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10 bodies discovered at "La Barbies" ranch

September 20, 2015, 3:07 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Michoacán 3.0 article

[ Subject Matter: La Barbie, BLO
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]


Reporter: Michoacán 3.0 Redaction
The State Commission of Public Security of Morelos reported the discovery of 10 bodies in the interior of a ranch property of Edgar Valdez Villareal, better known as " La Barbie", Chief of Sicarios for the Beltran Leyva Cartel.

According to information from a financier, the ten corpses were found this Friday morning during an operation carried out by the Unified Command and Ministerial Police, in the town of Cuatla, Morelos.

"La Barbie" is currently incarcerated in "Altiplano" prison, in the State of Mexico since 2010.

UPDATES will be posted when available.

Original article in Spanish at Michoacán 3.0
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Corrido Singer Remmy Valenzuela arrested

September 21, 2015, 9:15 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

[ Subject Matter: Remmy Valenzuela
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]


Reporter: Zeta Redaction
The corrido singer, Remegio Alejandro Valenzuela Buelna, known as Remmy Valenzuela, was detained in Sinaloa by elements of the State Ministerial Police, yesterday night he was searched and found with a firearm.

According to the data obtained, it indicates that the singer was travelling down a highway when he was stopped and searched by the Ministerial Police, they found a .38 calibre pistol and some spare ammunition.

"El Remmy" was transferred to the offices of the State Ministerial Police, where security forces implemented a security cordon after a rumour that a convoy of armed men in various vehicles were on the way to rescue the singer.

In a preventative manner the streets around the State Ministerial Police base were closed with the support of the Municipal Police, the Mexican Army and the Marines, as well as installing road blocks for searching for the reported convoy of armed men. Meanwhile in social networks rumours about the arrest of the singer continue to circle, although there has been no confirmation by Authorities.

Under a strong security convoy, on Sunday morning, Valenzuela was put at the disposition of the Federal Authorities based in Los Mochis.

UPDATE

This morning, the Governor Mario Lopez Valdez and the General Secretary of the Government, Gerardo Vargas Landeros, confirmed the detention of Valenzuela Buelna.

The singer has previously been involved in scandals, on the 24th of September 2012, an ex member of the Army Special Forces detained with arms he was taking to Bacurato, in his statement, informed the Authorities that he was going to a reunion with "El Remmy", operator of the criminal band "Los Mazatlecos".

On the same day, a detention was reported of an alleged drug dealer, who testified that "Remmy Valenzuela" was his cousin, and that he worked under the orders of Fausto Isidro Meza Flores alias "El Chapo Isidro".



On the 17th of October of 2013, the singer was injured in a fire fight which occurred in the Santa Mario del Oro Hotel, in Nayarit, where he had organized a party.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana

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Cartel Jalisco roaming Nuevo Leon

September 22, 2015, 9:02 pm
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The DEA highlights on a report the rapid growth of this criminal group, thanks to the constant struggle over the territory between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel in the state of Nuevo Leon that opens the door for the New Generation Jalisco Cartel.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes the presence of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel in Nuevo Leon.

On a new evaluation report by the DEA on the hands of Reporte Indigo, the DEA is saying that the internal power struggles and disorder of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, can cost the loss of its territory in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

BY JESUS PADILLA - Monday, September 21, 2015

"Internal power struggles and disorder between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas are likely contributing to the expansion of CJNG in Nuevo Leon. CJNG is in a position to increase their drug trafficking operations, "the document of the DEA said.


Reports show that New Generation Jalisco Cartel has reached the limits of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and the municipality of Anahuac, Nuevo Leon.


Keep in mind that it was this zone where elements of the Navy captured Miguel Angel Trevino Morales "Z40" in a precise air raid operation in un-populated roads linking the two entities.

The arrest took place in August 2013, 27 kilometers southwest of Nuevo Laredo.

However, other versions suggest that it was in the town of Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, right on the border with Tamaulipas.

This sector is considered by federal authorities as a Zeta bastion.

According to the DEA, CJNG came to dispute that area, described as a strategic point for smuggling and drug passage to the United States.

However, there is another version that seems to have logic, because it speaks of a possible alliance between the Gulf Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel to control this sector.

The Beltran take hold but ...


This metropolitan area of San Pedro ​​Nuevo Leon, a town with the highest per capita income in Mexico, is where the Beltran Leyva cartel took hold in the territory.

However, federal sources consulted by Reporte Indigo reveal that the New Generation Jalisco Cartel could fight for control of the San Pedro plaza to the Beltran Leyva Cartel.

And it would be the perfect place to start, first stage, retail and distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine.

"Second step could be money laundering. San Pedro is perfect for the leaders of this group to go unnoticed, "said federal source.

This information coincides with the DEA document held by Reporte Indigo.

The mere presence of New Generation Jalisco Cartel, in Nuevo Leon, opens the door for expanding its operation in this state, the Drug Enforcement Agency warns.

"CJNG uses its alliances and exploits the weaknesses of rival cartels to take over new territories or increase their presence in areas" explains the DEA document.

Good reason for the possibility that the CJNG will dispute the territory to Beltran Leyva Cartel.

In Monterrey, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas are in dispute, but according to the DEA, the presence of the Jalisco Cartel is growing in other states and can dispute the capital of Nuevo Leon.

"From their stronghold in Jalisco, the influence of the organization it extends to Nayarit, Colima, Guerrero, Veracruz, Michoacan and other Mexican states," said the DEA.

Moreover, CJNG have positioned themselves in the state of Veracruz, controlled by Los Zetas Cartel in recent years.

The rivalry between Los Zetas and CJNG has been dragging on for nearly eight years, so federal and US authorities expect a war full of violence.

From an Armed Group to Drug Cartel


The story in the world of drug trafficking it repeats once again.

As happened with the Zetas cartel, which rose from the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel to an organization in the drug trade, now the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) undergoes a similar transformation.

CJNG emerged in 2007 as an armed group, which was named "matazatas" at the service of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Through the social network they showed its existence, videotaping interrogations and executions of several Zetas.

"Jalisco, the land of freedom and working people. Death to kidnappers and extortionists Zetas ", its seen in a video posted on YouTube by the CJNG.

Just like Los Zetas, the CJNG has used violence to demonstrate their power.

This organization attacked media facilities in Jalisco, while Los Zetas attacked local television stations in Nuevo Leon in 2010.

CJNG also copy Zetas operations. That is to say using narco blockades, the use of, unmarked graves by the border of Jalisco and Michoacan; and they have participated in the disappearance of innocent civilians not linked to organized crime. And it doesn't end there.

Jalisco authorities have attributed their participation in crimes against senior public officials, like Jesus Gallegos, State Secretary of Tourism, which occurred in 2013, and the PAN mayor of Ayutla, Manuel Gomez Torres, in 2014.

Another event that unleashed chaos in Jalisco occurred in March 2012 when authorities captured Erick Valencia "El 85", one of the founders of CJNG group, in a house in Lomas Altas, Zapopan.

Hours after the arrest of Valencia, 16 narco blockades were started with 25 vehicles torched and clashes that claimed the lives of two people: the driver of a public bus and a suspected gunman.

The same chaos lived in Jalisco at that time, Nuevo Leon had suffered years before.

As an example, the capture of Hector Raul Luna Luna "Tori", who was a plaza leader of Los Zetas, caused at least 42 narco blockades.

This article was translated from Reporte Indigo

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New battle between Military and CJNG leaves 5 dead

September 22, 2015, 11:32 pm
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article

UPDATED 23rd Sept with information from Milenio

[ Subject Matter: Cartel Jalisco Neuva Generacion
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]



Reporter: Felipe Cobian
Guadalajara: In an alleged confrontation between the Military and civilians occurred this morning in the town of Ameca, less than 90 kilometers from the Jalisco Capital City, it left five dead members of the CJNG, according to primary reports.

An operation carried out at 7am today in the Village of San Antonio Matute, killed"El duende" whose true name is Juan Carlos Marquez Perez, alleged Plaza Boss in the Valles region, operating out of Ameca.

click on image to enlarge


San Antonio Matute is a small village located approximately 75 kilometers from Guadalajara, alongside the highway, where the Secretary of National Defence received various requests of support for Infantry and armored vehicles, according to the primary reports.





On this same route, but between San Sebastian del Oeste and Puerto Vallarta, was the place where 15 State Police were ambushed and killed and 5 more injured on 6th of April this year.

click on image to enlarge


Less than a month after, in Villa Purificacion, on the States South coast, the same Cartel attacked helicopters of Mexican Air Force when elements of the Special forces were trying to capture the capo Nemesio Oseguera "El Mencho".

In that attack, the alleged narco traffickers brought down a Cougar Helicopter with members of a special assault team inside. More than a dozen elements of the Federal Police and the Army were killed. Unofficial tallies put the total number of dead at 43 people.

(Otis: Zetatijuana are also running this story with the same information though they do say that his other nickname is "El Tecolote", and that he has been identified by SEIDO as a trusted man of "El Mencho", Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.

Original article in Spanish at Proceso

UPDATE from Milenio

Plaza Boss of CJNG captured after a firefight.

Geovanni Castri Urbano "El Duende", was captured together with three of his bodyguards, after a confrontation with the Federal Police and Sedena in the Jalisco Town of Ameca.


The alleged Plaza Boss for the Valles Region of the CJNG, Geovanni Castro Urbano, "El Duende" was captured together with three of his bodyguards after a confrontation with groups of elite Federal Police and Sedena in the Town of Ameca, revealed Government functionaries.

The operation to capture "El Duende", identified as one of the principal operators of "El Mencho", leader of the CJNG, started a little after 7 am Tuesday.

More than fifty Military broke into a finca located on Calle Educacion crossroads with Calle Emilio Zapata, in the delegation of San Antonio de Matute.

Witnesses declared that the Military were shot at by the alleged criminals.

"I was with my grandsons watching the television and on the point of taking them to school when it all started. I heard the shots from the house, went outside to see what was happening and a Soldier said to me: little mother go inside your house and close the door", said the woman.

The Federal functionaries indicate that during the operation they achieved the detention of Giovanni Castro Urbano who also goes by the alias Juan Carlos Marquez Perez, they also detained three of his bodyguards.

According to information supplied by Federal functionaries, "El Duende" replaced Heriberto Acevedo Cardenas, "El Gringo" inside the criminal organization, when "El Gringo" died during a confrontation with elements of the Jalisco "One" Force in the Town of Zacoalco de Torres, on March 24th this year.



