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Chapo's Nephew Killed in Culiacan

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 Borderland Beat


The Attorney General of Justice (PGJ) of Sinaloa confirmed that during a Father's Day celebration  Obied Cano Zepeda, nephew of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was killed.
According to information from the attorney general, Cano Zepeda, 24 years old, was at his home in Colonia Loma Linda, in the center of Culiacan, when a command cut him down in a hail of bullets.
The gunmen descended from several vehicles and fired several shots against others  present at the home and those two were also killed.
Close to  Cano's body was man identified as Luis Alberto López Higuera, 25, the third person killed is Jesus Tostado, 22.
During the shooting a man identified as the father of one of the deseased was injured.  The injured man is identified as Fernando Lopez Lopez, 64.
Obeid Cano was arrested on May 21, 2008 with an arsenal, along with  Christian Misael Lopez Estrada.

At that time, the Federal Police captured two hit men of the colony Los Pinos, who had four firearms including a machine gun 50 caliber Barrett, hundreds of cartridges, magazines, grenades and 16 luxury vehicles. The machine gun was fitted with a Barrett's easel in the case of one of the vans.

In reviewing the safe house, officials said 16 cars of recent model, seven of which were reported as stolen.

The gunmen wore at arrest four guns, 25 magazines, 913 cartridges, 11 of them to Barrett, 50 gauge, three gas grenades, vests, boots, and other objects.

Obied was the brother of Luis Alberto Zepeda Cano, who was apprehended by the Army on August 22, 2006 along with four other men, including a judge in the town of Bastanita in Tamazula de Durango.

These arrests led to the fury of the Sinaloa cartel, which days later threw a body of a man on the main gate of the Ninth Military Zone with a sign on his chest: "For fingering, Eddy" (referring to the then head of the plaza, Rolando Eugenio Hidalgo Eddy).

See related post on forum HERE
Sources used: Ixtepec Informa & Animal Politico-ELDebate

Narco Engineering

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Borderland Beat

Organized crime is engineering increasingly sophisticated equipment and armaments, their ability to use improvisation is impressive, for example, the  unusual armored vehicles that are used to protect drug shipments. With crude materials such as steel plates and railway tracks, "narco engineering" has created real monsters, unbeatable with conventional weapons. Their place of origin is from Tamaulipas, however its use appears to extend to other entities, such as Zacatecas and Sinaloa.

Juan Alberto Cedillo
June 14, 2012
REYNOSA, TAMPS. (Proceso)-monsters, armored vehicles crafted by the Gulf Cartel, were assembled in a clandestine workshop of Camargo, a municipality of Tamaulipas in an area known as "Frontera Chica.”  In June 2011, troops of the 8th military zone based in Reynosa, found two finished monsters and other 23 others in waiting to be completed.
These units are result of the "Militarization of organized crime driven by Los Zetas", says proceso's Guadalupe Contreras-Correa, a researcher at the University of Texas at Brownsville, and explains: "The Zetas were formed from elements of the Mexican army’s elite groups and were trained by foreign advisors in highly specialized weapons handling and counter-insurgency tactics."


Contreras-Correa adds that one effect of the militarization introduced by Los Zetas involved the professional tactics to eliminate the adversary: the use of non-conventional attack tactics, as the use of IED’s and fragmentation grenades, mass kidnappings and roadblocks or "narcobloqueos." Furthermore, they introduced heavy weapons and armored vehicles, such as those made by the same group and the Gulf Cartel.
All types of vehicles were modified in the underground workshop of Camargo, with the aim to turn them into monsters: big rigs, dump trucks, flatbed trucks and even tractors.

An officer of the eighth military zone explains that the criminals changed the the suspension so that it could support up to 30 tons of weight.  They would as the Officer indicated, cover the engine, the cabin and the back with at least one inch thick steel plates. The original supports were replaced by pieces of railroad rails.

