The end of "H2" *Graphic Content*

February 10, 2017, 8:50 pm

≫ Next: Francisco Daniel "El Señor de las Tanquetas, El Dani or H9" Has been executed in Ahuacate, Nayarit by Mexican Forces

≪ Previous: Idalia Romelia Salazar Gonzales, ex-sister in law of "El Chapo" executed in Zapopan, Jalisco *Graphic Content*

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Original article available at DEBATE
Translated by El Wachito

During Friday afternoon, Federal Forces made available to the public the scene were criminals liderated by Francisco Patron Sanchez engage in an armed battle against Federal Forces of the city of Tepic, Nayarit. 

 

 Members of the Army, Marines and Federal Police were able to anihilate the criminals after two firefights, and "El H2" was also exterminated.

Currently there is a temporary climate of tranquility in the capital state of Sinaloa, and people believe that it will remain in that manner due to the fall of "El H2".

During this afternoon, authoritites reponsible for the invesstigations made their way into the house were 12 criminals were executed, and the place could be easily confused for a war zone.

The walls of the house have thoursands of holes due to the bullets, and the blood of the criminals lies all over the floor.

H2 Before

The vehicles that the Beltran Leyva criminals were using, were to tally destroyed, due to the actions of an Apache helicopter that was utilized during the firefight, because the drug traffickers were heavily armed.

H2 After

---

Francisco Daniel "El Señor de las Tanquetas, El Dani or H9" Has been executed in Ahuacate, Nayarit by Mexican Forces

February 11, 2017, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Tijuana: Narco manta de CTNG to Los Nuevos Rebeldes, "No playing for Aquiles"

≪ Previous: The end of "H2" *Graphic Content*

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Original article available at NNC.MX
Translated by El Wachito

This Friday night, elements of the Fiscalia General del Estado, executed "El H9", member of the Beltran Leyva Cartel.

This was posted by H9, 24 hours ago in his Instagram account: "It is my turn... dogs"

According to information given by law enforcement authorities, the firefight started around 2100, in a street of the small town of Ahuacate, when Law Enforcement officers engage in a firefight against two armed civilians that were traveling on board a red Nissan, Sentra.

It was reported that one of the criminals lost his life at the place of the firefight, and it was identified as Francisco Daniel alias el "H9".

Forensic officers are currently undergoing forensic procedures. More information coming soon.

Please follow Borderland Beat on our Instagram account, where I will be adding photographs of La Sierra, Druglords, Narcojuniors, videos of firefights and narcorelated news. 

https://www.instagram.com/borderland_beat/ and our username is 

Borderland Beat 

Thank you

Tijuana: Narco manta de CTNG to Los Nuevos Rebeldes, "No playing for Aquiles"

February 11, 2017, 2:34 pm

≫ Next: Sinaloa:"El H2" participated in September ambush of military in Sinaloa

≪ Previous: Francisco Daniel "El Señor de las Tanquetas, El Dani or H9" Has been executed in Ahuacate, Nayarit by Mexican Forces

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Tijuana: Narcomanta de CTNG to Los Nuevos Rebeldes

After a hyper violent month in Tijuana, in which over 102 were executed, the violence has not slowed, but intensified, with banners, limbs, entambados, being displayed throughout the city.  The banner went up in La Mesa yesterday, prompting the cancellation of Los Nuevo Rebeldes scheduled performance on Friday night.  Los Nuevos Rebeldes, a group out of Culiacan, well known for their songs to Los Antrax, Chino Antrax, Mayo Zambada, Mayito Gordo, and the Zambada/Imperial/Antrax line of Culiacan. 

"You kill those who sing for us, so we will kill yours...."

"We are going to kill Jenni Ramierz"

The quote likely refers to several executions and killings of singers in Tijuana, including Beto Cervantes, who was executed in Rosarito last fall, found in only his boxers, after an attempted kidnapping.  Hours later, another was shot in Tijuana, who sang for La Cafatera.  

CTNG and CJNG, the loose, and shifty alliance that is responsible for fighting Rene and Alfredo Arteaga Azarte for control of the retail drug trade in Tijuana, have taken some hits in recent months. Arturo Giovanni Herrera, 'El Gross' was killed in Guadalajara, ambushed, and shot multiple times in the head, as he got his haircut.  

He was replaced, by 'El 50',  another of the Sanchez Tadoaba retailers, who worked their way up, and formed their own group, after flipping on Los Aquiles.  Then earlier this year, 'El Chuky' a CAF/Cafatera Zona Norte cell leader, was arrested.  He was said to be close to Gross and his successor. 

Los Aquiles have maintained their power in Tijuana for almost 7 years, as other cell leaders were captured, killed, marginalized.  The cell of El Chapito was recently unraveled, as both it's primary leaders were captured and killed within two weeks.  

Tijuana's bloodiest and darkest year was 2016, with over 900 killings, this year will surpass that, if these killings stay at the same pace, a relentless onslaught of lifeless, bloodied, bruised bodies.  

Sources: AFN Tijuana 

Sinaloa:"El H2" participated in September ambush of military in Sinaloa

February 11, 2017, 5:24 pm

≫ Next: “The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

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Guest Reporter Anasazi with material from Radio Formula journalist Omar Sánchez de Tagle,

Journalist Omar Sánchez de Tagle, indicated that the authorities do not want to say that "El H2" was the one who planned the Culiacan attack, but what the military sources say is that "he was involved and was at the scene at the moment when we were attacked (the military), but they stop short from giving him full responsibility for the attack.

According to sources from the Secretaries of the National Army and the Navy, all elements determined that Juan Francisco Patrón Sanchez alias "H2", alleged leader of the Beltrán Leyva cartel, participated in the military ambush in September of 2016 in Sinaloa.

Graphic foto on following page..........................

El H2 killed along with 7 sicarios in Mexican Navy shootout Thursday

On the program of Denise Maerker, the journalist Omar Sánchez de Tagle, indicated that Patron Sánchez was one of those disputed the territory of the cartel of Sinaloa "was one of those that was having confrontations, as much in Sinaloa as in Jalisco, And hence their importance, let's say, did intelligence work and from that intelligence work of the Secretariat of Defense, shared with the Secretariat of the Navy, they determined that he participated."

He also stated that "El H2" apparently initiated a direct fight with Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and with the children of Joaquín Guzmán Loera "El Chapo".  And that it would be part of why these clashes  have been, regardless of internal clashes that there is around the Sinaloa cartel, he was one more factor that was part of the violence in Sinaloa.  

The Formula Group contributor said that the authorities do not want to say that "El H2" was the one who planned everything, but what the military sources refer to is that "he was involved and was in the site at the time they were attacked (the military)”

“The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

February 12, 2017, 1:41 pm

≫ Next: "El Chuy Raúl" Extradited and El Chapo's brother ordered transferred to Altiplano

≪ Previous: Sinaloa:"El H2" participated in September ambush of military in Sinaloa

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Posted by DD for Borderland Beat Republished from The Irish Times

DD:  The title to this story is one of the reasons that BB exists - to shine a little light on what is happening and allow the outside world to gaze inside.   That is what the protagonist in this story, Maria Esmeralda Saldana, is also doing.   

 Borderland Beat has reported  on the Zeta's control of the coal mining operations in Coahuila and another on the abuses the people of the small town of Cloete have suffered.  For more info see Borderland Beat stories by Havana Pura at http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/11/narco-gold-mine-coahuila-coal.htmland DD at http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/03/mining-companies-rapacity-devastates.html

 Shafted: Mexico's miners and its drug cartels 

 By;Sorcha Pollak

typical "Posita" owned or operated by Zetas in Coahuila

Maria Esmeralda Saldana was 15 when her uncle disappeared. Her family spent an agonising week looking for him, after he had been detained by local police. They had almost given up hope when, after seven days of searching, he was discovered. Saldana will never forget the moment her uncle was found half-dead, near a coal mine, disfigured and covered in blood.

After a week of silence he made his family promise never to report his disappearance and subsequent discovery. He had been kidnapped and left for dead by the greatly feared Zetas drug cartel. If the cartel discovered he had survived, his entire family would be in danger.

Saldana, who is now 22, says her uncle’s disappearance alerted her to the severe injustice and human rights abuses occurring in her home town on a daily basis. Saldana is from the coal mining town of San José Cloete in northern Mexico, where in recent years the community has watched in dismay as local government sanctioned the rapid expansion of a coal mine in the centre of the town. As increasing numbers of people were evicted from their homes, Saldana took to the streets, joining crowds of protesters calling for recognition of locals’ rights.

"Most of the neighbors suffer illnesses caused by dust from the pits that operate day and night and do not let us breathe," say Cloete townspeople. Photo: Sanjuana Martínez

 

Saldana’s participation in these peaceful demonstrations and subsequent membership of the Pasta de Conchos family organisation over the past two years have made her a target for persecution, threats and other forms of harassment. Despite her young age Saldana spends much of her time working with the human rights defender Cristina Auerbach, calling for recognition of the rights of miners and their families, a group pushed to the outer fringes of Mexican society.

 

Mining disaster

The Organization of the Families of Pasta de Conchos was established in 2006 after the Pasta de Conchos disaster in northern Mexico, when 65 coal miners died in an explosion. More than a decade after the mine collapse, the bodies of 63 of the miners still lie 100m underground. Initially, Auerbach created the organisation to bring justice to the miners and their families, but the group’s work soon expanded to documenting human rights abuses linked to mining activities across the state of Coahuila. The group became a beacon for families like Saldana’s, who were seeking answers and justice for the years of hardship and pain inflicted on them.

Miner descending into shaft

working conditions in the mine

For nearly a decade Auerbach has put her life on the line to defend the rights of communities in Coahuila. “When it comes to coal mining, we are witnessing a human rights crisis in Mexico,” she says. “Of course, coal isn’t the only problem. It’s just one of the countless humanitarian disasters being caused by the institutionalised violence in Mexico.”

Auerbach says Europe has lost interest in Mexico and is turning a blind eye to the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared and been killed since the country embarked on a huge crackdown against drug trafficking in 2006. European nations, including Ireland, must take note of the severe human rights abuses occurring on Mexican soil if they continue to sign international trade agreements with Mexico, Auerbach adds.

“Economic and commercial agreements do not automatically equate [with] democracy, justice and equality,” she says. “My question is, how many more people must die in Mexico before the international community says, ‘okay, that’s enough’? What we are experiencing in Mexico is not normal. Every day another 18-20 people are discovered dead, dismembered, hanging from bridges. Every single day they are killing women. How many more deaths do we need?”

 

Safety fears

Since the appearance of the Zetas cartel in Coahuila in 2009, people in the northern state live each day fearing for their safety. “They are a very disciplined operation and run an elaborate communication network far superior to any of the local authorities,” Auerbach says. “We are living in a time of absolute terror. We are living in a world not only of drug trafficking, but also of money laundering, human trafficking, child trafficking, the trafficking of women. These cartels have complete control over our state, and as a result we live in absolute terror.”

Auerbach cites the town of Allende, where at least 300 people disappeared in 2011 after the Zetas began attacking the area, as an example of how the international community has cast a blind eye on atrocities in Mexico. The state attorney general’s office subsequently claimed that just 28 people had disappeared during what became known as the Allende massacre.

homes destroyed by Zetas in Allende Massacre

 “There was no open investigation into Allende, and meanwhile the countryside around it is filling up with hidden graves. They say only 28 died, but we know they took at least 300 people. They’re always scaling down the numbers.”

Saldana says that drug cartels hold complete power over her home town, including the corrupt and rapid expansion of its coal mining industry. “They continuously intimidate us, and there’s no way out. Women are verbally and physically abused on the streets. They removed all the street lamps with the expansion of the mines, so you cannot go outside at night for fear of being attacked or raped. There’s nowhere to run and no way of escaping.”

Auerbach and Saldana took the risk before Christmas of travelling to Europe to raise awareness among European policymakers of the death and destruction underlying the many trade agreements agreed with Mexican businesses. Since October 2016 Auerbach has had three criminal charges filed against her, with accusations of criminal association, incitement to commit a crime and crimes against human dignity for her work in human rights defence. But she is determined to speak out.

“Europeans want to invest in our country. You’re welcome to do this as long as you ensure our workers are offered the necessary respect and recognition of their human rights,” she says. “In Europe you claim to be green, environmentally aware countries. Your more “environmentally friendly” political system calls for the closure of coal mines in Europe, but then buys coal in the Third World without investigating the human rights situation in those nations. Climate change is global. It doesn’t matter if you extract your coal in Europe or in Latin America: it’s affecting all of us.

 

‘Stained with blood’

“What we’re saying is the coal they’re purchasing is red, it’s not black. The coal is stained with the blood of our people. All we’re asking is that trade agreements between nations include clauses respecting the human rights of people. If you’re really serious about making a change and ending this injustice, stop importing our coal and come up with a renewable source of energy,” Auerbach says.

“When it comes to coal we’re all responsible. We all use electricity, we all benefit from it. I believe that as a society we have a huge responsibility when it comes to coal mining. It’s different to gold or silver: we don’t have to use that. But the second you switch on the light you become linked to the chain of coal production.”

Auerbach claims that no business owner in Coahuila has ever been punished for the poor treatment or deaths of miners. “That gives you an idea of the political state of our country. If a group of miners are killed but there are no repercussions, and you are not punished, this guarantees a never-ending circle of impunity.”

Until he was murdered in front of his home by unknown assailants in 2014 Reynol Bermea \(on left) was No. 1 Zeta in Coahuila for coal mining ops working for  Z40.  He financed campaigns for various local, state and federal officials (PRI) such as Melchor Sánchez de la Fuente “El Pocholo" (right) and Hugo Martínez González,, father of Irma Vanessa Guerrero Martínez, wife of Humberto Moreira.  Ruben Moreira (current Governor) was President of PRI in the state at that time.