The death of "El Gringo" set off a series of violent acts against the Jalisco Security Authorities, which culminated in the deaths of 15 Security Officers of the Unified Force when they were ambushed at San Sebastian del Oeste.

Its alleged that Geovanni Castro Urbano could be related to the assassination of 4 Military in the Town of Guachinango on March of 2014. The detained were transferred to SEIDO headquarters in Mexico City.

A government press conference will be given by Renato Sales in due course.

Original article in Spanish at Milenio
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Sinaloans are laundering drug proceeds, using Tijuana currency exchange centers

September 24, 2015, 9:43 pm
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Through two owners of currency exchange centers captured in Colombia, the Sinaloa Cartel launder millions of dollars from the sale of drugs, and transported shipments of cocaine to the United States.

The detainees pending extradition, are linked to the group of "El Atlante", a drug trafficker imprisoned since 2014.

In less than two years, Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz and Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga launder more than 45 million dollars for the Sinaloa Cartel from the sale of drugs in the United States, through exchange centers in Tijuana and companies in Sinaloa.

By Inés García Ramos


Sought by Interpol, wanted by the US Federal Prosecutor and the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the two men were far from keeping a low profile.

Traveling from Culiacan, Sinaloa, to the Tijuana border and the United States, they cruise around California, eating lobster in the tourist area of ​​Puerto Nuevo in Baja California and were protected by a group of bodyguards.


                       Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga, accused of trafficking cocaine.



On their last trip, they were arrested. On different days, the two partners arrived at the port of Cartagena, on the Caribbean Sea, north of Colombia.

The arrival of Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga on Wednesday August 19, 2015, at the Núñez de Cartagena International Airport, triggered alerts in the Immigration Department of Colombia.

Arriving from Panama, the 27-year-old was identified as a member of the Sinaloa cartel, according to the Interpol Red Alert issued by the US government.

It was then that the decision to search for his partner was made, Omar Guadalupe Ayón Díaz, was staying at a hotel on the outskirts of the city of Cartagena.

Colombian officials detained him for "crimes of money laundering, organization, or  association with a criminal group," the Colombian authorities said. As Contreras Arriaga, he had an Interpol Red Alert.

The two men remain in Colombia, awaiting extradition to the United States to be prosecuted in federal court.

Drug money hidden in cars


On March 2015, a grand jury in the Southern District of California based in San Diego, filed an indictment against Omar Ayon Diaz and Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga on charges of international conspiracy to money laundering and cocaine trafficking.

Also known as “Ahijado”, “Ahijado VIP”, “Thor” and “Cejas” Ayon Diaz owns and operates several currency exchange centers in Tijuana.

The 36 year old man began working as a cashier in one of 15 currency exchange centers owned by Miguel Ángel “Micky” Márquez Treviño, imprisoned since 2009 on charges of money laundering for the Arellano Felix Cartel.

Since April 2013, the two detainees, together with a third man identified as Joel Acevedo Ojeda, alias “El Peludo”, “El Peludín", “Bisholo” or “Manuel”, conspired to transport, transfer monetary instruments and funds between Mexico and the United States to support a drug trafficking network.


Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga (white) and Omar Diaz Guadalupe Ayon. Detained in Colombia, will be extradited to US.

This is indicated in the indictment accepted by the Federal Court of the Southern District of California, which ZETA has a copy.

"The goal of this conspiracy was to move large amounts of money, proceeds of illicit sale of drugs trafficked from Mexico to the United States," the report said.

At the same time they will introduced large quantities of drugs from Mexico to storage houses in California for distribution in the United States, Ayon Diaz and Contreras Arriaga ran the smuggling of millions of dollars to be laundered in currency exchange centers in Tijuana.

For this they used couriers who hid bundles of dollars in secret compartments in cars to leave the United States to avoid detection by customs agents.

"These couriers will also smuggled dollars from Mexico to US banks to make deposits and then perform wire transfers in Mexico with money already converted into pesos," said the indictment.

The money, that was not deposited in bank accounts in Mexico, was delivered directly to the drug cartels, documents filed with the Court explained.

Although the accused were using coded messages and communicated through Nextel radios and BlackBerry cell phones to organize the movement of drugs and dollars, the US authorities discovered their strategies.

For the crime of money laundering, the maximum penalty in the United States is 20 years.

Individually, Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga is accused of leading a cocaine trafficking network in the Southern District of California.

Besides this, if convicted the prosecution will request that, the three men delivered to the Federal Government "any money or property involved in the offense and any property traceable to such for not less than 45 million" amount calculated on profits earned by the defendants.

"El Atlante" exchange centers




In Tijuana, Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz appeared as currency exchange owner, attending public meetings, accompanied by his bodyguards, he moved between different exchange centers to oversee its operation.

One such exchange center is Centro Cambiario Titán, located in a small shopping center in colonia El Prado, right in fron of the Municipal Auditorium.

In a complaint filed with the Board of Conciliation and Arbitration in Tijuana, with file number 6124/14, a former employee mention Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz as owner of this exchange center.

The plaintiff withdrew the labor dispute in June 2015. Months earlier, in March, the last hearing had vented.

In turn, Ayón Díaz was working for Alfonso Lira Sotelo “El Atlante” and his family, who controls one of the main drug plazas of the Sinaloa Cartel in the Tijuana border.

Intelligence of the State Council of Public Security points to Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz and Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga as direct subordinates of the Lira Sotelo family.

Alfonso Lira Sotelo began in the ranks of drug trafficking in 2007 with Teodoro Garcia Simental "El Teo" and after his detention, began to climb up to position himself in the drugs world until September 2014 when he was detained in Zapopan, Jalisco.

After the arrest, the Coordination Group of Baja California informed that the Lira Sotelo family had restructured themselves to continue activities related to drug trafficking, such as executions, money laundering, extortion and kidnapping.

As head of the criminal cell was another brother of the drug trafficker Javier Sotelo Lira “El Carnicero” or “El Hanibal”, this according to information held by the Security Council, which have had at least two unsuccessful attempts to capture him in Tecate so far in 2015.

Authorities themselves say that Alma Delia, the sister of both criminals continues with the financial operations, however, ministerial sources consulted indicated that no formal charges have been filed against the woman, neither a warrant against her exist.

Both are assisted by the main partner of "El Atlante" Jorge Joaquín Valbuena Álvarez “El Español” while the Tecate area is under the control of Francisco Javier Payán Pérez “Nanis” as it was reported by the State Intelligence.

Public Security authorities explained that, for the operation of currency exchange, capital flow and money laundering, the Lira Sotelo family hired the services of Contreras Arriaga and Ayón Díaz.

However, they were detected by police forces, which captured more than once the two accused men when they were in Tijuana.

Even Ayon Diaz went straight to the State Preventive Police (PEP) on January 2, 2014 to request not to be harassed, since being currency exchange owner he was constantly stopped by police, he argued.

Perfect business for money laundering


There are bout 300 currency exchange center in Tijuana, a whooping 25% of all the establishments of this type in the entire country, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

At least $15,000 dollars are exchange per window on daily operations, either selling or buying foreign currency.

AML experts consulted by the Weekly, explained that to launder money through an exchange center, transactions have to be under $ 500 and thus avoids filling reports to the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).

As a second step, currencies are exported to the United States by companies engaged in buying dollars, which grant the peso equivalent of these amounts.

"The exchange centers, by definition, can not launder money because that money has to internalize the financial system, but if you already have bank accounts, then these pesos are placed in them," another of the sources said.

And so they did the. Documents by US authorities, revealed that bank accounts where the laundered money was transferred belonged to the drug cartels.


                                   One of the exchange centers linked to "El Atlante"

In addition to the Exchange Center Titan, Omar Guadalupe Ayon Diaz and Alma Delia Lira Sotelo, have other known exchange centers located in the fraccionamiento El Florido East Zone of the city, on the Boulevard Insurgentes and several more on Boulevard Agua Caliente.

On behalf of Alma Delia Lira Sotelo, the SHCP issued the key financial identity 0CCBI0. While Omar Diaz Guadalupe Ayon appears in the catalog of money transmitters, issued in October 2007 by the Ministry of Finance.

Wanted but protected in Mexico


Sources at the Attorney General's Office (PGR) confirmed that the Deputy Attorney of Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SEIDO) maintains an open investigation against Ayon Diaz for the crime of operating with illegal proceeds and other issues.

Case record UEIORPIFAM / AP / 202/2014, open October 30, 2014 by the Special Unit of Investigations for Operating with Illicit Resources and Forgery or Alteration of Currency.

Therefore, from that date his savings accounts, checking, trusts, including a bank account at Scotiabank, as well as contracts, loans and securities in the institutions of the national financial system were frozen.

In this preliminary investigation companies linked to them are Acuícola Castper and Cote Corporación Técnica Empresarial, located in Sinaloa, as well as the involvement of 29 people.

A day after the investigation began, the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) recorded the license renewal of Titan Exchange Center in Tijuana, with number 178484 whose first record dates back to November 1, 2011.

In fact, information in the hands of the control board CNBV -Updated 24 August 2015 indicates that this exchange house, whose owner is identified as Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz successfully met all the operations control requirements, as well as reports of  cash dollars and audits.

Apparently this exchange house operated within the legal framework, Ayon Diaz filed for legal protections for himself and his family.

An unresolved process 68/2015, filed in early 2015 in the First District Court in matters of Amparo and federal trials in Tijuana, against the president of the CNBV.

Followed by the process 222/2015 in the Second District Court of Amparo and federal trials, also in Tijuana, filed April 10, 2015 for a possible order of presentation against the SEIDO, but because of his absence the injunction was dismissed.

Similar, process for protection of the seizure, of his bank account, in relation to the investigation that the PGR maintains against him.

Another injunction further promoted, is the process 947/2015 in the First Court of Amparo and federal lawsuits against the Secretary of Public Security of Tijuana, filed August 11, 2015, to protect him from detention or arrest order.

In this protection orders, are both Omar Guadalupe and his brother Alexis Ayon Diaz. Although the issue is still not resolved, a provisional suspension of arrest was granted.

While Ivan Ayon Pedro Diaz, another of his brothers, was arrested by the State Preventive Police on August 31, 2013 for failing to verify the provenance of 270 thousand pesos in cash, he promoted an injunction 982/2015 against the Attorney General.

This process is dated August 24, 2015, five days after the arrest of his brother in Colombia.

Properties in Tijuana and Sinaloa


Additionally, authorities are investigating the relationship between the illicit activities of Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga and one of his sisters, who serves as air traffic controller at the airport in Tijuana and, following the arrest of her brother, she went to Colombia to visit him in jail.

