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Narco-terrorism doesn't exit: Jalisco Government

May 8, 2015, 2:33 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuanaarticle

[ Subject Matter: CJNG, PGR, Jalisco
Recommendation: Some knowledge of recent events in Jalisco would be useful, see Lucio Rarticle]



Reporter: Luis Carlos Sainz Matinez and cortesia
The Government of Jalisco denied that the violence by members of organized crime at the start of May, in Guadalajara and other Municipalities as acts of narco-terrorism, since that term does not fit in  any current legal form.

After a press conference, the institution signalled that the blockades put up at various points of the State, " corresponds to acts of vandalism", planned by criminals, some of which were detained and put at the disposition of PGR, in order to be investigated for the crimes of terrorism and organized criminal behaviour.

The information supplied by the Directorate of Social Communication detailed that the word narco-terrorism "does not exist according to the Royal Academy of Language, to utilise the jargon used by these criminal groups would implicate that it falls into a criminal apology.

"It's because of them that the Government of Jalisco doesn't employ and will not employ the term " narco-terrorism", explains the eager Government news letter. He adds that to discard the word " does not, at all, minimise the gravity of events in Jalisco.

In four paragraphs the Government is dedicated to semantically clarify the difference used to describe the criminal actions that generated fear amongst the population and prompted the state to activate a "Code Red" alert.

In the last paragraph the Jalisco Government gratefully acknowledges the support you are giving the Federal Forces as part of Operation Jalisco, to stop the criminal group whose name is not mentioned and that is the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana
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Zetas Money Laundering Case: U.S appeals court tosses out Pancho Colorado’s conviction

May 8, 2015, 2:45 am
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat: Use the search bar to access outstanding posts written by Chivis and Havana on the Zetas Trial and Bribery Case

"I will win the appeal, there was no evidence against me.." turns out the court of appeals agrees with him


The decision of the court of appeals gave Pancho Colorado the big win he said he was getting on his appeal.  He was the only of the convicted defendants in the Zetas Cartel Horse Racing money laundering trial to win an appeal.

The court of appeals found the District Court in Austin abused its discretion when commingling jury instructions with the other defendants, finding “the jury was improperly and harmfully instructed”, and may not have found the defendant guilty had they not been instructed in the manner identical to the other defendants.

Immediately following is the recap of the findings in a nutshell, but below the text of this post is a complete copy of the appeal and findings for all defendants.  The appeal has a good overview of trial details and the appeals for Jose Trevino and Garcia Solis.

These findings are for the money laundering case, the guilty conviction for the bribery attempt stands.  Pancho, his son and business partner all plead guilty to bribing the Federal Court judge in the money laundering case, offering 1 million dollars in exchange for a light sentence.

I am sure he is kicking himself over that move, after winning his appeal.

Findings of the court:

The government repeatedly argued that, because Colorado purchased horses with funds from his company, ADT, and ADT was started with drug money in 2003 and 2004, Colorado therefore knowingly purchased horses in furtherance of the money-laundering conspiracy. But the horse-racing money-laundering conspiracy did not begin until 2008. Accordingly, our review of the record reveals no evidence from which a reasonable factfinder could trace Colorado’s horse purchases to illegal proceeds—or to illegal proceeds that had been commingled with legitimate funds.


At best, the evidence shows that Colorado purchased 121 horses on behalf of conspiracy members using ADT funds and that he was closely associated with members of Los Zetas. While this might be evidence from which a properly instructed jury could infer that Colorado knowingly joined the money-laundering conspiracy—an issue on which we express no opinion—we cannot say “beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury verdict would have been the same absent the erro[neous]’” jury instruction given in this case.

This is particularly so given that the government’s expert witness specifically testified that Colorado “commingled personal and business” funds and expenses: a confused jury may have inferred from this testimony together with the erroneous instruction that the jury was obligated to infer from this evidence an intent to conceal.

Therefore, the district court abused its discretion in giving the commingling jury instruction it gave. The error was harmless as to Jose Trevino and Garcia–Solis. Because of the centrality of the commingling issue to Colorado’s conviction and the weak circumstantial evidence of his guilt, we cannot conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the jury verdict would have been the same as to Colorado had the jury been properly instructed.  Accordingly, we affirm the convictions of Jose Trevino and Garcia–Solis, but we vacate the conviction of Colorado.


Since we vacate Colorado’s conviction because the jury was improperly and harmfully instructed, we need not and do not address his challenges to the sentence and to the money judgment


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Gun attack on Lt. Col. Julián Leyzaola,remains in serious condition, his bodyguard killed

May 8, 2015, 3:28 pm
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Lucio R Borderland Beat posted by 'Mano' material from AFN -Twiiter


An assassination attempt was made today,  against the former police chief of Tijuana and Juarez, Julián Leyzaola Pérez.

The latest reports indicate that he is out of surgery and is recovering,  according to the Secretary of Public Security, Omar Muñoz Cesar Morales. 

Leyzaola was attacked this afternoon when he was traveling in a white Jeep Commander SUV.  His wife,  daughter and escort (bodyguard) were with him at the time of the shooting.

After the attack the suspects attempted to flee in a blue Mitsubishi Endeavor, but were stopped  a short distance from the scene of the attack.

The detainees were identified as Hugo Alonso Serenil Luna alias ‘El Cabezón’,  33, and  Jesús Antonio Castañeda Álvarez,  25.

Authorities report the suspects were both drugged, and told police “we were ordered to kill someone but never knew the name”.

The former mayor of Tijuana, Jorge Ramos Hernández, reported this afternoon that his good friend and great human being, Lieutenant Colonel Julian Leyzaola is stable, but that one of his bodyguards died during the attack.  The unidentified bodyguard, "lost his life protecting Julian". ((other reports have his condition as critical but stable)

The attack occurred when Leyzaola stopped his vehicle at a commercial area on avenida Internacional, in the city of Juarez, so that his family could exit the vehicle to do some shopping.   It was while he stopped and still behind the wheel that a blue Mitsubishi pulled up, one gunman exited the vehicle and began shooting.

Leyzaola was transferred to a private hospital, where they performed the surgery and he is recovering, while being heavily guarded.  It is not uncommon for sicarios to go to the hospital and finish the job.
Suspects
He was attacked in what is described as “a hail of bullets”, four struck the former chief, one in the neck, twice in the chest area, and one in the back.

 Secretary Muñoz Morales, confirmed  the arrest of the two alleged perpetrators.

Julian Leyzaola Perez is a retired former military officer who served as Secretary of Public Security of Ciudad Juarez, from 2010 to 2013.

Before his arrival at the border, he headed the municipal police of Tijuana, where he significantly reduced  the crime wave that engulfed the city.

Recently, the Partido Encuentro Social political party,  (PES) the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Julián Leyzaola Pérez, as security adviser in 2015. 

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El Chacal from CAF arrested.

May 8, 2015, 4:19 pm
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Borderland Beat


Alberto Avila "El Chacal" and his brother Jesus Omar
(Tijuano´s note: In past weeks several corpses have been left in Zona Norte with banners threatening Aquiles and Rana´s people for "coming near Zona Norte", the guy arrested has been continuously mentioned as the one responsible for this)

Alberto Avila Alvarado aka "El Chacal" was arrested yesterday in Playas de Tijuana by agents of the Municipal Police. Avila Alvarado is believed to be the successor of his deceased brother-in-law Manuel Toscano Rodriguez aka "El Mono".

"El Chacal" was captured in an operation done by Tijuana´s Municipal Police Special Forces and members of their intelligence branch. At the moment of his capture, Avila Alvarado was accompanied by his brother Jesus Omar Avila, both of them were in possession of a AK-47 rifle and an undisclosed but considerable amount of drugs.

According to intelligence reports from the Municipal  Public Safety Agency, "El Chacal" is one of the main providers to retail dealers in Zona Norte and is currently in dispute with a guy nicknamed "El Alejo".

His brother-in-law was Manuel Toscano Rodriguez, an alleged cell leader from the Arellano Felix Organization and the guy in charge of managing the criminal activities in the famed Zona Norte area up until his execution last month outside the State Court.

Both of the detainees are currently under custody from the State´s Attorney General Office facing charges of illegal gun possession and crimes against health(drug charges).

It is worth mentioning "El Chacal" has been arrested several times before this operation, all of those times he has been caught in possession of weapons, drugs and money and all the time he has been left free, much like "El Mono" was before him.

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Jalisco: When attacked, Helicopter was in low altitude, allowing paratroopers to rappel

May 9, 2015, 8:08 am
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat republished from Reforma

Several of the paratroopers jumped from the aircraft Pilot shot first

Click on image to enlarge
Lucio: Could this become any more convoluted and confusing? Yet, this account rings true.

Residents had reported the attacked occurred in the hours of darkness, despite the government saying it was daylight. This would also explain why the government thought there were missing/abducted soldiers. 3 had begun to rappel when attacked; therefore the aircraft was flying low. Low enough for the pilot to be shot and killed straight away. As I reported previously, one of Mencho’s greatest defensive tools is the collusion of government forces on his payroll. Municipal, state and federal forces, funnel intelligence to the capo, assisting in his evading capture.

This is a prime example, he was tipped off, and was waiting and prepared. The element of surprise planned by the government, was flung in their face by C.J.N.G.

From Reforma:

The operation took place in the wee hours of May 1, not daylight, as was officially stated. The aim was to catch Nemesio Oseguera, "El Mencho",

Reforma is reporting that its sources close to the failed operation that the plan was a familiar one, one used to catch capos in the past.   Federal Forces moved guided by intelligence information to the area where the leader of the Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) was located.

The operating tried for a repeat of success, by implementing a surprise deployment I the hour between 3 and 4 AM.  Ideally when El Mencho would least suspect an attack and is most vulnerable.
Helicopter aerial surveillance was the key to the arrest. This happened, for example, with the arrest of Miguel Trevino, alias "Z40", arrested in July 2013 on a road south of Nuevo Laredo.

But this time the plan failed.

The Helicopter  was carrying paratroopers

The Mexican Air Force heliopter was gunned down at Casimiro Castillo-Villa Purificación Highway.

The helicopter was carrying parachutists that would rappel down to support an operation on the ground, which was deployed to intercept a convoy protecting the CJNG capo. [Who was supposed to  in the municipality of Tonaya]

The first three riflemen descended down, while the aircraft held position to accommodate their decline.  The three touched ground when they were met with gunfire.

This is a photo of the truck illustrated in the Reforma chart #3 at top.
The steel shield mount was for what authorities called "machine gun".
From the mounted weapon 3 shots were fired one killing the pilot, Shooter
of RPGis standing behind the truck and shot one projectile to the tail section.

The low position of the helicopter was perfect for El Mencho’s loyalists to initiate their assault. 

