grandchildren, family; these are times of crises and I ask all our citizens to join with me in prayer and ask God to help us all get through these terrible times together; may the ones who perpetrate this upon us retire. 

" I ask all to raise their prayers to the grand creator of the Universe to help us through these sad times that we have been enduring for months, in fact, the last three years that we have been exposed to such insecurity and we also hope that He will help the Authorities and the three levels of Government resolve this theme of violence." 

Victims at Temixco died in cross fire revealed the Morelos Prosecutor

December 7, 2017, 2:57 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel from a Proceso article

Subject Matter: Civilians killed in Temixco
Recommendation: Readthis articleon the original reports of the events

Reporter: Jaime Luis Brito
On social networks there have been two photos published, that appear to have been taken by Forensic staff who attended to remove the bodies of the victims of the massacre of Temixco, in which one can see the women killed in a bath room, in contrast, the Attorney General Javier Perez Duron, claimed it was false that the victims had received a "coup de grace".

In the images one can observe a baby of three months who was killed. The body in an orange colored romper suit was found within a meter of the bath room door. In the interior of the bath room there are four bodies crammed in, with the markers of the Forensic unit marking out the wounds. Two Forensic experts can also be seen, wearing the regulation clothing.

In a press conference in which he would not take questions, the Prosecutor Javier Perez Duron read a brief statement to clarify the information which had been published before, with respect to the statement that the bodies had received a "coup de grace", "this is false", he said.




"It is false that the people who died at the scene of events had received the so called coup de grace. There is no scientific, technical or expert element that indicates it. The autopsies, carried out will full adherence to established protocols, determined that the bodies do not present any characteristics of that condition", he said.

He then insisted that "unfortunately these people died as a result of a crossfire".

On the other hand, he warned that, faced with the decision of a Judge to release the last four detainees, who were charged with the crime of attempted murder, although not linked to trial, the Prosecutors office will file an appeal, as it is considered that the elements to prove the crime are the same that should link them to the crime.

He also said that, having considered that there were elements to prove their guilt in attempted murder, decreeing their detention was legal, that would allow them to be linked to the crime, so " this prosecutor will present an appeal against non attachment to the proceedings, within the deadlines set by the legislation itself, to continue with the investigations and thus demarcate responsibilities and apply justice within the framework of the requirements of the legal system.

In relation to the police elements of the Mando Unico that participated in the operations of November the 30th, in which they arrested five people and a minor, and also resulted in the deaths of two women, a teenager and a three month old baby, the prosecutor pointed out that, " the case is still open" regarding the investigation of the agents.

At the end of the statement, the prosecutor did not accept questions from representatives of the press.

On Thursday, November the 30th, elements of the Mando Unico carried out a series of operations in the Ruben Jaramillo neighborhood of Temixco, where they detained several people.

The Commissioner of Public Security, Jesus Alberto Capella Ibarra, maintained that the victims perished in the crossfire, however, all the detainees were released in the arraignment hearing because of the fact it could not be demonstrated that they had fired any weapons.

The Temixco massacre is one of the most serious violations of human rights involving the state police under the command of Capella Ibarra.

The Mando Unico is the corporation with the most complaints lodged with the State Commission for Human Rights, above all for arbitrary and illegal detentions, torture and abuse of authority.

Milenio also report on this issue

Four of the six killed in Temixco had bullet impacts in the skull

Victor Hernandez, Lawyer for the families of the six people who were assassinated in Temixco, Morelos, said that four people had bullet impacts in the skull.

"We are not saying that these were coup de grace shots, we are saying they had bullet impacts in the their skulls, the four victims that had impacts in the skull, the images are grotesque", said the Lawyer in an interview with Azucena Uresti of Milenio TV.

The Lawyer denounced that someone in the Attorney Generals Office of Morelos had released photographs of the victims killed in the Temixco house this passed 30th of November.

Hernandez enumerated that the elements to make them believe that the six people were executed was the alteration of the evidence, the experts evidence that looting had taken place, to say that the police entered an open door, when all the locks had been forced and report that the shootings took place inside the home, when outside there were spent cartridge cases from rifles, among others.

In an interview with Carlos Puig at Milenio tV, the Morelos Security Commissioner, Alberto Capelo denied the Lawyers statements about the shots to the skulls and said the investigation will be supervised by the Human Rights Organizations.

"We are transparent, we have purified the corporation as much as possible, but there are still scoundrels inside it, this has to be transparent for the sake of the police officers who participated and for the good of the Morelense society, and what we must not lose sight of, is the danger of the suspect that was released by the Judge", said Capella, who revealed that no police had been injured during the operation.

The Commissioner said that Jose Alberto Valdez, El Senor de la B, was highly dangerous and that during the confrontation with the police he had put his family at risk, as he took refuge in the bath room with all his family members and from there attacked the police.

According to the police officer who participated in the confrontation, Valdez decided to surrender, but left the house with his three year old son in his arms, using his son as a human shield.

The Commissioner reiterated: "We submitted an investigation to the police and are subject to the part of the public ministry and any human rights body that wants to investigate the case.

Capella does not know why Valdez was released when he had a criminal record, when the police confiscated an arsenal this year, and for a homicide in 2015.

Foreign Zeta Plaza Boss in the sight of Veracruz Authorities

December 7, 2017, 11:57 pm

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso Special Report

Subject Matter: Veracruz
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Noe Zavaleta
The Government of Veracruz has identified 17 key persons that operate in the Los Zetas Cartel, of which, the most important is a Plaza Boss who is foreign to Mexico, and whose capture has been categorized as a priority.

According to the document called Criminal Structure of Coatzacoalcos, from the Sub-Secretary of Operations of the Secretary of State Public Security, containing the 17 specific objectives, including the Plaza Boss, and Sicarios, one of whom is a foreigner, halcones, kidnappers, gas thieves, extortioners and a woman who is in charge of distribution of drugs in the marginal zones of the federal State.

For three years, this criminal group "has been reduced", because of apprehensions and the death of its criminal leaders in confrontations with the authorities, and confrontations with antagonistic criminal organizations that are disputing territory with them.