 

Karen Jeffares of Peace Brigades International, which recently brought the women to Ireland, and provides practical support to human rights defenders, is calling on the Government to ensure that State-owned and -controlled companies, and those that receive support or services from the State, respect the human rights of workers overseas.

She says that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s imminent national plan on business and human rights should bind businesses to comply with human rights obligations. Citing President Michael D Higgins at the launch of the Human Rights Defenders Memorial in November 2016, Jeffares says it is vital to “hold states to account” and “to call those who wield power to account”.

“The most unaccountable section at the moment in the history of the planet is in fact international corporations who are operating outside of the law,” the president said before Christmas. “The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

In travelling to Dublin, Brussels, Geneva and London, Auerbach and Saldana risked their lives to refocus the world’s gaze on abuses carried out in their country in the name of industry and economic growth. “We’re not here to defend our own rights but the rights of our people back home,” Auerbach says. “We did not come here to ask that you solve all our problems, but that you support our call for greater recognition of human rights in our home.”

"El Chuy Raúl" Extradited and El Chapo's brother ordered transferred to Altiplano

January 27, 2017, 6:02 am

≫ Next: “The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

≪ Previous: “The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

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Jesús "El Chuy Raúl" Beltrán León, a Sinaloa Cartel member accused of working as the lieutenant in charge of security and former bodyguard of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán's son, has been extradited to the United States.

Beltrán León is facing charges related to drug trafficking, including money laundering, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

  Jesus Raul El Chuy Beltran Leon Indictment Northern Illinois by Chivis Martinez on Scribd

Below is the article posted by Chivis in 201 when he was captured:

Personnel from the Navy of Mexico, managed to secure in Sinaloa a suspected member of the Sinaloa Cartel, in an operation conducted by the Mexican Navy.

Initial reports indicate that the first operation occurred  early on Sunday in the city of Culiacan, resulting in the arrest of  Jesús Beltran León, alias " El Trebol " or "Chuy Raul" .

Beltran León is the alleged leader of security for  Archivaldo Ivan Guzman, son of Joaquin "El Chapo"  Guzman .

The governments of Mexico and the United States have maintained investigations against him for organized crime and drug trafficking. 

No shots were fired in the operation.

In other news, Miguel Angel Guman Loera, the brother of El Chapo, won his legal fight to be transferred to No. 1 Prison known as Altiplano.  Prison official fought against the transfer citing overcrowding conditions, and the recent prison break of Miguels’ brother El Chapo.  The court sided with Miguel and ordered the transfer.  He is currently incarcerated in Oaxaca.  

El Chapo also won his bid to be transferred back to Altiplano, but the transfer was never realized, he was extradited to the United States instead.

“The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

February 12, 2017, 8:40 pm

≫ Next: The Sinaloa counter-attack

≪ Previous: "El Chuy Raúl" Extradited and El Chapo's brother ordered transferred to Altiplano

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Posted by DD for Borderland Beat Republished from The Irish Times

DD:  The title to this story is one of the reasons that BB exists - to shine a little light on what is happening and allow the outside world to gaze inside.   That is what the protagonist in this story, Maria Esmeralda Saldana, is also doing.  

 Borderland Beat has reported  on the Zeta's control of the coal mining operations in Coahuila and another on the abuses the people of the small town of Cloete have suffered.  For more info see Borderland Beat stories by Havana Pura at http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2012/11/narco-gold-mine-coahuila-coal.html and DD at http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/03/mining-companies-rapacity-devastates.html

A typical Zeta owned or operated "posita" in Coahuila

Shafted: Mexico's miners and its drug cartels
By Sorcha Pollak

Maria Esmeralda Saldana was 15 when her uncle disappeared. Her family spent an agonizing week looking for him, after he had been detained by local police. They had almost given up hope when, after seven days of searching, he was discovered. Saldana will never forget the moment her uncle was found half-dead, near a coal mine, disfigured and covered in blood.

After a week of silence he made his family promise never to report his disappearance and subsequent discovery. He had been kidnapped and left for dead by the greatly feared Zetas drug cartel. If the cartel discovered he had survived, his entire family would be in danger.

Saldana, who is now 22, says her uncle’s disappearance alerted her to the severe injustice and human rights abuses occurring in her home town on a daily basis. Saldana is from the coal mining town of San José Cloete in northern Mexico, where in recent years the community has watched in dismay as local government sanctioned the rapid expansion of a coal mine in the centre of the town. As increasing numbers of people were evicted from their homes, Saldana took to the streets, joining crowds of protesters calling for recognition of locals’ rights.

"Most of the neighbors suffer illnesses caused by dust from the pits that operate day and night and do not let us breathe," say Cloete townspeople. Photo: Sanjuana Martínez

 Saldana’s participation in these peaceful demonstrations and subsequent membership of the Pasta de Conchos family organization over the past two years have made her a target for persecution, threats and other forms of harassment. Despite her young age Saldana spends much of her time working with the human rights defender Cristina Auerbach, calling for recognition of the rights of miners and their families, a group pushed to the outer fringes of Mexican society.





Mining disaster


The Organization of the Families of Pasta de Conchos was established in 2006 after the Pasta de Conchos disaster in northern Mexico, when 65 coal miners died in an explosion. More than a decade after the mine collapse, the bodies of 63 of the miners still lie 100m underground. Initially, Auerbach created the organisation to bring justice to the miners and their families, but the group’s work soon expanded to documenting human rights abuses linked to mining activities across the state of Coahuila. The group became a beacon for families like Saldana’s, who were seeking answers and justice for the years of hardship and pain inflicted on them.

Miner descending down shaft

Working conditions in mine tunnel

For nearly a decade Auerbach has put her life on the line to defend the rights of communities in Coahuila. “When it comes to coal mining, we are witnessing a human rights crisis in Mexico,” she says. “Of course, coal isn’t the only problem. It’s just one of the countless humanitarian disasters being caused by the institutionalised violence in Mexico.”

Auerbach says Europe has lost interest in Mexico and is turning a blind eye to the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared and been killed since the country embarked on a huge crackdown against drug trafficking in 2006. European nations, including Ireland, must take note of the severe human rights abuses occurring on Mexican soil if they continue to sign international trade agreements with Mexico, Auerbach adds.

“Economic and commercial agreements do not automatically equate [with] democracy, justice and equality,” she says. “My question is, how many more people must die in Mexico before the international community says, ‘okay, that’s enough’? What we are experiencing in Mexico is not normal. Every day another 18-20 people are discovered dead, dismembered, hanging from bridges. Every single day they are killing women. How many more deaths do we need?”

Safety fears

Since the appearance of the Zetas cartel in Coahuila in 2009, people in the northern state live each day fearing for their safety. “They are a very disciplined operation and run an elaborate communication network far superior to any of the local authorities,” Auerbach says. “We are living in a time of absolute terror. We are living in a world not only of drug trafficking, but also of money laundering, human trafficking, child trafficking, the trafficking of women. These cartels have complete control over our state, and as a result we live in absolute terror.”

Auerbach cites the town of Allende, where at least 300 people disappeared in 2011 after the Zetas began attacking the area, as an example of how the international community has cast a blind eye on atrocities in Mexico. The state attorney general’s office subsequently claimed that just 28 people had disappeared during what became known as the Allende massacre.

One of many homes destroyed by Zetas in Allende

“There was no open investigation into Allende, and meanwhile the countryside around it is filling up with hidden graves. They say only 28 died, but we know they took at least 300 people. They’re always scaling down the numbers.”

Saldana says that drug cartels hold complete power over her home town, including the corrupt and rapid expansion of its coal mining industry. “They continuously intimidate us, and there’s no way out. Women are verbally and physically abused on the streets. They removed all the street lamps with the expansion of the mines, so you cannot go outside at night for fear of being attacked or raped. There’s nowhere to run and no way of escaping.”

Auerbach and Saldana took the risk before Christmas of travelling to Europe to raise awareness among European policymakers of the death and destruction underlying the many trade agreements agreed with Mexican businesses. Since October 2016 Auerbach has had three criminal charges filed against her, with accusations of criminal association, incitement to commit a crime and crimes against human dignity for her work in human rights defence. But she is determined to speak out.

“Europeans want to invest in our country. You’re welcome to do this as long as you ensure our workers are offered the necessary respect and recognition of their human rights,” she says. “In Europe you claim to be green, environmentally aware countries. Your more “environmentally friendly” political system calls for the closure of coal mines in Europe, but then buys coal in the Third World without investigating the human rights situation in those nations. Climate change is global. It doesn’t matter if you extract your coal in Europe or in Latin America: it’s affecting all of us.


‘Stained with blood’

“What we’re saying is the coal they’re purchasing is red, it’s not black. The coal is stained with the blood of our people. All we’re asking is that trade agreements between nations include clauses respecting the human rights of people. If you’re really serious about making a change and ending this injustice, stop importing our coal and come up with a renewable source of energy,” Auerbach says.

“When it comes to coal we’re all responsible. We all use electricity, we all benefit from it. I believe that as a society we have a huge responsibility when it comes to coal mining. It’s different to gold or silver: we don’t have to use that. But the second you switch on the light you become linked to the chain of coal production.”

Auerbach claims that no business owner in Coahuila has ever been punished for the poor treatment or deaths of miners. “That gives you an idea of the political state of our country. If a group of miners are killed but there are no repercussions, and you are not punished, this guarantees a never-ending circle of impunity.”

Until he was murdered in front of his home by unknown assailants in 2014 Reynol Bermea \(on left) was No. 1 Zeta in Coahuila for coal mining ops working for  Z40.  He financed campaigns for various local, state and federal officials (PRI) such as Melchor Sánchez de la Fuente “El Pocholo" (right) and Hugo Martínez González,, father of Irma Vanessa Guerrero Martínez, wife of Humberto Moreira.  Ruben Moreira (current Governor) was President of PRI in the state at that time.

Karen Jeffares of Peace Brigades International, which recently brought the women to Ireland, and provides practical support to human rights defenders, is calling on the Government to ensure that State-owned and -controlled companies, and those that receive support or services from the State, respect the human rights of workers overseas.

She says that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s imminent national plan on business and human rights should bind businesses to comply with human rights obligations. Citing President Michael D Higgins at the launch of the Human Rights Defenders Memorial in November 2016, Jeffares says it is vital to “hold states to account” and “to call those who wield power to account”.

“The most unaccountable section at the moment in the history of the planet is in fact international corporations who are operating outside of the law,” the president said before Christmas. “The greatest instrument the oppressor has is when they have closed off the gaze of the outside world from what is happening.”

In traveling to Dublin, Brussels, Geneva and London, Auerbach and Saldana risked their lives to refocus the world’s gaze on abuses carried out in their country in the name of industry and economic growth. “We’re not here to defend our own rights but the rights of our people back home,” Auerbach says. “We did not come here to ask that you solve all our problems, but that you support our call for greater recognition of human rights in our home.”

   

The Sinaloa counter-attack

February 14, 2017, 10:40 am

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

Subject Matter: Sinaloa cartel vs CJNG in Baja California Sur
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

January 2017 has been the a very violent month, with 32 Homicides in Los Cabos, 12 In La Paz, five in Loreto,   One in Comondú and one in Mulegé. "It's already a War, of two cartels, they are fighting and we as authority, there is nothing we can do ": source of Coordination Group of  Public security

In a clear message of "here we are and we are going to face it", the Sinaloa Cartel gave a hard and bloody coup against cells of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) at 2:20 pm on Sunday, January 29 in the colony The Zacatal of San José del Cabo.

"It is already a place of war, the two cartels are fighting it and we as an authority we can do nothing, and if we participate maybe a massacre is worse, it was a very meaningful notice where these two people, where they practically ripped  to shreds," he said. A member of the Public Security Coordination Group in Baja California Sur, after the execution of two hitmen in the service of the cell "La Barredora".

The murder took place in Juan Pedrín Castillo and Fabián Chacho Cota, right on the corner where the Fire Station is located. According to witnesses, the deceased were "following them along the Pedrín and were "made" and terminated (...) When they were "made" the men who traveled in a black Hyundai ", tried to flee.

"They were approached by armed men who fired on the side of the front passenger, taken down with an AK47," said a ministerial agent.

The hitmen, who escaped, repeatedly fired at the occupants of the vehicle, "the reality of the streets is very crude, to see this couple, even if they are in the business, was a real massacre, one almost had their head ripped off, it was a very clear message, they killed one of the important operatives of  'El Borrega', " said the agent.

" La Borrega" is Claudia Amador, alleged principal distributor  in El Zacatal, after the fall of "Pavel", arrested on January 14  for criminal activity in Los Cabos and identified as the main drug dealer serving the Sinaloa Cartel .

Amador was executed one day before this double murder, the afternoon of Saturday, January 28 at the crossing of Luis Castro Arballo Street and Margarito Sandez Villarino in El Zacatal.

At the scene of the crime was the black Hyundai car , inside two men: driver on his right side, wearing black shirt and beige pants; The co-pilot, wearing a navy blue t-shirt and blue denim trousers, had his skull almost blown off by the AK-47's gunshot .

The scene became even more bloody, as they blew off his scalp, the product of the bullet strikes. This double execution only reflects "the fury, reorganization and arrival of hired assassins in the service of ' Los Dámaso' or ' Los Javieres' ( Sinaloa Cartel), who are disputing the territory against ' La Barredora' (CJNG), who are not willing to give in to the control that Sinaloa maintain in the south of the State, "he said.