The Contreras Arriaga family is originally from Culiacan, Sinaloa. Osvaldo Contreras was born on February 18, 1988 in that city, and some of his brothers and him, have residence in Tijuana.

The celebrations and festivities of the family of the 27 year old, identified as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, constantly are shown in sections of the local newspapers and in Social Media in Sinaloa.

Intelligence units of the State Council of Public Security, identify two homes belonging to Osvaldo, the first incolonia Paseos del Florido East Zone of Tijuana.

While in Culiacan, Sinaloa, he has another home in fraccionamiento Villas del Río. He received a building permit from the Department of Urban Development and Ecology, dated April 24, 2013.

Meanwhile, her sister has an apartment valued at $930,000 pesos, acquired in 2013 into a luxury division of Tijuana. In addition, in 2014 she bought a property in delegation La Mesa.

Another property in the name of Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz, born on December 12, 1978, was located in colonia Mariano Matamoros.

Additionally, in 2010, Ayon Diaz took a loan of $50,000 pesos awarded by a textile manufacturer in the city, under the guarantee of  a land in delegación San Antonio de los Buenos, which was bought four years earlier for $132,000 pesos.

Although for years the US authority followed the footsteps of Omar Guadalupe Ayón Díaz and Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga, the charge against them remained quiet until early September, after the arrest of both men.

In Mexico, this members of the Sinaloa Cartel traveled and lived as businessmen. Now they live under the watch of the Attorney General's Office in Colombia and awaiting extradition to the United States.

This article was translated from Zeta Tijuana

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Actress Ali Landry's inlaws, kidnapped in Tamaulipas, killed in Veracruz

September 25, 2015, 9:26 am
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat

Tortured and killed after 5000 dollar ransom was paid

In-laws of actress and former Miss USA, Ali Landry, were kidnapped in Tampico, Tamaulipas and found dead in  ejido El Chachalaco, Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz.

Veracruz attorney general Luis Bravo, issued a statement saying Juan Manuel Gomez Fernandez and Juan Manuel Gomez Monteverde, father and brother of Miss Landry’s Mexican film maker husband ("Bella", "Little Boy"), Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, had both been killed by blows to the head, and left for dead several days before being discovered.  [photo of the couple at left]

The son, who lives in McAllen a Texas border city, was visiting his father at his Tampico livestock ranch. 

The kidnappers, using a stolen car with Tamaulipas license plates, abducted the two victims as they exited the ranch. A second report in the Mexican press says; after they left the ranch and were accosted in an area of Huasteca which is identified by authorities as a point of high risk.

The vehicle was found abandoned in Veracruz after the kidnapping.

Tampico is at the southernmost tip of Tamaulipas, sharing a border with the state of Veracruz.  A 17 minute drive separates the two cities involved in the kidnapping.

It was on September 4thwhen the victims were reported missing, but the news was not made public for over 2 weeks.  The bodies were discovered on September 16th .

A 5000 USD  demand was paid on September 5, but as often the case in Mexico, the victims were killed.  Following the ransom payment, kidnappers demanded additional money, when a request for proof of life was made, communications broke and no further contact was made.  This strongly suggests the victims were killed within 24 hours of abduction.

Mexican press is reporting, that the younger Gomez was a part owner of a Tampico restaurant, "La Pecerita", formally known as "El Callejón de los Milagros” which was a target of extortion by Mexican organized crime.  Tampico is a city heavy with violence and criminality as cartels war over the plaza.


The family did not contact local or state agencies to report the men kidnapped, they instead called the federal agency PGR and SEIDO.  One line of investigation is any involvement by municipal police.  

SEIDO, is the federal agency for organized crime investigations, initiated the investigation.




The Memorial Mass

350 mourners wore white to the memorial mass in Tampico.

Alejandro thanked those present and those who were not present but had reached out with love and sympathy.  

He asked that people remember his brother and father, for how they lived their life and not by their heinous murder.

He then read a letter he authored and gave to his father five years prior, one that his father cherished, kept in his briefcase, and reread often.

In part it read:

"Letter to my father;

I am writing this letter because I am at a point in my life in which I am very happy and content and all of it I owe to you papá … you have been the inspiration of my dreams and I want you to know that you still are, that is why I call you by phone and that is why I need your calls... you are my fuel.  

I am the most proud son in the world and you're the best father of the whole world, I love you so much papá, that at the moment of writing this, there are tears in my eyes. You always have been and will be always my hero, I brag about you to my friends.

Thank you for all you have done for me, the games, the adventures, the many trips we made, and the trips to the ranch with you were spectacular.

You were always there watching and protecting me,  thank you, thank you.. thank you!

You taught me to become the man I am today….you taught me, Eduardo and Juan Manuel, that love mattered above all other things....”






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"La China" and her "Traitor" boyfriend

September 26, 2015, 6:29 am
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The reign of terror of Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda 'La China', one of the few women who has gained notoriety in the drug trafficking world, collapsed as she was about to board a plane to leave the state of Baja California Sur. She was betrayed by her boyfriend Hector Gomez Pedro Camarena 'El Chino', arrested last July.

Calderon Ojeda (responsible for the deaths of about 170 people) was in charge of "Los Damaso" special forces of the Sinaloa cartel, for a couple of years but became independent when she was demoted and decided to form her own criminal organization.

'La China' declared war on their former employers and partners, and tried to take control of La Paz and then Los Cabos. With "La China" as the boss, 'El Chino' took the role of second in command; Sergio 'The Scar' Beltran became chief of assassins; Rogelio 'Tyson' Franco was responsible for logistics, and Peter 'Peter' Cisneros was appointed head of sales of narcotics and to disposed the bodies of enemies.


 Rogelio 'El Tyson' Franco, Sergio 'The Scar' Beltran and Pedro "Peter" Cisneros, suspected assassins working for "La China". Photos: PGR


After being sought for years, Calderon Ojeda, who became known for kidnapping victims and dismembering their bodies, was apprehended on Saturday 19. Since the capture of her boyfriend Pedro Héctor Gómez Camarena, the most feared woman was cornered by authorities, she was surrounded when she tried to flee from Baja California Sur from an aerodrome in Cabo San Lucas.

With a reputation forged in blood and gun fire, "the most powerful female drug trafficker in Mexico" could no longer escape. Her reign of terror fell from a betrayal of her boyfriend, who negotiated better terms with the authorities and deliver her on a silver platter. However, Secretary of Government of Baja California Sur, Alvaro de la Peña, said that they found Melissa "by sharing intelligence information."

Her capture was made "in a totally clean way, without guns, without any shot fire," he boasted.

In exchange for a reduced sentence, 'El Chino' not only gave his partner, he also revealed details of how the organization worked under her and revealed the location of the "secret cemetery", where they had hidden the bodies of their victims.

Security forces arrived to the unmarked graves of the contract killer, where they found two men and three women buried in the community of El Comitan, north of La Paz.

According to his statement, the gunman "did not remember the exact location of the graves", but stated that the responsibility to dig graves and bury the victims was at the hands of Silva Pedro Cisneros 'Peter' or 'El Chapo', to whom he described as: "50 years old, slim build, fair complexion, short hair and approximately 1.50 meters in height."

During questioning, he revealed that in the underworld he will also used the names of "Edgar Leonel Meraz Felix" and / or "Edgar Leonel Palacios", and even offered two addresses of safe houses of his accomplice, whom he identified as the “enterrador” ("gravedigger").

The first addresses was corresponding to the street of San Ramon and Santa Isabel in colonia Santa Fe and the second at Bahía de La Paz in colonia Fovissste de La Paz.

The criminal gave key information about criminal links and networks of 'La China' with the municipal and state police and said that even police agents are involved in the criminal organization.

And so "La China" was arrested, whom the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped on July 31 from a maximum security prison  Altiplano, had great confidence and had put her in command of his henchmen, but the alliance finally broke.

Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda is in the process of being interrogated in Mexico City and next year she will stand trial for more than 150 murders she allegedly committed herself.

This article was translated from Proceso

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Zetas: Pancho Colorado wins another appeal, his bribery conviction is tossed out

September 26, 2015, 4:00 pm
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by Lucio R. Borderland Beat

At the close of the Austin Texas Zetas Money Laundering trial, a stunning addendum intruded the Austin courthouse, when prosecutors made aware the business partner and the son of defendant Francisco “Pancho” Colorado Cessa, [below left] had attempted to execute a scheme that would bribe a U.S. District Court judge, on behalf of Colorado, for a favorable sentence.

In another one of those situations which could have easily been created in Hollywood, Francisco Colorado Jr. and Ramon Segura attempted to bribe the presiding judge, planning to pay him 1 million USD.

Judge Sparks was never aware of the scheme.  The plot included; an informant, secret meetings with undercover agents, code words and a fictitious story by the agents saying the judge had accepted the deal.

Colorado Jr. and Seguro pleaded guilty in exchange for Cessa receiving a light sentence, of about one year.  They were released and deported to Mexico, where they promptly declared they were railroaded by the U.S. government and were innocent.

For his part Cessa pleaded with the judge to punish him but allow his son to go free.  He then pleaded guilty.  He attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, but the presiding judge, in the bribery case, Donald Walter, ruled against Cessa rescinding his plea, saying “he had implicitly accepted the plea agreement”, thereby was prevented from repealing the agreement.

He was sentenced to 5 years. 

But a federal 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals, found in disagreement with the presiding judge, concluding that he had the right to rescind the plea agreement.

The conviction was overturned.





This was the second appeal in which Cessa prevailed.  In March his conviction in the Zetas trial was overturned.

He was convicted of laundering millions of dollars for Los Zetas cartel, in a quarter horse racing operation in the United States.  The April 2013 trial which initially included 15 defendants but after plea deals the number dropped down to five. 

Of the five who were tried;

Colorado Cessa found guilty sentenced to 240 months- conviction overturned on appeal

Fernando Solis Garcia, Guilty sentenced to 140 months

Jose Trevino Morales, brother of Omar and Miguel Trevino, found guilty sentenced to 20 years

Jesse Maldonado Huitron- Not Guilty

Eusevio "Chevo" Maldonado Huitron (brother of Jesse) Guilty- then conviction overturned and he was acquitted and freed with the appeals ruling “insufficient evidence”


At the time of the trial BB administrator Chivis, went on record saying the Huitron brothers should not have been charges in the first place, she was of the opinion that the brothers were innocent of the charges.