The military emphasizes that the armor of these “monsters” can withstand attacks with AK47 and AR15 assault rifles and even .50 caliber and 40 mm grenades.
They designed several "models;" from one resembling the Popemobile, a light vehicle whose armored cabin could only have housed a couple of shooters, to trucks with capacity to carry 20 snipers. The inner walls of these vehicles were coated with polyurethane to dampen the noise produced from assault rifles.

During 2010, it was common to see monsters circulating through the traditional trafficking routes that branch from the municipality of San Fernando. This town is located in the Gulf of Mexico, 120 kilometers south of the border with United States.

"The monsters are used only to monitor and protect the transfer of drugs carried out in rural areas of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, as protection from rival groups", the military emphasizes, and stresses that until now the narcos have not used such vehicles to combat the army or the Federal forces.
The existence of monsters dates from the first months of 2010, after the split between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, former armed branch of that organization.

"Rupture had been brewing for some time, since Los Zetas expanded so rapidly.  As they controlled important squares, which made the leadership of Los Zetas decide that it was time for more independence from their former partners," says researcher Guadalupe Contreras-Correa.
The offical split occurred after that, in February 2010, when the Concord 3, a sicario of Los Zetas in Reynosa, was executed by Metro 3, who worked for Los Zetas counterpart,  the Gulf Cartel.
In March of that same year a bloody dispute for control of squares and territories in the area began, especially in the region known as the " Frontera Chica."  This included San Fernando, northern Veracruz, Tampico and Tamaulipas.

As both sides knew their places and methods of operation, the dispute reached the proportions of a civil war. Small armies of gunmen clashed in bloody battles in cities of Mier, Camargo, Guerrero, Miguel Alemán, and San Fernando, and these were only the towns the press coverered.

Because of this it became important to protect drug shipments from looters.  Out of this dilemma came the idea to create the monsters, vehicles that we began to see in other regions of the country dominated by organized crime, such as in the States of Zacatecas and Sinaloa.
The only way to destroy the monsters is to attack them with 20 mm anti-tank grenades, adds military source.
In the past three years the military zone VIII has seized in Tamaulipas, more than 120 armored vehicles. These include six that are considered "real monsters," because they weigh more than 30 tons and can accommodate more than 20 gunmen.


Death squads

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Rio Doce. 6-18-2012

The threat of death squads that are formed inside police organizations once again terrifies families of victims of disappearances in Sinaloa. In the midst of the chaos that public safety is experiencing, the public not only fears the criminal groups but also mistrusts the institutions charged with protecting them.

At least in Culiacan and Los Mochis there have been reports in recent weeks that state and municipal police officers have allegedly participated in abductions disguised as arrests that end up as executions  that sharpen suspicions that public safety agencies are using the same tactics as organized crime.

This is the case with four youths detained on March 29, 2012,  by state police officers in the Adolfo Lopez Mateo neighborhood , according to investigation Case Number CLN/ARD/5373/2012 filed with the Department of Justice, Northern Zone.

The complaint states that Jesus Fernando Urrea Vega, age 20, and Jorge Armando Manjarrez, aka "el Guerito", a minor, were repairing a vehicle outside the home of Urrea Vega when five State Police patrol vehicles came to the scene.

The police officers told them they wanted to ask routine questions, but they violently put all four youths in one of the patrol units., covering their faces with the shirts the detainees were wearing. The mother of Jesus Fernando Urrea Vega, who witnessed the arrest, questioned them about the detention but did not get a reply. They were never heard from again.

According to the complaint, the police officers then went on to arrest the brothers Luis Eduardo and Jesus Angel Ontiveros Campos, 17 and 21 years old, respectively. The first youth was picked up at a soccer field and the second youth was picked up at his home in the same neighborhood.

With respect to this incident, three weeks after the abduction took place, relatives and friends of the victims protested in front of the Department of Justice building, demanding information and justice for the individuals. The protesters, most of them workers with the Culiacan city maintenance  department, complain they have been denied information in all the public safety offices, where there has been total silence on this case.