Among the gains made by authorities against Los Zetas are the capture of Hernan Martinez Zavaleta, El Commandante H, in Cardenas, Tabasco, and the death of Elias Anguirre Sanchez, El Metro, head of halcones in Coatzacoalcos.

Miguel Angel Yunes, Governor of Veracruz

Violence without pause

Despite the decline of Los Zetas, violent acts have not decreased in Veracruz. Figures from the Executive Secretary of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), account for 2,220 homicides with 163 kidnappings committed during the 11 months of Miguel Angel Yunes Linares leading the governorship.

Only this weekend 16 homicides were reported; among those cases, the five dismembered and abandoned bodies in plastic bags stand out, on Saturday, in the town of Sabaneta, in the municipality of Chacaltianguis, to the south of the State.

In other events, in the penultimate week of November, a few meters from the Center of Auto buses in Xalapa, 11 black bags with human remains were left. Their contents were confirmed by Ministerial Police.

A couple of days before, in a truck used for garbage collection were discovered more bags with human remains in. That discovery occurred a few hours after the State Secretary of Public Security, Jaime Tellez Marie, came to the State Congress as part of the gloss of the first Government report of Yunes Linares.

Meanwhile on the 25th of November, in Poza Rica, Police found at least 30 human remains, assassinations allegedly the work of the CJNG.

In that same week, the municipal Presidents of Hidalgotitlan, Santana Cruz Bahena, and Ixhuatlan de Madero, Victor Manuel Espinoza, were murdered.

The document of the SESNSP also reports that so far in the government of Yunes, there have been 19,343 robberies committed, of which 2492 correspond to acts of violence to remove the vehicle from the driver.

CJNG gains strength

The Veracruz government report also identifies six criminal groups operating in the State: Los Zetas, 35 Z, Sinaloa Cartel, Los Antrax, Grupo Sombra and CJNG, it is the last of these groups that has the major presence and dominates the Plaza.

In respect of the operations against the CJNG there have been  two: a confrontation that occurred on 30th of June this year in which Ricardo Pacheco Tello, El Quino, died, who controlled the criminal activities in the zone adjacent to Veracruz-Boca del Rio, and the capture of Francisco Navarrete Serna, alleged Plaza Boss of CJNG in Papaloapan, which occurred in January of 2016 by Federal Agents in the Tierra Blanca.

Concerning the recent wave of violence in Veracruz, the Governor Miguel Angel Yunes Linares has recriminated in various forums that in the past people were eliminated from the Police corporations in the 23 towns in which 3,000,000 people live.

That is to say, practically 40% of the Veracruz population don't have a municipal Police presence, a force in their proximity, a force that can support and share the work load of the State and Federal forces.

"This lack of one of the three legs of the tripod obviously makes the public safety service in those municipalities not efficient or efficient enough," he said.

According to what has been released, the Ministry of Finance and Planning has request 4 billion pesos in next years budget for the State Secretariat of Public Security, six times more than the Local Congress.

Mireles: The Government Betrayal

December 8, 2017, 5:09 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso special report

Subject Matter: Mexican Government, Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Proceso Redaction
Towards the first decade of the 21st Century, organized crime expanded its crime spectrum in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacan. Not only did it keep the region ravaged by the violence associated with drug trafficking, but with extortion's, kidnappings and rape.... Unprotected by the authorities, and fed up with the wave of death and abuse, several Michoacan communities took up arms to face the executioners. A central figure in that movement, Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde tell the details of it in his book, Todos Somos Autodefensas. The awakening of a sleepy town, which also tells how the Federal Government betrayed its commitments to the Auto-defensas, to the point of even imprisoning the community. We print a fragment from the book, with the authorization of Grijalbo.

On April the 14th of 2013, the disarming of the Auto-Defensa Groups was planned and organized for May 10th, by an agreement that took place in the space now occupied by the Ceferso # 17 Tierra Caliente. During the meeting, I told Federal Commissioner, (Alfredo Castillo Cervantes): How is it possible that you are planning disarmament for May 10th if we still have Auto-Defensa prisoners, if the rule of law in Michoacan is still not restored, if we still do not have a fair distribution of justice in the state of Michoacan, if we still do not have efficient public security in Michoacan?

"By May 10th, I will have it resolved", was his response. All your imprisoned Auto-Defensas will be released; all the leaders of the cartel and their people, their Sicarios will be arrested. You are going to have a fair dispensation of justice; you are going to have efficient public security, because you are going to be public security, you yourselves are going to be backed up in large areas from the Armed Forces of the nation and the State. On one side, you are going to be forming part of the State Rural Police, on the other side they will form part of the Defensas Rurales of Sedena.




Listen Commissioner, we have had one and a half years fighting and to date we have 36 regions of the state of Michoacan clean but we still have 6 or 7 more, important areas of the state to clean....

Its all solved, you do not have to worry anymore, I have already identified the places where all the leaders of organized crime are hiding, now we need to stop. Its a matter of two or three days.

But I insisted, and he said:

In addition, I have to try to give you, all of you, your Federal licenses so that you and your bodyguards always go armed for your self defence because after the disarmament you will be the most persecuted, and they will try to execute you one by one. That is why I have to give you Federal licenses, so you can go armed all over the country and with good bodyguards. How many body guards do you need?

I only need four

I will authorize you twenty.

If you authorize me twenty armed people for my personal security, with that small army I make a revolution if it does not fulfill what is being offered.

Don't worry, just support me today with the agreements that are being made.

"Look Mr Commissioner, you are the one offering things, I am not asking anything of you, no Auto-Defensas are asking for anything. You have just offered that you are going to release all of my arrested comrades, starting with our brother Hipolito Mora. If by May 10th you have not released Hipolito Mora and all the other Auto-Defensas, we can not surrender our weapons, because you put the date, not the Auto-Defensas. If by May 10th you have not arrested La Tuta, El Chayo and Plancarte and all of his people, the Auto-Defensas will not disarm.