Their first target was the pilot, who was killed by shooting.  Then came the first RPG impact and it was that impact that brought down the helicopter. 

Some soldiers jumped. Several were caught in trees. Others were burned.

Refoma sources said that El Mencho was aware of the pending operation by the feds and  had convoys out searching for them. 

And in the mayhem, “El Mencho” premier leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation, escaped.

It was, the fifth time that the head of CNJG eluded security forces.

 Previous failed capture attempts

The Army, Navy and Federal Police operations have been implemented since 2010 to capture Mencho, but without success.

CJNG Mencho loyalists disrupt capture operations by  narcobloqueos, fires or direct confrontations with the police, to distract and allow their leader to flee.

  • In November 2010, authorities placed him near the Ángel Leaño Hospital, north of Guadalajara. but when reaching the location, no one was found, just 40 kilos of the drug known as "crystal" and two AR-15’s.
  • On August 25, 2012, another capture operation was mounted at the municipality of Tonaya sparking violence in dozens of blocks in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, but the capo once again escaped.
  • A month later, the feds conducted another operation, in the division Terranova in Guadalajara. They stopped 4 of his henchmen, but not the boss.
  • In July 2013, he was located in the municipality of El Grullo, and he managed to escape again.


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A reported non-agressional pact between "Mayo" Zambada and El 'Mencho' in Jalisco

May 10, 2015, 8:19 am
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat

La Jornada, a national newspaper in Mexico, is reporting a non-aggression pact between Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho”, leader of Cartel Jalisco New Generation CJNG, and Ismael El Mayo Zambada leader of Sinaloa Cartel.

Supposedly, the pact is for the two organized Crime Groups,  to maintain control of their areas of operation and agree  not to enter the territory of each other,  in places like Juárez, Chihuahua; Tijuana, Baja California, and  San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora.

If true, it is a practical solution between the two groups, once in a true alliance, but of late that has been reduced to pacts between regional cells of the Sinaloa and CJNG.

What is noticeably different with Los Cuinis and CJNG, they have gripped command of their organization to remain within the Oseguera and Valencia families.  This is to avoid the same downfall of other criminal groups, who appointed regional commands, which evolves into leadership disputes and splinter groups.

If such a pact exists, it would extend the protection of both criminal groups, and allow intelligence to flow between them.

What is known is Mencho is a proficient strategist, who prefers to avoid conflict where possible.  He does not fight for a share in the US drug market, and seemingly enters intelligent agreements.
Map created by Victor Sanchez (Animal Politico) 4 months ago

Mencho is originally from Michoacán, and he has long targeted control of his home state.  

With the rise of Los Viagras in Michoacán, the first and only  Caballeros Templarios splinter group, he recognized opportunity. It is also feasible he designed the opportunity, as he long maintained a close personal relationship with the Sierra Santanas.

When the federal government appointed Alfredo Castillo as Michoacán security chief, Castillo's  goal was to destroy the “autodefensas”.  That inadvertently (or not), only served to assist Mencho, and his goal of controlling Michoacán.

The appointment of El Americano, an ally of Viagras and Mencho, as one of the 4 chiefs of the federally generated “Rurales”,  augmented CJNG's  growing control of Michoacán. 


He no longer had to be concerned with Templarios or its leaders, the federal government was assuring the Templarios cartel was destroyed or greatly compromised.
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It smells like war in Jalisco.

May 10, 2015, 9:53 am
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Posted by DD republished from Mexico Daily News

Armored vehicle on patrol in Jalisco with capacity to carry 12 soldiers photo; Milenio/ignacio reyes
The troops have been deployed to Jalisco in the strongest show of military might ever seen in Mexico, according to a report today by Milenio.

One week after a criminal gang, believed to be the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, shot down a Mexican Air Force Cougar helicopter killing six soldiers, the Armed Forces are on the move.

From San José de Avila to Villa Purificación, the municipality where the attack on the helicopter took place, on the highways and on the approaches to towns in the region, usually under the control of the cartels, is an impressive display of military machinery.

French-made Panhard armoured vehicles carrying 12 soldiers are on patrol. Their 50-caliber guns will fire 1,000 rounds a minute.

But how strong is the vehicle’s armor, a soldier is asked. Strong enough to withstand the shot that took down the helicopter last Friday?

The soldier smiles and says, with typical military frugality, “Yes.”

Residents look at the show of force with astonishment, but they’re not displeased. In fact, they’re glad to see it, although none will appear in front of a camera to say so.

“The truth is, we feel calmer seeing the soldiers everywhere with those huge tanks,” says the woman at an Oxxo store.

“It’s like a movie,” says a woman to her husband while soldiers look over their truck at a checkpoint.

But the scene — armored vehicles, soldiers with bazookas on their shoulders and rocket-powered grenade launches ready to fire — is real enough.

It smells like war in Jalisco.
The troops have been deployed to Jalisco in the strongest show of military might ever seen in Mexico, according to a report today by Milenio. - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/the-military-is-out-in-full-force-in-jalisco/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=3757b91d41-May+9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-3757b91d41-349444589#sthash.Rrc7yW2K.dpuf
The troops have been deployed to Jalisco in the strongest show of military might ever seen in Mexico, according to a report today by Milenio.
One week after a criminal gang, believed to be the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, shot down a Mexican Air Force Cougar helicopter killing six soldiers, the Armed Forces are on the move.
From San José de Avila to Villa Purificación, the municipality where the attack on the helicopter took place, on the highways and on the approaches to towns in the region, usually under the control of the cartels, is an impressive display of military machinery.
French-made Panhard armoured vehicles carrying 12 soldiers are on patrol. Their 50-caliber guns will fire 1,000 rounds a minute.
But how strong is the vehicle’s armor, a soldier is asked. Strong enough to withstand the shot that took down the helicopter last Friday?
The soldier smiles and says, with typical military frugality, “Yes.”
Residents look at the show of force with astonishment, but they’re not displeased. In fact, they’re glad to see it, although none will appear in front of a camera to say so.
- See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/the-military-is-out-in-full-force-in-jalisco/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=3757b91d41-May+9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-3757b91d41-349444589#sthash.Rrc7yW2K.dpuf
The troops have been deployed to Jalisco in the strongest show of military might ever seen in Mexico, according to a report today by Milenio.
One week after a criminal gang, believed to be the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, shot down a Mexican Air Force Cougar helicopter killing six soldiers, the Armed Forces are on the move.
From San José de Avila to Villa Purificación, the municipality where the attack on the helicopter took place, on the highways and on the approaches to towns in the region, usually under the control of the cartels, is an impressive display of military machinery.
French-made Panhard armoured vehicles carrying 12 soldiers are on patrol. Their 50-caliber guns will fire 1,000 rounds a minute.
But how strong is the vehicle’s armor, a soldier is asked. Strong enough to withstand the shot that took down the helicopter last Friday?
The soldier smiles and says, with typical military frugality, “Yes.”
Residents look at the show of force with astonishment, but they’re not displeased. In fact, they’re glad to see it, although none will appear in front of a camera to say so.
- See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/the-military-is-out-in-full-force-in-jalisco/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=3757b91d41-May+9&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-3757b91d41-349444589#sthash.Rrc7yW2K.dpuf
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Alleged Community Guards Lay Siege to Chilapa

May 10, 2015, 8:51 pm
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At least 300 members of the Mexican Army, Gendarmerie, and State Police are in Chilapa, Guerrero in order to reinforce security.

By:Ezequiel Flores Contreras | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

With the support of the Mexican Army, Federal and State Police, a group of armed civilians maintain a city under siege where a hunt unleashed out against Zenén Nava Sánchez, “El Chaparro”, who is the alleged leader of the criminal group “Los Rojos”.

The event shows the vacuum of authority that exists in the city and the level of impunity and the complicity of authorities and politicians with organized crime.

The armed group led by municipal commissioners acts as a “Community Guard” of the towns of El Jagüey, San Ángel, Ayahualulco and Ciloxuchicán, however, official reports report that it is the armed group of another criminal group called “Los Ardillos”, led by the brothers of the president of the Congress, the local PRD representative Bernardo Ortega Jiménez.

Yesterday around 17:30 hours, approximately 300 masked civilians armed with shotguns stormed and took control of the entrances and exits of the municipal capital of Chilapa where the Federal Police Gendarmerie and the Mexican Army took control of the security against the brutal dispute between “Los Rojos” and “Los Ardillos” for this strategic plaza located between the regions Centro and Montaña.


The action caused panic and terror among the public with the risk of a shootout occurring between the criminal groups that operate with impunity in this area collapsed by drug violence.


The “Community Guards” stripped the weapons off of the 40 municipal police and made rounds throughout the municipality in official police vehicles while bearing official weapons, the AR-15 and AR-70 rifles.

This Sunday, Proceso toured throughout the conflict zone and could see the failure of the authorities such as the military, federal, and state, who have merely observed the raids, the disarming of the municipal police, the civilian retention, and the checkpoints that the “Community Guard” have on the boulevard Eucaria Apreza, located along the federal road Chilapa-Tlapa.

The perception of the residents of this city faced with the omissive attitude of the authorities is that with this way, the federal and state governments intend to oust the cell of “Los Rojos” and leave “Los Ardillos” with control of the plaza.  “Removing one evil with another evil,” responded a youth, having been asked by the reporter.

“We told the authorities to get the fuck out of here because we are actually going to kill “El Chaparro” and his people,” a “Community Guard” said, adding that he decided to participate in this “war” because sicarios at the service of “Los Rojos” have disappeared five of his relatives.

“With us, kidnappings, assassinations, and extortions carried out by the fucking “Chaparro” have stopped,” a strongly built youth with slanted eyes, dark skin, and a pistol tucked in his waist reported.

The streets in this place where a tense atmosphere breathes are deserted.  Artisans, who come every Sunday to the pre-Hispanic flea market of Chilapa, simply did not come, and the closings of commercial establishments are evident.

With more than 24 hours after the armed group linked to “Los Ardillos” took over the municipal capital, the interim governor of Guerrero, Rogelio Ortega Martinez, has not set any official position and remains hidden.

The Director of Public Safety of the municipality of Chilapa, Job Encarnación Cuenca, officially separated from his title.  The police of Guerrero will be the ones who will stand in for the Federal Police of Chilapa until an agreement has been made with the armed civilians who have taken siege of this municipality.

Meanwhile the PRI mayor of Chilapa, Francisco García González, publicly pointed out of protecting Zenén Nava, decided to flee the municipality.  His current whereabouts are unknown.

Source: Proceso
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video: footage of the aftermath of CJNG ambush on state police

May 11, 2015, 8:45 am
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Lucio R Borderland Beat

The video below is following last month’s CJNG ambush of a state police convoy in Jalisco. 