But this is already a generality in Baja California Sur. In La Paz there were also executions and, according to data obtained by ZETA , have emanated from the bowels of the Sinaloa Cartel;  the death of Christian Romero Green "El Cachetes", executed on board a taxi from the site Estrella Roja. The murder took place around seven in the afternoon, just a few blocks away from the General Directorate of Public Safety, Preventive Police and Municipal Transit of La Paz.

" El Cachetes" belonged to the cell of the " El Montoya", who in turn operated the cell " Los Mayitos" , which began to work for CJNG, "so we realize that ' El Cachetes' was executed by Chapulin, "said the military source.

At the same time, underneath the Pino Payas Bridge in La Paz, at the height of the Thermoelectric, road that leads to one of the main shopping plazas of The Shoppes La Paz , was found the lifeless body of a young woman who had been missing for four days .

According to the source, the young woman was tortured, handcuffed and thrown under the bridge, had the coup de grace. she wore a black sweatshirt, blue denim pants and red tennis shoes, as reported by her family on Tuesday, January 24.

Among the investigations, she points out that "this young lady could be involved in the setting up of 'El Cachetes', she could have given him up, she was probably tortured until she told them everything, here the worry is that if this woman gave saint And sign of the contras, violence could be just resuming, we already expect the response of the opposing group, "said the command.The next morning again it was bloody in Loreto, where three people were executed in the colonia Miramar; According to witnesses, the house located in Gaviotas between Tuna and Jureles was invaded by gunmen, the moment the gunmen descended from a Hummer truck , one of the occupants of the house tried to flee but was hit by gunfire.

At the same time, another armed command entered the house and fired on two men, one of the dead responding to the name of Roberto Carlos Vega "El Gordo" or "El Betillo", known to belong to the band "Los Pelones", who had been operating in Loreto since the execution of the "El Bogar", killed on 10 January.

Since the Sinaloa Cartel orchestrated its "return" to the territories "lost" or recovered by Jalisco, they made a  weekend, the bloodiest in the history of Baja California Sur, with 14 people executed in less than 72 hours: seven dead in San José del Cabo, three in La Paz, as in Loreto; And Guerrero Negro, in Mulegé, with one more deceased.

According to unofficial reports, one of the deceased persons is Roberto Carlos Vega Osuna, member of a band known as "Los Pelones", which is dedicated to the narcotics trade in that port and who already has a criminal record.

January, the most violent

On the attack of January 10th, directed against the plaza jefe in Comondú and Loreto, Rubén Omar Castañón Nicolat "El Cheyo", 27 years old, they only managed to execute Michel Torres, 22, and Bogar Nicolás Castañón Nicolat "El Bogar", 20, alleged narco-leader in Loreto and son-in-law of the mayor of Loreto, Arely Arce Peralta, who was married to his daughter Arely Susarrey Arce.

When they were about to enter the hotel where they were staying, they were intercepted by gunmen, who fired handguns at the occupants of a  Ford Fusion vehicle , "El Bogar" was killed inside the car, while the other person died on the way to the hospital.

It is clear the attack orchestrated by Sinaloa to extend its dominion, the war that was coming between Sinaloa and Jalisco for the control of Comondú, Loreto and Mulegé already is raging. Just after the wave of violence that was felt in practically the whole state, the weekend from 27 to 29 January, security forces were shocked when registering 14 executed people, the highest since 31st of July 2014 to date.

In this way, January 2017 became the most violent month in the history of Baja California Sur, not for nothing "the last Index of Peace talks that the state where the greatest deterioration has been in violence and insecurity is Baja California South, it is assumed that at the national level in the last two years the situation of violence in the country has improved, but in Baja California Sur it has deteriorated ", says María Luisa Cabral, representative of the Observatory of Social and Gender Violence in the State.

According to data presented by the Observatory, with more than 107 percent in the increase of executions and homicides during 2016, BCS is in the disgraceful first national place, as the federal State where the insecurity and the violence have increased exponentially.


Information collected by Lantia Consultores and Semáforo Delictivo Nacional , the most important destinations in the country, including Los Cabos, together with Cancun, Quintana Roo, more than double the national average. Being alone, Los Cabos with a record of more than one dead per day.

At the close of the previous edition of ZETA , the registry until January 25th was 34 people deprived of life: Loreto with two executed; Comondú, a deceased person; La Paz, six deceased; And Los Cabos, 25 executed. However, the harsh reality was another, in less than six days, the war between drug cartels in Baja California Sur increased the figures with 17 more people executed. Los Cabos, 32; La Paz, 12; Loreto, five; in addition to Comondú and Mulegé, with one executed, respectively. This reflects a clear increase in the war and that "the 190 newly deployed elements of the Gendarmerie (Federal Police) are going to be able to fight against violence, although the zones are concrete, Montreal, Ballena and El Zacatal, we could not, there are That recognize it, "lamented the consulted agent.

Alleged confession of a Sicario

From the last days of January a video on social networks was circulated with the "confession" of an alleged hit man in the service of Dámaso López Núñez "El Licenciado" - one of the main operators of the Sinaloa Cartel in the country. The recording obtained by ZETA has a duration of one minute and 34 seconds, edited, since it has cuts in several points. In it appears the alleged assassin named Manuel, from Culiacan, Sinaloa.

In this confession, in addition to mentioning that he operates for Sinaloa, he lists a list of potential Ministry and Municipal Public Security commanders and agents colluded with the group, including mention of the participation of Ulises Contreras, deputy prosecutor for Special Investigations of the Attorney General's Office Justice in the State (PGJE). According to the hit man, this public official is known as "El Barbas" and speaks of juicy tips that he delivers to the Sinaloa Cartel  for its operations.

In the audio-visual material, Manuel has bruises on his face, he wears a blue t-shirt and he seems to be lying with his captors in front; For the moment loses sight of the recording equipment and directs his direct look to whoever accompanies him.

"We were in a house in Loreto, there were many spots in the village there, checking  'El Bogar', who is the one we were going to kill."

This is the assumption of the recording, in which he states that they were hired by the Sinaloa Cartel to remove Bogar Nicolás Castañón Nicolat from the competition, alleged narco-trafficking leader in Loreto.

"We got there on the orders of Commander Richie and Commander Johnson, " he says. Once eliminated the target set by the criminal cell, the hitmen fled the place, but were captured days later.

"We went in the truck and were stopped by the Municipal Police, a patrol did a review and took us, and there we were," hours later were released and apparently captured by CJNG hitmen, where they were able to record.

In the rest of the recording the interrogation can be heard. Here an extract:

Captor: Who cooperates in Ciudad Constitución?

Manuel: Commander Valenzuela and the director of the (Municipal Police).

Captor: Who cooked them in Guerrero Negro and Los Cabos?

Manuel: In Guerrero Negro, Comandante Moisés supports us , and in Los Cabos, Quiroz, Daniel,
Richie, 'El Negro Chino', and with Quiroz we send him to the high commanders.

Captor: Of the high commanders who supports them?

Manuel: We support 'El Barbas', he is the one that makes all the movements for Mr. Licenciado López Dámaso, and after we give him the money in a carton of beer, I do not look at the amount, And says that we leave it in Santa Rosalia.

Captor: What's your name? Where do you come from and where are you coming from?

Manuel: My name is Manuel, I came from Culiacán, Sinaloa, but the 'Licenciado' López Dámaso sent us to support Commander Richie and Commander Johnson , who are the ones who are cleaning these sides, of La Paz, Los Cabos San Lucas, San José, eh ... Ciudad Constitución, Loreto and even Guerrero Negro. They are those who have been responsible for making all executions.

Captor: Who supports you in Los Cabos?

Jesús Adolfo Meza Dimas, ministerial policeman turned narco

Manuel: All the Ministerial of San José, Commander Arce was the one who gave us the word, the compadre of El 'Diablo', and 'El Dimas' is the one that helps us kidnap people. According to data spilled in the video "you can identify several that had already been pointed out, especially some that surprises us, but that are the missing link."

And list the following names:

* Ulises Contreras, Deputy Attorney for Special Investigations of the PGJE, whom they identify with the alias of "Barbas".
* Benigno Murillo Orantes, director of the Municipal Police of Comondú. * Javier Valenzuela Cruz, former Commander General of the Municipal Police of Comondú.
* Norberto Richie Ceseña, coordinator of the Municipal Police of Los Cabos and appointed in a narcomanta in early January.

* Juan Carlos Quiroz, coordinator of the Municipal Police of Los Cabos.
* Moses, who is presumed to be Commander of the Municipal Police in Guerrero Negro.
* Jesús Adolfo Meza Dimas, agent of the Ministerial Police, attached to San José del Cabo.

"Along with the investigation carried out in the Attorney General's Office, we are investigating the agents of the Ministerial and especially the officials who are operating, in the same way the Navy, we are reviewing each one, not only those mentioned, but from there are many more, the material we have is broad, state police, ministerial, even the Municipal, "said the military source.  

Officials mention the dawn of January 8, as had already been exposed by ZETA , organized crime - in particular members of "La Barredora" - were present in various Barrios of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, one of them located in the Perimeter fence of the Rolling Hills subdivision, located at kilometer 115 of the highway from Cabo San Lucas to Todos Santos:

" Commander Demetrio and Richi not because they have two hands take two cartels, " signed with the letters " SR ". The narcomantas, according to the investigating agents, are directed directly against the coordinator of the Municipal Police of Los Cabos, by the name of Demetrio, and the commander of the corporation, Norberto Richie Ceseña.

In the case of this last one, his name returns to shine in the declarations that were put out in social networks.

But also that of Edgar Arce Molina "El Mocho" or "El Zopilote", a former ministerial police presumably, heads the armed wing of the cell of " Los Javieres" or " Los Dámaso"; There is also mention of Jesus Adolfo Meza Dimas alias "El Dimas", agent of the Ministerial Police, who had already been exposed by members of the CJNG in text messages to all the security agents in Los Cabos, where they indicated that he protected " Los Javieres". At the time he was removed and sent to La Paz to cool the situation, but according to data obtained, returned to San Jose del Cabo.

"If we review and mention 'El Barbas', allegedly is Ulises Contreras of the Special Investigations of the Procu , there I can say that it was known that this person received money from both sides, not that he has agreed, but I can not say either that is a red herring, what I can tell you is that long before the deal was already agreed, "said a ministerial," all this shit does not have much to do with the (State Police) or Municipal, its  in the Attorney General, "he concluded. 

And is that in addition to this agent, strongly indicate the work of the current Attorney General Justice in the State, Erasmo Palemon Alamilla Villeda. "The one who is most silent is the one who receives the most, and I speak of strong positions. I do not put my hands on anybody, but if they really want this to work, we have to start from the inside and here the truth is all very rigged, "the agent reflected.

Edgar Arce Molina ,ex policeman now member of Los Damaso

To justify its action, public servants of the PGJE opened an investigation under document LPZ / 670/2017 to know in the first instance, who developed the video put into social networks, in which, according to the first investigations "is due to the same policemen Ministerial sponsored with the opposing group, "this is the first line of research.

The other is that "it was placed by the same forces of order and captured by CJNG assassins, who tortured Manuel."

Until now the whereabouts of the two hitmen are unknown; However, their appearance on social networks has caused instability within the Attorney General's Office, which provides for a series of loopholes in the upper ranks that are presumed to be "colluding."

Meanwhile in La Paz, in order to prevent corruption within the corporation and its possible alliance with members of organized crime, Armando Martinez Vega, mayor of the capital, said he is "waiting for the CISEN (Center for Research and National Security) to give us the results that were expected from the Director of Transit.

At the same time, he commented that it is expected to reach the ground by process to 40 to 42 elements of Municipal Public Safety, failing to meet the profiles suitable to care for the city of La Paz, was started with six senior managers and will conclude with this sum.

The classifications and the reasons why they will be discharged are classified as follows: Red: Agents colluded or have strong drug problems, which will have to leave the lines of security because of their lack of confidence. Rosa: They have once accepted bribes and can not continue, because of their susceptibility to going astray.

PGJE outstanding accounts "On Tuesday, January 31 (sixth) anniversary of the murder of our son Jesus Asael Valtierra Loya, we insist on our claim to find justice for our son, for which we will insist on finding the longed for justice, we have been partially denied by the authorities responsible for obtaining justice, observing a visible disdain for executing three arrest warrants that have been pending for more than a year, including two of the three police officers Municipalities involved in the events, as well as to continue, through the agreement of a triplicate, with the integration of the previous investigation, within the old criminal justice system, until achieving full clarification of the facts and punishment with maximum penalties for each one of those involved, "said the family of the young man executed and cremated inside his vehicle on January 31, 2011, according to inquiries, in order to steal cash that he was transferring.

He was deprived of his freedom and then murdered and burned in the White Dakota pick-up vehicle he was traveling in, near a Benito Juárez settlement in Comondú.

Until these days the case of the young man has gone unpunished, the family makes a call to the institution in charge of the procurement of justice, above all to the traditional system, since there the process remained, and not leave it forgotten before the entrance of the New Criminal Justice System.

The state prosecutor, Erasmo Palemon Alamilla Villeda, said that "it could not particularize specific proceedings, but that the matter is being addressed, the three emblematic issues that we receive, this case, the Jonathan case, the case of the girl Lisset, everyone's got a job and they've got a breakthrough. "

Another of the old cases within the PGJE, is the execution of two municipal police in the colonia La Fuente of La Paz.

According to data collected, on February 2, 2010, three municipal agents went to an alleged robbery that was recorded in La Fuente; The police Jose Manuel Ochoa Pérez, Carlos Jesus Vega Andrade and Luis Felipe González Olaves went to the call from the Control Center Command, Communications and Computer (C4).