If you have not restored the rule of Law in Michoacan on May 10th, we will not disarm. If you have not created or have not provided a team or trained personnel that provides us with an efficient public security, we will not disarm, because right now the only efficient public security in all of the municipalities that we have cleaned is us, and now those municipalities are enjoying peace and tranquility.

If they do not comply with giving licenses to all our leaders and all our personal body guards, we cannot disarm, the war will continue, but it will not be for our pleasure or for our foolishness, it will be for the breach of the offers that right now they are guaranteeing us. But they are of language, just spoken words, and we are up to the mother with their words because they will never fulfill them, no sir.

I am giving you my word and I do, I assure you that Hipolito is already going to.... Look, we already brought 30 Auto-Defensa Groups from Veracruz, Sonora and where I else I do not know, those from here in the Apatzingan prison we are going to release in a few days.

That's what he said on April 14th 2014... I obviously never believed him, much less disarmed ourselves.

"Do not lie to us, if you are really going to comply, just do it", I said to the Commissioner. We take care not to take our weapons, we keep them to ourselves. We have always had them, we keep them to survive in the region in which we live, not to kill people. We are farmers, we are hunters. We have no need to go armed. Only when you fulfill what you say will we retire.

Very well, I just want to tell all the leaders to register their weapons and those of their body guards in order to give them licenses to carry them, transport them and take them to where they have to move to from their places of origin, for their personal security.

Okay I said, a General through a friend has donated me .308 rifle. I will tell him that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when I go to register that weapon, I would like a ballistic test done, so that I know that they didn't already murder someone with the weapon and try and pin that on me.

Before this comment, the Federal Commissioner told the commanding General of the 43rd Military Zone, who was sitting next to me:

How do you see this matter?

"The same thing you are saying to us", the General replied, "tell the person who is going to register your weapons. Tell him that he already spoke with us, that it is a weapon that has just been given to him, and that you want to know tomorrow if somebody was killed with that weapon."

Perfect!

That was the only thing we talked about just before the agreement of April 14 of 2014.

We were in the presidium the Federal Commissioner that Mr Pena Nieto sent for the restoration of the social and economic order of the State of Michoacan, the General Commander of the 43rd Military Zone, the Federal Commissioner of the State Preventative Police of the region and his assistant. The agreements were those offered by the Federal Commissioner and we all approved them unanimously. The only request of the Auto-Defensas was the immediate release of Mr Hipolito Mora and all the Auto-Defensa prisoners, an efficient public security, a fair administration of justice and the restoration of the rule of law.

By May 10th all the agreements had to be fulfilled, that is: all the leaders in the cartel in the State of Michoacan should be detained ( it was not fulfilled); all the Auto-Defensas Groups to be freed, including Mr Hipolito Mora (it was not fulfilled); the leaders of the social movement had to have licenses, documents and credentials for the carrying of arms for our self-defense, for our personal defense (it was not fulfilled); all the Auto-Defensa comrades who were to be integrated as State Police and as Rural Defense of Sedena must be armed and authorized. But by the agreed date there were only 750 registered of the more than 25,000 Auto-Defensa Group members that were operating for the liberation of Michoacan from organized crime and to have the social peace that we so desired.

False accusations

Later there were deadly attacks provoked by the puppets infiltrated in the Auto-Defensas, in which they wanted to involve the legitimate members of the Auto-Defensa Groups. These were the cases of the murders in Chuquiapan and in Chucutitan, in which a Federal Commander named Valerio provoked all these murders and wanted to involve El Platano and Mireles, but it did not work out. El Platano is still detained for crimes he did not commit.

After these events, another meeting was held in the 43rd Military Zone, with the purpose of determining who was responsible in the cases of Chuquiapan and Chucutitan. We were in the presidium with the Federeal Commissioner of the Federal Preventative Police, Jose Manuel Mireles Valverde, and El Pitufo, who at that time was already allied with the Federal Commissioner.

They wanted to involve El Platano, who did not attend the meeting; we only attend the leaders, the social fighters, the leaders of all the municipalities that were already up in arms. But the order was to involve El Platano, although the Auto-Defensa Groups did not accept that involvement. There he said to the face of the Federal Commissioner, called Valerio, that he had done all of the entanglement and cleansing.

After we found out that El Pitufo had armed these people that confronted the Auto-Defensas of El Platano. This made evident that there was a decomposition among some of the leaders of the real Auto-Defensas.

After this I never returned to a meeting with the Federal Commissioner or his puppets. We made a general meeting of all the Auto-Defensa Groups of the State of Michoacan in La Placita and Las Brisas, on the Michoacan Coast, to resolve the differences between us.

This meeting was only Auto-Defensas and Communitarios, to deal with the betrayal of El Pitfuo and others who were in favor of the Federal Commissioner. At that meeting, uniformed Federal Police officers tried to come in, and were asked kindly to leave the assemblies place, since it was an Auto-Defensa meeting only.

These gentlemen left the place in a very disciplined manner, there were no negative comments, there was no booing, or high spirited words; they were treated with all the respect they deserved and they respected our autonomy. They were very grateful for the act of respect towards the self defense groups. Federal gentleman thank you very much.

Otis: for further reading, click on the book link on the right hand side of the main page.

20 Years of Impunity: The Attack on Blancornelas and Zeta

December 9, 2017, 11:34 am

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Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: ZETA

Tijuana BC: November 27, 1997

By: Jesus Blancornelas
Nov 27, 2017

I will never forget it. The suit and tie. Mustache trimmed well. Thick lips. Flattened nose. Brown. Dark brown glasses with silver, yuppie hairstyle. No more than 35 years old. Sitting in the back of the new dark green car. He lowered the electronically controlled window. Pistol in hand, he stuck  out his arm, stiffly. I saw him when he pointed at us and started firing. The outbursts stunned me. The surprise did not give me time to be scared. My dread. Ten minutes before, when leaving home, the usual "we'll see you " to my wife. I climbed into the Explorer truck.