Cessa had predicted he would attain and overturn and eventual acquittal.  He contention is he had no choice, he was forced into helping the Zetas, it was that or die.

However, testimony in the case says otherwise, among testimony was that of the two:

There is testimony of Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar aka “El Mamito” or Z-7.

Rejón spoke to the court of Pancho Colorado Cessa and his relationship with Z-14. He said, "They were compadres and Z-14 helped him with his company in Veracruz." He was at the investigation/reorganization meeting at Colorado's ranch after the death of Z-14. Rejón testified that he attended many match races, "maybe 80" with 40 and 42 in Mexico, and Colorado Cessa was there sometimes, too. "He bought horses for them."

Another witness, José Carlos Hinajosa, was a law clerk at the Federal Attorney’s office in San Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, before becoming the account for Los Zetas. He testified Thursday that in 2004-2005, Francisco Colorado Cessa siphoned millions of dollars of drug money that was allocated for the horse racing operation and 12 million dollars to the PRI political party’s gubernatorial campaign in Veracruz. 

Although not named, the governor was Fidel Herrera Beltrán. He denies this to be fact, but the FBI suspected Francisco was giving money to Herrera.

Cessa will get a new trial in both cases, but don’t be surprised if he gets an attractive deal and one or both don’t make it to trial, seems Mexico’s narcos aren’t spending much time in prison after the dust settles.

For extensive background information, including information about the Zetas revealed in the trial, use the search bar, type in Zetas Trial or Zetas Money Laundering trial. Or use google to access the series and in the courtroom reporting of Havana and Chivis.
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It's #49 not #43; The forgotten victims of the Iguala Massacre

September 27, 2015, 9:04 am
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Lucio R Borderland Beat

#49
It was a horrific series of events on September 26 and 27 of 2014, that the world came to know the Ayotzinapa Normalistas, those students in rural colleges becoming teachers.  The label #43 was quickly attached to the 43 students who remain unaccounted for, but there were 49 (some accounts say 50) who were also a part of the mayhem in Iguala Guerrero.  They have become the forgotten ones. The press are not publishing their stories, and highlighting the grief of their families, who in some aspects, at a greater degree,  are hounded by revulsion of terror of the night from hell.

There were 3 other normalistas killed that night, and three others, a bus driver, a lady in a taxi, and a 15 year old soccer player shot and killed as his team bus came under attack.

Of all the victims, of what is known, no one suffered more in the minutes before his death than Julio Mondragon. 

He was beaten so badly his skull sustained multiple fractures, his internal bleeding included his brain, and his face was flayed. 

The Los Angeles, California native, born and raised in L.A., decided to return to his mother’s homeland.  He quickly fell in love, married, became a father and set his sights on helping his indigenous community by becoming a teacher.

I found this article while searching the internet for a story that is different, hats off to “El Daily Post” for this post, paying respects and acknowledgement to :

#44 Julio Mondragon, #45 Daniel Solís, #46 Julio César Ramírez, (normalistas killed on September 26th) #47 bus driver Victor Manuel Lugo Ortiz, #48 Blanca Montiel, and soccer player #49 David José García Evangelista. Below is the article.by Maria Verza of AP.

Screen shot of Julio's face book page


SAN MIGUEL TECOMATLÁN, State of Mexico — Unlike the families of the 43 students who disappeared a year ago, Julio César Mondragón's loved ones were left with a body to bury. But there is little comfort in that, because Mondragón's corpse bore witness to the horror of his final moments.
His autopsy showed several skull fractures, internal bleeding and other injuries consistent with torture. His face had been flayed, a tactic often used by the drug cartels to incite terror. Photos of his bloody skull were uploaded to the Internet.
Funeral of Julio Cesar Ramirez Nava
International attention has been focused on the 43 students who vanished a year ago Saturday, but there were 49 victims that night. Six others died at the hands of police in those hours, including Mondragón, a 22-year-old father.

According to an independent group of experts, the disappearances and the killings were the result of a long, coordinated attack against students from the Raul Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School of Ayotzinapa who had come to the southern city of Iguala to commandeer buses for a protest.

But the events of last Sept. 26 were far from isolated. Some 25,000 people have been reported missing in Mexico since 2007, and hundreds from the Iguala area in the last year alone. The disappearance of the students has drawn attention to others who have been lost, as well as brutal drug cartels, official corruption, government indifference and languishing legal cases.

According to Mexico's former attorney general, the 43 disappeared in an attack by police and the Guerreros Unidos drug gang because they were mistaken for rival gang members. The attorney general said last November they were killed and burned to ash in a giant pyre in the nearby Cocula garbage dump.

David Jose Garcia 15 
The independent experts assembled by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights took apart that version earlier this month, saying authorities knew who the students were from the minute they headed for Iguala, and at the very least did nothing to stop the attacks.

They say the funeral pyre simply didn't happen, and suggest the attack occurred because students unknowingly hijacked a bus carrying illegal drugs or money. Iguala is known as a transit hub for heroin going to the United States.

Families say the judicial neglect extends to Mondragón and five others killed that night. His fellow students Daniel Solís and Julio César Ramírez, were shot dead at close range. Driver Victor Manuel Lugo Ortiz and David José García Evangelista, 15, died when police fired at a soccer team bus. Blanca Montiel, 40, was killed by stray gunfire while riding in a taxi.

Mondragón had been on one of the buses when it was attacked, then later showed up at a press conference the students called at 12:30 a.m. amid the mayhem. He fled when police opened fire. Witnesses said shortly after they last saw him, they heard screams from someone they assumed had been detained by police. About 6 a.m., soldiers found his body less than a mile from where he disappeared.

Though Mondragón's autopsy points to torture, that doesn't appear in the court records. A report by a military unit at the scene said his face had been peeled off with a knife. But the autopsy says it could have been done by an animal after the body was dumped. His family calls that conclusion "a mockery."
Daniel Solis with family at his graduation

Mondragón's case could provide clues to who was behind the attack, according to the commission. But it languishes in three separate court files. The commission and Mondragón's family want the body exhumed for a new autopsy.

The former mayor of Iguala, José Luis Abarca, and his wife are among 28 people charged with his killing. Authorities say they were the ones who ordered the attacks.

But Sayuri Herrera, lawyer for the Mondragón family, said it would be easy for any defense attorney to get the charges thrown out because the shabby investigative work and foggy charges filed by prosecutors could weaken the case. Charges have already been dropped against one police officer, who remains jailed for the missing 43.

"There's not even clarity in the accusations," said Herrera.

Mondragón's family gathers most Saturdays at the large table in his uncle Cuitláhuac's modest
Lenin Mondragon 
concrete home, sometimes to meet with Herrera, sometimes for psychological counseling, always to plot a path to justice.

"Here we all pretend to be strong," said Lenin Mondragón, 22, who has his brother's eyes, now filled with sadness.

They want the case taken up by federal prosecutors. The Inter-American Commission's experts also say the six murders should be part of the federal case of the 43 because they complete the picture of what happened that night.

The attorney general's office has refused that approach. It also declined for weeks to answer questions about the case from The Associated Press, although on Friday, Eber Betanzos, assistant attorney general for human rights, said the office was about to decide whether it would take over the investigation from state prosecutors. He also said his office will be present for Mondragon's exhumation.

The case remains with state prosecutors in Guerrero, where a lack of resources and expertise make it even less likely that justice will be served.

Mondragón was a little older than his other first-year classmates because he had passed through several normal schools before enrolling in Ayotzinapa. He liked to challenge the teachers, Cuitláhuac Mondragón said. He also taught reading and writing to poor families in San Miguel Tecomatlán, a rural town in the hills of the State of Mexico.

Julio's mother, (left) Afrodita Mondragón, likes to look at his Facebook profile, though in wading through the Internet she is careful not to land on the photos of a skull when she searches his name.

"The only thing we ask for is the truth," his uncle said. "The government is betting that this will all be forgotten, and we're betting on justice."
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Mexico Drug War Fast Facts

September 27, 2015, 8:43 pm
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(CNN)Here's a look at the Mexican Drug War. The Mexican government has been fighting a war with drug traffickers since December 2006. At the same time, drug cartels have fought each other for control of territory.

Facts:


More than 60,000 people have been killed from 2006 to 2012 due to drug-related violence, during former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's six-year administration, according to Human Rights Watch. During that same six-year period, 26,121 people have gone missing in Mexico, though authorities don't have data about how many of the disappearances are connected with organized crime.

Since December 1, 2012, when Enrique Peña Nieto assumed the presidency, overall intentional homicide numbers have declined slightly, but the number of reported kidnappings continues to climb.

There are approximated 6,700 licensed firearms dealers in the United States, along the U.S.-Mexico border. There is only one legal firearms retailer in Mexico.

Nearly 70% of guns recovered from Mexican criminal activity from 2007 to 2011, and traced by the U.S. government, originated from sales in the United States.

Ninety percent of the cocaine that enters the U.S. transits through Mexico. Mexico is also a main supplier of marijuana and methamphetamines in the U.S.

Mexican drug cartels take in between $19 and $29 billion annually from U.S. drug sales.

The Mexico drug war: Bodies for billions



Major Cartels:


Beltran Leyva - Founded by the four Beltran Leyva brothers, Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo and Hector. Formerly aligned with the Sinaloa cartel, now aligned with Los Zetas against the Sinaloa, Gulf and La Familia Michoacana cartels.

Gulf Cartel - Based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Formerly one of the most powerful cartels.

Juarez Cartel - Formerly aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel, now fighting it for control of Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua.

La Familia Michoacana - Based in the Michoacan state. Possibly defunct as of 2011.

Los Zetas Cartel - Comprised of former elite members of the Mexican military. Initially they worked as hit men for the Gulf Cartel, before becoming independent. They now battle the Gulf cartel for control of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

Sinaloa Cartel - Considered to be the dominant drug trafficking organization in Mexico. Led byJoaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Tijuana/Arellano Felix Cartel - Based in Tijuana. Most of the Arellano Felix brothers have been apprehended or killed.

Timeline:


August 16, 2006 - Javier Arellano Felix, alleged head of the Tijuana cartel, is arrested on a fishing boat off the Baja peninsula.

December 11, 2006 - Newly elected Mexican President Felipe Calderon deploys more than 6,500 Mexican soldiers to the state of Michoacán to battle drug traffickers.

2006 - In the first few weeks of the government crackdown on drug trafficking, 62 people are killed. (Mexican government, April 2010)

January 2007 - Captured drug lord Osiel Cardena Guillen, alleged former head of the Gulf cartel, is extradited to the United States.