The convoy came under attack while travelling from Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific Coast to Guadalajara. The police had been deployed to Puerto Vallarta to assist with the tourists who had arrived for holiday during Semana Santa (Holy Week).

15 officers, 14 men and one woman,  were murdered by the use of high powered weapons, grenades and incineration. 

11 were incinerated. 4 shot, 5 were injured. 

The CJNG sicarios had set up camp near the winding road, and appeared to have waited for the convoy for some time.  In the surrounding area among the debris left behind by the hitmen, were clothes, beer cans, empty water bottles, food containers, condoms and tents.

When the military convoy was approaching the area, where the CJNG group were waiting their arrival, gunmen blocked the road with a burning truck and fired on the officers when they stopped to investigate.

Authorities say the attack stemmed from  March, when state security forces killed a CJNG regional leader named  Heriberto Acevedo Cardenas, nicknamed 'El Gringo’.

After that killing there was a failed assassination attempt on state Security Commissioner Alejandro Solorio.  During that attempt 4 sicarios were arrested, and authorities contend this ambush was to avenge both the killings of El Gringo and the arrest of the 4 sicarios.

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Identifying "Los 28"

May 12, 2015, 12:01 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article and additional images from Google

[ Subject Matter: BCS, Sinaloa Cartel, El 28, Los 28
Recommendation: Some prior subject matter knowledge would be useful ]



Reporter: Zeta Investigations
Since the start of the narco war for control of the narco trafficking plaza of La Paz, Felipe Eduardo Guajardo Garcia "El 28" has been permanently anonymous.

According to the declarations of staff at SEIDO, narco traffickers, Municipal Police, State Police, and Ministerial Police, knew of his existence uniquely through telephone calls, text messages, but no one knows what he looks like.

The criminals under his command receive instructions via cell phone and are ignorant of the identity of their Boss. Agents of Security never knew who was on the other end of the telephone line, when on various occasions and after the capture of some Sicarios in La Paz, received cell phone calls with death threats made by the principal responsible for the wave of violence that lives in the South Californian Capital.

"I am "El 28", to me you are going to pay, sons of your bitch mothers. When we meet I'm going to fuck your mother, face to face, bitches, and we will see if you are worth dick".





After the capture of Victor Barraza Martinez "El Vidal" or "El Victor", SEIDO opened the investigation previously under the case number PGR/SEIDO/UEIDCS/605/2014, already had information that the detained was "El 28".

However, during his interrogation at SEIDO headquarters and after declaring Victor Barraza Martinez, and five of his accomplices arrested, on November 26th of 2104 in a safe-house in Gilberto Mendoza Street, Civilizadores de la Paz Colonia, it was eventually ruled out that "El 28" had been captured on the night of the operation headed by the Secretary of the Navy, Mexican Army and Attorney General of Justice for the State of Baja California Sur.

Since then, and according to a Federal Agent of Investigation, initiated an investigation to unravel the mystery of his identity and his whereabouts, to stop him and bring him to justice.

Until now and according to the last re-count of ZETA, the wave of violence sums at 99 in total, 53 of those fell in July to December of 2014, 39 in January of this year, 20 of which were in full elections season and 7 more in Los Cabos.

The capture of Juan Antonio Martinez Rosas "El Furby", on 22nd of December of 2014, supplied more information about "El 28" and together with his buddies, during his interrogation at SEIDO headquarters.

"He's white, chestnut hair, short with bald spots, black eyes, wide nose, womans mouth, big ears with and without beard, robust complexion and of medium stature, described "El Furby".

The Sicario agreed to knowing him before, when he arrived in La Paz from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. He affirmed that he is approximately 35 years of age, he also included the address of a house of his in Pueblo Nuevo Colonia.

Without the necessity of making an impression, the ex State Ministerial Police Agent said he had information that " we have two brothers linked in these criminal activities, one of 40 years of age and another of approximately 28 years of age.

During the Federal investigation, which lasted about six months, investigative Agents of SEIDO managed to achieve major information about the two brothers of "El 28".

According to the official they are as follows:

* Jorge Alberto Guajardo Garcia, 40 years of age with two houses. The first on Avenida Francisco I Madero Oriente number 1334, Centro Colonia in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and the second on Calle 5 de Mayo, Centro de Zuazua Colonia, Nuevo Leon.



* Carlos Alberto Guajuardo Garcia, who has an arrest warrant for capture from the DEA for the crime of conspiracy to traffic drugs in McAllen, Texas.




The first of them is described as "tall, thin, white, short hair with bald spots, big ears, big nose, who always wears cowboy boots, piteado belt and hat, and has a marked taste for horse racing".

The second is described at "of medium stature, dark skinned, short hair, large eyebrows, big ears, big moustache, round face with pimples.

The network of links

The investigation conducted by Federal Agents revised details of crimes and captures, and gained major information  gleaned from telephones and computer tech, seized from 30 sicarios detained and subject to penal process in La Paz, Nayarit and Jalisco.

According to the Agent, " the calls and text messages of death threats to Municipal Police, State Police, and Ministerial Police, were made from a cell phone in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon with the number 811-852-1252".

After six months of investigation they could establish that:

* Jorge Alberto Guajardo Garcia, is presumably the leader of the group of criminals "Los 28" and contacts direct to Damaso Lopez Nunez "El Licenciado" and Damaso Lopez Serrano "El Mini Licenciado". He operates from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and displaces constantly to El Dorado, Culiacan, La Paz and Los Cabos. He has under his dominion the trafficking of drugs that leave Neuvo Leon, Tamaulipas, and Coahuila, and lately the frontier with Texas, United States.

 * Felipe Eduardo Guajardo Garcia "El 28" is responsible for the criminal operations of his older brother, who at present is fighting for the Plazas of the South Zone against " Los Pepillos" and against "Los Mayitos" in the North Zone of La Paz, and is planning to fight for the Plaza of Los Cabos.

In the records of the few sicarios willing to speak, that said they recognised him by sight, describes him as the person who order the murders of rivals, who they identify as "El 28", who lives in La Paz and is moving into Los Cabos.

Carlos Alberto Guajardo Garcia is responsible for logistics and supply of arms to Coahuila and Tamaulipas, as well as controlling sicarios in Sinaloa, Sonora, La Paz and Los Cabos.

An Agent of the Group for Coordination of Public Security of Baja California Sur, recognised that the group of criminals of "El 28" for now are the most violent, because they were schooled in Tamaulipas, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon.

In the last crime map, elaborate the Federal Authorities and Military, Felipe Guajardo Garcia figures as the criminal boss of the cells headed by the following sicarios:

* Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda "La China", armed wing in La Paz

* Raul Castillo de la Rosa "El Cochi", armed wing in Los Cabos



* Alejandro Carrasco Torres "El Oso" or "El Enano", who allegedly arrived as reinforcement for criminal activities of the first two cells.



It should be noted, that Alejandro Carrasco Torres "El Oso" and his accomplices were detained on 1st of May by Agents of the PEP ( State Preventative Police) and the PGJE , while circulating armed aboard a vehicle around the Avenue Padre Kino and Miguel L Legaspy, in the Colonia Los Olivos de La Paz.

The sicario was carrying a nine mm pistol in his belt, and he was with another sicario identified as Everado Garcia Silva, originally of Culiacan, Sinaloa. They were travelling in a silver colored Nissan Juke, registration plates CZR-7679, this is a tall vehicle and after a search the weapon was detected.

The two detained, the weapon and the vehicle were put at the disposition of the PGR.

However, Alejandro Carrasco Torres "El Oso" and his accomplice were freed one day after, under strong suspicion of corruption, and on the morning of 4th of May were attacked and shot around 04:30 in a marked safe house number 2717 Calle Venustiano Carraza, between Antonio Navarro and 5th of February, in the Los Olivos de La Paz Colonia.

In the attack three sicarios died from "El Oso's" cell they were identified as:

* Everado Garcia Silva, 36 years of age, with previous prison terms on his record in Ensenada and San Quintin, Baja California for crimes against health, according to the records of the PGR.

* Humberto de la Rosa Rubio, with previous prison time in Culiacan, Sinoloa for crimes against health.

* Martin Aboytes Zavala, recently liberated from the Centre for Social Reinsertion of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, after completing a stretch for crimes against health.

At the crime scene, the PGJE found spent cartridges in calibre 9mm, .223 winchester, and 7.62 x 39, a magazine for a .40 calibre pistol, and six magazines for .223 winchester ( used by AR-15), as well as a .40 calibre pistol and an AR-15 assault rifle.

In a similar manner, a corpse of a woman was discovered in a breach of earth works in El Manuel Colonia, in the South of La Paz, according to a medical assistant she was tortured and was beaten and strangled . She was identified as Elsa Tomaso Cervantes Ancheta, 26 years of age, with previous history of crimes against health.


Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana

Otis: its seems that someone tried to intercept and or buy every edition of Zeta containing this article in Los Cabos. Seems like El 28 didn't want this information to hit the streets.
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Heads of Los Zetas are the most affected: PGR

May 12, 2015, 12:17 pm
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article

[ Subject Matter: Cartel leaders arrested, All Cartels
Recommendation: Some basic knowledge of current Mexican cartels would be useful ]


Reporter: Ruben Mosso
The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion is the criminal group that has received the least strikes against its leadership, well only three members of the organisation have been affected by Federal forces, that formed part of the 122 priority objectives of the Federal Government are seeking to capture.

Until today, they have given a parade of 93 criminals, 91 of which the PGR revealed their names this passed 8th of May. Between them 14 have been killed.

In response to a request for information, the PGR signalled that the major part of the detained and dead are from Los Zetas.

From 2013 until today, 26 Zetas were captured, while a further 5 lost their lives while confronting Federal Forces.

Among the detainees is the absolute leader of Los Zetas, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales "El Z-40", Tomas Mauricio Sifuentes Garcia "El Mega", Vincente Molina Morales "El Vincentillo" and Ramiro Perez Moreno "El Rama". In the list of fallen are Angel Aguirre Uscanga Marin, Cruz Alberto Zamudio de la Rosa "La Cucha" and Jose Hernandez Martinez "El Enano", to name but a few.

In second place we find the Cartel del Poniente, a criminal group that operate in the North of the Country, particularly in Zone La Laguna (adjacent to Coahuila and Durango). Otis: see Chivis and Valor's lowdown on this crew see link.




In the last few years this criminal band have protagonized confrontations with Los Zetas and Los Cabrera, this last group move drugs for the Sinaloa Cartel. Otis: see Buggs lowdown on this crew Los Cabrera see link.

Until now there have been 17 leaders of this group detained. Some of the criminal are named as: Aurora Rodriguez Montoya, Carlos Frederico Aguilar Chaires, Vicentillo, Daniel Garcia Avila "El Danny" and Francisco Centeno Vela "El Negro" or "La Barredora", among others.