Based on statistics from the human rights commissions and records in the State Department of Justice, 285 persons have disappeared in Sinaloa from 2008 to date, but the true number of this type of crime is not known.

An alarming fact, made known by the Sinaloa Human Rights Commission is that just on February 12, 2012, there were reports of 20 abductions ("levantados"-- picked up) in the state, currently considered to have disappeared ("desaparecidos").

That day, there was a report that Edgar Guadalupe Garcia Hernandez, 24 years old, a messenger in the office of prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Castro, was picked up and disappeared. A group of armed men abducted him from his home in Colonia Progreso, in Culiacan. Relatives and friends of Garcia Hernandez protested in front of Cathedral, in Culiacan, on May 31, demanding that authorities investigate this violent incident.

Offering his opinion on abductions that turn into disappearances or executions, the State Secretary of Public Safety, Francisco Cordova Celaya, noted that members of crime groups use clothing that resembles the uniforms worn by the military and other law enforcement agencies, in order to confuse people. He disclosed that they have seized vehicles cloned to look like patrol vehicles and both state and federal enforcement agencies are investigating the fabrication of  bogus clothing and comparing the seized firearms to determine through ballistics [tests] whether they have been used  in other crimes.

"All the vehicles from the different police agencies, including the officers, are perfectly identified so that the population can tell them apart from fake policemen or military personnel," he stated.

Death squads?

In Los Mochis, death squads were created with the arrival of Jesus Carrasco Ruiz to the Ahome Municipal Police, declared grieving relatives of two young men in the community of Jose Maria Morelos de Los Mochis, Ahome.

Along the same line,  the case of a young couple of scrap metal pickers who ended up being murdered in the cemetery of the Ahome community, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of this city, reveals who their executioners were: police officers.

All four homicides were committed in June and perpetrators fit one pattern, the victims another. With respect to the perpetrators: police officers, municipal police, Los Mochis preventive police officers, to be more specific, and the victims:  neighborhood friends, members of the same clan.

In the four murders, which began as arbitrary detentions, both the State Human Rights Commission, Northern Inspections office, and the Agency Specializing in Intentional Homicides initiated respective investigations.

The Northern Zone Inspections office has reports that show that in just the first semester of 2012, police abuse complaints tripled, mostly in Los Mochis. That period coincides with the appointment of ministerial police officer Carrasco Ruiz to lead the Police and Traffic agencies in Ahome, a position for which he was considered unqualified because he lacks a university degree, which is an essential requirement.

The scrap metal pickers

In late May and early June, scrap metal pickers Marcelo Felix Armenta, age 27, and Yolanda del Carmen Araujo Felix, 26 years old, both residents of Las Grullas Margen Izquierdo, disappeared. The only clue they left as to what happened to them was a telephone call. They had been detained by Ahome municipal police officers, [they said]. After that call, their cell phones went dead, their surviving relatives told the State Human Rights Commission. Eight days later, their bodies were found in the town's cemetery. A shot to the head had ended their lives.

The motorcyclist

The night of the first Sunday in June, Jose Felipe Alvarado Juarez, aka "El Pelochitas", 20 years old and resident of Jose Maria Morelos Street, was riding his motorcycle when two municipal police patrol vehicles picked him up. He was placed in one unit and the motorcycle in the other.

Witnesses to the detention, because the young man was very well known in the area around that police station, called his mother, Yadira Juarez, who had just left work and was walking home, located less than 300 meters from the police station.

Witnesses say that both patrol vehicles entered into the station yard, carrying both the motorcycle and the detainee in the back of the pickups.

In just a few minutes his mother arrived at the station to inquire about her son, but nobody would talk to her. Five hours of uncertainty went by before a police officer who was guarding the patrol yard entrance told her that the bike was on the grounds. Dawn came and her son had not come home. Again she went to the police offices but nobody would talk to her.