They were attacked, all were killed, Jose Manuel and Carlos Jesus, the other officer with multiple bullet wounds, even in the face.

"To this day we have not been given justice, we asked the Attorney General to do something for our son's case, we are old, but it is not fair that justice can not be done," lamented the father of one of the officers . Of those involved in this murder, only César Edmundo Munguía García was arrested, while his brothers Jesus and Ivan continue to escape from justice, since according to the family, "the Attorney General let them go, I do not doubt that they have been paid . At the moment, it is very difficult for them to be able to arrest them, even the only detainee has requested an amparo,

They follow the pending processes in the PGJE, and that is where the main suspicions of conspiracy with organized crime emerge. At the moment the investigations are kept within the dependency.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana

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Sinaloa Cartel: Chino Antrax Sentencing

February 15, 2017, 7:20 am

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by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

There is an scheduling update in the United States case against Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa.  Aréchiga is better known by his Sinaloa Cartel moniker of “Chino Antrax”. He was the one of the founders and leaders of the Sinaloa enforcer group Los Ántrax along with Jesús Peña (El 20). The group operated for and under the direction of Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

Aréchiga was arrested on December 30, 2013, while at the Amsterdam International Airport. Dutch police arrested the wanted man,  on behalf of a Interpol warrant issued by the United States. He was subsequently extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, but pleaded guilty after cutting a plea deal. 

(to read the plea use this link to previous post)

According to court documents, there was a sentencing date scheduled for January 17th 2017.

“Minute Order by Judge Dana M. Sabraw: Sentence With PSR set for 1/12/2017 10:00 AM in Courtroom 13A before Judge Dana M. Sabraw.”

However on January 9, 2017, there was a request for continuance (postponement) filed by Frank Ragen, the attorney representing Aréchiga, citing additional time needed to prepare.  It was a joint motion filed by both defense and prosecutors. (read filings below)

The motion to Continue Sentencing Hearing  was granted and rescheduled for July 13, 2017.

U.S. District Court

Southern District of California (casd)

333 West Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101

As for Aréchiga’s partner known as “El 20”, (at left) he was arrested in Sinaloa on February 2014.  He is currently incarcerated in Mexico, and has been sentenced.  

The Third Unit Court found him criminally responsible for crimes against health, possession of cocaine and marijuana and carrying firearms and possession of cartridges for firearms of exclusive use. Seems they forgave all the killings. 

The judge sentenced him to 13 years,  eight months in prison and a fine of 14,448 MNX Pesos or about 710 US dollars.

  Chino Antrax Request to Continuance of  Sentencing Hearing by Chivis Martinez on Scribd

  Chino Antrax Continuance Ordered to July 2017 by Chivis Martinez on Scribd

El Mochomo files to rescind guilty plea and Chapo Update

February 15, 2017, 8:09 am

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by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

El Mochomo filed with the court to withdraw his guilty plea 

                 

 From the motion filing:

Court of Appeals considers “three factors in reviewing denials of motions to withdraw: ‘(1) whether the defendant has asserted a viable claim of innocence; (2) whether the delay between the guilty plea and the motion to withdraw has substantially prejudiced the government's ability to prosecute the case; and (3) whether the guilty plea was somehow tainted.’” West, 392 F.3d at 455. The District Court has broad discretion is reviewing a motion to withdraw a guilty plea. See, e.g., United States v. Hanson, 339 F.3d 983 (D.C. Cir. 2003).

Which do you guess is the basis of withdrawal he is using?

If you guessed (3) you are correct. And he has a good shot at being victorious at some point, maybe appeal.  I have a mountain of documents and opinion to peruse, and little time, but I am working on an overview.  As I previously reported, Mochomo was extradited on limited charges, and no ROS waiver.  Such a waiver is given by Mexico to allow or give permission to the United States to add charges subsequent to the extradition.

Then the U.S. did just that, they unloaded on the defendant. But there is no waiver.

           The judge, in a fast turn around ruling denied the request.  I am attempting to                                        determine where the motion goes from here. It was resubmitted and again denied, supposedly              there was a hearing yesterday, I will update as information is available. see ruling:

MINUTE ORDER denying [226] Motion for Reconsideration as to ALFREDO BELTRAN LEYVA and denying [227] Motion to Withdraw Plea of Guilty as to ALFREDO BELTRAN LEYVA. Defendant's motions are hereby DENIED. A memorandum order stating the Court's reasons is forthcoming on Monday, February 13, 2017. The sentencing hearing will go forward as scheduled on Tuesday, February 14, 2017. SO ORDERED. Signed by Judge Richard J. Leon on 2/10/2017. 

In the case of El Chapo, there is a waiver. And in his case the U.S. unloaded charges on him post extradition.  He is crying foul because he refused to sign the waiver presented to him by Mexican authorities.  He is waging a battle on the same grounds as Mochomo, but in Chapo’s case it is a different situation as Mexico did have the agreement with the U.S. before extradition.  Chapo claims the extradition is unlawful because of the waiver.  Additionally, he was without legal representation when asked to sign, and he was not given a copy.  The U.S. has refused to give him a copy as well.  They offered to allow he and representation time to read the waiver, but no copy.

On last Friday, the judge in Chapo’s case issued a ruling regarding the withheld waiver copy:

The Government has the choice of either turning over the redacted waiver or responding to any motion defendant may make under the rule of speciality on the basis that there is no waiver. Ordered by Judge Brian M. Cogan on 2/11/2017. Motion to withdraw guilty

  Mochomo Withdraw of Plea Motion by Chivis Martinez on Scribd

The High Cost of Torture in Mexico

February 15, 2017, 9:11 pm

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Posted by DD republished from Human Rights Watch

Originally published in Animal Politico

By Daniel Wilkinson

Managing Director, Americas Division

Secretary of Defense (SEDENA) Apologizes For Soldiers Using Torture

 Torture will be on the agenda of the Mexican Congress this month. Curbing the widespread practice should be an urgent priority for all branches of the Mexican government. Its impact on Mexico has been devastating, not only for the many individual victims, but also for the credibility of the criminal justice system itself.

 
     


Take, for example, the case of Taylin Wang and “Pedro Salazar,” a kidnap victim for whom we’ll use a pseudonym to protect his identify and privacy.

Wang came to Mexico from her native Peru seven years ago in search of a better future for her children. She found work selling clothes, then opened a Peruvian restaurant. She married a Mexican, and together they were raising her 7- and 9-year-old daughters and 16-year-old son. When the federal police raided their home in February 2014, she was 7-weeks pregnant.

Recently, Wang provided Human Rights Watch with her account of the raid, in the hope—she said—that her story might help prevent others from a similar fate.

Wang and her husband, who had gone to bed late after watching a horror movie, were awakened by police bursting into their residence around 3 a.m. The officers did not present an arrest warrant. Instead they pulled her out of bed, called her a “whore,” and demanded to know where her “lover” was. They took her husband to another room, where they were holding the three children.

One of the officers stripped off Wang’s nightgown and forced her onto the bed. With the other officers looking on, he raped her with his gun, mashed her breasts with his hands, and asked if she liked it.

The officers took Wang and her husband to a federal police installation. They refused to allow Wang to call the Peruvian consulate. They blindfolded her, beat her for hours, and forced her to sign a blank paper. “I scribbled whatever I could so they would stop beating me,” she told us.

Wang was then driven to the Attorney General’s Office, where she noticed she was bleeding, as if having her period, only far more heavily. The bleeding continued for days, even after she was transferred to a prison in Nayarit state. She later got confirmation that she had a miscarriage.

An official medical report dated four days after her arrest notes only “injuries that do not put her life at risk” and that “will heal in less than 15 days.” Yet an independent evaluation by a psychologist in October 2015 concluded that she had been tortured. And she continues to receive medical treatment to this day, including for the severe back pain she has had since the raid.

In October 2014, prosecutors charged Wang with participating in a kidnapping ring. The evidence against her included the testimony of the police and two other alleged members of the ring. The police claimed they had detained her, not at 3 a.m. in her home, but at 10 a.m. in another location, where they also found a kidnap victim, handcuffed and blindfolded. The other suspects claimed she had participated actively in their criminal activity.

The prosecutors also presented testimony by the kidnapping victim, Pedro Salazar. Salazar gave a horrifying account of being taken at gunpoint, beaten, kicked, and forced, with threats of asphyxiation, to repeat the ransom demand to his relatives: pay the kidnappers US$2.5 million or they would cut off his fingers.

There is absolutely no question that Mexican authorities should ensure that the people responsible for this terrible crime are brought to justice. But there is good reason to doubt the allegation that Wang was one of them.

The prosecution’s case is full of holes. First, there is the highly dubious claim that the police had known a crime was taking place in the house where they detained Wang —and so entered without a warrant— in part because they had encountered her husband outside and he had informed them, of his own volition, that he was holding a kidnap victim inside. 

Second is the fact that three of Wang’s neighbors testified that she wasn’t at that house but rather at her own, corroborating her account of the raid. The prosecutor discounted their testimony claiming with no clear evidence that the neighbors must have been coached on what to say.

Third is the fact that the prosecution relied on Salazar’s positive identification of Wang’s voice (he had never seen her during his captivity) in a procedure which included no other female voices for comparison.

Finally, most disturbingly, the prosecution relied on incriminating statements that the other alleged gang members had retracted, saying they had been tortured and were false.

It wouldn’t be the first time Mexican prosecutors built a case on coerced testimony. The authorities’ use of torture has marred investigations into the forced disappearance of the 43 students from Ayotzinapa and the killing of 22 civilians in Tlatlaya in 2014. And those are just the famous cases. Over the past decade, Human Rights Watch has documented scores of cases of torture by security forces in Mexico—beatings, asphyxiation, electric shocks, and sexual violence, among other tactics, often with the aim obtaining information or coercing incriminating statements.

This use of torture to “resolve” cases makes it far more difficult for crime victims and their families—whether it’s Salazar or the families of the Ayotzinapa students—to get the justice they deserve. These brutal methods produce fundamentally unreliable information, destroy the credibility of the judicial process, and, too often, result in the jailing of innocent people.

In December 2015, President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed a general law on torture that would, among other things, reinforce existing prohibitions on using torture to obtain evidence. Last year, the Senate passed an improved, though not perfect, version, but the Chamber of Deputies then weakened several key provisions in its own version of the bill. Last month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office in Mexico published an analysis of this draft legislation, identifying provisions that must be modified to comply with Mexico’s human rights obligations. In the legislative sessions that begin this month, Congress has an opportunity to incorporate these modifications and pass a stronger bill.

Given Mexico’s deplorable record of torture, Congress should pass a strong law to curb the practice. Yet real change will only occur if and when Mexican authorities—from the president to the prosecutors, courts, police, and military—feel compelled to take anti-torture laws far more seriously.

In the meantime, Pedro Salazar has yet to receive a reliable account of who kidnapped and brutally abused him. And in a women’s prison in southern Mexico City, Taylin Wang awaits the outcome of a fundamentally flawed criminal prosecution for a crime she insists she didn’t commit.

The Cartels Next Door (a 6 part series) : Cartels' Roots Run Deep in N.M.

February 16, 2017, 4:23 am

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Posted by DD Republished from Albuquerque Journal 
Thanks to BB reader Judeg99 for the heads-up on this story.

ByMike Gallagher / Journal Investigative Reporter

 Mexico’s drug cartels earn billions of dollars in profits as they funnel heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into drug-hungry countries, including the United States. Crime, death and ruined lives flow right along with those drugs to places as varied as New York City, West Virginia coal country, Albuquerque, Española and western Europe. Despite the efforts of law enforcement, the cartels rival international corporations in size and reach. The drugs they peddle are cheaper and more plentiful than ever before, claiming thousands of victims every year. The Albuquerque Journal today begins a six-part investigative report on a criminal enterprise wreaking havoc across the country.

FIRST IN A SERIES

A Ciudad Juárez drug runner who goes by the name of Saxon. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal

You don’t have to look south across the border to see the Mexican drug cartels in operation. They are operating right next door.

Heroin rings and methamphetamine dealers with direct connections to international drug traffickers based in Mexico have operated out of stash houses in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights, horse ranches in Valencia County, communities on the Navajo Nation and small towns a stone’s throw from the Mexican border.

And while we in New Mexico focus on drug-fueled property crimes such as auto theft and horrific violence such as the murders of 10-year-old Victoria Martens and Rio Rancho police officer Gregg “Nigel” Benner, our state is much more than a local market. It is a primary corridor for the cartels to ship drugs nationwide.

Federal law enforcement estimates the Sinaloa Cartel alone controls somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of illegal drugs used in the United States. It supplies dealers in cities and states including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New England, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Mexico.

The Juárez Cartel supplies heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana dealers in North Carolina, Alabama, Oklahoma, Minnesota, New Mexico and parts of Texas.

A Homeland Security officer inspects the interior of a tractor-trailer rig that had been carrying produce into the United States through the port of entry at Santa Teresa. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

There is plenty of proof of Mexican cartel operations in New Mexico, as evidenced by some of the operations taken down by law enforcement. For example:


• In May 2012, Luis Rangel and his brother, Miguel, set up shop in Shiprock, on the Navajo reservation. Their business: selling methamphetamine obtained from the Sinaloa Cartel in Phoenix to their Navajo neighbors and in the nearby community of Kirtland, just off the reservation.

• Since the 1990s, members of Ivan Romero’s family have run a tight-knit distribution network that cornered the heroin market in Taos County, serving addicts in the villages and towns of northern New Mexico with heroin imported through Albuquerque from Mexico.

• In Albuquerque, Jesus Munoz Lechuga ran an auto body shop in the far South Valley, receiving cocaine, marijuana and heroin from La Linea faction of the Juárez Cartel and then shipping it to Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Illinois and Alabama.