The Sinaloa Cartel maintains third place in priority objectives, already 12 leaders have been captured and three more have been killed.

Among the detained are, the boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Alejandro Cabrera Sarabia, Francisco Javier Pulido Oropeza "El Pinchas", Abraham Inzunza Inzunza "El Wico" and Luis Ricardo Centeno Vela "El Mongol".

For the other part, Gabino Salas Valenciano "El Inginiero", Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza "El Macho Prieto" and Jesus Rodrigo Fierro Ramirez "El 11", are the leaders that lost their lives fighting the Federal Forces.

Meanwhile the Cartel del Golfo occupy the fourth slot, who have had 5 of their leaders captured and one more killed.

A few of these are currently facing penal processes they are: Eleno Salazar Flores "El Leno", Emilio Montes Sermeno and Juventino Palacios Gonzalez "El Secre". The leader reported killed was Galdino Mellado Cruz "El Mellado", who was one of the founders of Los Zetas.

Following on in fifth place is the Juarez Cartel, with five priority objectives achieved like their leader Vincente Carrillo Fuentes "El Viceroy", Alejandro Arias Barrera "El Grande", David Aaron Espinoza Haro "El Secre", Omar Javier Llamas Orta "La Guapa", and Alberto Esteban Carrillo Fuentes "Betty la fea", brother of "El Viceroy".

In sixth place we find the Caballeros Templarios, with three detainees and and two killed. Above all the capture of Servando Gomez Martinez "La Tuta" or "El Profe", and the death of Nazario Moreno Gonzalez "El Chayo" or "El Mas Loco", and Enrique Plancarte Solis "Kike Plancarte".

Following on in seventh is the Beltran Leyva Organization with three detentions, La Familia Michoacana with two detentions and one dead, and the Cartel Arellano Felix with two captures.

In respect of the CJNG, the Federal Government has detained the following priorities, Jose Bernabe Brizuela Meraz "La Vaca" and Rafael Vincente Mendoza "El Arete". Of this group who lost their lives are, Juan Carlos Carranaza Saavedra "El Naca".

Keys of the higher danger

In Mexico there are nine cartels that operate through 43 criminal cells, without doubt the CJNG is considered the most dangerous.
Organizations like Los Zetas and CDG have been rendered less dangerous by strikes at their structure, as well as disputes among themselves.

Original article in Spanish at Milenio


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Part 1: Mexican Cartel-Canadian Drug Pipeline

May 13, 2015, 8:23 am
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat - thank you to Canadiana,  republished from National Post
Port of Vamcouver
Part One

How Hells Angels and criminal gangs came to control much of the Vancouver docks 

More than two dozen of the longshoremen unloading container ships on the docks of Metro Vancouver are Hells Angels, their associates, other gangsters or people with serious criminal records, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found.

The infiltration of gangsters and criminals into the port workforce is perpetuated by a longtime employment practice that allows existing union members to nominate friends, relatives and associates when new jobs become available.

Police say organized crime maintains this foothold on the waterfront for strategic purposes — so drugs and other contraband can be smuggled in some of the more than 1.5 million containers that pass through the four container terminals at Port Metro Vancouver every year.

Just over three per cent of containers arriving here are checked by the Canada Border Services Agency.

“It is a concern to us. We feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this country come in through our ports,” said Det.-Staff. Sgt. Len Isnor, the country’s top law enforcement expert on the Hells Angels.

We feel that a lot of the illegal drugs that come into this country come in through our ports

Isnor, who works for the Ontario Provincial Police, has testified at several major B.C. cases involving the biker gang.

Isnor said the Hells Angels have maintained a foothold in Canada’s three largest ports — Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax — for the past 30 years.

“So as far as the ports are concerned, it’s the whole success of the Hells Angels.”

While airports have tightened security in the post-9/11 world, Metro Vancouver docks remain relatively porous, allowing people linked to organized crime, and even some convicted of international drug smuggling, to work on the waterfront.

The Sun has identified at least six full-patch Hells Angels who are active members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Some have worked on the docks for years, like Al DeBruyn, a senior White Rock Hells Angel who started in 1981 — two years before the HA was set up in B.C.

Other Hells Angels joined the longshoremen more recently. Rob Alvarez of the elite Nomads chapter and Kelowna Angel Damiano Dipopolo started on May 24, 2012. West Point Hells Angel Ryan Sept started just last year, nominated by another full-patch member of his chapter.


Bikers aren’t the only people with links to crime working on the waterfront.

Others who police have publicly identified as gangsters, such as Mani Buttar and Bobby Tajinder Gill, are also longshoremen, as are some of their associates.

Buttar has been a member of Local 502, a Vancouver local of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, since 1998. The local provides hundreds of workers a day to Fraser Surrey docks and Deltaport. And Buttar, whose two brothers died in gangland shootings, is on his union’s executive committee despite a lengthy criminal history.

Gill is in jail after police issued a warrant for him several months ago on some outstanding charges.

The Sun has documented 27 active longshoremen with gang or criminal links from various sources of information, including public records and union membership lists.

That number doesn’t include the “inactive” members of the union who are also Hells Angels — East End president John Bryce, Nomads Angel Gino Zumpano, Haney member Vince Brienza, West Point member Larry Amero and former Vancouver president Norm Krogstad.

ILWU national president Mark Gordienko agreed to be interviewed for The Vancouver Sun series. But he cancelled without explanation the day before the interview. He also declined through a spokesman to answer written questions for the Sun.

The Hells Angels did not respond to emailed interview requests.

Police admit there’s a serious problem when criminals and gangsters have the ability to move drugs and other contraband through Port Metro Vancouver.
A series of government and police reports about organized crime on the waterfront and obtained by the Sun show authorities have been documenting concerns for two decades.
“The presence of numerous members of organized crime groups (OCGs) as dockside employees of the Port of Vancouver, coupled with the ability to access the port by members of OCGs employed in the trucking industry creates a high-risk for smuggling at the port,” says a September 2010 internal Border Services Agency report.

The only way someone can get hired as a longshoreman in British Columbia is by the ILWU putting their name forward.

Port Metro Vancouver then issues a basic port pass. A criminal record check is not required, yet the pass allows wide access to the tens of thousands of containers stacked behind locked gates in Vancouver, Surrey and Delta.

Port Metro vice-president Peter Xotta said he was unaware of how many port pass holders are Hells Angels or others with criminal links.

“We certainly don’t have that level of detail,” he said.

“My sense of it is it is much more difficult for this (criminal) activity to occur on the waterfront. That’s not to say that there aren’t elements or individuals on the waterfront and in other parts of working society in Vancouver that aren’t involved in some sort of activity that could give rise to concern.”

Andy Smith, president of the B.C. Maritime Employers Association, said his agency is aware of the Hells Angels and others with gang connections on the docks.

“Yes, we are aware of who they are. They make no secret of it,” he said.

Yes, we are aware of who they are. They make no secret of it

But he also said his association’s role is to ensure longshore workers are properly trained, not worry about their criminal histories.

“It is not within my mandate,” Smith said. “We are a service provider to the industry — primarily to labour relations and training and secondarily in terms of government relations and social outreach. In any of those arenas, we have yet to see a situation where someone’s criminal associations or participation in the Hells Angels, or whatever, has been an issue.”

Some of the thousands of dock workers in B.C. also possess a higher-security Transportation Security Clearance pass issued by Transport Canada that allows them inside restricted zones on the waterfront.
Workers are screened for links to organized crime and criminal records before those passes, known as TSC, are issued.

But Smith said the restricted zones at the port are small compared to the areas accessed with the general pass.

“If you are talking about access of workers to long rows of containers which are in lightly populated work areas day or night, the TSC doesn’t come into it,” he said.

Guy Morgan, director of security and screening programs for Transport Canada, wouldn’t comment specifically on the Hells Angels or other criminals working on the waterfront. But he said his agency does screen several ways for links to organized crime before issuing the TSC passes.

He suggested the Hells Angels on the Sun’s list don’t have the high-security passes — though he wouldn’t say so directly or comment on any individuals.

“If Transport Canada receives any information that an existing clearance holder poses a security threat, we act on it,” Morgan said.

By contrast, airport workers who handle baggage and cargo “have to have the security clearance under the Transport Canada program,” Vancouver Airport Authority spokesman Chris Devauld said.
Morgan said it’s unfair to compare the two as there are also areas at the airport where workers don’t need the high-security clearance.

“I think that the marine transportation security regulations have set out very robust security requirements for the vessels, the ports, the marine facilities and the purpose of those regulations is to enhance the international framework for the deterrence and prevention and detection of acts that may threaten security in the marine port,” Morgan said.

“We are continuously reviewing and enhancing our marine security regime and that includes our security regulations, our standards, our procedures in order to maintain that security environment.”
Senator Colin Kenny, who has been outspoken on national security issues, was in Vancouver last fall talking to Port Metro Vancouver officials about security.

He thinks more should be done to deal with organized crime on the waterfront, an issue that crops up every few years but never gets addressed.

But Kenny doesn’t expect a clampdown on criminalized port workers any time soon, given the RCMP is reassigning hundreds of officers across the country to work on terrorism cases. Many of those resources have been taken from organized crime cases. That, said Kenny, is short-sighted.

“We have made the point consistently that if people from organized crime can get in, terrorists will follow,” said Kenny, who sits on the Senate’s National Security and Defence committee.

“Generally speaking, there is a huge lack of interest on the part of almost everybody.”

Yet there has been two decades of damning documentation about the problem.

A 2012 Transport Canada obtained by the Sun under the Access to Information Act identified the potential “exploitation of the commercial marine transportation system to smuggle narcotics from the Americas to Canada’s Pacific Coast.”

Most of the report was censored for security reasons, including the executive summary.

But the section titles alone are revealing.

The section called “Methamphetamine and Precursor Chemicals” is three pages long — all blanked out.

It’s followed by a section titled Drug Trafficking Organizations, about half of which has been removed.

Details of Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa, Los Zetas, Knights Templar and the South Pacific Cartel were provided in the report between blanked out sections about “port seizures” and strategic implications.

The report acknowledges that Mexican cartels use ships to transport their drugs to Canada and elsewhere.

Those cartels already have connections in Vancouver, as revealed by the Sun in a recent series.

The 2010 CBSA report, also obtained under the Access to Information Act, said that while the Mafia and Hells Angels “have exerted the most significant criminal influence at major Canadian marine ports, many other international OCGs, including Asian, East Indian, Persian, Middle Eastern, Eastern European and local groups have developed a presence in Canada.”

The report says the gangs use shipping containers to smuggle cocaine, dode (poppy powder), ephedrine, GHB, heroin, hashish, hashish oil, khat, marijuana, opium and precursor chemicals to make ecstasy and crystal meth.