She filed a complaint with the Northern Zone office of the State Human Rights Commission and the director called Juan Lopez Cardona, admissions judge, who denied the youth was under arrest. He took her (the mother) to the holding cell area, and in fact, her son was not there. She went here and there, but got nothing done.

Two days later, the body of "El Pelochitas" was found in a drainage ditch. He had been tortured, she says, and she never again saw him alive because they gave him back in a sealed casket. Sisters of the deceased say that he was dragged, punctures all over his body and strangled. During the funeral, municipal police patrol vehicles and two white colored units, which are now known to be the convoy for chief of police Jesus Carrasco Ruiz, harassed the mourners, even during the funeral mass.

"That dirty dog, he believes he has the power to take lives. F--ng incompetent government  that we have. What's the use of all those laws, all those jails, all those ministries, when cops have become murderers, sons of b---s. Even if my son were the worst sort of criminal, he had the right to a trial, and if he got sentenced to rot in jail, that would have been just, because he would have been able to defend himself, but with murderers with uniforms patrolling the streets, nobody's safe," condemns the mother.

The grieving mother is looking for answers and finding them among her son's friends.
"M'am," they told her, "the cops stop us all the time. They take us to the holding cells and beat us up. They accuse us of being "halcones" [lookouts for narcos]. They're looking for 'El Trolo'."

Who is "El Trolo"?

The unemployed man

Victor Alonso Gil Aguilar, 20 years old, aka "El Chihuili," long known to the police because the previous year he was apprehended while driving a stolen car, was awakened next to his wife by the loud noise his front door made when it was torn from its hinges. When he opened his eyes, there were six cops in front of the couple. All were hooded.

"Stay calm," they told his wife, who reacted to the intrusion by taking her daughter in her arms.  "Nothing will happen to you," they assured her. Then they tied her to the bed with plastic ties. They blindfolded her so she could not see anything and be able to identify them afterwards. They left her daughter beside her on the bed.

He asked, "What about me, boss?"

They answered with a question, "What do you do for a living?"

"Nothing," answered  El Chihuili.

And they picked him up. They took him away in two patrol vehicles and a white colored pickup. It was 12:00 noon, the sun heavy as lead, the second Sunday in June. There was one thing for certain; they were police officers, because even the unit numbers were covered and the pickups did't have license plates.

After the police left, the neighbors on Alejandro Pena Street, in the Colonia Rosendo G. Castro, came to the dwelling and released the young woman. She fled. She looked for her family, first, then looked for her mother in law. With tears and anguish, she told them what had happened.

Desperate, Dora Alicia Aguilar looked for her son. She couldn't find him anywhere. She reported the case to reporters, but only a single news service and a small newspaper published her case. The larger ones and the one with the largest circulation were silent.

The nest day, El Chihuili's decapitated body was found in the community of Primero de Mayo. His head was used to anchor a placard that had two words: "Sigues Trolo". ("You're next, Trolo.")

The two youths grew up in the same neighborhood of the Jose Maria Morelos community; and their funeral was also in the same neighborhood; they had friends in common, among them El Trolo, because like them, he hung around the same streets.

El Trolo

According to Municipal Police and the State Ministerial Police internal reports, made public before these latest executions and beheadings, El Trolo turns out to be the chief of the halcones (look outs) for the "Mazatlecos", a local drug distribution gang for the Beltran Leyva cartel. He is in charge of paying for the "narcomantas" (banners with messages) in which chief of police Jesus Carrasco Ruiz and State Ministerial Police commanders are accused of working for the Sinaloa cartel.

The reports released at the time were part of the testimony given by Eduardo Gonzalez Rodriguez, aka "El Yampool" or "La Thalia",  and Jose Pablo Ramirez Galeana, aka "El Pinguino", both working as "polveros" (suppliers) distributing drugs to the pushers working for Jesus Miguel Pacheco Samaniego, aka "El Pecas", or "El Manchas", or "El Junior."