February 2007 - More than 20,000 Mexican soldiers and federal police are spread out across Mexico as part of President Calderon's drug war.

June 25, 2007 - Mexican President Felipe Calderon fires 284 federal police commanders to weed out corruption.

2007 - In the first full year of the drug war, 2,837 people are killed. (Mexican government, April 2010)

January 2008 - Alfredo Beltran Leyva, of the Beltran Leyva Cartel, is arrested by Mexican police in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

May 1, 2008 - Roberto Velasco Bravo, Mexico's director of investigation for organized crime, is killed in Mexico City.

May 8, 2008 - Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez, Mexico's federal police chief, and two bodyguards are killed in Mexico City.

May 9, 2008 - The commander of Mexico City's investigative police force, Esteban Roble Espinosa, is killed outside his home.

September 15, 2008 - During an independence day celebration in Morelia's town square, grenades are thrown into the crowd, killing eight people. The incident has been described as the first terrorist-style attack on innocent bystanders in Mexico's drug war.

November 1, 2008 - The acting head of Mexico's Federal Police, Victor Gerardo Garay, resigns under suspicion of corruption.

2008 - 6,844 people are killed in 2008 in Mexico's drug war. (Mexican government, April 2010)

November 3, 2009 - The reported head of the Los Zetas drug cartel, Braulio Arellano Dominguez, is killed in a gun battle with Mexican forces in Soledad de Doblado.

December 16, 2009 - Arturo Beltran Leyva, head of the Beltran Leyva cartel, is killed in a shootout with Mexican forces in Cuernavaca.

2009 - The Mexican government reports 9,635 deaths in 2009 in the drug war. (Mexican government, April 2010)

January 2010 - Carlos Beltran Leyva is arrested by Mexican authorities in Sinaloa. He is the third Beltran Leyva cartel brother to be captured or killed in two years.

February 25, 2010 - Osiel Cardenas Guillen, head of the Gulf Cartel until his capture in 2003, is sentenced in Texas to 25 years in prison. He also is forced to turn over $50 million to the United States.

May 26, 2010 - Pedro Roberto Velazquez Amador, allegedly the leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel in San Pedro, is killed in a shootout with federal forces in northern Mexico.

June 11, 2010 - Edgar Valdez Villarreal, "La Barbie," an American citizen, is charged with trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the United States between 2004 and 2006. He remains a fugitive with a $2 million reward for information leading to his capture.

June 25, 2010 - A leader in the Sinaloa cartel, Manuel Garibay Espinoza, is arrested in Mexicali, by Mexican police.

July 29, 2010 - Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, is killed in a military raid in Guadalajara's suburbs.

August 25, 2010 - The bodies of 72 migrants from South and Central America are discovered on a ranch in Tamaulipas state. It is believed the 58 men and 14 women were kidnapped by the Los Zetas cartel and killed for refusing to traffic drugs.

August 30, 2010 - Mexican authorities announce that they have captured alleged drug lord Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alleged head of the Beltran Leyva cartel. American-born Valdez is known as "La Barbie" because of his blue eyes and light complexion.

September 10, 2010 - Mexican President Felipe Calderon tells CNN en Español, "We live next to the world's largest drug consumer, and all the world wants to sell them drugs through our door and our window. And we live next to the world's largest arms seller, which is supplying the criminals."

September 12, 2010 - A top leader in the Beltran Leyva cartel, Sergio Villarreal, is arrested in the city of Puebla.

November 5, 2010 - Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, aka Tony Tormenta, allegedly the head of the Gulf cartel, is killed in a shootout with Mexican forces in Matamoros.

December 2010 - Mexico's Attorney General Arturo Chavez Chavez announces a death toll of 30,100 people in Mexico's four-year drug war.

January 2011 - The Mexican government releases a revised death toll of 34,612 citizens killed during the four-year drug war.

January 17, 2011 - Flavio Mendez Santiago, one of the original founders of Los Zetas, is captured near Oaxaca.

February 15, 2011 - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila, Jr. are run off the road in Mexico and attacked by a group of armed men who open fire. Zapata dies and Avila survives a gunshot wound to his leg. The Los Zetas drug cartel is suspected.

February 23, 2011 - Mexican soldiers arrest six members of the Los Zetas drug cartel, including Julian Zapata Espinoza, who is allegedly responsible for the death of U.S. ICE Agent Jaime Zapata.

March 5, 2011 - Alleged Los Zetas drug cartel member, Mario Jimenez Perez, is arrested in connection with Jamie Zapata's murder.

March 7, 2011 - Alleged Los Zetas drug cartel leader, Marcos Carmona Hernandez, is arrested.

March 31, 2011 - Mexico's Attorney General Arturo Chavez Chavez resigns, for personal reasons.

April 2011 - Several mass graves holding 177 bodies are discovered in Tamaulipas, the same area where the bodies of 72 migrants were discovered in 2010.

April 16, 2011 - Mexican authorities announce the arrest of Martin Omar Estrada Luna -- nicknamed "El Kilo," a presumed leader of the Los Zetas drug cartel in San Fernando. Estrada Luna has been identified by authorities as one of three prime suspects behind the mass graves discovered earlier in April 2011.

April 29, 2011 - Former drug cartel leader Benjamin Arellano Felix is extradited to the United States.

May 8, 2011 - Twelve suspected members of the Los Zetas drug cartel and a member of Mexico's navy are killed in a shootout on a Falcon Lake island, after troops patrolling the area spot a camping area on the island. The suspected drug traffickers were storing marijuana on the island to be transported by boat to the U.S., authorities said in a statement.

May 29, 2011 - In Hidalgo, 10 police officers, including a police chief, are arrested on charges of protecting the Los Zetas drug cartel.

June 14, 2011 - A congressional report shows that more than 70% of firearms seized by Mexican authorities, and submitted to the ATF for tracing, are shown to have originated in the United States. The report covers 29,284 firearms submitted in 2009 and 2010.

June 21, 2011 - Mexican federal police capture Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, also known as "The Monkey," the alleged head of La Familia Michoacana cartel in Augascalientes.

July 3, 2011 - Mexican authorities arrest Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, known as "El Mamito," a reported founding member of the Los Zetas Cartel and allegedly connected to ICE Agent Jaime Zapata's death.

July 11, 2011 - The U.S. government announces a plan to require gun dealers in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to report the sales of semiautomatic rifles under certain conditions in an effort to stem the flow of guns to Mexican drug cartels.

July 27, 2011 - Edgar Jimenez Lugo, known as "El Ponchis" or "The Cloak," a 14-year-old American citizen with suspected drug cartel ties, is found guilty of beheading at least four people and sentenced to the maximum for a juvenile, three years in a Mexican correctional facility.

July 30, 2011 - Mexican authorities announce they have Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, or "El Diego," in custody. He is the purported leader of La Linea, the suspected armed branch of the Juarez drug cartel, and considered responsible for the death of U.S. Consulate employee Lesley Enriquez and her husband Arthur Redelfs.

August 1, 2011 - Mexican federal police arrest Moises Montero Alvarez, known as "The Korean," a suspected leader of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA) and allegedly connected with the murders of 20 Mexican tourists in 2010.

August 25, 2011 - At least 52 people are killed in an attack on the Casino Royale in Monterrey, Mexico. Witnesses told investigators that up to six people entered the Casino Royale and demanded money from the manager, according to Adrian de la Garza, the state attorney general for Nuevo Leon. When the manager refused to pay they set the building on fire, he said.

August 30, 2011 - Mexican officials allege that the five suspects arrested in connection with the Mexico casino fire are members of the Los Zetas drug cartel and had targeted the owners of the casino for not complying with extortion demands. The suspects are identified as Luis Carlos Carrazco Espinosa; Javier Alonso Martinez Morales, alias "el Javo;" Jonathan Jahir Reyna Gutierrez; Juan Angel Leal Flores; and Julio Tadeo Berrones, alias "El Julio Rayas."

September 1, 2011 - A Nuevo Leon state police officer, Miguel Angel Barraza Escamilla, is arrested in connection with the casino fire that killed 52 people in Monterrey.

September 13, 2011 - A murdered man and woman are found hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo. Near their mutilated bodies is a sign saying they were killed for denouncing drug cartel activities on a social media site. The sign also threatens to kill others who post "funny things on the Internet."

September 20, 2011 - At least 35 bodies are dumped in a roadway in the coastal state of Veracruz, during rush hour.

September 23, 2011 - Mexican authorities find another 11 bodies in locations throughout Veracruz.

September 27, 2011 - Five severed heads are found in a sack near an elementary school in Acapulco.

October 4, 2011 - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that almost 43,000 people have died in Mexico's drug war since Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.

October 6, 2011 - In an online video purporting to be from the Anonymous hacking group, a masked man threatens to release information about the Los Zetas drug cartel for allegedly kidnapping an Anonymous member.

October 7, 2011 - The Mexican navy announces that it has arrested eight people suspected of involvement in the deaths of 67 people in Veracruz in recent weeks.

October 12, 2011 - A suspected top Los Zetas drug cartel leader, Carlos Oliva Castillo, alias "La rana," or frog, is arrested for allegedly ordering the attack and arson at the casino that killed 52.

November 24, 2011 - Mexican authorities find 26 bodies inside three abandoned vehicles in Guadalajara, Mexico, one day after authorities in Sinaloa state found 16 charred bodies inside two trucks that had been set ablaze.

January 4, 2012 - Benjamin Arellano Felix, a former leader of Mexico's Tijuana drug cartel, pleads guilty to charges of racketeering and conspiracy to launder money. The plea deal calls for the forfeiture of $100 million to the U.S. and a maximum of 25 years in prison.

January 11, 2012 - The office of Mexico's Attorney General releases a statement saying that nearly 13,000 people were killed in drug violence between January and September 2011. This pushes the death toll from December 2006 to September 2011 to a minimum of 47,000 people killed.

April 2, 2012 - Former Tijuana cartel leader Benjamin Arellano Felix is sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $100 million after pleading guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money.

April 24, 2012 - Using Calderón's strategy of using the army to fight the cartels, the Mexican government has killed more than 40 major cartel members.

May 13, 2012 - Mexican authorities find at least 49 decapitated and dismembered bodies along a highway in Nuevo Leon state, between the cities of Monterrey and Reynosa.

July 7, 2012 - In an interview with CNN, Mexico's President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto calls for a new debate on the drug war and says the U.S. must play a prominent role.