 "Good morning," I said to Valero,  as he opened the door and I climbed into the vehicle."Good morning," Luis replied. His hands were on the wheel. I threw my briefcase into the backseat and the holster with a Beretta gun . I should have carried it in my hand, but I did not expect that precisely that day we would be attacked. 

Valero offered himself kindly as an escort six months before that November 27, 1997 day. When I published something in April I felt the threat of danger, he left his modest but quiet tow truck business to protect me. That morning, as always, he had his loaded gun under his right thigh, at hand. Days before I saw how he fired. We went to the shooting range. He taught me how to fire a gun. How to hold it, stretching the arm, aiming, and teaching me when to pull the trigger. 

Said Luis Valero: "Do it until you feel better."

I liked the feeling of my finger on the trigger and we spent several boxes of cartridges. However, in the ambush, our Explorer ended up with 183 entry impact hits and other exit points. When the well-dressed young man started firing at us, he pointed first to Luis, who instead of pulling his gun slammed on the breaks and quickly reversed. He threw me to the floor of the van while I was stiff watching the killer. "Get DOWN!" he shouted and his saving hand threw me into the hollow under the glove box, where the engine protected me as a shield.

Impelled, I put my head on the left side of the seat. Then I saw Valero drop the wheel and bend towards me. I reached the radio connected to the central ZETA Office and my house. I asked for help. "They are shooting us near the house of the Meñín", a great friend of my son René and esteemed by our family. I saw four, six and I do not remember , up to eight bleeding holes in Luis's chest. Bending over, he still said to me laboriously "careful sir, be careful". A couple of bullets hit my right hand. It was inches from my face. Blood splashed my glasses. Then, crouching over, Luis's head was next to mine. Suddenly I felt as if they had hit me with a club in the back. The sensation suffocated me. My breathing became difficult. I thought that at any moment I would stop breathing. I murmured: "My God, into your hands I entrust my spirit." I thought about my family. Of Luis's family. The newspaper. My colleagues. I could still say to Valero : "Hold on Luis, hold on, they will  come for us now."

The traca-traca ended. A silence I felt like never before. I heard a tire grinding. I assumed that the gunmen were fleeing. I heard a siren in the distance and closer and closer until it stunned me. 

Someone opened the door and shouted: "Hands up! Hands up!". He was a paramedic.  I raised only my left hand. They pulled me out and placed me on a stretcher. I saw a face. "We're going to take you to the Red Cross. Everything will be fine".  I told them that the Hospital del Prado would be closer. I do not remember when I was finally put on the ambulance. My partner Adela Navarro was in the front seat. I didn't hear as she insisted, "GO: to El  Hospital del Prado". 

I didn't feel anything about being unloaded from the ambulance. I only felt the warmth of a strong light on my eyes. Men in white coats told me "try to be quiet" as they tore at my clothes. Suddenly everything went black. I heard voices in the distance. I did not feel pain. I was breathing well. But I could not move. I entered a soundless blackness. Not even where they were to grabbing onto me, nor seeing the bottom. Like floating. Then I got lost. This must be the moment of death.

Then I felt again. I thought I was the same but no. Two days had passed and now they anesthetized me for a second operation. Dr. Luis Pizano and his father explained to me that there was a bullet lodged near my spine and heart. "Everything will be fine. We will not take long. " I saw when they crossed themselves. I took the hand of Dr. María Bernarda Lara to give me her blessing. I started again to see black but I did not lose the light completely. I saw streaks of light  appearing quickly. I thought about my father, what day it was, I remembered the killer's face. I was looking for Luis. I felt that it took about five, ten minutes, when I woke up. 

Later I found out: It had been a five-hour operation. I was delirious, I was throwing up and I was - they told me later - about to die. But thanks to Dr. Villegas, to Dr. Lara, to the care of doctors Juan Medrano and Miguel Ángel Robles, as one doctor said, "they brought  him back when he was already going down to the grave." Of the first operation I remember nothing. They opened me from the navel to the sternum and then down, as if it were a triangle feature to the right side. They restored the destruction inside me with effectiveness and security.

When I had the use of reason again, I asked for Luis. They said he was in another room or asleep. That they could not move him, nor me either. I asked to speak with him on the phone and they answered yes but would not tell me when. Twenty days in hospital I did not see newspapers or television. One night before leaving the hospital my wife said to me alone: ​​"Luis died. By doctors' orders, we could not tell you before. " I cried of courage, of sadness, of impotence. Seeing in those days the suffering of my family, I assumed that it was greater than his. I prayed for him. I still do. I am so thankful for all that I have left of life.

In all those days and months later, my fellow editors and reporters worked so long and hard and  to my surprise they identified the ten gunmen who ambushed us. The National Human Rights Commission conducted an excellent investigation and analysis. 

In March 1998 they sent a recommendation to the State Substitute Governor, Alejandro González Alcocer. The document indicated they were investigating the former Attorney General José Luis Anaya and his agents. The case was requested to be persued  civilly and criminally. The State Comptroller requested more data. The PGR had the case. In time they do not clarify anything. In May I asked for information. No response. 

Everyone knew who and  how many were involved in the ambush. It was not a secret who ordered it done. I do not think they were incapable of capturing them. Its not that they are afraid. They are the one and the same.

One More of a long list of threats against Zeta

The Aggressors: Some Exonerated, Others Never Prosecuted:
By: Luis Carlos Sainz/ Zeta

From that 27th day of November 1997 until  today, twenty  years later, none of hitmen  who tried to assassinate journalist J. Jesus Blancornelas and killed his bodyguard Luis Valero Elizalde,  received one criminal charge for  such despicable action . Only one of the gunmen  was under criminal process and was absolved in a final judgment  between 2013 and 2015.

Impunity had consummated the  finality of  that  year with Marcos  Arturo Quiñones  Sánchez, "El Pato", a gangster who ran the  neighborhood of Barrio Logan in  San Diego and a criminal that  served the Arellano Felix brothers. He was released from CERESO # 8 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa; where he had arrived from the Altiplano penitentiary , after recieving a sentence of 11 years,  ten months and 15 days in prison for organized crime involvement.