• Homero Varela ran a racehorse business in Valencia County when federal law enforcement broke up the Sinaloa Cartel associate’s $15 million cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana business.

• At the time of his arrest in July 2015 in Roswell, Joseph Mendiola and his associates were caught by federal and local agents holding 16 pounds of methamphetamine, most of it coming from the Phoenix area and delivered by Francisco Aguilar-Larios. The methamphetamine was destined for sale across the southeastern part of the state.

• From his home in Socorro, Carlos Tafoya Jr. turned out to be one of three suppliers of highly pure methamphetamine to dealers for $800 to $1,200 an ounce who then sold it in smaller amounts on the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

• In the past year, federal agents have broken up two methamphetamine and heroin rings operating in and around Sunland Park, often following the drugs as couriers crossed the bridges in El Paso and made their deliveries in the small New Mexico city.

Big business

Estimates on how much money the cartels make each year vary widely. A RAND Corp. study estimated that $6.6 billion in drug profits make it back to Mexico from the United States. Other studies place the figure much higher, in the $40 billion range.

Those figures are meaningless to drug addicts paying $20 for two-tenths of a gram of heroin in Questa.

And the reality is that only a portion of that $20 is going back to Mexico. How big a portion depends on whether the seller was a dealer with a specific cartel or working for a local drug trafficking group that would keep a larger portion of the $20.

Law enforcement has the same problem when estimating the size of the cartels. One study says there are 150,000 members of the Sinaloa Cartel. Another says most of those people are independent contractors and there are only 150 real “members” of the cartel. Whichever is correct, the enterprise is massive.

And the cartels are hard to crack along with being big and profitable.
 

Cartel operations are so compartmentalized that most people working for the organization couldn’t tell you the names of more than 10 co-workers. And virtually all of them would prefer some time in a U.S. prison to giving up significant information. In fact, a sentence of less than 10 years in a U.S. prison is a badge of honor and good resume building.

Under any estimate, the drug profits taken in by the cartels are immense, rivaling those of any international corporation.

All these operations, small and large, track the drugs they sell back to two of Mexico’s six major transnational criminal organizations – the Juárez and Sinaloa cartels.

Will Glaspy, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge of the El Paso division, is responsible for an area that extends from the Big Bend area in Texas to the New Mexico-Arizona line.

“If you look at that entire area, we’re still seeing marijuana, we’re seeing cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine,” Glaspy said. “If you look at the last four, five years of seizure data, cocaine is the only seizure stat that I have that is going down. Marijuana, meth and heroin are all going up.

“Seizures may be going down in some corridors, but not in our corridor.”

Death toll

The death toll keeps rising, right along with the flow of illegal drugs and prescription opioids – which in some respects is a different but related problem.

A Customs and Border Protection officer inspects the interior of an engine with a small camera at the Santa Teresa port of entry. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

Heroin and opioid addiction have grabbed New Mexico’s headlines over the past few years as the state either led the nation or was near the top in the percentage of people dying of drug overdoses. Last year, the state improved to eighth nationally – partly as a result of efforts to stem the problem and treat addicts and partly because death tolls jumped in other states.

In rural and urban New Mexico, health officials, police and federal law enforcement use the word “epidemic” so often the word loses its impact.

Nationwide, more than 47,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2014 – more than were killed by firearms or in car accidents.

More than half of those died of overdoses of prescription drugs, either legally or illegally purchased.

But there were more than 10,000 heroin overdose deaths last year, and the number of methamphetamine overdose deaths appears to be rising.

The exact number of heroin addicts in the United States has always been a moving target as addicts die, enter treatment, go to jail or prison and new initiates start using. But from 2007 to 2014, the number of new heroin users doubled from 106,000 a year to 212,000 a year, according to federal health officials.

Some of the most tragic are young people who start on prescription drugs and switch to cheaper and readily available heroin.

The national estimate for methamphetamine users in 2014 was 1.3 million – up from almost 1.2 million in 2013.

Meanwhile, the price of methamphetamine – the drug the people charged in the sexual assault and murder of 10-year-old Victoria Martens in Albuquerque allegedly were high on – has dropped from a high of more than $250 a gram in 2007 to below $50 in 2015.

And the purity of the drug on the street exceeds 90 percent, making it cheaper and stronger than cocaine or crack cocaine.

That follows the same pattern established by Mexican heroin, prices of which have fallen to less than $40 a gram to dealers who in turn sell to addicts.

Drug crime

It is accepted law enforcement wisdom that illegal drugs drive crime in communities.

“Most violent and property crime ties back to drugs,” said Deputy APD Chief Eric Garcia. “Both heroin and methamphetamine are extremely addictive,” he said. “We’re finding more polydrug users. Meth users take heroin to come down from their high. As a result, we’re seeing more polydrug dealers on the street.”

Last year, agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and APD ran an undercover operation in Albuquerque expecting to make gun and drug deals with up to 50 career criminals.

They made 104 cases in four months, almost overwhelming the ability of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to handle.

While heroin overdose deaths caught the attention of health officials, law enforcement usually ranks methamphetamine abuse as a greater threat to public safety than heroin addiction.

“The crimes with meth tend to be more heinous, more shocking,” Garcia said.

And New Mexico is no stranger to the horrific crimes linked to both drugs.

Among them:

• There was methamphetamine running through Andrew Romero’s bloodstream when he shot and killed Rio Rancho Police Officer Gregg “Nigel” Benner in May 2015 while planning a robbery to pay for more drugs during a 25-day drug and robbery binge.

• Davon Lymon was slinging heroin and arranging a heroin buy for a 17-year-old girl when he allegedly shot and killed Albuquerque police officer Daniel Webster during a traffic stop on East Central in October 2015.

• Fabian Gonzales was a regular meth user for years, before he was charged in the grisly murder of his girlfriend’s 10-year-old daughter, Victoria Martens, last summer. Victoria’s mother, Michelle Martens, and Jessica Kelly are also charged with first-degree murder and intentional abuse of a child, among many other offenses.
 
• A 13-year-old girl on the Mescalero Apache Reservation was brutally assaulted by two other teens, both of whom were high on methamphetamine.
 
The only thing the crimes have in common is drugs, and the drugs all come from Mexico – cheaper and stronger than ever.

 As a bonus to our readers, Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher provides additional background and insights about the Juárez and Sinaloa cartels in video interviews.

NEXT IN THE 6 PART SERIES;

The Cartels Next Door: Far from dead, Juárez Cartel flexes its muscles

El Chango Mendez of LFM, with one foot in the USA

February 16, 2017, 2:44 pm

≫ Next: The threat from Sinaloa

≪ Previous: The Cartels Next Door (a 6 part series) : Cartels' Roots Run Deep in N.M.

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

Subject Matter: Jesus 'El Chango' Mendez, La Familia Michoacana
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

A minister of the Supreme Court will ponder of whether or not to deny an amparo, promoted by the leader of the cartel La Familia Michoacana, promoted against the law on International extradition.

Reporter: Rueben Mosso
The ex leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel, Jesus 'El Chango' Mendez is on the point of being extradited to the USA, after a Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ponders whether to deny his amparo, promoted by the capo to impugn the law of International extradition.

In a case of protection approval, the case will return to the Primary Collegiate Court in Penal matters  of Mexico City in order to resolve some legal aspects and after conclusion, the PGR could execute the order of extradition.

The Federal District Court of South New York is claiming 'El Chango' Mendez because between 2006 and July of 2011, during his leadership of La Familia, he is associated with distribution in USA territory of cocaine and crystal meth.




In this country he is accused because between 2005 and 21st of June of 2011, he distributed and sold drugs, specifically in Michoacan, Queretaro and Guerrero, carried out payments to authorities for protection bribes, kidnapping, extortion, to enrich his organization.

Mendez Vargas was part of the Cartel del Golfo, where he was one of the principal collaborators, and chief of sicarios in the service of capo Osiel Cardenas Guillen, 'El Mata Amigos', or the friend killer.

Arturo Zaldivar Lelo de Larrea, will present next week the protection of sentence to his counterparts in the First sitting of the Court, in order to negate the amparo of the capo, who claims that articles 33 and 34 of the law of International extradition are not constitutional.

On the 18th of September of 2015, the First Collegiate Court in Penal Matters of the First Circuit, emitted a resolution in that they couldn't rule on the competency of the court on the matters of constitutionality of the articles of statute mentioned, and said there was no existing jurisprudence on in respect of the matter.

Mendez signalled that the article 33 of the law of extradition is unconstitutional because it doesn't establish an ordinary recourse of defence to combat the claimed act, that way, he has used the amparo judgment as an ordinary means of defence; also, he alleges, that its unconstitutional that to concede the suspension, without the extraditable request, without a district judge granting it, is denaturing the amparo proceedings.

In an equal manner, he argues that the article 34 is unconstitutional because 60 days have already passed as required in article 35 of the same law of extradition to the USA. The minister declared that both articles are constitutional and do not violate an adequate defence.

El Chango Mendez was detained in 2011 during an operation of the Federal Police in Aguascalientes, the place where he was hiding from the operations to catch him that had been ordered in Michoacán territory.

Together with the extinct Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, "El Chayo", or "El Mas Loco", who was the ideological leader of La Familia, they were considered two of the narco traffickers with major economic power and support of Police corporations, who started the narco taxes on producers and businessmen of Michoacán.

Original article in Spanish at Milenio

The threat from Sinaloa

February 16, 2017, 10:10 pm

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Original article available at ZETA 
Translated by El Wachito

They are being hunted like flies, and all of them are informants because they are giving away locations and contacts, that's the way that "The Damaso" operate, they go after them and if they find them, it is likely that they will engage in armed combat", warned a trusted source to ZETA, about the war in Sinaloa that has expanded to La Paz and Los cabos.

After the arrest of "El Chapo", a climate of instability has rule across the region of Sinaloa. "I knew that the struggle for the plaza and for the control of drug routes was imminent, and whoever controls the plaza will have a lot of power. Today the struggle is not only in Sinaloa, but has expanded to Baja California Sur", according to a member of the Security Coordination Group.

Damaso Lopez is trying to control the Plaza of the Cartel de Sinaloa: "The fight of Damaso Lopez is unstable against the Cartel De Sinaloa, we saw it coming from the beginning, here in the State of Sinaloa, and not to far away, for example, in La Paz, since the fall of 'Montoya', principal operator of 'Los Mayitos'; a 'Mayo Zambada cell leader'. What did the "Mayos" did? they turned to Jalisco because the cell of 'Los Damaso' were killing the people of "Mayo", since then, we realize that they had their own game going on", informed a source of Military Intelligence to ZETA.

Then the attacks came back to Culiacan, Sinaloa: The war was more clear when dozens of pick up trucks with armed people headed into hot territory, according to Military sources, "people of 'Los Chapos' (Sons of Chapo') attacked other civilians inside territory controlled by Damaso, and therefore it was really clear for us that the war had been declared. However, the biggest concern is that the war that we are seeing in Sinaloa, will soon be reflected in Baja California Sur", warned the Intelligence Officer.

The interruption of 'Los Chapitos' into territory controlled by 'Los Damaso", is due to the possibility that Damaso Lopez ordered an attack against the sons of "El Chapo", last Saturday 4th of February,  and to the information given in a letter to news corporations, that Chapitos and Mayo are wounded after an ambush. According to military forces, "El Mayo" Zambada was with them during the ambush, and this led to a fight for the control of the Cartel de Sinaloa and the territories that one day belonged to "Chapo".

Sicarios recently executed a drug dealer in a shopping mall of La Paz

The storm that's raging on

"We expected a counter-attack in La Paz from part of the Sinaloa Cartel after the fall of 14 members of Los Damaso, and we thought that the situation was going to deescalate after this events, however, it was the other way around: The fierce Cartel de Sinaloa has easy access to attract people, and there is a lot of police officers that allows them to pass, however we have reduce corrupt officers", according to a member of the Security Public Coordination Group. 

The war of "Los Damaso" has now reached the powerful Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), with a new resource necessary to implement the control of the Plaza of the state of Sinaloa.

After "El Chapo" was extradited to the United States, the Sinaloa Cartel was unstable and certain enemy groups attempted to fight for control of those plazas, however "Los Damaso", felt obligated to respond, and they also fought the plaza.

The dispute was clear two weeks ago, when "Chapulines" were executed -The name given to drug dealers that switch sides-, while, in San Jose del Cabo, two dead bodies were found, botch with signs of torture and bullet wounds.

"The cartel members called us, and told us that there was two dead bodies that had to be picked up", informed a ministerial agent to ZETA.

In February 2nd, in La Paz, the dead bodies of the Iribe Brothers were found, and Intelligence Officers realized that they were hunting the "chapulines", because after the fall of "Los Mayitos", they started working with "Los Damaso", then they change sides with "Jalisco" and they were hunted down by Sinaloa. 

Iribe Brothers, a clear vengeance of Sinaloa

According to a report given to ZETA, there are 3 Brothers: "El Goyo", "El Rigo" and "El Jaime", of ages, 35, 30 and 29, from the State of Sinaloa.

During the investigations, neighbors claim that "El Goyo" was Levantado (Kidnapped) a few hours before the firefight by an armed commando, according to the information, 3 man arrived on board a pick up truck and ordered the older brother to "turn in his two brothers or they were going to kill the whole family because we know where they are'... therefore he decided to turn over his brothers".

With this triple homicide we have confirmed the counter attack of Sinaloa.