July 12, 2012 - A U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report concludes Mexico's frontal assault against drug cartels has been "largely ineffective" and in some instances counterproductive to reducing violence. The report recommends the focal point of Mexico's anti-drug cooperation should be training and institution-building in police forces and judiciary.

August 31, 2012 - Eduardo Arellano-Felix, an alleged senior member of a Tijuana-based drug cartel, is extradited from Mexico to the United States. Arellano-Felix was arrested on October 25, 2008, after a gun battle with Mexican forces.

September 3, 2012 - In his final state of the nation address, Mexican President Felipe Calderon defends his government's approach to combating crime and drugs and criticizes the United States for providing criminals with almost "unlimited access" to weapons.

September 4, 2012 - Mexican authorities announce the capture of Mario Cardenas Guillen, also known as "M1" and "The Fat One," a suspected leader of the Gulf cartel.

September 27, 2012 - Mexican marines capture and arrest a man claiming to be Ivan Velazquez Caballero, alias "El Taliban." Velazquez Caballero is one of the top leaders of Los Zetas.

October 9, 2012 - Mexican authorities confirm that Mexican marines killed Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, leader of the Zetas cartel, in a shootout on October 7. Lazcano's body was stolen from a funeral home on October 8, but authorities had already taken fingerprints and photographs to confirm his identity.

December 1, 2012 - Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto takes office.

February 21, 2013 - A report published by Human Rights Watch criticizes Mexican security forces and estimates more than 60,000 people were killed in drug-related violence from 2006 to 2012.

July 15, 2013 - Los Zetas cartel leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, known as Z-40, is detained by Mexican authorities in an operation in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, state media reports.

August 20, 2013 - Mario Armando Ramirez, ranking member of the Gulf cartel and also known as X-20, is captured in Reynosa, near Texas.

August 20, 2013 - Eduardo Arellano-Felix is sentenced to 15 years in U.S. federal prison for his role as CFO in the drug cartel organization.

February 22, 2014 - A U.S. official tells CNN that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the boss of one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking operations, has been arrested in Mexico.

March 9, 2014 - Cartel leader Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, also known as "El Chayo,""El Doctor" and "El Mas Loco," The Craziest One," is fatally shot during an arrest attempt, according to Mexican authorities. He was one of the leaders and main founders of La Familia Michoacana cartel. This is the second time Mexican officials said Moreno is dead. They announced in 2010 that they had killed him.

September 26, 2014 - Gunmen open fire at buses carrying students and soccer players in southern Mexico. Authorities say three students are among six people killed in the violence, and 43 students remain missing.

October 1, 2014 - Mexican police capture Hector Beltran Leyva, head of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

October 9, 2014 - Authorities announce that Mexican federal police have captured alleged Juarez Cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

January 27, 2015 - Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam says there is "legal certainty" that the 43 college students who went missing four months ago in the Mexican state of Guerrero were murdered. Mexican authorities believe it was a case of mistaken identity. Former Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca has been charged in the case and is awaiting trial as the accused mastermind of the abduction and execution of the 43 students.

February 27, 2015 - Servando Gomez, leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel, is detained by Mexican authorities in the state of Michoacan.

March 4, 2015 - Zetas drug cartel leader Omar Trevino Morales is apprehended by Mexican authorities in a suburb of Monterrey. Five others are arrested in a simultaneous operation.

July 11, 2015 - Drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escapes through a hole in the shower area of his cell block at the Altiplano Federal Prison that led to a lighted and ventilated tunnel nearly a mile long. Guzman previously escaped from prison in 2001 in a laundry cart and eluded authorities for more than a dozen years until his capture in 2014, when he was arrested in a hotel in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan, in his home state of Sinaloa.

September 6, 2015 - A group of international experts say there's no evidence to support the Mexican government's claim that the 43 students who went missing last year were burned at a landfill. Attorney General Arely Gomez Gonzalez says after the report is released that Mexico will launch a new investigation at the landfill site.

September 19, 2015 - Mexican authorities have arrested 13 more suspects in connection with "El Chapo" Guzman's prison break, including three high officials from the federal prison system, sources close to the attorney general's offices say. That's in addition to the seven prison workers charged in connection with the escape almost a week after it happened.














News article from CNN

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Narco Corrido singer Larry Hernandez arrested for aggression and kidnapping in USA

September 28, 2015, 7:32 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

[ Subject Matter: Larry Hernandez
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]



Reporter: Trinidad Ramirez Toriz
On Friday 25th of September Larry Hernandez was detained at Ontario airport, the narco corrido singer was arrested under the charges of kidnapping and aggression, after a complaint in Newberry, South Carolina, by an individual whose name has not been revealed, who assured that on the morning of 16th of August this year, he was kidnapped by two people from the entourage of "El Ardido".

According to information from various media both national and international, the victim ( a businessman), had solicited the services of the singer who charges 30,000 dollars per appearance, could only pay the singer 14,000 as he had not sold all the tickets for the gig, and according to the businessman he was taken to the hotel where Larry was staying, and gagged and beat him. He managed to escape later from his captors, and went to the police to make a statement.
Click on image to enlarge



The criminal complaint was made in Newberry, South Carolina and even though the singer denied being involved in the events that happened when questioned. Today he is held in the USA justice system in custody at Rancho Cucamonga, California.

His last comment on social media on that Friday was him talking about his involvement in "Noches con Platanito, that will soon go on air.



Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana


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Zeta plaza boss "El Fresa" shanked to death in Topo Chico Jail with 11 others wounded

September 29, 2015, 8:23 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article

[ Subject Matter: Mario Alberto Roldan Zuniga "El Fresa"
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]


Reporter: Zeta Redaction
Monterrey N.L: A zeta plaza boss was assassinated with home made prison type knives (shanks) on Thursday night in the Topo Chico prison, during a riot in which 11 other prisoners were also injured, informed the Government of Nuevo Leon.

Mario Alberto Roldan Zuniga, "El Fresa", 32 years of age, originally from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, he was the zeta plaza boss in this town, and was detained in February of this year, for possession of drugs and fire arms in San Nicolas, the town from where he operated.




The capo contested charges of kidnapping. It has been suggested that "El Fresa" gave up information that assisted in the capture, in the town of San Pedro, this March, of Omar Trevino Morales, "El Z-42", alleged leader of the group in Mexico.

According to an official source, the riot broke out at 21:00 giving rise to the death of "El Fresa" and the injury of 11 others, whose injuries are not thought to be life threatening, although they were sent for evaluation to the University Hospital.

The forensic medical staff that attended found that Roldan Zuniga had more that ten stab puncture wounds. They did not give out information on where inside the old prison the riot had broken out.

The prisoners who were wounded were identified as:

  • Arturo Eguia Gaitan
  • Juan Daniel Martinez Munoz
  • Juan de la Rosa Orozco
  • Mario Hernandez Mendez
  • Ricardo Jesus Flores Lerma
  • Edgar Armardo Lopez Martinez
  • David Lara Quinones
  • Juan Jose Cortes Lara
  • Martin Uriel Macias Guzman
  • Javier Andres Soto Alvarado
  • Jose Gerardo Salinas Gutierrez
The penitentiary authorities informed the families of the men involved in the events. they also advised that already they had transferred ten prisoners to prisons of Apodaca and Cadereyta to prevent new confrontations. The State Government said that the situation inside the prison had returned to normal.

The Citizens Association in support of Human Rights, lamented the tragic events of the riot and reproached the State Government, for failing in the constitutional mandate to organize the prison system on the basis of respect for human rights, and guarantee the life and safety of the prisoners.

"It is not the first time that violent deaths have occurred inside Topo Chico, it is urgent that they take steps to transform from bottom to top the organization and administration of the centre, with the goal of achieving their mission of social re adaption of those under their care, with a constant mark of respect in regards of human rights.

Original article in Spanish at Proceso

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Plaza Chief "El Escorpión" killed in CDG internal struggle

September 29, 2015, 6:07 pm
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat  material from Facebook, VXT and Valor tamaulipeco,


Yesterday morning, the body of Lazaro Martinez Rodriguez. Aka "El Escorpión", was discovered outside a Madero, Tamaulipas nightclub, “Viento Rodeo”.  

With the body was found a narco cartulina with a message. Martinez-Rodriguez was once policía ministerial in Nuevo Laredo and later Tampico. After moving to Tampico, he worked alongside kidnapper, torturer enforcer, Francisco Javier Peña Ruiz "K21", allegedly using the police station for torturing  kidnapping victims, subsequently becoming plaza chief of Madero.

The killing is the result of an internal CDG conflict according to the message, which identifies the deceased as plaza chief of Madero.  Conflict has heightened in Tampico, Madero and Altamira, in an internal control struggle, after the fall of “EL Chive”.  

Rumor has it that it was El Escorpión who betrayed  Silvestre Haro Rodriguez, ( El Chive) which led to his arrest.   El Chive, was chief of the Gulf Cartel plaza in metropolitan area of Tampico, Madero and Altamira.    



The theory is that he gave state police information that led to Chive’s arrest at a Tampico hospital.  

Supposedly, Escorpion gave up Chive so that he could take over Chive’s position, a fight he would have to win against “El R2”  aka  "El Toñin" brother of El Chive for the region



Text:

"The Gulf Cartel Tampico gives notice that in this plaza we respect the citizens and that kidnappers and extortionists are prohibited. Here is your kidnapping dog who acts against my orders, the famous “ESCORPION”,  who is responsible for the kidnapping of the businessmen and the son of the PAN member CARMEN VOLADO, here kidnappings and extortions, are not  allowed, this is proof that orders and rules are respected , no matter who you are.  Here... whoever falls, falls, there is no room for kidnappers or extortionists. 

Sincerely,


Cartel del Golfo, Tampico Plaza
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'La Tuta' from inside prison

September 29, 2015, 7:01 pm
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After 'El Chapo's' escape, security measures around Servando Gómez Martínez were tightened. In prison La Tuta is guarded by three officers of Cisen four custody area officers and two perimeter security commanders.

Classified as a highly dangerous prisoner, with alter ego (dual personality) and a power of corruptibility almost like that of "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of the Knights Templar cartel, Servando Gomez Martinez, 'La Tuta' is subject to special surveillance and tight security by the custodial staff. At no time during the 24 hours he's out of sight.

Federal prison security in Almoloya, Cefereso No. 1, Are assuming 'La Tuta' is the inmate with more potential to escape since Joaquin Guzman Loera decided to escape. At least he think that and he has let the psychology staff know it since he meets with them once a week. "Sometimes playing with the mind of the psychologists," an official from the federal prison said.