“Although the number of seizures in the marine mode are low, relative to the air and land modes, the quantities seized in a given enforcement action are typically very high,” the report says.

CBSA seizures at Port Metro Vancouver over the past five years prove that point. Between 2010 and 2014 more than half a tonne of cocaine was discovered by CBSA searches of containers arriving at Port Metro Vancouver. Almost two tonnes of the party drug ketamine and more than 20,000 litres of liquid precursor chemicals used in the production of meth were also seized.

“Vancouver marine will continue to pose a high risk for the smuggling of precursor chemicals into Canada from China and India,” the CBSA report says.

“However, Prince Rupert may increasingly become the port of entry for precursor chemical shipments due to expansion in marine container commerce and/or a deliberate effort by smugglers to direct shipments through Prince Rupert, in the hope of evading seizure of the shipments.”

The CBSA clearly links the smuggling to the Hells Angels and other gangsters working at the port “in key positions — longshoremen, equipment operators, foremen and truck drivers.”

“Joint forces operations by Canadian law enforcement agencies, which have included the CBSA, have succeeded in dismantling smuggling operations and temporarily disrupting the movement of drugs, cigarettes and other contraband. However since OCGs are adept at quickly re-establishing their presence at the ports, these successes are typically shortlived.”

The 2010 report echoes two others prepared by police in the mid 1990s and obtained from Sun sources.

A 1995 report done by the Criminal Intelligence Section of B.C. says “Hells Angels have numerous members in the longshoremen’s union, employed in a variety of port jobs. This has provided them with the direct means of transporting narcotics and other drugs internationally.”

And it says B.C. Hells Angels have close connections to the Mafia, or “traditional organized crime.”

“Hells Angels employees have access to a variety of ports in various locations, access to vessels, containers, scheduling and their own trucking companies to load and unload product. The Hells Angels East End chapter’s relationship with traditional organized crime not only serves in expanding the parameters for economic opportunities through illegal means but unites these two organizations in a partnership of strength,” the report says.

“Organized crime access and control of ports for movement of drugs and other illegal products is in place.”

A 1994 report titled Organized Crime and the Port of Vancouver describes an environment on the docks that could have come straight out of the classic film On the Waterfront.

The report, prepared by the now-disbanded Ports Canada Police, said “the Port of Vancouver has been extensively infiltrated by organized crime elements and is also extensively manipulated from the outside by local and international organized criminals.”

“For many years, it was known that a number of longshoremen on the port were affiliated with the Hells Angels. Numerous times, thefts of containers and their goods had been attributed to the Angels and their inside men. Unfortunately, a detailed list of these past incidents would take up too much room,” the PCP report said.

“Angels are among the first to board arriving ships. They unload goods, place them for storage, load them onto trucks and prepare the necessary documents for shipping.”

They also bully co-workers to prevent complaints about them, it said.

“They intimidate fellow workers, both on the docks and in the offices, with threats of violence and death, and have successfully imposed a forced code of silence on the port.”

Smith said he hasn’t heard reports of intimidation of other workers by Hells Angels or others linked to organized crime since he started at the BCMEA in 2007.

“We have never received a complaint,” Smith said. “I am aware of one instance that occurred before I got here.”

In that case, a full-patch Hells Angels wore his “colours” — the leather vest with the patch on the back — to work.

“The action taken to get him to take his colours down was initiated by an ILWU official at the time,” Smith said.

He said he has also “never been contacted by any federal official with concerns about gang activity at this port.”

“They haven’t raised those issues with me for which, quite frankly, I’m thankful. I don’t know what I would do about them.”

Xotta said Port Metro works closely with the CBSA, the RCMP’s National Port Enforcement Team, local police agencies in the Lower Mainland and Transport Canada.

“The port has primary responsibility around keeping the port and surrounding waters safe for navigation and for the trade mandate that we have,” he said.

“Our specific responsibility in terms of security is really linked to a function of the collaboration between those agencies.”

Four years ago, Port Metro opened an Operations Centre in Canada Place, where workers can monitor video images from 400 cameras strategically placed all over port properties. They can also alert law enforcement if they see a problem, as they recently did with the chemical fire at the Centerm container terminal.

“Some of them (the cameras) are incredibly powerful. We’ve got lines of sight for both day and night vision on the port’s patrol vessels,” Xotta said. “We’ve invested in two new patrol vessels in the last year. These vessels are … significantly faster vessels than we had previously.”

New high-tech security gates have been installed in most areas and will be put in soon Roberts’ Bank, where Deltaport — Canada’s busiest container port — is located.

Xotta said that “unlike in generations past — (the gates) create a level of security and visibility around the ports so that if there is criminal behavior happening by any member of the waterfront community, it’s a little more difficult to come and go then it might have been many years ago.”

Asked if criminals or Hells Angels should be working at the port at all, Xotta said: “It’s a question for the RCMP and Transport Canada.”

Smith doesn't see clamping down on bikers or other criminals on the docks as the solution to preventing illicit cargo from getting through the port.

“If there are methodologies by which to get product through the port in containers or otherwise — if somebody thinks, well, raising the bar for people to come and work here is going to slow that down — I don’t think so. There are always vulnerable people,” Smith said.


“There are always people who are ethically or morally challenged. And if it wasn't people with records or who are members of groups which are deemed to be not acceptable, they will always find people to do this work for them.”



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2 heads and banner left in Tijuana signed by CAF

May 13, 2015, 2:16 pm
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Borderland Beat


2 human heads were found today at about 7:30 AM near Tijuana´s MacroPlaza mall. The heads were left inside an ice cooler along 2 banners with a message threatening several CDS cell leaders operating in Tijuana under Alfredo Arteaga aka "El Akiles".

The message read as follows:

"SIGUES TU JABAS, MARLON, GRIEGO, JACK, LES VA A PASAR LO MISMO POR CORRIENTES MATA INOCENTES, SE LA VAN A PELAR LA VERGA CON LA GENTE ARELLANO, MEJOR VAYAN Y PIDANLE DINERO A SU PAPI AQUILES PINCHES MUERTOS DE HAMBRE, SI FUERAN TAN VERGAS, SI FUERAN TAN VERGAS ESTUVIERAN AQUI EN TIJUANA. ERES IGUAL QUE TU HERMANO PINCHES NARCOS DEPRIMIDOS. ESTO LE PASARA A TODOS LOS JOTOS QUE ANDEN CON USTEDES. INCLUYENDO AL PERIODISTA IVAN VILLEGAS AL QUE LE PAGAN PARA QUE NO SALGAN LAS BAJAS.

Atte. LOS VERDADEROS DUEÑOS DE LA PLAZA
         EL CAF SIGUE MANDANDO"

Roughly translated as:


"You are next Jabas, Marlon, Griego, Jack, the same is going to happen to you for being cheap innocent killers, you ain´t gonna make it against the Arellano people, you starved motherfuckers better go and ask for money to your daddy Aquiles, if they were as bad as they claim then they would be here in Tijuana. You are the same as your brother, fucking depressed narcos. This is going to happen to all the faggots that hang with you, including news reporter Ivan Villegas whom you pay to not report your losses.

Sincerely THE REAL OWNERS OF THE PLAZA
                 CAF KEEPS RULING"

The heads and message were taken away by the State Atttorney´s Office personnel an hour after the report.



BACKGROUND INFO

Another banner was hung yesterday near the Tijuana Bus Central threatening several criminal for allegedly being responsible of killing a PGJE employee who apparently was the partner of former Ministerial Agent and alleged CAF cell leader Esteban Nides.

The attack in which Itzel Medina(38) was killed was apparently directed against Esteban Nides when they arrived at a junkyard belonging to another former Ministerial Agent by the last name of Cosme, Agent Cosme was arrested 10 years ago leading a criminal cell formed by Police Agents working for Francisco Javier Arellano Felix aka "El Tigrillo".


In the attack several men arrived at the junkyard and began shooting at the people there, those inside, including Nides dropped to the floor to avoid being hit but Itzel was hit in the head before she could do anything. According to some versions, Nides shot back and then jumped the back wall into a neighboring house, he made several cuts to his hands and feet doing this and scared the owner of the house who began screaming asking for help. Nides was subdued by several neighbors and taken to the hospital. Since Nides was a victim of the attack and apparently they have nothing against him, PGJE left him free after he gave his statement, according to witnesses he claimed he "would find those who did this".

ADDITIONAL INFO

Esteban Nides
Esteban Nides has been mentioned as a leader of a criminal cell serving the Arellanos several times before but there´s apparently no investigation or arrest warrant against him. He even gave ZETA an interview some time ago in which he claimed to be a motivational speaker giving speeches against bullying in public schools backed by State Government and by the State Human Rights Commission.

He also claimed owning a Telecommunications Engineering firm dedicated to provide maintenance of systems for the last 10 years or so.

In the interview he explained there was a "misunderstanding" which was already fixed and stated there was no investigation or warrant against him, proof of that was the fact he was still free.


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Tijuana: CAF member arrested

May 13, 2015, 4:59 pm
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CAF member arrested

Amidst escalating violence in Tijuana, as organized crime groups, mostly represented by retail distribution cells, feeding the cities crystal meth and heroin addicts, another member of what remains of the Arellano Felix dynasty is arrested. 

It should be noted that all official and mostly unofficial reports indicate that after the arrest of Fernando Sanchez Arellano, last summer, there are no more Arellano Felix family members active in the business.  One wonders where that leaves Endenina Arellano Felix, but, in any case she is a lifetime away from the day to day arrests, killings, and sales that drive the violence in Tijuana. 

An easy way to put it: there is not thought to be any more Arellano Felix cartel in Tijuana, but there is a Cartel de Tijuana, which is former or currents cell leaders and cells who are loyal to their own, and antagonistic to those representing the Sinaloa Cartel, mostly under Aquiles.  They control retail drug areas, extortions, kidnappings, in their areas of influence.  Some traffic on a transnational level, but this has been very much diminished in the years after Javier Francisco Arellano Felix was arrested in 2006. 

Arturo Rojas Alocer 'Nodo' fits into this new subset of organized crime, a cell leader or someone of some prominence, displaced in recent years.  He is 37 years old, and according to reports maintains a series of aliases and false identifies.  He is thought to lead a retail drug cell in the city.  Aloccer has a warrant for homicide at the time of his arrest. 

'Nodo' was arrested while seeking medical treatment from unknown injuries that occurred during a gunfight, or other conflict with a rival group.  In the weeks since the killing of 'El Mono', a wave of shootings and killings descended upon the already violent retail trade.  