The list of abuses

Maria Araceli Sepulveda Saucedo, investigator in the Northern Zone of the State Human Rights Commission, declared that from January to June, 2012, police abuse against civilians has tripled, judging by the reports. She characterized the situation as "worrisome." More so when two cases that began as arbitrary detentions ended as murders, because "they went from violations of liberty rights to serious violations against the personal integrity of the victims, and there is a third case involving two deaths that are similar; attacks by police officers."

She stated that inquiries have been initiated with all the seriousness and speed called for but she lamented that the results were not what the complainants wanted. There are serious obstacles to getting substantial results: the complainants cannot identify the patrol vehicles that took part in the incidents because the vehicles lack identification numbers, since they were taken off or covered, and the police officers covered their faces with hoods.

When asked about this in the course of the investigation, Chief Jesus Carrasco Ruiz simply and baldly denies that his agents did anything. "He always answers that there were no operations, that they detained nobody and that he knows nothing about those cases. The situation is demoralizing," she said.

The number of complaints

Month:         State Police:         Municipal Police
January         2                           3
February       3                           18
March           5                           10
April             4                           10
May              4                           12
June(13)       1                            4  
Total:            19                         57

Cloned patrol vehicles

Two narcomantas intended for military authorities and the Government of Sinaloa showed up the evening before the weekend. One was hung on the perimeter fence of the Gregorio Torres Quintero primary school, located on Alelhies (Street), between Military College and Zacatecas (streets), west of Los Mochis; the other one was hung on Pedro Anaya (Street), between North 1 (highway) and Emiliano Zapata (street). They accuse interim Chief of Municipal Police, Jesus Carrasco Ruiz of "murdering innocents" and they ask Governor Mario Lopez Valdez (aka "Malova") and military authorities for protection from the police official.

The Chief of Police, questioned by reporters at the city hall, denied the accusations on the signs (mantas) and the complaints from surviving relatives. "We didn't pick up anybody, and the patrol vehicles could be clones, " he responded.

He admitted that his office had received some inquiries from the Civil Rights Commission, which is why he could not discard the possibility that some criminal group could be impersonating police officers using false patrol vehicles. What is involved, he added, are complaints by relatives of individuals who are purportedly detained by Municipal Police officers and are later found murdered.

"There is a good possibility," he pointed out, "that an organized crime group operating in this area has "cloned" police vehicles and uniforms to carry out this type of abductions."

In support of the statements made by his chief of public safety, the mayor of Ahome, Zenen Xochihua Enciso,  denied that the Municipal Police and organized crime groups are working together. He called for people not to rely on information coming from criminal groups, because "that's not a reliable source and it impairs trust in the authorities."

"We should not get into the situation of playing along with complaints or "mantas" or conditions imposed by criminals," he said, " because if we start to doubt the actions and integrity of our officials and public servants based on accusations made by a criminal, well, we're really in bad shape if we give them any credence at any point in time."    

Tijuana Cartel Survives, Despite Decade-Long Onslaught

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Borderland Beat
See J's recent post about the TJ Cartel HERE