Today, the only prisoner related to the ambush still imprisoned  is  Alfredo Araujo Avila, " Popeye"; who was involved in the infamous shooting on May  24, 1993 at the Guadalajara airport in which Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas  Ocampo and six other people died.

 Although the case of  Blancornelas was mentioned no charges were brought against him.  Recently, "Popeye" had complained  against the refusal to  grant him early release benefits.

Others implicated in the attempted murder of the director and  co founder of ZETA ,  Jesús Blancornelas  and the confirmed homicide of  Luis Valero, included the brothers Benjamin, Ramon and Javier  Arellano Felix,  who were identified as the masterminds,  were not even  called into  account.

Marcos  Quinones was one of  the assassins recruited  by  the cell leader and personal friend  of  Arellanos,  David Barrón Corona, "El CH",  who led  the operation to take down the unabashed journalist , who in 1985 opened the eyes of Baja Californianos by making visible the existence of the  organized crime in their state.  

On the morning of November 27, 1997, the Ford Explorer was attacked by at least ten men with large caliber rifles as Jesus Blancornelas with  Valero Elizalde at the wheel made their daily drive. Minutes before, they had left Blancornelas's house  to go to  the Zeta offices, the weekly newspaper which was founded in 1980 in Tijuana.

The ambush took place at the corner of  Chula Vista and San Francisco streets . Two squads of gunmen openly fanned out around the vehicle and opened fire. Luis  guarded his boss on the floor of the vehicle, but  the assassins bullets took his life . He had tried to put the Explorer into reverse in an attempt to escape ,  but that was impossible.

Badly injured,  with four bullets lodged in his body, Jesus  Blancornelas stayed on the floor of his Ford Explorer. The head of the gunmen of CAF,  Barron Corona, " El CH" tried to reach the journalist  to finish him off ,  but one of his own gunmen let off a wild shot which hit the curb , fragmenting and shrapnel was  imbedded  in one of  Barrón's eyes, who  bled out  quickly and died.

Nov 27, 1997

In the wake of gunfire and death,  the criminals fled  abandoning their leader. When he recovered consciousness in the hospital,   Blancornelas was able to identify some of his agresores, including the deceased Barrón Corona, Fabian Martinez Gonzalez , "El Tiburon" and Marcos Arturo  Quiñones, "El Pato".

Also recognized were other criminal actors; various gang members from Barrio Logan of  San Diego, among them: Michael Anthony Harvee "El Pee Wee", Isaac Guevara Hernandez "El Zigzag",  Antonio Peña Huerta and / or Adelaido Reyes "El Lalo", and José Alberto Márquez Esqueda "El Bat",  in addition to Alfredo Araujo Avila " El Popeye".

Arturo Quinones "El Pato" was  arrested on April 24, 2003 in Tijuana. Months later, José Alberto Esqueda "El Bat" was apprehended. In March 2007, he was extradited along with a score of hired assassins to the US. Years later, Alfredo Araujo "El Popeye" was apprehended.

The Judicial Powers and enforcement of justice for Mexicans is to give an authority the responsibility of opening an investigative case, shelve it, then sweep it under the rug, so to speak, just to have impunity reign over many cases of everyday lives in the country.

Acapulco suspends classes until January 8th due to wave of violence in outlying neighborhoods

December 9, 2017, 1:19 pm

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Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from SinEmbargo            

                 

In some areas of Acapulco there is no public transport and classes were suspended in 14 schools in the area, where teachers and parents agreed to return January 8, 2018. Also, Ciudad Renacimiento, Mozimba, Progreso including UAG schools chose to suspend activities due to insecurity.

By Jacob Morales Antonio

Guerrero / Mexico City, December 9 (ElSur / SinEmbargo) .- The wave of violence that began last Tuesday in the Sinaí neighborhood spread and affected 28 surrounding neighborhoods where there is no public transportation, and caused the suspension of classes of 14 schools in the area where teachers and parents agreed to return their children January 8, 2018.

10 days after the holidays began, the schools yesterday looked empty and closed, without any notice on their doors. But they are not the only ones, other schools of Ciudad Renacimiento, Mozimba, Progreso and even the Autonomous University of Guerrero (UAG) also opted to suspend classes due to insecurity.

On a tour of Sinaí and other surrounding neighborhoods, El Sur noted the closure of the buildings, located in areas populated by Afro-descendant and indigenous migrants from Costa Chica and Montaña del Estado, who work in hotels, shopping centers, or sell handicrafts on the beaches.

In the streets, from 9 in the morning to 11 in the day there was not a single municipal patrol, state or military policemen. On the other hand, at the corners of El Quemado and Carnation avenues, there were people desperate due to the only Sinaí-Hospital and feeder Sector 6 busses not running.

The passenger vans, which are the ones that go into the neighborhoods, suspended their routes since Thursday afternoon, after the murder of a driver of the Jacarandas - Intersection route in front of the Central de Abasto. On Tuesday, three more drivers of the yellow buses of the Sector 6-Downtown route were executed in the Sinaí neighborhood.

In that neighborhood -Sinaí- where Catholics, evangelicals and Jehovah's Witnesses live together, the streets have biblical names, and during Thursday evening there were scenes of intense shootings between members of antagonistic criminal groups, and the State Police. Neighbor versions indicated that two drivers were deprived of their liberty during exchanges of fire.

The confrontations spread, according to the own versions of neighbors from the bordering neighborhoods such as Jacarandas, Alborada 19, in Tierra and Libertad, and CNC, and with that panic ensued, causing the absence of vigils for the Virgin of Juquila.

Yesterday morning the only spaces with life were the corners of the streets and the main avenue, where fearfully some expected a bus to pick them up, and everything else looked silent.

At night El Quemado Avenue, which turns into Sinaí, and Betania, looks dark, the street lighting placed two and a half months ago by the state government does not work, among the darkness there are people walking fast, young people, men and women who leave for their workday, but no longer find transportation.