To this moment, 61 persons have been executed in 2017, and only 39 in Los Cabos, which makes it clear that Los Cabos is the Plaza to dispute, "we know according to our investigations, that there are people in Culiacan that are preparing themselves to fight for Los Cabos. It is a shame that we are going to become in a war zone, because our territory is valuable to the cartels", affirmed the member of the Security Council, and he has to theories: 

* The most probable, is that with the instability that is going in Sinaloa, the situation in Baja California Sur will de-escalate, because they need manpower for the fight in Culiacan between "Los Chapos" and "Los Damaso".

*A counter attack from CJNG, because they will realize that Sinaloa has become weaker, and therefore they will take advantage to take control of the Plaza of Sinaloa, and "Los Mayitos" could support the CJNG.

There are talks that Damaso Lopez formed an alliance with Amado Carrillo "El Señor de los Cielos, direct enemy of Chapo Guzman.

The Cartels Next Door:(2nd in a 6 part series) Far from dead, Juárez Cartel flexes its muscles

February 17, 2017, 5:15 am

≫ Next: Possible capture of Ivan Archivaldo "El Chapito" in Culiacan

≪ Previous: The threat from Sinaloa

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Posted by DD republished from Albuquerque Journal

hanks to BB reader Judeg99 for the heads-up on this story.

 By Mike Gallagher / Journal Investigative Reporter

Which cars in the daily traffic jam on the Bridge of the Americas heading into the United States are being used by the Juárez Cartel to smuggle heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine across the border? (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

SECOND IN A SERIES: The Juárez Cartel is one of the heavyweights among Mexican drug cartels that earn billions in profits as they funnel heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into drug-hungry countries such as the United States. Crime, death and ruined lives flow right along with those drugs to places as varied as New York City, West Virginia, Albuquerque and Española.


The death of the Juárez Cartel has been greatly exaggerated. In fact, it is alive and well and doing a booming business.

The cartel boss, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and two of his top associates are locked up, but that is nothing more than an inconvenience because there are hundreds of cartel members operating out of the northern border city and throughout the Mexican state of Chihuahua – and reaching into the United States.

Vicente Carrillo Fuente

Men like Ignacio “Nachito” Villalobos Salinas – he has been the main supplier of drugs of all types through the Columbus-Palomas port of entry in recent years and in the words of one federal judge “a notorious drug trafficker.”
Villalobos is a member of La Linea (The Line), the enforcement arm of the Juárez Cartel.

In 2010, he was running guns for La Linea in an operation that had the mayor, a city commissioner and the police chief from Columbus buying AK-47-type weapons in the United States and helping smuggle them into Mexico for the Juárez Cartel.

That investigation was brought up short when word of the wiretaps on Columbus officials was leaked to the police chief from a longtime friend who was married to a then-assistant U.S. attorney.

Villalobos faded out of the news but by 2015 he was in charge of running the Juárez Cartel’s operation in Palomas.

He was reporting to Edgar Estopellan Torres, who in turn reported to Arturo Vasquez, who was the boss of La Linea.


Full service

Members of the Juárez Cartel received drugs hidden in secret compartments in tractor-trailers at this South Valley auto body shop for redistribution in the state and elsewhere. (Federal Court Exhibit)

Villalobos was running a full-service drug network – cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana. The fact the contraband had to cross an international border to reach lucrative markets in the U.S. was simply a logistical challenge that was met in a variety of ways:

• “Backpackers” carried loads of marijuana across the desert to Interstate 10 near Deming, where it could be picked up by couriers in pickup trucks.

• Larger loads of marijuana were hidden in secret compartments in tractor-trailers driven through the Juárez-El Paso port of entry to Albuquerque.

• Cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine also were hidden in false compartments in tractor-trailers, pickup trucks and cars.

 

Jesus Muñoz Lechuga

The drugs were transported to an auto body shop in Bernalillo County’s South Valley operated by Jesus Muñoz Lechuga, another member of the cartel, who was in the country illegally.

Muñoz used the name Anchondo to lease the property, which is owned, according to Bernalillo County Treasurer’s Office records, by Jerry Padilla Jr., who was convicted of running a large-scale drug operation in the 1990s and whose brothers ran the Los Padillas street gang.

Padilla has not been implicated in the latest investigation.

Muñoz unloaded the shipments at the body shop and coordinated deliveries to buyers through texts with Villalobos or Estopellan. Muñoz would then ship the drugs to buyers in New Mexico, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and other cities.

Typically, the money would be sent back to Estopellan by couriers using the same hidden vehicle compartments used to transport the drugs into the U.S.

One of Muñoz’s couriers, Leonardo Martinez Olivas, who was also in the country illegally, told the court he was coerced into helping the network by threats the cartel would murder his wife and son.
 
In October 2014, a federal agent arranged to purchase 10 kilograms of cocaine from Villalobos’ organization. Agents seized 5 kilograms but not Villalobos.

Then federal agents began tapping the phones of people working for Villalobos through servers in the U.S.

The text traffic provided agents with real-time information about when and where drugs and money were going.

By the time agents were ready to sweep up the network in October 2015, several of the main players, including Muñoz, had fled back to Mexico. Villalobos never left Mexico.

The 10-month investigation led to the seizure of 6 kilograms of cocaine, almost 3 kilograms of methamphetamine, a half-pound of heroin and 1,000 pounds of marijuana. Federal agents also seized more than $260,000.

Money seized during the investigation of Villalobos’ drug smuggling operation. (Federal Court Exhibit)

Twelve people were arrested here in New Mexico. Ten pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial in Las Cruces last October.

And eight men – the heart of this one network – are fugitives, believed to be in Mexico.

The general expectation of U.S. law enforcement is that this group was again smuggling drugs into New Mexico before the ink was dry on the guilty pleas of their associates.

In control

The Juárez Cartel became firmly established in the early 1990s when Amado Carrillo Fuentes, “The Lord of the Skies,” took over the corridor.


He established close ties with Colombian cocaine kingpins and persuaded them to send their product into the United States through Mexico.

Those deals brought Carrillo Fuentes a tremendous amount of influence on all the major drug cartels in Mexico and billions of dollars in profits.

He died in the late 1990s, and his brother, Vicente, took over the Juárez Cartel. He had an uneasy alliance with leaders of other cartels, including Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Guzmán had already been involved in a series of “wars” with other cartels before he and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes started killing each other’s relatives. That led to thousands of killings throughout northern Mexico reaching its height in mid-2010.

Will Glaspy is the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso division, which oversees a region from the Big Bend area in Texas to the Arizona-New Mexico line.

“As far as we’re concerned, the Juárez Cartel has always maintained control” of the Juárez corridor, he said in an interview, “I don’t know if they ‘won,’ but they gained control of it, and for other reasons, probably, violence was reduced.”

But the Sinaloa Cartel also uses the Juárez corridor, as does the Sinaloa Cartel’s most recent rival, the New Generation Jalisco Cartel. U.S. law enforcement is still trying to figure out what arrangements have led to this crazy quilt of rivals using the same bridges to El Paso to transport drugs.

Guzmán has been extradited to the United States and faces federal charges of heading an organized criminal enterprise.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes is in a federal maximum security prison in Mexico.

The United States also has asked for Carrillo Fuentes to be extradited, but that has hit legal roadblocks in Mexico.

The Juárez Cartel is now run by two men most Americans have never heard of: Carlos Quintana Quintana and Julio Olivas Torres.

Yet it continues to affect the U.S. drug market by supplying drugs to Denver, Chicago, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Georgia and Kansas City through New Mexico and West Texas.

It has long been one of the bigger exporters of Colombian cocaine into the United States. And according to DEA intelligence reports, the Juárez Cartel has significantly increased the cultivation of opium poppies in the state of Chihuahua.     /

NEXT IN THE 6 PART SERIES; 
The Cartels Next Door: ‘Mayor of Mexico’ ran a slick operation

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Possible capture of Ivan Archivaldo "El Chapito" in Culiacan

February 18, 2017, 10:44 am

≫ Next: The Cartels Next Door: (3rd in a 6 part series); ‘Mayor of Mexico’ ran a slick operation

≪ Previous: The Cartels Next Door:(2nd in a 6 part series) Far from dead, Juárez Cartel flexes its muscles

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Original article available at DEBATE

Translated by El Wachito

Follow Borderland Beat on Instagram: Borderland_Beat

Culiacan, Sinaloa.- A strong military operation was register this saturday morning in the capital of the State of Sinaloa, the operation was led by Mexican Marines, and it is believe that Archivaldo Guzman was arrested, son of Joaquin Guzman Loera.

The operation was register in Fraccionamiento La Conquista.

It was informed that 3 helicopters were flying over the city.

Elements of the Marines set up roadblocks and requested the drivers to stop the vehicles in order to conduct searches.

Several residents of the area reported that they were woken up by helicopters flying over their residencies. To this moment the authorities have not yet given any information.

El Debate assisted the area were the military marines conducted the operation and found several bullet caps over the floor. 

Julio Cesar Romanillo, security spokesman, express that he does not have information related to the operation because the Mexican Marines didn't request any support from other law enforcement agencies. 

The Cartels Next Door: (3rd in a 6 part series); ‘Mayor of Mexico’ ran a slick operation

February 18, 2017, 3:20 pm

≫ Next: The Cartels Next Door (4th in a series of 6): Mexican drug lords corner meth market

≪ Previous: Possible capture of Ivan Archivaldo "El Chapito" in Culiacan

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Posted by DD Republished from Albuquerque Journal
Thanks to BB reader Judeg99 for the heads-up on this story.

Previous in 6 part series;
Part One: Cartels' Roots Run Deep in N.M.
Part Two;  Far from dead, Juárez Cartel flexes its muscles 

A tunnel built by the Sinaloa Cartel between Tijuana and San Diego, discovered by law enforcement in December 2016. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal)

By Mike Gallagher / Journal Investigative Reporter

THIRD IN A SERIES: Drugs come across the U.S.-Mexican border in many ways – from Mexican couriers carrying backpacks across the desert to sophisticated trucking operations designed to thwart U.S. border and customs officials to elaborate tunnels. A lot gets seized, but the amount that gets through generates billions of dollars in profits for the cartels and fuels a host of problems here, from addiction to crimes committed to finance the “habit.”


The pallets marked as frozen sea cucumbers, a delicacy in some Asian restaurants, crossed

easily from Mexico into the U.S. by truck at a border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego.

After all, frozen seafood moves relatively quickly through U.S. Customs and Border Protection at ports of entry along the Southwestern border. Each port has a limited budget to pay for “spoilage” during unsuccessful drug searches, so without specific information or indicators of drugs in the load of seafood, the loads get processed rapidly.

Once in San Diego, the seafood was flown to Buffalo, in upstate New York, where the pallets – which were actually loaded with heroin, cocaine and fentanyl – were broken open and distributed to drug dealers in western New York.

The money from the drug sales was then laundered through a series of companies, sent to bank accounts in California and then south of the border.

It was a classic Sinaloa Cartel operation, hiding the drugs in plain sight, pushing them out to consumers willing to pay hard cash, and then using legal fronts and banks to cover the money trail.

It was run by Jose Ruben Gil, known within the organization as the “Mayor of Mexico.”

The operation involved people throughout the drug trafficking organization who were tightly aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel, not only in smuggling the drugs, but also in arranging for the money to get back to Mexico. The volume and value of the drugs involved is considered to be too high to “front” to independent operators.


How lucrative?

Investigators from the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies claim that in one year, Gil’s operation sent $20 million from corporate bank accounts in the Buffalo area to banks in California. The money was then sent into Mexico.

The “Mayor of Mexico” eventually was taken down.

During the Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, agents across the country seized 52 kilograms of cocaine, 17 kilograms of heroin and 8 kilograms of fentanyl – worth millions of dollars on the street – but Gil’s operation continued right up until his arrest in August in Buffalo, N.Y. He and others are now awaiting trial.

Gil ran the type of drug operation that traces back to the highest echelons of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to federal law enforcement officials involved in the case.

His was a sophisticated model from start to finish.

Law enforcement officials in the U.S. say the six major Mexican cartels are reaping billions in profits every year.

Sinaloa Cartel thrives

The arrest of a player like Gil isn’t much more than a hiccup to an operation like the Sinaloa Cartel.

The most recent arrest and extradition to the United States of one of the world’s best-known drug lords, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, was a much bigger threat to the cartel’s drug operations. In fact, there were expectations of a major fight for control of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Although a few members have turned up dead, there hasn’t been a major bloodletting, yet.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration believes the cartel, which actually is a federation of several groups, has always been run by a board of directors with a first among equals or chairman like Guzmán.

The two players with the most influence in the cartel today are Ismael “Mayo” Zambada Garcia, 68, and Dámaso “El Licenciado” López Nuñez, 50.

Zambada has been around since the 1970s, when the Guadalajara Cartel was formed. For a long time, he and his sons ran operations in the Mexican state of Sonora and controlled the “Plaza” in Nogales and other towns south of the border with Arizona. (Note: “Plaza” is a term used to refer to a border drug corridor.)

He became an important figure in a group called The Federation, formed by Amado Carrillo Fuentes in the 1990s, and since 2000 has been a capo in the Sinaloa Cartel.

He has a reputation for being a savvy infighter, not afraid of shedding blood, but someone who picks his fights carefully. Zambada played a significant role in eliminating the Tijuana Cartel as a major player on the border.

López Nuñez came onto the scene in 2001.

He studied law at the Universidad de Occidente and became a police officer at the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office, according to El Universal newspaper.

López Nuñez eventually got a job at the federal prison in Puente Grande where El Chapo was serving time after his 1993 arrest and allegedly helped him escape in 2001.

He resigned and was not jailed in connection with the escape.

He was indicted in U.S. District Court in Virginia on drug trafficking and money laundering charges with other members of the Sinaloa Cartel but has never been arrested in Mexico.