A source explains Servando Gómez Martínez was separated from the prison population because of his personality. He was sent to a segregation cell, where he receives "special treatment" which is nothing more than to keeping him isolated and guarded 24 hours a day.


BY J. Jesús Lemus


'La Tuta', for the sake of security, inside his cell and when he is moved from one place to another within the prison, all conversations and all movements are recorded. His court appearances are also recorded. Everything he says and does inside prison is reviewed and analysed by a specialized unit of the Interior Ministry.

Servando Gómez himself has complained in some letters to his family and friends, about the extreme condition of surveillance to which he is subjected. He has complained of being the most watch prisoner throughout the prison, "because they say they think I will try to escape, where in the hell they get that?" He muses in a letter he send to one of his relatives.

What was once the main boss of organized crime in Michoacan, has also complained of the inhuman conditions in which they are kept in prison. He says, in a letter to a relative, that he lives "in a two by three meters cell, where he even has to ask for permission to take a shit."

Nevertheless, although subdued, 'La Tuta' remains a rebel. A source said he often-, quietly and respectfully, complains about official abuse towards him. That has made him a subject of misbehavior penalties in nearly seven months of imprisonment.

He has been punished by suspending his communication abroad through letters or phone. Also by denying him to leave his cell to only once a week, and classes of painting and drawing he received once a month, were also suspended. His solicitation for two books he had asked from the library were canceled and his right to buy soda and cookies from the institution store was denied.

According to the activity registry kept by the Cefereso, Servando Gomez Martinez, "is a prisoner with low activity." Since he enter this prison he has read only four books, one of poetry and three novels. He has not been able to conclude an oil painting that he began five months ago. He has made 11 pencil and ink drawings (Michoacan landscapes and horses) sent by letters to some of his relatives.

'La Tuta' has reveals that one of his relatives, is a regular visitor of the ​medic. It has a high blood pressure condition, which often keep him requesting for medical service. He complains about the lack of stomach medicines. The problem he complains the most in his letters is gastric re-flux and intestinal problems, problems he was already suffering since he was free. "It is not true that he has cancer," his family has confirmed.



Life after 'El Chapo'


After the escape of "El Chapo", Servando Gomez Martinez, 'La Tuta' security measures were changed. He is considered within the Federal Prison of Almoloya, one of the inmates most likely to escape. So every time he move inside the prison he is guarded by three officers of the Investigation Center and National Security (Cisen), four custody officers and two perimeter security commanders.

The life of 'La Tuta' within the federal prison of maximum security of Almoloya is summarized in a criminal psycho diagnosis that he was reclassified, following the escape of "El Chapo": the defendant fantasizes about leaving prison in the same way Joaquin Guzman did. That's why he has changed cells twice.

From his cell he applauded and celebrated the "escape" made by the boss of the Sinaloa cartel.

According to an official of Cefereso of Almoloya, Servando Gomez would have been able to establish communication and contact with 'El Chapo'. "The relationship between the two capos, as happens in most cases, although rivals outside, was very good." Greetings were sent between them by using trusted people. 'El Chapo' told "La Tuta""I'm at your service and vice versa, according to the source. There lie the new extreme security measures for the former head of the Knights Templar cartel.

24 hours of confinement


Given the degree of danger which he is classified, the former head of the Knights Templar cartel, is not allowed any movement in or out of his cell, without supervision of custodial staff. He is kept under video surveillance 24 hours a day, and when he is moved to court, call centers, medical and psychological check the movements of other inmates are canceled.

Servando Gomez Martinez is checked six times a day. At six o'clock, when he should already be bathed, shaved, and uniformed; at nine o'clock, at 11, at 15:00, at 6 o'clock and the last time at nine in the evening.

They give him breakfast on a tray in the cell. You must eat at 6:30 in the morning. Their diet is the same to all inmates: a serving of beans, opuntia, pork, fruit and vegetables, accompanied by a glass of cinnamon water, milk or oatmeal. Only once a week they give them cereal and milk, sometimes with a piece of jelly.

At the end of breakfast, 'La Tuta' have to clean his cell. They give a rag and washing powder to clean the floor and walls. Staff stressed about the hobby of the defendant to clean the bars of his cell. Sometimes he sings during cleaning. When finished he washes his socks, underwear and shirt. He is not allowed to clean the shower area, so he does not leave the view of the cameras.

Then 'La Tuta' take a nap. Sometimes he reads for five minutes. Upon waking up he writes letters or draw landscapes.

At 3 pm hours he goes back to sleep. Upon waking up he does some exercise in his cell. He use the five liters water jugs as dumbbells. He exercise for about an hour and returns to drawing. In the afternoon he watch TV from an authorized device. TV evening he alternates with talks from his cell. Dinner is promptly at 7 pm. Usually after that he sings, until reaching the last call at 9 pm when you are ordered to sleep.

'La Tuta' is allowed to use the phone for 10 minutes every seven days, he has five registered numbers of relatives, but only two are called frequently. Each call day, Servando Gomez Martinez is in good spirits. It is when he becomes the motivator, sometimes serves as a priest, speaking at length about God and some biblical passages that he knows by heart.

Injunctions and bad companies


Gomez Martinez has ranked as one of the prisoners with greater drawing power. He has motivated others to lodge appeals against various provisions inside prison. It is one of the inmates more protection demands made to the federal courts. In less than seven months it has brought seven amparo guarantees, almost one per month.

From all the injunctions sought by 'La Tuta', only three of them have prospered, one against confinement and the second for delivery of medicine. Those other complaints are about the lack of recreational activities inside the prison, improvements to the quality of food and "decrease in acts of torture."

Servando Gomez Martinez is credited with being one of the authors of the movement that two months ago was conceived within the federal prison in Almoloya, when a group of 163 prisoners, including the same 'Chapo' Guzman, demonstrated hunger strike, to protest poor conditions of prevailing food.

'La Tuta' is given a special track of his movements and conversations inside prison, given its relationship with other internal inmates like Teodoro "El Teo" and Marco Antonio "El Cris' Garcia Simental brothers; Omar and Miguel Angel Trevino Morales; Hector 'H' Beltran Leyva, Miguel Angel Guzman Loera, Fernando Sanchez Arellano, Mario Nuñez Meza, Mario Cardenas Guillen, Abigael Gonzalez and Edgar Valdes Villarreal Valencia, 'La Barbie'.

This article was translated fro Reporte Indigo

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The Fly-Wheels weekly drug bust round up

September 30, 2015, 9:48 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat













Location: Tijuana
Drug: Marijuana
Weight: 1.7 tonnes
Discovery: Truck

The command of the Second Military Region discovered and confiscated a truck carrying 1.7 tonnes of Marijuana, the drugs and the vehicle were put at the disposition of Agents of Federal Public Ministry.
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Location: Tijuana
Drug: Cocaine
Weight: 2 kilos
Discovery: Jaguar Car
Value:2 million pesos

In Tijuana agents of the State Preventative Police detained an alleged drug trafficker identified as Aaron Benjamin Valenzuela Chavez, who at the time of detention was found with 2.2 kilos of cocaine, he is 20 years old and originally from Sinaloa.


















Location: Sante Fe
Drug: Marijuana
Weight: 1 - 1.5 tonnes
Discovery: House

State Preventative Police confiscated between one and one point five tonnes of Marijuana at a house in a fraccionamiento in Santa Fe. The Police followed a suspicious car which drove up to the property, the house was searched and the drugs found, three minors found at the house were remitted to the Unit for Family Violence.

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Location: Sonora
Drug: Marijuana
Weight: 77 tonnes
Discovery: Five plantations with 90,800 plants

Agents of the Federal Police and PGR, confiscated 5 marijuana plantations in Sonora. Close to 100,000 plants were discovered in the five plantations totalling 15,000 square meters. The plants were cut down and incinerated.

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Location: Navatlo, Sinaloa
Drug: Crystal Meth
Weight: 0.5 tonne
Discovery: In a crashed airplane

During an operation to investigate a plane crash on a clandestine airstrip located at Navatlo, Sinaloa, Elements of SEIDO found half a tonne of Crystal Meth inside the crashed aircraft and attending Marines took two men allegedly linked to the crashed aircraft into custody. The air strip was located close tot he village of "El Castillo".

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Location: Central Bus Station, Culiacan, Sinaloa
Drug: Crystal Meth
Weight: 16.5 kilos
Discovery: Inside a suitcase

Police noticed a man at the central bus station in Culiacan, act suspiciously when he saw them, attempting to abandon his suitcase. They searched the suitcase after a specialist drug and explosive dog had inspected the case. The dog gave an indication there were drugs inside. The man was put at the disposition of Agents of the Public Ministry.

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Location: Yecora, Sonora
Drug: Marijuana
Weight: 200 tonnes
Discovery: Fields by air

In a week, elements of the Federal Police discovered in Yecora, Sonora, close to 23,000 meters squared, the plant were cut down and incinerated.

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Data taken from Proceso, Milenio, Zetatijuana, BCS Noticias.

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Narco Singer Larry Hernandez to be extradited

September 30, 2015, 10:42 am
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by Lucio R. for  Borderland Beat
photo from instagram
Narco singer Larry Hernandez was ordered held without bail and extradited to South Carolina to face charges.

Hernandez attended his first court hearing today after his arrest on September 25, at the Ontario, California airport.   He was transferred from the Rancho Cucamonga jail to the city of San Bernardino for his 8:30 hearing in Department 17.

After Hernandez had booked his flight, police in Denver notified airport police in Southern California that Hernandez, who had a warrant for his arrest, was boarding a Southwest flight in Ontario for a flight to Denver.
  
His mother, wife, and a group of friends and family were in the courtroom in support of Hernandez.

Univision is reporting that his bank accounts have been frozen, which may have precipitated his wife to place various real estate properties on the market, this after Hernandez transferred the properties in her name.


Hernandez is also wanted by Mexico.
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"La Barbie", "El Coss", and 11 others Extradited to the United States

September 30, 2015, 3:44 pm
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by Lucio R. for Borderland Beat

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, aka "La Barbie lost his long fight against extradition today when he along with 13 other narcos was sent to face justice in the United States.  Planes transporting the suspects landed in Tucson for processing.

Cartel del Golfo (CDG) Capo Jorge Costilla Sanchez, known as "El Coss," was also extradited.

Garcia Sota
Another extradited person in the group is Jose Emanuel Garcia Sota, who is charged in the 2011 killing of ICE agent Jaime Zapata in San Luis Potosi.