The stretch of road for some is up to 4 kilometers from Boulevard Vicente Guerrero to the Sinaí neighborhood, but there are those who still have to walk to the Alborada neighborhood or its extention, and they do it among the dust and the slowness of the repaving work of the avenue where the Acabús feeder route passes.

The bus routes that do not provide service and that go from the neighborhoods to the intersections are: Jarandas, Unidos por Guerrero, Sinaí, Cervantes Delgado, Izazaga, CNC, Fidel Velázquez, Graciano Sánchez, and Nopalitos.

THE SCHOOLS WITHOUT CLASSES

During the tour the observed schools closed were: the Federal High School number 6 of the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, one of the largest in the area that serves more than 600 students in the morning shift; Technical High School 199, of the the Unidos por Guerrero neighborhood ; the telesecundaria María del Carmen Rojas, the Bicentennial Elementary and the Indigenous Preschool Education Center (CEPI), and Guadalupe Victoria of the San Miguelito neighborhood.

Also the Native Bilingual Indigenous School Acamapichtli, in the neighborhood Alborada 19; the Elementary School Guerrero es Primero, the Juan R. Escudero Kindergarten of the Sinaí neighborhood, the CEPI Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, in the CNC neighborhood; the Juan Escutia elementary school of the Tierra y Libertad neighborhood.

Likewise, the Bilingual Elementary School Ve'e Savi and the CEPI Gabriela Mistral of the neighborhood Unidos por Guerrero; the Telesecundaria Samuel Quiroz Cabrera and the Technical High School 200 Ángel Aguirre Rivero in the Postal neighborhood.

In the Miguel Alemán Valdez Kindergarten, children, parents and teachers celebrated posadas and the last day of activities, said a mother.

One of the supervisors in the area, who asked not to have his name published for safety, informed that by agreement of parents and teachers, they will not return to school until January 8, due to "the problem that is arising in that place", in reference to the violence.

OTHER SCHOOLS CLOSED

But not only in the suburban zone were classes suspended; High School 4, and Cecyteg 1, of Mozimba, as well as the Hermenegildo Galeana Elementary School of the Juan R. Escudero neighborhood, from the western zone, will return January 8.

In the Ciudad Renacimiento neighborhood, the Ruben Figueroa Alcocer kindergarten stopped activities, and the elementary schools Adolfo Lopez Mateos and Benemérito of the Americas. On the busy Ruiz Cortines Avenue, classes of the College of Psychology and the Bachelor College campus 32 were suspended.

Morelos State Police claim they never heard the screams or cries of women or children at Temixco, El Senor de la V promises revenge

December 10, 2017, 12:35 pm

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from Milenio articles

Subject Matter: Temixco Massacre
Recommendation: see link to original report on events

Reporter: Milenio Redaction
The State Police that participated in the confrontation in Temixco with members of an alleged band of criminals, in which four women died, a minor of 13 years old and a baby of three months, related that they heard no shouts or voices of women or children that would have alerted them that they were inside.

"If someone had said there were children, today would be a different history", said one of the uniformed officers interviewed by Carlos Puig for Milenio TV.

The gun fight that happened with the people of Jose Alberto Valdez, known as El Senor de la V, and alleged leader of a cell of the CJNG, with links to the Beltran Leyvas, who had been detained on two occasions, but set free with judicial orders.




Later they leaned about Valdez's criminal history. Now they live in fear for themselves and their families. The uniformed officers assure that they have no guilt, that they have the backing of their corporation and that trust that this has been clarified. "They have made us believe that we are monsters", but they asked that their versions be heard as well.

Anonymously, the officers said that after the shooting, when this individual finally gave himself up, he left with a child in his arms, who they say, did not look scared.

"We never saw crying or tears, or anything. "Instead, the alleged capo threatened each of the police; We are going to fuck you all".

The story of that night began when the police officers received an anonymous report via telephone that armed individuals with hooded persons arrived at that address and shots were sometimes heard.

"We decided to go to the site to corroborate the facts reported. Upon arrival, they saw some people, of whom, two were carrying side arms.

"Stop, State Police, carrying out a search!" they shouted at them. But the subject ran towards the house. One of the policemen ran after them and managed to catch one of them by the left shoulder. But this guy turned, grabbed the policeman by his vest and dragged him into the house.

Then, shots were fired from inside the house towards the officers. I returned fire at the muzzle flashes, my colleagues shouted are you ok? said one of them.

After him, other officers entered to try and rescue him, in the middle of the crossfire. The police listened to insults and threats from inside the house, which as in darkness. "There was always a person who said that we were going to get fucked, that they were calling for support and that we were going to see what happens, and that was when we called in for support, said another officer.

One of the police explained that the construction of the house did not favor them, as they could find no refuge, there was many windows and a corridor through which they entered had no roof.

"At all times, we were exhorting these people to stop. "State Police, lower your weapons, do not shoot", but the shooting and threats did not stop. They said it sounded like the voice of one man.

"We were vulnerable because of the corridor, it was not roofed in. Natural light dazzled us from inside the house, I think they saw us because we heard how they whispered, there there there is one, there you have one", added another of them.

There were women and children

Soon the shooting stopped. We could hear the voice of a man saying that he was going to exit the house, then the voice of a woman who said they were just going to change. After that they did not shoot anymore, despite receiving fire from inside the house. It took about an hour and a half for the subject to come out with a child in his arms. The child was quiet, not crying.

My colleague was shouting at him to put the child down, he wanted to check what the man had in his hands, the man did not care about his family, I do not know how he kept them quiet in the bath room, said one of them, I could not believe what I was seeing, he added.

The police looked into the bath room where there were people who were injured, from other rooms came four children and four adults. The ambulances and other patrols attended to the children and the women.

Otis: also from Milenio
El Senor de la V advertises that he will have vengeance for every drop of blood

Reporter: Ignacio Alzaga
Every drop of blood spilled from my family will mean a litre of blood spilt of yours, said Jose Valdez Chapa, El Senor de la V, to the police who captured him after the shootout of 10th of November in Temixco, Morelos.

While carrying a child in one arm and holding up his cell phone in the other, he threatened officers of the State Public Security Commission with death, during his arrest after the death of his mother, wife, two children a niece and another relative.