Sources: AFN Tijuana 

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Tijuana: 4 executed overnight

May 14, 2015, 7:22 pm
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4 executed overnight in Tijuana

Late Wednesday night, bleeding into Thursday morning, brings four new executions, one whom was both witness and suspect to the killing of a 4 year old child.  At different points throughout the city, organized crime elements continued their feuds and account settling, closing a violent week in the city, with over a dozen dead, including two severed heads found in a cooler, yesterday.  

Narco messages and banners have appeared again, with accusing and often misleading messages to rival groups, citizens, and journalists.  Miguel Angel Rodriguez Bravo, aka 'Popeye' was murdered last night, who was apparently the sole witness to a child's murder, Jonathan Eduardo Valdez Garcia. 

'Popeye' was arrested yesterday in connection with the killing, which occured in recent days.  He was released apparently because he was a witness.  Popeyes remains were found in Colonia Camino Verde, along with several 9mm casings.  

The other two arrested in the shooting death were Jose Omar 'El Perro', and Jesus Flores Flores, 'El Tribi'.  Statements from the PJGE indicate the men fired on a house, containing the child and his mother, who was injured in the attack.  

Another body was found in the early morning hours, Santo Tomas Mission Street, said to be a former police officer, but this remains unconfirmed at this time.  Two other bodies were found in other locations in Tijuana, including Lomas Murua, and Colonia Pacifico.  

Note: 'El Tribi' is the nickname of an alleged CAF enforcer, whose name is unknown, it is unlikely this is the same 'Tribi', but mention it anyway.  


Sources: AFN Tijuana 

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Narco plane crashes in Chihuahua with six dead

May 14, 2015, 11:24 pm
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article

[ Subject Matter: Plane Crash, Chihuahua, Culiacan, Sinaloa Cartel
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]



Six people died in a plane crash involving a Cessna light aircraft, in Chihuahua, informed the Attorney General of the State, that started as an investigation before when someone reported that the aircraft had been brought down by armed persons in a drug trafficking zone.

The Prosecutor General of the State said yesterday that the plane was transporting less than 45 kilos of Marijuana. He did not detail all of the cargo, which presumably had been lost in the resulting fire or spread around the surrounding countryside.

The cause of the crash has not been determined and the zone is being guarded by Military and Federal Agents, until experts arrive to examine the scene, according to an official communication.

The Cessna plane, who's presence had been informed to the Authorities by habitants of the zone El Lunes, it was found on Tuesday in the Town of Urique, in the Serrana region, close to the State limits of Sinaloa.

"The plane was peeling away when sicarios opened fire on it and it knocked it out of the sky. We don't know if the sicarios bullets brought it down or pilot lost control", said an informant from El Diario de Chihuahua.

The Attorney General said it was found in a creek in the community of Tubares with the bodies of six men, among them the pilot originally from Sinaloa

Original article in Spanish at Milenio
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Mexican State Police initiate Kill House training

May 15, 2015, 3:09 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

[ Subject Matter: State Police, Kill house training
Recommendation: No previous knowledge of subject matter required ]




Reporter: Isabel Mercado Juarez
With the objective of bettering the operational capacity of cadets and active Police elements, the State Public Security Academy has installed a "Casa de intervention" Otis: Kill house.

In order to show the level of training they are receiving, active elements of the State Preventative Police and Penitentiary system, realised that two scenarios, one of rescue of a kidnapped youngster, and the other a prison riot or mutiny.

Fernando Sanchez Gonzales, Director of the State Police Academy said that the Academy has the capacity to train 317 elements under the internal system.





203 cadets of the course of initial policing, in the case of Municipal Police of Tijuana and Ensenada, are undergoing the same training as the cadets of the State Preventative Police and Penitentiary Staff.


15 elements of the Municipal Police Command of Tecate, 18 police dogs of the Prosecutor General of the State of Justice, in the case of on site investigation of the facts, 81 elements of the PEP and Ministerial State Police, have undergone the acreditable Police program.

They announced that after the coming Monday, there will be conducted the assessments of brigades of skill and knowledge of the police commission to 2,996 elements, all the institutions of the state police are represented, which will allow a similar about of Police to be certified.

The Academy was inaugurated on 26th of October of 2001, increasing its capacity until they can actually house 550 cadets.



In the installation they dormitories, internet facilities, kitchens, gymnasium, armoury, classes in oral judgements, two firing ranges, and a virtual firing range.

Their classrooms are utilised in a central formation, and also they give classes in continual actualisation and formation, the acreditable program for Ministerial Police, gives courses in coordination with American institutions, diplomats and higher direction forces, like a degree in Public Safety and expertise in forensic science.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana

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Borderland Beat 100 million webpage views! Thank you followers for your support

May 15, 2015, 8:06 am
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                      Borderland Beat "Main Page" all-time views   99,690,509

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Current Page views by country, in order of greatest number, from top to bottom. 

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Stats as of today.  We typically run about 2M per month give or take a couple hundred thousand.  Big stories can run into the 300 k view range.  By clicking on image it should enlarge.  These are blogger stats.



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Former AD Leader: Having 90% support, mayoral candidate is murdered by armed commando

May 15, 2015, 12:35 pm
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat-Facebook:Valor Michoacan, Yurécuaro, and Aristegui

Another candidate gunned down; armed commando interrupts rally to assassinate candidate, former Autodefensa leader, he received serval bullet impacts by gunman

Enrique Saucedo Hernandez, former leader of the Michoacán autodefensas and a Morena (political party)candidate running for mayor of Yurécuaro, was killed last night at a rally, confirmed the Municipal Public Security and Michoacán Atty General.

According to local authorities, at 19:30 pm yesterday, a commando aboard a truck open fire on  the candidate, wounding three people, including a minor.

Saucedo Hernandez was a leader of the autodefensas of Yurécuaro, and a close friend of political prisoner Dr. Manuel Mireles. 

Five hours before his murder, he posted on face book a demand for the release of Dr. Mireles.

Last year he was arrested for the murder of Gustavo Garibay, Tanhuato mayor, but was subsequently acquitted when prosecutors lacked evidence, a typical tactic to imprison a “nuisance”.  

In this case as in Dr. Mireles case Alfredo Castillo was behind the incarcerations.  

Death and imprisonment are the tools used to eliminate those speaking out against organized crime and government corruption.

While he was incarcerated he was in isolation, denied visitors and was tortured.




In a video posted on YouTube, Hernandez had prophesized that he would be murdered, saying he was a "dead man" from the moment Alfredo Castillo ordered autodefensas to disarm.  

"My enemies are Templarios and the corrupt government officials of Michoacán, to disarm is to be defenseless to organized crime," (Enrique Hernandez)

His daughter was with him at the time of his murder.  It has not been clarified if she was the minor injured in the attack. (Later is was reported not to be his daughter that was injured, but a young boy who is in critical condition from gun shots, along with two others)


Following the murder, Hernández’ lifeless body was covered with a white sheet, and his trademark hat placed atop, in addition  candles and a crucifix were positioned with the body.


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State Department Quietly Suspended Aid to Army Unit (102nd Battalion) Responsible for June 2014 Tlatlaya Massacre

May 15, 2015, 1:34 pm
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Borderland Beat posted by DD republished from The National Security Archive and The Intercept


Blood and bullet holes mark the walls of the warehouse where the Tlatlaya executions took place. (Miguel Dimayuga, Proceso)

DD. Mark Twain once said, " If you don't read newspapers you are uninformed.  If you do read newspapers you are ill-informed".

Fortunately, for all its faults, today we have the internet and don't have to rely on MSM newspapers and TV. Borderland Beat tries to present factual accurate news stories that you likely won't find on MSM.  To do that we research a wide array of sources such as the Security Archive.  I invite to you to visit their site and read a little about who and what they are.

From NSArchives

US: Mexico Mass Graves Raise "Alarming Questions" about Government "Complicity" in September 2014 Cartel Killings

 National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 515 

Posted May 12, 2015  Edited by Michael Evans

 Washington, DC, May 12, 2015 – A U.S. military “Human Rights Working Group” said that mass graves not related to the September 2014 disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero, Mexico—but nevertheless found during the investigation of that case—raised “alarming questions” about the “level of government complicity” in Mexican cartel killings. The student victims from a rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa were allegedly abducted by local police forces and turned over to members of a local drug gang to be executed. All but one of the students—whose remains were reportedly identified by an Austrian forensic group—are still missing seven months later.


Too many Graves

The October 2014 report from U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) is one of several declassified records obtained by the nongovernmental National Security Archive and highlighted in a new report for The Intercept by former Archive staffer Jesse Franzblau and Cora Currier. The newly-declassified records, some posted here for the first time (links to actual documents follow this story) , shed light on how the U.S. has perceived and responded to allegations of serious human rights abuses committed by U.S.-funded security forces in Mexico, which have become disturbingly common in recent years.

“None of the 28 bodies identified thus far are the remains of the students,” reads a summary of the Working Group meeting circulated to senior officers at NORTHCOM on October 14, 2014, “raising alarming questions about the widespread nature of cartel violence in the region and the level of government complicity.” NORTHCOM, based in Colorado, is the regional military command in charge of Defense Department programs in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Another item on the Working Group’s agenda was the June 2014 slaying of 22 suspected drug gang members at Tlatlaya, in the state of Mexico, by the Mexican Army’s 102nd Battalion. Four months later, and shortly after the arrests of a Mexican Army officer and seven soldiers from the 102nd for the killings and subsequent cover up, the Working Group “assesse[d] that as more facts come to light there is greater acceptance that the military was involved in wrongdoing,” raising serious questions about the ability of the U.S. to provide aid to military forces in the region. 
Building where Mexican soldiers killed 22 alleged criminals in Tlatlaya. (Universal ZumaPress
 “If [the military zone commander is] implicated in a gross human rights violation,” the Working Group reported, “the entire military zone and 10,000 personnel will be ineligible for U.S. security cooperation assistance.”

Another NORTHCOM document obtained by the Archive and highlighted in the report is the first public confirmation that the U.S. State Department last year did quietly suspend assistance to the 102nd Battalion following Tlatlaya, pending the outcome of official investigations. The NORTHCOM “Information Paper on San Pedro Limon, Tlatlaya Incident” indicates that the 102nd “is now ineligible to receive US assistance.”



Questioned about the reported suspension of aid by The Intercept, the State Department would only confirm that five members of the battalion had previously been trained by the U.S. but said that none of those five are implicated in the Tlatlaya case. A 1997 law introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) bars U.S. support to foreign security forces credibly linked to human rights violations.

Franzblau and Currier, the reporters from the Intercept  story,  call the suspension of aid in the Tlatlaya case “a rare confirmed example of the U.S. government actually cutting off funding for security forces” in Mexico. Even so, the State Department has not said whether any Mexican units tied to the Guerrero disappearances (the 43 students) have been declared ineligible for U.S. aid, as the Leahy law would seem to require in this case.