Reports suggest Zambada is ready to name his sons as his successors.

But the most capable son is in a U.S. federal prison, and the others, according to DEA observers, don’t have the capacity to maintain power the way their father has over the course of decades.

The same assessment is made of Guzmán’s sons. All of them will have some role in the cartel, but how large remains to be seen.

Guzmán is godfather to López’s son, and López is close to another imprisoned Sinaloa capo, Inés Coronel Barreras, who is the father of Guzmán’s third wife.

While those signs point to López taking over a larger role in the cartel, nothing in the Mexican drug world is guaranteed.

Cartels resilient

Even the biggest criminal organization takes some hits – but the cartels have been amazingly resilient.

Longtime Sinaloa Cartel boss Guzmán was arrested in 2014, 13 years after he first escaped from Mexico’s maximum security prison in a laundry cart.

He escaped a second time in July 2015 through a tunnel and was rearrested in January 2016 after months of international publicity that drug organizations usually like to avoid.

Unlike that of some of his competitors who are locked up in Mexico, Guzmán’s extradition to the United States was not derailed and was completed last month.

His longtime No. 2, Ismael Zambada, also took a hit

In 2015, the guilty plea in a Chicago federal court signed by Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, now 40, was unsealed. It showed that Zambada Niebla, Zambada’s most competent son, was cooperating with U.S. authorities.

The son had helped run the cartel’s smuggling operations from South America into Mexico and then into the United States. He also was responsible for making payments to Mexican government and police officials.

He was arrested in 2008 by Mexican law enforcement and extradited to the United States in 2009.

His defense team claimed that Zambada Niebla believed he and the rest of the Sinaloa Cartel had a deal with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to provide information about other cartels in exchange for some sort of immunity from prosecution. The government denied the allegations, but apparently Zambada Niebla did meet with U.S. federal agents before he was arrested in Mexico.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a minimum of 10 years.

He described in the plea agreement the distribution of multiple tons of cocaine, often involving hundreds of kilograms at a time, on a monthly, if not weekly, basis from 2005 to 2008.

Zambada Niebla admitted that he coordinated the importation of multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Colombia and Panama into the interior of Mexico, where he arranged transportation and storage of the shipments ultimately headed for the United States.

The cartel used various means of transportation, including private aircraft, submarines, and other submersible and semisubmersible vessels, container ships, fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor-trailers and automobiles. He coordinated the delivery of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine to wholesale distributors in Mexico, who would then arrange to smuggle the drugs into the United States.

On most occasions, the Sinaloa Cartel supplied the cocaine to these wholesalers on a consignment basis because of the wholesalers’ long-standing relationships with key cartel figures.

Zambada Niebla in his plea deal also agreed not to contest a forfeiture judgment of more than $1.37 billion.

 Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher provides additional background and insights about the Juárez cartel in a video interview.



 NEXT IN 6 PART SERIES ;  Mexican drug lords corner meth market

The Cartels Next Door (4th in a series of 6): Mexican drug lords corner meth market

February 19, 2017, 9:16 pm

≫ Next: The Cartels Next Door (fifth in a 6 part series): Despite cartel ban on local sales, Juárez meth use surges

≪ Previous: The Cartels Next Door: (3rd in a 6 part series); ‘Mayor of Mexico’ ran a slick operation

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Posted by DD Republished from Albuquerque Journal
Thanks to BB reader Judeg99 for the heads-up on this story

Previous in 6 part series;
Part One: Cartels' Roots Run Deep in N.M.
Part Two;  Far from dead, Juárez Cartel flexes its muscles
Part Three:  ‘Mayor of Mexico’ ran a slick operation

The Anapra neighborhood of Ciudad Juárez, where cartels compete for control of local and international drug distribution. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

 By Mike Gallagher / Journal Investigative Reporter

FOURTH IN A SERIES: Once the drug of choice for outlaw motorcycle gangs, methamphetamine is now a major moneymaker for Mexican drug cartels. At one time, it was mostly “cooked” locally in seedy motel rooms or trailer parks using over-the-counter cold remedies. Now, law enforcement estimates that about 90 percent of the meth consumed in the United States comes across the border. The drug can be smoked, snorted, injected or taken orally. “We’re seeing meth dealers go after kids as young as 13 on social media,” said APD Deputy Chief Eric Garcia. “That’s who they’re marketing to.”

Luis Rangel-Arce

Miguel Rangel-Arce, 36, and brother Luis Rangel-Arce, 44, set up shop west of Farmington on the Navajo reservation in 2015. They were there to make money selling methamphetamine supplied by the Sinaloa Cartel.

They rented a house and recruited locals, both Navajo and Anglo, to sell the drug on the reservation and in the neighborhoods of Farmington and Bloomfield. It was a tightly run ring with five retail dealers handling direct sales to users.

But the Rangel brothers, both from Mexico by way of Phoenix, came to the attention of federal investigators because of an increase in crime and use of methamphetamine in the Shiprock area on the Navajo nation.

In 2016, the two men and others were arrested for selling methamphetamine directly to undercover officers. Authorities seized more than 2½ pounds of the drug worth a minimum of $150,000, along with 10 firearms, during the arrests.

“Methamphetamine continues to have a devastating impact on Native American families and communities,” said U.S. Attorney Damon P. Martinez.

Martinez said the same thing a year earlier when law enforcement in the southern part of the state arrested Carlos Tafoya and 34 others in December 2015 for trafficking methamphetamine on the Mescalero Apache Reservation near Ruidoso.

The Mescalero Apache arrests also followed an increase in violent crime attributed to methamphetamine use on the reservation, including a horrific assault on a young girl by two teenage boys who were high on meth.

Joseph Ray Mendiola, 35, of Roswell, was the focus of another investigation that led to federal and state charges against 41 people. The investigation involved the FBI, DEA, State Police and local law enforcement agencies.

Investigators seized more than 16 pounds of methamphetamine from Mendiola and his associates in Roswell.

It’s the same story over and over. High-quality, inexpensive methamphetamine supplied by Mexican cartels is a problem from the reservations to the oil patch, from cities to rural New Mexico.

Meth is a highly addictive stimulant, and the crime that accompanies it is often violent – from the shooting death of a police officer in Rio Rancho to the brutal assaults on young girls in Albuquerque and the Mescalero Reservation.
 

Transit point

Call it meth, crystal, ice, speed or crank.

A pound of it can sell for as low as $7,200, but the average price per pound in New Mexico is around $8,000. That translates into big profits as it is broken down for users into envelopes of $25, $50 or $100.

Dealers sell to users, or “tweakers.”

Whatever name you want to use for methamphetamine, the statistics point to serious problems. Among them:

Posters at the Volver a Vivir recovery center in Ciudad Juárez warn of the dangers of taking methamphetamine or other synthetic drugs. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

  • In 2008, there were 23 overdose deaths in New Mexico attributed to methamphetamine. By 2014, there were 111 meth overdose deaths in the state.

• In 2007, a gram of methamphetamine was selling for almost $300 and the purity was about 40 percent. By 2014, the price had dropped, on a national average, to around $70 a gram, and it had an average purity of more than 90 percent.

• In 2010, federal agents seized just over 4,000 kilograms of methamphetamine along the Mexican border in the Southwest. By 2015, the amount seized increased to 16,282 kilograms. Meanwhile, the number of methamphetamine laboratories busted by law enforcement in the United States dropped more than 50 percent from 2010 to 2015, and most of those “laboratories” were capable of producing only 2 ounces or less.

The reason for the shift: About 90 percent of the methamphetamine consumed in the United States is made in Mexico.

“They are controlling more of the distribution line, the entire line from the manufacture … to the actual distribution,” said Will Glaspy, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge, El Paso Division.

According to the DEA, traffickers employ various techniques in smuggling methamphetamine. They include human couriers, commercial flights, parcel services and commercial buses. But traffickers most commonly transport methamphetamine through U.S. border crossings in passenger vehicles with hidden compartments.

Several cartels are shipping methamphetamine in a liquid form to smuggle into the United States in soft drink cans and bottles. Once in the United States, the methamphetamine is transformed into a powder through standard chemical filtration methods.

Like other drugs, much of the meth that arrives in Albuquerque doesn’t stay here. The city is a transit point for drugs going on to Denver, Chicago and elsewhere.

The compartmentalization of the cartel operations and the use of independent contractors make it difficult for law enforcement to track supply lines.

“I don’t see a lot of people on this side of the border that have complete knowledge of the whole distribution chain,” Glaspy said.

One person picks up the methamphetamine in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and takes it to Juárez. Someone else smuggles it through the port of entry into El Paso to a stash house in Albuquerque. It then gets moved by another courier to a stash house in Denver or a city in the Midwest. Then a different person will pick it up and take it to a distributor.

“And that is a lot of what we’re seeing in the United States is that the Mexicans are looking to, well, they’re controlling more of the market,” Glaspy said.
 
Internal struggles

As with other illegal drugs, the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels are major players in the meth racket.

But competition for control of methamphetamine production in Mexico has always been heated and a new power player – the New Generation Jalisco Cartel – has emerged recently.

The first Mexican trafficking organization to start producing the drug on an industrial scale was based in the Mexican state of Colima and was called the Colima Cartel.

Founded by Jesus Amezcua Contreras in 1988, the Colima Cartel replaced outlaw motorcycle gangs in the United States in producing methamphetamine, then partnered with the biker gangs for distribution.

During the 1990s and early 2000s, the Colima Cartel controlled the importation of chemicals from Europe – later China and India – used to make methamphetamine. The Colima Cartel then sold its “surplus” to the Sinaloa Cartel.

But the rise of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, in the bordering state of Jalisco, has led to fierce fighting in the state of Colima.

The New Generation Jalisco Cartel is the newest of the six major cartels operating in Mexico.

Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, who now heads the New Generation syndicate, was convicted in federal court in San Francisco in 1994 and sentenced to three years in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin. He was deported to Mexico after his release from prison and worked as a police officer in the state of Jalisco, where the Milenio Cartel was active producing methamphetamine.

The Milenio Cartel and the Colima Cartel were then partners in the Sinaloa Cartel. But in 2010, one of the leaders of the Milenio Cartel died and another was arrested by Mexican federal law enforcement. That led to a fight over control of narcotics trafficking in the states of Jalisco and Michoacan.

“El Mencho” came out on top, heading what is now called the New Generation Jalisco Cartel.

He set about expanding the cartel’s operations and took on rivals like Los Zetas and the Knights Templar.

That expansion was noted for its violence, willingness to kill local and state government officials and taking on federal police in ambushes and gunfights, including shooting down helicopters.

In 2016, the Sinaloa Cartel began sending men and arms to aid the Colima Cartel in its fight with the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, which smuggles drugs into the United States through Tijuana, Juárez and Nuevo Laredo.

It is considered a major player in methamphetamine trafficking but also is involved in heroin, cocaine and marijuana smuggling.

The cartels import chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine from India, China and the Philippines. The chemicals are delivered to Mexico’s western ports including Manzanillo in the state of Colima.

The Colima Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel and the remnants of the Beltran Leyva organization also manufacture and traffic methamphetamine, using ports like Guaymas to bring in the chemicals from overseas. The Juárez Cartel gets it supplies from other cartels, primarily New Generation Jalisco.
 
Manufactured

Unlike most other illegal drugs, methamphetamine is a synthetic, manufactured in a laboratory.

It does not rely on a plant as its main source of chemicals like heroin and cocaine, and production isn’t affected by drought or floods.

And there are a lot of ways to make meth.

One way involves the use of the common cold remedy pseudoephedrine or ephedrine as a precursor chemical. Making methamphetamine using pseudoephedrine is fairly simple, and the U.S. government in the 1990s passed tough laws and regulations governing its production and distribution.

As a result, production began to head south in the 1990s to Mexico, where pseudoephedrine was easy to get. Around 2005, Mexico imported 80 metric tons of ephedrine from China when the country’s basic need was 4 metric tons.

Mexico, at the urging of the U.S., began restricting imports of pseudoephedrine, and China began restricting exports.

That caused the cartels to move to more complex manufacturing techniques that revolve around the chemical P-2-P, prompting the United States and United Nations to restrict production, exportation and importation of P-2-P around the world.

Unfortunately, there are lots of ways to make P-2-P, and most of those involve very common industrial chemicals and solvents – a lot of them considered poisonous.

It is difficult to control international trade in these chemicals, because they are used to make everything from aspirin to pressure-treated wood.

In 2010, the Mexican government seized 110 methamphetamine laboratories, and most were using some form of the P-2-P method of making methamphetamine.

Since 2010, most of the methamphetamine tested by DEA laboratories has been made using the P-2-P method.

************************

Mike Gallagher provides additional background and insights about the New Generation Jalisco Cartel in a video interview.

 NEXT IN 6 PART SERIES;  Despite cartel ban on local sales, Juárez meth use surges

The Cartels Next Door (fifth in a 6 part series): Despite cartel ban on local sales, Juárez meth use surges

February 20, 2017, 5:26 pm

≫ Next: 17 Killed in Chihuahua over the weekend.

≪ Previous: The Cartels Next Door (4th in a series of 6): Mexican drug lords corner meth market

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Posted by DD republished from Albuquerque Journal
Thanks to BB reader Judeg99 for the heads-up on this story

Previous in 6 part series;
Part One: Cartels' Roots Run Deep in N.M.
Part Two;  Far from dead, Juárez Cartel flexes its muscles
Part Three:  ‘Mayor of Mexico’ ran a slick operation
Part Four;   Mexican drug lords corner meth market

By Lauren Villagran** / Journal Staff Writer - Las Cruces Bureau
 

A recovering meth addict, 26-year-old Alfredo, lights a marijuana pipe during an interview in Ciudad Juárez. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

 One addict says it’s 100 times better than heroin or cocaine. He’s talking about the methamphetamine that Mexican cartels provide to U.S. users in huge quantities but have tried to ban in Juárez. Dealers were even warned recently that anyone trafficking in meth locally would be killed in a “cleansing.” Even so, meth use has surged in Juárez, wreaking the same destruction on users there that it does in the U.S.