The alleged criminal was placed at the disposal of a Judge, who finally released him by dismissing evidence provided by the authorities of Morelos. About 40 men about 10 pickups in a convoy collected him, according to intelligence sources to which Milenio had access.

According to authorities of the State Commission for Public Security of Morelos, Valdez Chapa is linked to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion in alliance with Guerreros Unidos and Los Linos.

El Senor de la V has alleged links with the CJNG, however there have been narco mantas allegedly signed by this organization in which death threats have been issued to the authorities in Morelos and a reward of 100,000 dollars for the head of any policeman from the Morelos Mando Unico.

Antecedents

Official reports indicate that his background highlights that he operated in Guerrero with the criminal group Cartel del Sur and later formed an alliance with Guerreros Unidos, and that he was responsible for the wave of violence that has been generated in the municipalities of Cuernavaca and Morelos.

On January 21st of 2017, narco mantas were placed at kilometer 87.5 of the Mexico - Acapulco highway in Cuernavaca, and in 19.5 of the Cuernavaca - Acapulco federal highway, municipality of Xochitepec, in which a criminal group calling itself Comando Asesino identifies itself as head of the Southern Sierra Cartel, producer and exporter of poppies and cocaine in Guerrero and its surroundings, responsible for executions and disappearances.

Valdez Chapa, 42 years old has houses in the towns of Ahuatepec, Cuernavaca, in the Tlacotepec,colonia in Guerrero and the Ruben Jaramillo colonia in Temixco, the last is the place where he was captured on the 30th of November, even though the property had been identified as belonging to Crispin Gaspar Cortez, El Crispin.

Before, authorities sustained that he was dedicated to the sale of vehicles, that his wife was Camelia Rodriguez, with who he had children, Jose Antonio, Carlos Alberto, Vanessa Giselle and Alejandro.

Consultations carried out on Palataforma Mexico detailed that on the 13th of January of 2017 he was detained for the crime of violation of the Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives in the Papayos colonia of Cuernavaca.

That day, around 21:55 hours, a call was received on the emergency 911 in which someone denounced that at this address there were approximately 20 men that fired off 200 shots inside a house. He was also linked to the homicide of State Policeman Ivan Gonzalez Penaloza, perpetrated on the 3rd of December of 2015.

The confrontation

On the 22nd of May of 2007 he was detained for violation of Federal Law of firearms in Chipancingo. The gun battle of the 30th of November in which he was detained and 6 members of his family died derived from a denunciation in which there was a complaint of kidnapping.

Allegedly Valdez Chapa is the friend of Isaac Navarrete, El Senor de la I, leader of the Cartel del Sur in Guerrero, who continues with his support to expand his dominion in the mountains and ceter of this state, as well as states like Morelos, Mexico State and Puebla.

El Senor de la V is the Godfather of Rafael Medina Hurtado, El Gordo, lieutenant of Isaac Navrrate, and is plaza boss of Filo de Caballos and has at his support 50 sicarios that operate in this place and surrounding villages, who dress in t-shirts of the Upoeg to go unnoticed by the military forces, according to an intelligence report.

The criminal history of this subject, who was released along with three men and a woman, is that he belonged to Los Rojos for several years and at the time was plaza boss of Tlacotepec and subsequently in Chilpancingo.

He was also credited with giving the order for the beheading in that town of eight soldiers in 2008. On August of this year, two sicarios infiltrated a children's party of General Helidoro Castillo and threw two grenades into it where there were at least 40 children and their families.

His intention was to kill several leaders of the newly created community police, however the grenades did not explode and the criminals were arrested. In their statements they said that they had been hired by El Senor de la V and El Gordo.

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Aguila 7 of Los Zetas Old School, captured in Ciudad Victoria

December 11, 2017, 2:33 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Tamaulipas Government press release

Subject Matter: Jorge Luis Torres Barron, Zeta Aguila 7
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas:
In an action carried out by elements of the Marines, Jorge Luis Torres Barron, alias Zeta Aguila 7, signalled as a member of a criminal group has been operating in Ciudad Victoria carrying out extortion of truck drivers and drug dealers, informed the coordination group for Tamaulipas.

During his arrest, authorities confiscated a van, 2 packets and 162 doses of a herb with the characteristics of marijuana, as well as 46 doses of white powder and 13 doses of rock, as well as an AK47 assault rifle, a pistol, spare magazines and ammunition, which were put at the disposition of the PGR.

The detained, signalled as a member of a criminal organization, was also being sought by the PGJ of Tamaulipas, who had arrest warrants against him for the crimes of extortion and criminal association, regarding his dedication in Ciudad Victoria to extorting drivers on transport routes.

With actions such as this, the Group for Coordination in Tamaulipas reaffirm their commitment to the recuperation of law and order and peace in the state of Tamaulipas, with the support of the armed forces and in collaboration with state and municipal authorities.

Attorney General of Tamaulipas offers reward for the capture of three organized crime capos

December 12, 2017, 12:34 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article

Subject Matter: Capos of CdG, Tamaulipas Government
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Proceso Redaction
The Attorney General of Justice of Tamaulipas has offered up to 2 million pesos reward to whomever gives information leading to the capture of three alleged bosses of criminal groups, for their alleged responsibility in the crimes of extortion and criminal association.

They are: Luis Alberto Blanco Flores, El Pelochas or El M 28, Humberto or Steven Loiza Mendez Betillo, Betito, and Petronilo Moreno Flores, El Panilo.

In a communication: the Attorney General informed that in the towns of Reynosa and Rio Bravo there have been wanted posters put up with the faces of the alleged criminals. All three have attributed the responsibility for acts of violence in towns of Reynosa and Rio Bravo for the control of criminal activities.

Image from Epoca Violenta

WARNING EXTREMELY GRAPHIC BLOODY IMAGES ON THE NEXT PAGE VIEW WITH EXTREME CAUTION.