The Intercept asked the State Department for a list of all Mexican units that have been cut off from U.S. funding because of human rights violations since the Mérida initiative began, but the spokesperson said it was not yet publicly available.

“It’s incomprehensible that they don’t already have that list,” said Laura Carlsen, Mexico City-based director of the Americas Program, in an email to The Intercept. Carlsen has worked for years with a coalition of human rights groups to bring attention to the consequences of U.S. support for the drug war in Mexico.


According to the authors, “The State Department’s piecemeal response to these events highlights the conundrum that Mexico now presents for the United States, as it seeks to help the Mexican government battle drug cartels.” The U.S. has provided some $3 billion in security assistance to Mexican forces since 2008, in addition to billions more in direct military sales and other aid. Franzblau and Currier cite a diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks to “show how U.S.-Mexico security and intelligence relations have reached unparalleled levels of intimacy” in recent years. The 2010 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City stresses that U.S. “ties with the Military” at that time had “never been closer in terms of not only equipment transfers and training” but also “intelligence exchanges.”

As reported in the Intercept;
 
In this context, U.S. cooperation with the Mexican government — which entails billions in American financial backing for its war on drugs — is receiving renewed scrutiny.

U.S. government documents obtained by the National Security Archive through Freedom of Information Act requests demonstrate that the United States is well aware that its support is going to Mexican authorities connected to abuses. And yet, with few exceptions, the money keeps flowing.

New evidence provides a rare glimpse of the way U.S. authorities have learned that the Mexican security apparatus has been implicated in specific abuses, and how they have responded.  The Tlatlaya incident is a rare confirmed example of the U.S. government actually cutting off funding for security forces.

 Since 2008, the U.S. government has spent nearly $3 billion on security aid to Mexico, largely through the Mérida Initiative, a counter-drug strategy modeled on Plan Colombia, through which the United States funneled billions of dollars to that country’s often-brutal drug war. This support comes in addition to direct sales of arms and other equipment, which totaled over $1.15 billion last year alone. Mexico recently surpassed Colombia to become the largest customer for U.S. weapons in Latin America.

 The U.S. State Department’s own human rights reporting on Mexico highlights police and military involvement in serious abuses, including unlawful killings, physical abuse, torture and disappearances.

One U.S. Embassy cable from 2011 reported on the discovery of 219 bodies unearthed in a series of mass graves that year around the northern city of Durango. Another cable, from 2010, discusses a mass grave in Acapulco, Guerrero containing the bodies of 18 men, and another near a ranch in the northern state of Chihuahua, filled with 19 men and one woman.

 “Clearly elements within the [Mexican] Army believed that they had nothing to fear by slaughtering innocent people execution-style, which indicates a pervasiveness of impunity,” said Tim Rieser, foreign policy aide to Senator Leahy, who has been a longtime advocate for greater pressure on Mexico on human rights, in reference to the Tlatlaya case. “So clearly there’s a long way to go.”

But the unprecedented level of U.S. influence on Mexico’s armed forces came alongside an extraordinary increase in drug war abuses and in human rights violations connected to state and local security forces. The violence that has engulfed Mexico since then has produced a flurry of reports from U.S. diplomatic and intelligence officers expressing concern that America's drug war partners in the Mexican security forces were working hand-in-glove with cartel terrorists.
  • In April 2010, the U.S. Embassy’s Narcotics Affairs Section said that criminal groups operated with “near total impunity in the face of compromised local security forces.”
  • An FBI report from later that year included a list of police officers in Saltillo, Coahuila, who had “provided support and information” to the notorious Los Zetas drug gang.
  • In another case previously reported by the Archive, the U.S. had knowledge of Mexican government efforts to downplay the magnitude of the infamous 2011 San Fernando massacre, in which cartel thugs allied with local police forces kidnapped and murdered hundreds of migrants from intercity buses headed north toward the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican officials, “speaking off the record,” also told the U.S. that the bodies of the massacre victims were “being split up to make the total number less obvious and thus less alarming.”
 One of the key objectives of U.S. aid to Mexico during this time has been to beef up the country’s security communications infrastructure by lending funds, expertise and equipment to the Plataforma Mexico project, which the U.S. State Department described in 2007 as a “billion-dollar scheme for establishing interconnections between all police and prosecutors.” The U.S. poured millions of dollars into Plataforma Mexico, which was essentially a criminal database that connected state- and regional-level intelligence coordination centers known as “C-4s” (“command, control, communications and coordiation”) to each other and to law enforcement officials through a centralized, U.S.-funded command and control facility known as “The Bunker.”

Franzblau and Currier point out that the “more sophisticated C-4s in Mexico’s northern region communicate directly with U.S. agencies, such as Department of Homeland Security offices across the border,” but there is good reason to question the overall effectiveness of the C-4s in combatting drug violence. A 2009 assessment said that neither Plataforma México nor the C-4 in San Pedro, in a suburban section of Monterrey, had been successful in hindering cartel operations. A declassified January 2010 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, for example, said that the C-4 facility in Tijuana was little more than a “glorified call center” for everyday emergencies that lacked “a strong analytical component.” Two months prior, a separate cable from the Embassy described a range of competency at the various C-4s, from, “at the low end, glorified emergency call centers,” to “[a]t the high end... more professional analytic cells that produce useful analysis and planning documents and also have a quick response time.”
The more complete C-4s include representatives from national and regional entities, and are the nerve centers for day-to-day information flow, intelligence, and directing operations in the state. They are often also the link to national databases, such as Plataforma Mexico. Huge disparities between state C-4s exist, but many states are working to move their units from merely housing emergency dispatchers to being functional hubs of operations and intelligence. The UNITOs [Tactical operational units, or Unidades Táctiva Oprerativo] often rely on information fed from good C-4s, in addition to federal databases and platforms.
Most importantly, as Franzblau and Currier note in their piece, the U.S.-funded C-4s also appear to have played a role in the disappearance of the 43 students in Guerrero:

C-4s certainly didn’t help in the case of the forty-three missing Ayotzinapa students. As The Intercept detailed, internal records produced by Guerrero state investigators show that the regional C-4s near the site of the students’ kidnapping transmitted information on the movement of the students the night that they were attacked. But neither federal law enforcement nor the military intervened to stop the violence.
Reports in the Mexican magazine Proceso and elsewhere linking regional C-4s and other government entities to the events surrounding the Ayotzinapa case have led many to question what the government knew about the massacre and have galvanized calls in Mexico for greater openness about government efforts to bring cartel thugs and their collaborators in the security forces to justice. It remains unclear whether the U.S. will apply Leahy Law sanctions to the C-4 units that were apprently involved in the disappearance of the 43 students.

Mexican authorities have promised transparency but have largely resisted the efforts of journalists and academics to gain access to records on the cases. This despite the fact that Mexican law requires the release of information pertaining to grave violations of human rights in all cases. (In one notable exception, Mexico’s attorney general last year declassified a document from its case file on the 2011 San Fernando massacre showing that local police helped to round up hundreds of migrants later killed at the hands of the Zetas cartel.)

Mexican government stonewalling about the case has some looking to the U.S.—Mexico’s chief sponsor and partner in the anti-drug effort—for answers. A key part of the U.S. paper trail are records indicating how the U.S. government determines whether to suspend security assistance to members and units of the Mexican security forces involved in human rights abuses. One newly-declassified document shows that senior U.S. military officials from NORTHCOM reached out to counterparts from Mexico’s Defense Ministry (SEDENA) about the Tlatlaya killings after receiving multiple questions about the case.

“Since we’ve continued to get inquiries as to what we’ve specifically talked to SEDENA about ref. the Tlatlaya incident, I made a call to SEDENA Enlace,” reads an October 2014 message from the Pentagon official in charge of U.S. military assistance programs in Mexico (the Office of Defense Cooperation – ODC). Among other things, the ODC chief said it was “good news” to hear from SEDENA that alleged human rights cases like Tlatlaya are “taken out of the military justice system” and transferred to civilian authorities.

A 2014 law requires Mexico’s attorney general to prosecute all cases in which Mexican security forces are accused of abusing civilians. But as Franzblau and Currier point out, it is not at all clear that the civil justice system has been any more effective at punishing human rights violators than military tribunals:
A Mexican government database lists over 23,600 people who have been reported disappeared throughout the country; 2014 witnessed 5,133 disappearances, the highest number on record. Impunity remains the norm, with 98.3 [sic - should be 93.8] percent of crimes going unpunished in 2013, according to Mexican government statistics. The U.S. State Department’s own human rights reporting on Mexico highlights police and military involvement in serious abuses, including unlawful killings, physical abuse, torture and disappearances...

The Mexican government’s failure to investigate mass graves provides a revealing example of the problem of impunity. Hundreds of mass graves have been discovered in Mexico in recent years. Despite that, Mexico’s federal prosecutors have reported opening just 15 investigations between 2011 and April 2015, according to documents obtained by the human rights organization Article 19.
The U.S. government has also known about cases where the Mexican government has opened investigations into mass graves only to suppress them later. As the National Security Archive has documented, in 2011, when mass graves were discovered in Northeastern Mexico containing the remains of victims of the Zetas cartel, U.S. officials knew that Mexican authorities were downplaying the massacres and removing remains to make the body count appear less alarming, jeopardizing investigations in the process. (Mexican authorities later released files implicating local police in the crime.)

There are no easy answers to the “alarming questions” raised by the shocking number of mass graves now being unearthed in Mexico. What seems clear is that a U.S. strategy that has poured billions of dollars into Mexico’s drug war over the last decade—mostly aimed at taking down high-profile cartel kingpins—has done little to stem epidemic levels of violence or limit the criminal groups’ ability to compromise government officials at all levels.


“The bigger picture is that this aid does go to human rights violators. U.S. taxpayer dollars are supporting a drug war that emboldens abusive government forces that are executing and disappearing Mexican citizens. No amount of withholding or [human rights] conditioning will change that,”  said.Laura Carlson, Mexico City director of the Americas Program.

DD. While the State Dept made a step (a baby step) in the right direction by suspending of assistance to the 102nd Battalion, the money is still flowing.

 THE DOCUMENTS (DD;  these are summaries, the full documents may be seen at the National Security Archive at the link at the beginning of this post)

 Document 1
ca. October 2007
The Deputy Secretary's Meeting with Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro Garcia Luna at AFI Headquarters, La Moneda
U.S. State Department, briefing paper, Sensitive But Unclassified, 3 pp.