Fifth In A Series

CIUDAD JUÁREZ – For the longest time, meth was “forbidden” on the streets of this gritty metropolis.

Two recovering addicts walk back to their sleeping quarters at the Volver a Vivir recovery center in Ciudad Juárez. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

When people say “forbidden,” they don’t mean by law, although methamphetamine is as illegal in Mexico as it is in the U.S. What they mean is forbidden by the cartels

But there is so much meth now flooding this border region that the drug has begun leaking into the local market, hooking addicts from poor barrios to well-off neighborhoods and sparking friction between the Sinaloa Cartel – a major meth producer – and the Juárez Cartel, which preferred until recently to push heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

An adult recovering methamphetamine addict fixes his bed in the crowded sleeping quarters at the Volver a Vivir recovery center. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

Both cartels use Ciudad Juárez as a gateway to the lucrative U.S. drug market, and the city has fallen victim to a trend as old as the existence of borders between nations.

“If you look back in history, anytime there is contraband transited through an area, eventually people along the route start using the product,” said Will Glaspy, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso field office, which covers New Mexico. “It also goes to show if there is methamphetamine on the street in CJ, it’s coming through here in pound quantities.”

Drug seizure statistics show it’s coming by the hundreds of pounds locally and tens of thousands of pounds borderwide.

Meth busts in New Mexico and West Texas by the DEA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have surged.


DEA’s El Paso field office saw methamphetamine seizures rise more than 500 percent in five years to 1,389 pounds in fiscal 2016 from 227 pounds in fiscal 2015. CBP reported a similar exponential increase in meth seizures at ports of entry over three years, to 1,358 pounds in fiscal 2016 from 271 pounds in fiscal 2014.

Borderwide, methamphetamine seizures by law enforcement at all levels have more than doubled in five years, to more than 38,000 pounds in fiscal 2015, the latest year for which data is available from the National Seizure System.

A highly addictive poison in liquid or crystal form, meth fueled a spike in violence in 2016 in Juárez like the city hadn’t seen since the end of a bloody drug war four years ago.

‘Better than coke’

A 26-year-old man wearing a puffy Denver Broncos jacket, sweat pants and fuzzy slippers shuffled to open the door to a design business that he runs with two young women in a tidy, middle-class neighborhood. He asks to be quoted as “Alfredo,” his middle name, to protect him from the secrets he is about to share.

A counseling session at a substance abuse recovery center in Ciudad Juárez. The majority of the teens living in the center were using methamphetamine. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

Alfredo is a former hard-core meth addict, still an occasional user – one of the city’s early addicts to a drug that took hold locally only in the past few years. He began using in 2009 when the drug war was raging and the Sinaloa Cartel was fighting for control of drug routes into the U.S.

“Crystal meth back then wasn’t very well-known, when the narcotrafficking war was at its worst,” he said. “It was extremely dangerous to use because it wasn’t a drug that the cartels permitted here.

“Meth is forbidden again,” he says, using the word prohibido, prohibited or forbidden. “Prohibido means that the cartels in Juárez don’t permit it to be sold. Meth hooks people; it’s cheap; there is a lot of it.”

The Sinaloa Cartel is said to have control over drug routes through the southeast side of Juárez and the generally lawless area that is the Valle de Juárez south of the border, east of El Paso. That is where meth sales are the strongest locally, where addiction is at its worst, but it appears to be growing across the city.

The Juárez Cartel, and its enforcement arm, La Línea, are said to control the heart of the metropolitan area, from the middle-class neighborhoods around a private golf course and high-end shopping malls, through the city’s main thoroughfares to the border, to the slums of Anapra on the city’s western outskirts that lie south of the New Mexico border.

Mexican authorities attribute the rise in violence last year – murders topped 500 for the first time since 2012 in a city of 1.3 million – to the Juárez Cartel’s fight to keep meth out of its market. Murders at the height of the drug war surpassed 3,000 in a single year, 2010.

“The spike in homicides has to do with local drug trafficking,” said Jorge Nava López, the Chihuahua state government’s top prosecutor in Ciudad Juárez. “The people who normally sell marijuana and cocaine are against any synthetic drugs coming into the market, so that is why there is a fight among the people who control retail drug sales in Ciudad Juárez.”

Mexico’s major meth labs are in Mexico City and the states of Sinaloa and Sonora, Nava López said.

There is more evidence of how “forbidden” meth was in Juárez until recently, how tightly the Juárez Cartel and La Línea controlled the heart of the local market, and how lucrative drug sales are in this border town:

“Intelligence sources tell us that, given the difficulty of getting the product into Chihuahua, (the Sinaloa Cartel) was producing meth in Sonora, crossing it into the U.S., taking I-10 and crossing it back into Ciudad Juárez from El Paso because of the organized crime groups working in Ciudad Juárez,” Nava López said.

That’s more or less what Alfredo knows to be true, from his street-level view.

“That’s why there has been violence,” he said. “Because if crystal meth comes in, it will beat all the other drugs. It’s 100 times better than coke. It’s 100 times better than crack. It’s 100 times better than heroin. And it cuts your expenses.”

“With a 50-peso dose,” about $2, he said, “you are good for two or three days. So it’s not convenient for La Línea, which manages heroin sales here. If they lose a heroin client to meth, that client is lost to them.”

But what is also clear is that some criminal factions within or associated with the Juárez Cartel and La Línea had another idea: If you can’t beat them, join them. They began to sell meth in the heart of the city, intensifying the conflict.

Dire warning

A couple of months ago, a text message arrived to an unknown number of cellphones in the city with the typical elements of a cartel threat. A lanky small-time drug dealer in his 30s was one of the ones who received it.

“It said that that day, after 11 p.m., there was going to be a limpia” – a cleansing, said the man, who gave only his first name, Saxon. “That whatever car, motorcycle, person walking on the street, all the meth heads and meth dealers were going to be killed. All of us involved in this, drug dealing, we’re all connected. From the moment I buy from one guy and sell to someone else, we’ve made a link. That’s how the messages get to us. It was a warning.”

Saxon cut a dark figure, wearing all black, as he rolled a joint at a friend’s house.

He grew up in Ciudad Juárez, he said, and used to work as a mechanic making about 1,200 pesos a week, or about $56. He had been using marijuana and cocaine since his early 20s and discovered he could make up to 3,000 pesos a day – $140 – delivering drug orders on his motorcycle.

He sold pot, pills, acid, mushrooms – but not meth. He and the dealer he worked for knew it was “prohibited to sell crystal unless you are part of the cartel.” Which cartel, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he was too low-level to play in that dangerous market.

“It’s hitting all social classes, from fresas” – well-off people are known as “strawberries” in Mexican slang – “down to the very poor. People with prestige – doctors, government ministers – consume crystal.”

Toughest clients

Down a dirt road in the middle of a busy neighborhood is a white building, framed with barbed wire and barred windows, emblazoned with the words “Volver a Vivir” in gold. The “Live Again” residential rehabilitation center treats addicts with the means to pay $28 a week – roughly the salary of a maquila factory worker – plus a $70 inscription fee for a six-week treatment.

Eighty percent of the 35 or so men interned in mid-December were struggling with meth abuse, according to Miguel Angel Miranda Reyes, the center’s director. Behind his desk, framed certificates covered the wall and a crown of thorns hung on a nail.

“About 10 years ago, the drug with the biggest impact was cocaine,” he said. “Today it’s crystal meth. Crystal meth is the drug that is taking off here, especially among young people 16, 17, 18 years old.”

Miranda Reyes gave a tour: humble dormitories crowded with bunk beds, a courtyard for recreation, a small kitchen and dining hall. On a cold, gray afternoon, men were gathered in a wood-paneled room to recite the Serenity Prayer typical of Narcotics Anonymous groups.

Meth addicts are his toughest clients, Miranda Reyes said.

“We can control a heroin user’s withdrawal symptoms in three or four days,” he said. “But a user of crystal meth, we’re talking about a month or two months to control their withdrawal. Why? Because crystal meth upsets all of the senses. It damages the central nervous system. Meaning, I have to bring their biological clock back under control first, because the meth has kept them awake for days. I have to help recover their digestive system,” – because users tend not to eat – “and to do that it takes at least two to three weeks. In addition, the paranoia, tremors, nausea, convulsions.”

For several years, the Mexican government funded a program that paid residential rehab costs for some criminal addicts. According to the city’s daily newspaper, El Diario de Juárez, that money dried up last year.

Methamphetamine is one of the most addictive street drugs that are out there,” said the DEA’s Glaspy. “If rehab is just starting to see it, it’s probably just the beginning.”

Lauren Villagran provides additional background and insights about the local drug trade in Juárez. 



**About the reporter of today’s investigation

Lauren Villagran is an award-winning journalist who has covered the borderlands and the U.S.-Mexican relationship for more than a decade. She joined the Journal in 2013.

A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered the financial markets in New York, the drug war in Mexico and Latin America and immigration and border security in New Mexico.

NEXT AND FINAL PART OF THE SIX PART SERIES;  Can we stem the drug trade?

17 Killed in Chihuahua over the weekend.

February 20, 2017, 5:41 pm

≫ Next: BALCERAS AND GRENADES RETURN TO REYNOSA

≪ Previous: The Cartels Next Door (fifth in a 6 part series): Despite cartel ban on local sales, Juárez meth use surges

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Posted by DD, republished in part from El Manana

DD: The headlines concerning cartels and volence lately have been mostly about cartels realigning and capos being arrested or killed in the southern states of Mexico.  Meanwhile,, without the headlines.  it has been business as usual in the border states.- most violence since 2010. 

n the central area of ​​Álvaro Obregón was located a burned Cherokee SUV,  and in the community of La Quemada was found pickup Silverado, white. Photo: Agencia Reforma

Chihuahua, Mexico.- Seventeen people were executed this weekend in Chihuahua : six in the capital, nine in Ciudad Juárez and three in the highlands, where there was also a shooting with more than 2,000 shots fired, reported the Attorney General's Office State.  (DD: I know that adds up to 18, but that is report from the state Atty. Gen. office - math is not their strong suit). 

In Chihuahua , this Sunday a woman was shot dead in the streets Paseos de Azteca and Pastizal in the Colonia Paseos de Camino Real.

Also in the capital, another woman was found murdered on a dirt road in Colonia Granjas del Valle.

As early as Saturday morning, a man was executed while sleeping in a house in Colonia Sol de Oriente.

In addition, a woman was killed and a man was injured when a bullethit outside of an address in Colonia 2 de Octubre.

Another homicide was registered in the Colony 20th Anniversary, where a subject died from gunshots in a mechanic's workshop.

During the night of Saturday, one man died and another one was wounded in a bullet attack in the Proletarian Unit Colony.

In Ciudad Juárez, meanwhile, on Saturday morning, a woman was executed in Colonia Carlos Castillo Peraza when she left her home.

Also on Saturday, before noon, two men were shot to death while attending a food stall in El Mezquital Fraccionamiento.

In another incident, one man was killed and another wounded in an armed attack on Francisco Pimentel Street in Colonia Álvaro Obregón.

While on Friday night, a dentist died in a hospital after being shot in the parking lot of his office in a shopping plaza on Avenida Paseo de la Victoria and almost Camino Viejo in San Jose.

In addition, the Attorney General's Office in the north reported the finding of three bones in a house in Colonia Azteca, after the arrest of a man who provided data on the existence of bodies in the home.

It was also reported that in a bullet attack recorded on February 15 at a hairdresser on the streets of September 16 and Cadmio, one of the wounded was a minor and died in a hospital.

The child was identified as Christopher Giovanni Ramirez, 14, a student in Technical High School number 1, who had come to have his hair cut. He was buried on Saturday.

In the mountainous area of Chihuahua , on Friday, a man was reported to have been inside a green 2000 Volkswagen Jetta, on the Bocoyna to Creel road, at kilometer 75 and a half.

He was identified as Luis Bernardo Chacón Olivas, 35 years old. The FGE reported that the vehicle had a theft report in Cuauhtemoc.

Also on Friday reported the finding of a man shot dead in a sawmill in the community of Santa Rita,in the municipality of Madera.

The body was about 30 meters from the entrance of the sawmill, covered with a white sheet, and in place were secured six bushings of a .38 caliber super gun.

In the community of Álvaro Obregón, known as Rubio, in the Municipality of Cuauhtémoc, there was a confrontation during which more than 2 thousand shots of weapons of different calibres were made,according to the FGE.

"It was possible to establish that 2,446 gunshots were carried out on the site, such as R-15, AK 47, 40-caliber pistols and 308 assault rifle," the agency said.

The shooting which left two people injured,, a police officer and the driver of a trailer, was registered at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.  (DD;  nearly 2500 shots fired and only 2 people injured - either bad math again or sicarios who were really bad shots). Five abandoned vehicles with a robbery report were located at the site.

The municipal agent was identified as Eidy Guadalupe Saucedo Holguín, 19 years of age, domiciled in the Anahuac section.

"He told investigators that he was circulating in a public security patrol of that section to attend to  the report of shooting when he was hit by the bullets," said the FGE.

He said he was able to drive the patrol to Colombia Street and Rubio road in Cuauhtémoc, where he received the support of Red Cross paramedics.

The agent had multiple gunshot wounds on his chest, neck and legs and was then transferred to a hospital.