Early reports indicate a number of those extradited were from the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 "Altiplano" maximum prison now defamed since Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman successfully tunneled his way out of the prison, the first successful escape in it’s history.  Speculation is that the mass extradition resulted from the escape.

El Barbie was arrested in 2010, he faces multiple charges in Georgia, Texas and Louisiana.

From State Department about La Barbie

El Coss
A high-ranking member of the ABL drug trafficking organization and was believed to be responsible for collecting tariffs at all drug plazas controlled by the organization in Mexico. Valdez-Villarreal was Arturo Beltran-Leyva’s most trusted lieutenant and hit man. 

He also led the Fuerzas Armadas de Arturo, a group of assassins responsible for a majority of the killings committed by the drug trafficking organization. He was a key player in the bloody turf war for control of the Interstate 35 smuggling route into the U.S., and, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the person most responsible for pushing the battle into central and southern Mexico.

Valdez-Villarreal is charged in a 1998 two count indictment in the Southern District of Texas and a 2002 two count indictment in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Valdez-Villarreal was arrested by Mexican authorities in August 2010.

El Coss was arrested in 2012 but has charges in Texas for 13 years, including:

Intent to distribute controlled substances; conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; conspiracy to import into the united states from the United Mexican States controlled substances; threatened to assault and murder federal agents; money laundering; aiding and abetting.

Jean Baptiste Kingery, an American who allegedly ran a factory making grenades and IEDs to supply to the Sinaloa and other cartels, was among the group extradited.

He was arrested in Mazatlán months later, authorities found components to make hundreds of grenades, including gun powder and pins.  Kingery is expected to make his initial appearance in the District of Arizona on Oct. 1, 2015.


The following defendants were placed in the custody of U.S. Marshals Service late this afternoon.  An additional defendant was also extradited, but the case remains under seal until the defendant’s initial appearance tomorrow.  (Garcia Soto, suspect in the murder of ICE agent Jaime Zapata)

Luis Umberto Hernandez Celis: conspiracy, drug trafficking, murder in a foreign country, Member of Barrio Azteca, and were charged on March 9, 2011, in Western District of Texas with participating in the March 13, 2010, murders in Juarez, Mexico, of U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of a U.S. Consulate employee (Texas)

Carlos Montemayor: a La Barbie associate and father-in-law, conspiracy and money laundering. Member of the Sinaloa and Beltran-Leyva Cartels and were charged on June 11, 2010, in the Northern District of Georgia with conspiring to import and distribute cocaine, as well as conspiring to launder money by transporting drug money from the United States into Mexico.

Alberto Nunez-Payan, aka Fresa, Fresco and 97: Member of the Barrio Azteca gang and were charged on March 9, 2011, in Western District of Texas with participating in the March 13, 2010, murders in Juarez, Mexico, of U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of a U.S. Consulate employee (Texas)

Ricardo Valles de la Rosa aka Chino: member of the Barrio Azteca gang and were charged on March 9, 2011, in Western District of Texas with participating in the March 13, 2010, murders in Juarez, Mexico, of U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, her husband Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of a U.S. Consulate employee (Texas)  
  
Aureliano Montoya-Pena: , was among 20 defendants charged on Nov. 2, 2011, in the Northern District of Illinois with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and various other offenses related to transporting millions of dollars in drug proceeds between Chicago and Mexico. (Illinois)  


Julio Cesar Valenzuela-Elizalde, aka The Pilot: was among eight defendants charged on Dec. 19, 2002, in the District of Arizona with an international methamphetamine distribution conspiracy, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to import a controlled substance (Arizona)

Martin Daniel Castillo-Rascon: was charged on June 12, 2013, in the Western District of Texas with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to import a controlled substance, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, importation of a controlled substance and aiding and abetting  (Texas)

Antonio Gonzales Platas: on the run in Mexico-suspect in Arkansas rape

Antonio Reynoso-Gonzalez: was charged in 1995 in the Southern District of California along with Joaquin Guzman-Loera, aka El Chapo, and 22 others with conspiracy to import and to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.  (California) 
 
  
On the PGR website, Mexico attorney general, Arely Gómez González, reports that in meetings with the US Attorney General,  Loretta Lynch, it has been agreed, to strengthen international cooperation mechanisms and work closely together against organized crime.

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700 families flee death in Chihuahua

October 1, 2015, 11:21 am
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Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article and image from Google Maps

[ Subject Matter: Milpillas, Las Chicanas, Los Salazar, Sinaloa Cartel
Recommendation: If you don't know who Los Salazar are,see link to article by Havana Pura]


Click on image to enlarge, marker is the location of Milpillas


Around 700 families fled Milpillas and Las Chinacas communities in Chinipas, after attacks by a new criminal group. On Sunday the 20th, armed men arrived at these villages, killed two men, burned three houses and strafed one more with gunfire, that was found to be empty. After the events, the villagers fled their houses terrified.

In the crossfire, a child of nine years old was shot, and there are other injured children. There are two dead men and others disappeared, the only families that stayed are those that are burying their dead, and the families of the two young men that were kidnapped, said a farm worker.

The villagers of Chinipas have been accustomed to the fear and uncertainty because of the actions of this regions resident criminal group, but on Thursday the 3rd the fear started to grow when three leaders of the group that dominate the zone "Los Salazar" were executed outside of Milpillas.



They were Jesus Guellermo Vega, 50 years of age, Abel Olivas Ramos, 49 years of age and Edgar Munoz Rodriguez, 38 years of age, two of them were burnt.

This event complicated things more. first the two families of the dead men fled, and a few days later they said that another 15 families had left, and the number had been increasing. The criminals started to pressure the communities and there has been several confrontations. The fear increased for the villagers, and they abandoned their villages, and so started the exodus.

Some authorities recommended to the villagers to leave, because they were waiting for a major confrontation between "Los Salazar" and the new criminal group, within three hours.

The resulting stampede was very difficult, very painful, because they were leaving their homes, their land, it was a drama. The road between Alamo and Navojoa (of Sonora), was a file of cars, it was very sad. But that way they managed to save lives of dozens of entire families.

Since then all the schools are closed. Days after the shop that served the village was ransacked and already there is no food, the criminals emptied the village.

According to the villagers, the criminals attacked people that were not part of criminal gangs, but also attacked others that were "in the business". These subjects, they said, were not part of the "Los Salazar" group, they were another that had arrived from Sinaloa to fight for the plaza after the escape of El Chapo Guzman. Others assure that they newcomers are people of Rafael Caro Quintero, who left prison on the 9th of August 2013 after spending 28 years in prison.

On this occasion, its not people from Milpillas that are angry towards us, its the new people from Sinaloa, said another farm worker.

According to the people living in the village, the majority of the inhabitants are seeded in this community. They are naturalized and legitimate, but with the passing of time the criminal groups took over from the citizens.

The leader of "Los Salazar" has for many years operated in the areas of Urique, Guazapares and Chinipas, Alfredo Salazar, currently imprisoned at "Altiplano" Cefereso no.1, Almoloya de Juarez. The group is currently operated by an uncle of his, who must now confront the criminals from the Sinaloa Cartel that arrived to take the plaza.

In Milpillas there were about 400 families of about 1500 people, and 300 families in Las Chinacas, all have fled.

In a communication given yesterday, the State Attorney General (FGE) said that in the Milpillas community the inhabitants had informed the investigating authorities that armed people sacked three houses, and victimized a 73 year old man, Rodolfo Burgos Hermosillo, who used to be the Municipal policeman in this locality.

In regards the three houses raided, they all had impact marks on the doors, forcing the locks to gain access to the interiors. Inside the houses the police recovered seven spent AK47 cartridge cases and three from a twelve bore shotgun.

In the exterior of one of the properties a white Chevrolet pickup was discovered without circulation plates, burnt out with a dead animal inside.

Later, and after carrying out some patrols, elements of the Army and Municipal Police of Chinipas went to Tecorahui, where the presence of armed subjects had been reported.

Click on image to enlarge for location of Tecorahui at marker


According to the FGE, when State Agents arrived they passed through the community of San Antonio, located close to the entrance, about four hours from Tecorahui, they received gun fire from armed men located in a house. The Agents returned fire and killed two criminals.

One of the dead men was, Arabel Vega Lagarda, 42 years of age, with a home in Milpillas, who was in possession of rifle made by Norinco. The other man, armed with an AR15, has not been identified.

Ten days after, the villagers of the community of Tecorahui, of the same Municipality of Chinipas, were not heard from, because the criminals had taken the village and were not allowing people to enter or leave.

One man managed to leave, and he could relate what had happened, but up to now, he has heard nothing from anyone who lives there. No cell phone calls, and they have no means to communicate, said one person who wished to remain anonymous.

Original article in Spanish at Proceso

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Dedos Blancos of Antrax Gunned Down in Culiacán

October 1, 2015, 4:23 pm
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Lucio R. Borderland Beat posted by SiskiyouKid-Thank you to "M" for the photos-from Debate

At a gym in a Culiacan commercial center on Isla Musala [near where Ivan Guzman's cars were recently seized] a man was pursued and wounded by gunfire as he drove his 2015 Volkswagen Jetta. The victim appears to have been the owner of the business where the attack occurred.

At 2:15 yesterday, Ruben Jimenez Molina, 39 years old, was shot by several individuals who fired at him, he drove wounded through the streets looking for help, hitting several other cars in the process.

He arrived at the IMSS public hospital in the Infonavit Humaya neighborhood and was treated for his injuries and died.

It has been reported that Jimenez Molina was known as "El de Los Dedos Blancos" and that he was a half-brother of assassinated chief of Los Antrax Francisco "Pancho" Arce.



Ruben Jimenez Molina had survived several previous attempts on his life. This included an attack in January, 2010 by men with AK-47's at an Oxxo store in the Infonavit Humaya neighborhood while he was driving a yellow 2009 Camaro. He survived, despite more than 60 shots being fired, with at least 30 hitting the glass and body of the Camaro.


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Parácuaro Autodefensa Leader Assassinated

October 1, 2015, 7:14 pm
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Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

A shootout between suspected criminals and members of the autodefensas of Tierra Caliente left two people dead in Michoacán.


 The incident took place at noon in the village of Los Bancos, located in the municipality of Parácuaro.

The men that died were identified as Jaime Oseguera González, “El Jamo”, who was allegedly the leader of the autodefensas of Parácuaro and his bodyguard whose name hasn't been identified yet.


At the time of this report, a strong operation by the Federal Police and the Mexican Army is taking place in order to establish the whereabouts of the gunmen who killed these two men.

Source: 1aplana
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