In a briefing paper prepared for U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte's meeting with the head of Mexico's Public Security Secretariat (SSP), the State Department's bureau for the Western Hemisphere says SSP chief Genaro Garcia Luna is "creating a massive system of interconnectivity between all levels of law enforcement, Plataforma Mexico, a billion dollar project." Negroponte is instructed to ask, if time allows, about "how Mexican jurisprudence treats privacy issues in context of criminal databases."
Source: FOIA
Document 2
December 5, 2007Deputy Secretary Negroponte has Cordial Meetings [with] Senior Mexican Security and Law Enforcement Officials
U.S. Embassy Mexico, cable, Confidential, 6 pp.
In a meeting with SSP director Garcia Luna, Deputy Secretary of State Negroponte "emphasized the need for good coordiation among police elements, and noted [the U.S.] commitment to helping Mexico meet its current security challenges." Garcia Luna told Negroponte about Plataforma Mexico, described in the meeting read-out as "the billion-dollar scheme for establishing interconnections between all police and prosecutors." The Plataforma"already reaches every Mexican state," according to the meeting record, "and by January [2008] would extend down to the municipalities, eventually reaching 2000."
Source: U.S. Department of State, FOIA Appeals Review Panel
Document 3
March 4, 2009
Nuevo Leon’s Efforts to Reform State and Local Police Have Not Been Effective
U.S. Consulate Monterrey, cable, Secret
The U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, the capital of the Mexican state of Nuevo León, provides an assessment of law enforcement activities in the wealthy Monterrey suburb of San Pedro. The cable notes that Plataforma México has been installed in the San Pedro regional command, control, communication and coordination center (C-4) and that the U.S.-based global aerospace and technology company Northrop-Grumman served as a prime contractor for a similar facility in the state of Nuevo León, called the C-5.
According to the assessment, U.S. consulate officials do not believe that either Plataforma México or the C-4 in San Pedro had been successful in hindering cartel operations.
Source: Wikileaks
Document 4November 10, 2009Mexico: More Interagency Cooperation Needed on Intelligence Issues U.S. Embassy Mexico, cable, Secret
This cable provides a detailed assessment of the capacity of Mexico’s intelligence agencies, and explains the functions of the state level command and control centers, and the Plataforma database. The cable reads:

10. (C) The state-level C-4 centers (command, control, communications, and coordination) are, at the low end, glorified emergency call centers. At the high end, they include more professional analytic cells that produce useful analysis and planning documents and also have a quick response time. The more complete C-4s include representatives from national and regional entities, and are the nerve centers for day-to-day information flow, intelligence, and directing operations in the state. They are often also the link to national databases, such as Plataforma Mexico. Huge disparities between state C-4s exist, but many states are working to move their units from merely housing emergency dispatchers to being functional hubs of operations and intelligence. The UNITOs [Tactical operational units, or Unidades Táctiva Oprerativo] often rely on information fed from good C-4s, in addition to federal databases and platforms.
11. (C) Plataforma Mexico is another important piece of the intel puzzle and continues to expand its presence throughout the country. The mega-criminal database has a wide array of information-sharing and analytical tools that help to track and share information on individuals and organized crime cells, vehicles, air movements, and is linked with an increasing number of surveillance and security cameras. The database is housed at SSP and is being deployed to an increasing number of states, with different tiers of access that are controlled through the vetting system.
Source: Wikileaks
Document 5
January 12, 2010
Tijuana Bilateral Assessment
U.S. Embassy Mexico, cable, Confidential, 8 pp.
Like the previous document, this declassified cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico characterizes the C-4 center in Tijuana, Baja California, as a “glorified call center.”
Source: FOIA
Document 6
January 29, 2010Scenesetter for the Opening of the Defense Bilateral Working Group, Washington, D.C., February 1
U.S. Embassy Mexico, cable, Secret
In 2010, with the U.S.-funded Mérida Initiative aid package in full swing, the U.S. Embassy noted in a cable released by Wikileaks that, “our ties with the military have never been closer in terms of not only equipment transfers and training,” but also “intelligence exchanges.”
Source: Wikileaks
Document 7
April 16, 2010
Narcotics Affairs Section Mexico Monthly Report for March 2010 
U.S. Embassy in Mexico, cable, unclassified, 11 pp.
The U.S. Embassy's Narcotics Affairs Section provides a monthly summary of internal developments in Mexico, reporting that "March ended as one of the bloodiest months on record, with an estimated 900 killings nationwide." The cable says that Mexican government officials did not anticipate the sharp increase in violence in the northeast that occurred as the Zetas took control the lucrative plazas in the region. U.S. officials report the violence has "cut a swath across north-east Mexico, including key towns in Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon, and even in neighboring Durango." The Embassy message notes the failure of the Mexican authorities to manage the growing threat, highlighting how "DTO's [Drug Trafficking Organizations] have operated fairly openly and with freedom of movement and operations…In many cases they operated with near total impunity in the face of compromised local security forces."
As part of U.S. support provided through the Mérida Initiative, the document also reports on U.S. efforts to implement an initiative to train regional police under the Culture of Lawfulness education initiative, involving officials from the now-defunct Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) in Baja California, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas.
Source: FOIA
Document 8
August 19, 2010
2010 Omnibus INCLE ALOA Ready for Signature
U.S. State Department, cable, unclassified, 4pp.
In August 2010, the State Department reported that over $6 million was authorized for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to support the implementation of the Plataforma software in regional C-4s.
Source: FOIA
Document 9
August 23, 2010
DOD Counter Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office (CNTPO) Program and Operations Support, TORP 0200, Revision Number 00
DOD, task order, performance work statements, 17 pp.
This document discusses how the DOD Counter Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office (CNTPO) contracted out projects to provide support for Mexico’s regional command centers (C-4s). The CNTPO request for proposals discusses requirements for program and operations support for ten C-4 sites.
The support included providing relay capability at existing Mexican communications facilities for connectivity to the C-4 sites. This involved conducting site surveys in order to verify equipment required to satisfy the requirements for ten C-4 sites and two microwave relay facilities in Mexico that would correspond to microwave facilities run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The contractor hired to provide the equipment was to interact with other Mexican and U.S. agencies (e.g. C-4s, DHS, CPB) where needed to perform and complete the required activities. The contractor was also tasked to provide training to personnel from Mexican state and federal offices.
Source: FOIA
Document 10
November 19, 2010
Administrative Revision - Provision of Support to Los Zetas by Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, Municipal Police Officers and Polic [sic]
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence Information Report, Secret/Noforn, 3 pp.
FBI authorities in Mexico report information connecting police officials in Saltillo, Coahuila, to the Zetas and to “drug trafficking and homicides.” A list of officers who “provided support and information to Los Zetas” is redacted from the document.
Source: FOIA
DOCUMENT 11
April 15, 2011 
Tamaulipas' Mass Graves: Body Count Reaches 145 
U.S. Consulate Matamoros, cable, unclassified, 4 pp. 
Summing up information taken from official sources, the U.S. Consulate reports that a total of 36 grave site containing 145 bodies were discovered in the San Fernando area during a SEDENA operation that took place April 1-14, 2011. Seventeen Zetas and 16 members of the San Fernando police have been arrested in connection with the deaths. The police officials are being charged with "protecting the Los Zetas TCO members responsible for the kidnapping and murder of bus passengers in the San Fernando area."
Off the record, Mexican officials tell Consulate officials that "the bodies are being split up to make the total number less obvious and thus less alarming." Consulate officers also comment that, "Tamaulipas officials appear to be trying to downplay both the San Fernando discoveries and the state responsibility for them, even though a recent trip to Ciudad Victoria revealed state officials fully cognizant of the hazards of highway travel in this area."
Source: FOIA
Document 12
Ca. October 8, 2014
ODC Chief Comments
U.S. Northern Command, ODC Mexico Weekly Report, Unclassified/For Official Use Only, 5 pp.

The chief of the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) in Mexico reports on his communications with Mexican defense officials after repeated queries about the Tlatlaya case.
Source: FOIA
Document 13
October 15, 2014
INFO – Summary Human Rights Working Group, 15 OCT
U.S. Northern Command, report, Unclassified, 2 pp.
This summary of the U.S. Northern Command’s “Human Rights Working Group” from October 15, 2014 focuses on two major human rights cases of concern that month. The first case was related to the alleged military involvement in the Tlatlaya killings, in which four individuals had been taken into civilian custody (three soldiers for murder charges and one lieutenant for cover up charges) and an additional four soldiers were in military custody for violations of the military justice code. According to the report, “New facts indicate that these personnel were a patrol involved in the extrajudicial killing of 8 cartel members following two firefights with multiple civilian casualties.”
The summary goes on to note that Mexico’s military is investigating the major general in charge of the military zone overseeing the battalion accused of the killing (the 102nd Battalion). The notes from the meeting indicate that if credible allegations connect the commander to a gross human rights violation, “the entire military zone and 10,000 personnel will be ineligible for U.S. security cooperation assistance.” Further, the U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) assesses that as more facts come to light, “there is greater acceptance the military was involved in wrong-doing.”
The other issue of concern for the U.S. military last October was the police involvement in the disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa kidnapped in Guerrero. While there had been approximately 50 arrests of police and government officials, the report notes that the students’ whereabouts are unknown. Further, nine new mass graves have been found outside of Iguala, but “None of the 28 bodies identified thus far are the remains of the students, raising alarming questions about the widespread nature of cartel violence in the region and the level of government complicity.”
Source: FOIA
Document 14
January 14, 2015
Information Paper on San Pedro Limón, Tlatlaya Incident
U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), unclassified, report, 1pp.
The document provides the latest update on the Tlatlaya killings, reporting that the government of Mexico “has detained and charged seven SEDENA personnel in conjunction with the killing of twenty-two individuals on 30 June 2014 in San Pedro Limon, Tlatlaya, Mexico State.” According to the report, “The unit implicated is now ineligible to receive US assistance.” The report states that none of the alleged perpetrators previously received U.S.-funded training, but notes that the incident has received “extensive negative coverage in international press and, along with subsequent cases involving police, has prompted non-government organizations to lobby the US legislature to suspend security assistance to Mexico.”
The document gives the following account of the incident: “SEDENA members of the 120nd [sic] infantry Battalion stationed in Santa María Ixtapan responded to an anonymous call in the early morning of 30 June, regarding the presence of armed suspects at a warehouse in Tlatlaya. A firefight ensued between the military and the civilians on site (suspected to be members of the Guerreros Unidos Cartel). According to the Mexican Attorney General (PGR), one soldier was wounded during the confrontation, and all 22 of the civilians were either killed or wounded. Four soldiers are accused of entering the warehouse alter the conclusion of the firefight, and killing all remaining civilians. Evidence indicates up to fifteen of the twenty two civilians were killed alter the firefight, and prosecutions are focused on these killings.”
The NORTHCOM information paper adds that “SEDENA’s 102nd Infantry Battalion, and that the State Department has suspended U.S. funded assistance to this unit pending the results of the investigations.”
Source: FOIA

 

 

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