According to the Attorney General of Tamaulipas, the denunciation can be received via telephone on the number 841 841 0595 or by email at recompensas@tamaulipas.gob.mx as well as recompensaspgje@tamaulipas.gob.mx.

And from Epoca Violenta
Otis: further to this the Tamaulipas Government have released pictures of four sicarios yesterday who were killed in a shoot out with Govt forces. In a effort to de-glorify the sicario lifestyle, the Govt decided to publish their pictures with three of the four sicarios were shot in the head with assault rifles, and show graphically exactly what the results of this are.

" Today 4 sicarios of the CdG were eliminated by Federal Forces in Reynosa, Tamaulipas in the Villa Florida Colonia, these imbeciles as with other sicarios have an ambition to die in "battle" as an heroic act, so their friends think about them with pride, what you see in photos a-d is what a high power bullet does to someones head".

7 die and transport stopped in Guerrero due to threats from La Familia Michoacana

December 12, 2017, 5:40 am

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: La Familia Michoacana
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Jesus Guerrero
Chipancingo: No less that seven people, among them a Municipal Commander and a Ministerial Agent, were assassinated today in the state of Guerrero. Also before the threats of the criminal group of La Familia Michoacan, public service transport was suspended in the towns of Acapetlahuaya and Teloloapan.

A spokesman for the Coordination Group of Guerrero, Roberto Alvarez, said the service had been discontinued since Monday. During Saturday and Sunday, several public transport buses that cover this area had been assaulted.

This Sunday, a threat was announced in social networks warning bus drivers to stop working. The population has also been asked to refrain from moving to or from the towns of Acapetlahuaya, Teloloapan and Buena Vista del Aire.




"Avoid going to these towns, otherwise you will not be respected because everyone directly and indirectly supports the community police and when we enter Teloloapan, all will disappear because they all support it", the threats pointed out.

This area, which includes the towns of Teloloapan, Acapetlahuaya and Arcelia, there is a confrontation between the criminal group La Familia Michoacana and the Tecampanera Community Police. The Community Police operate in the municipalities of Teloloapan and Apaxtla de Castrejon.

La Familia Michoacana, run by Johnny Oloscoaga, alias "El Pez", has control in the municipalities of Arcelia. A Commander of the Municipal Police of Tlapa was found dead after he was kidnapped on Saturday by a group of armed men, state authorities reported.

First Commander Jorge Antonio Garcia Zarate, 42 years old, was found dead encobijado on the Tlapa-Ahuetepec highway, in a place known as El Mirado. The Police Chief had been hanged and showed signs of torture.

According to state authorities, this Saturday morning, the Police Chief arrived at his house accompanied by his wife in the El Paraiso Colonia in Tlapa, when four armed men in a a Nissan Tsuru car, blocked them in.

Two of the individuals got out of the vehicle and aimed at the couple, they then forced the Commander to get into their car, leaving his wife behind. In addition to the Commander, in another act of violence, also recorded in Tlapa, Natalio Bahena, 66 years old, was stabbed to death.

Meanwhile, in Chilapa a vehicle was found burned out with a burnt body inside of a man

More violence in Acapulco

Five people were killed in Acapulco today, including an agent of the Ministerial Police Commander who was executed in the Farmers Market. In addition a taxi driver was murdered in the garita and a motorcyclist was shot to death in the Rufo Figueroa neighborhood.

Montserrat Carmine "N" Ministerial Police Comandanta

El F-1, alleged CdG plaza boss of Zacatecas arrested

December 13, 2017, 6:17 am

≫ Next: Tepic, Nayarit: 3 Bodies Hanging from Bridge w Narco Manta

≪ Previous: 7 die and transport stopped in Guerrero due to threats from La Familia Michoacana

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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article

Subject Matter: Francisco Noe Gonzalez Ramirez, El F-1
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Proceso Redaction
The National Commission for Security informed that Federal Forces detained on Tuesday, Francisco Noe Gonzalez Ramirez, El F-1, alleged plaza boss for CdG in Zacatecas.

In a communication, the organization detailed that the narco trafficker was apprehended in a house localized in the town of Bahia de Banderas, Nayarit.

The alleged capo was detained after intense intelligence work that managed to get his precise location and identity, and establish a mobilization zone to carry out the operation.

The CNS detailed that with the information compiled and analyzed they notified the Federal Ministerial Authorities, who issued an arrest warrant from a judge specializing in searches, arraignments and intervention communications.




In this manner, they added, elements of the Division of Federal Police Intelligence, together with personnel of Sedena and Seido, implemented an operation in the locality of Bucerias, where Gonzalez Ramirez was detained.

The subject had an apprehension order from a judge of the Seventh District in State of Mexico for the organized crime of kidnapping.

According to the communication from the CNS, was read his rights which at all times were respected. Later he was transferred to the facilities of Seido.

Tepic, Nayarit: 3 Bodies Hanging from Bridge w Narco Manta

December 13, 2017, 3:48 pm

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Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Debate

Dec13, 2017

Tepic, Nayarit: Three dead bodies were found early this morning suspended off a bridge over the roadway near the route to Mazatlan, Sinaloa. Accompanying the bodies and also hanging from the bridge was a narco manta signed by "Los Mazatlecos"; a cartel cell affiliated with the Beltran Leyvas.

The cadavers were semi nude and hanging by their necks. The local authorities reacted quickly after recieving a 911 call alerting them to the sighting at approximately 6 am. Municipal and State Police went to the scene, which was causing much commotion, then Firemen and Civil protection units responded to remove the corpses while the area was cordoned off.

"This is what will happen to all the Halcones and all those who support that puppet of 18, Valdivia" Los Mazatlecos

There is currently no information or identity known of the 3 dead men, but the PGR pointed out that it could be related to yesterday's arrest of "El F-1", Francisco Noe Gonzalez Ramirez, alleged plaza boss of CdG in Zacatecas, who assumed regional control after the capture of "La Hamburgesa".

They also claimed that they have not had a similar event since 2011.

Hopefully, we can find more info on this event and confirm whether or not it has ties to  "El F-1",  see Otis' Post from this morning.