By Nathan Jones for Insight Crime

A string of arrests and extraditions of important members of the Tijuana Cartel over the last month show the group is debilitated but resilient, able to maintain control of its home turf in Mexico and regenerate faster than the authorities can cut it back.
The latest prosecutions are the remnants of the Luz Verde indictment, a wide-ranging accusation released by the US Department of Justice in July 2010, which includes tantalizing details of cartel operations, police infiltrations, and the long reach of what is also known as the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO).
Read Indictment HERE
One of the operatives named is Carlos Cosme, a former Baja California state police officer who admitted in a US courtroom on May 25 to having hired another officer to run a hit squad on behalf of the cartel. Another is Jesus Quiñones (pictured above), a high ranking judicial official who served as a double agent of sorts, providing information to the cartel even while he was the Baja California State Attorney General's liaison with the United States. He pleaded guilty in May.
However, the prosecution has hit some snags. Lead defendant Armando Villareal Heredia, alias "El Gordo," pleaded not guilty on May 24. He was based in Guadalajara and was in charge of important logistics for drug shipments, before being arrested in Hermosillo, Sonora, in July 2011.
Villareal was extradited to the United States on May 23, in a now surprisingly common practice for sovereignty-wary Mexico. His not guilty plea may be a sign that he thinks the US case is weak, or that he is hoping to negotiate less prison time in exchange for information.
The US Attorney's Office has shown that it prefers to avoid long costly trials, as it did in the case of Benjamin Arellano Felix. Arellano, the one-time operational leader of the AFO, was sentenced earlier this year to only 25 years in prison despite heading an organization guilty of committing countless homicides and drug trafficking since the 1980s.
The Luz Verde indictment was based on sophisticated investigative work by the San Diego Cross-Border Task Force (CBVTF). Following an intense internecine conflict which many believed had put the AFO on the brink of dissolution by January 2010, the indictment named 43 members of the group. It painted a picture of a diverse organization which had elements ranging from the utterly inept to the highly sophisticated.

Family Photo
In one notable incident described in the 86-page document, wiretap phone call transcripts showed AFO cell members in the US complaining that "the hats" (police) must be protecting their intended murder victim because every time they attempted to kill him the police arrived. The criminal cell failed to find the US informant inside it.
The US and Mexican authorities continue their fight against the AFO. On May 25, Mexican state police arrested Pedro Aguilar Ulivarria, an AFO lieutenant who led cells responsible for human smuggling, drug trafficking and car theft. Authorities had sought Aguilar for 11 years. On June 2, Otoniel Sosa Cardenas, alias "El Oto," was arrested with $90,000 in drug profits intended for Fernando Sanchez Arellano, alias "El Ingeniero," the current head of the AFO.
Yet, despite an impressive onslaught from the US and Mexican governments over the last decade, the AFO has survived. As InSight Crime reported, the organization seems to have reached a pact with the Sinaloa Cartel to share the Tijuana "plaza," or trafficking corridor. According to InSight Crime sources, this includes charging a toll, or "piso," on the Sinaloa Cartel's illegal drug shipments through AFO territory, an illustration of the continued power of the local group.
To be sure, today's AFO is the inheritor of a highly established criminal infrastructure, illustrating just how difficult it is to uproot a long-established criminal group from its home turf. While US and Mexican enforcement efforts forced leadership to change hands, the new generation of the AFO has proven as resilient if not more so than the first, in part because of its ability to work with other illicit networks like the Sinaloa Cartel.

(Below is Ramon Arellano Felix, killed in a shootout with police in what began as a routine traffic stop in Mazatlan, Sinaloa Mexico.The ruthless leader was responsible for some horrific pay back murders, such as the 1997 mass murder of a family of 12, near Ensenada, BC.  The family was in the unfortunate position of being related to a dealer that was behind in payment to AFO-TJ Cartel.)



Source: INSIGHT CRIME,
Text is without editing from original material with the exception of text with photos)
Photos, and  indictment added
Map source: Insight (slightly edited by Chivis Martinez)

Obama Invokes Executive Power to Block Fast and Furious Documents

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Borderland Beat

Updated 4:25 p.m. - A House committee voted Wednesday along party lines to cite Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt, capping a mounting and contentious fight between congressional Republicans and the Obama administration over a gun-running controversy in Mexico.
I thought of some cool captions-but I will leave it to your imaginations
Rep. Darrell Issa pressed ahead with a committee vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, despite an eleventh-hour move by President Obama to assert executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents at the heart of the dispute.
The announcement touched off a caustic debate on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that lasted well into the afternoon, as Democrats accused Issa of prosecuting a "political witch hunt" and Republicans stepped up their criticism of Holder's "stonewalling" over the Fast and Furious probe. Even for Washington, the tone at the hearing was decidedly bitter and accusatory.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was first informed of the president's decision to assert executive privilege in a letter Wednesday morning, shortly before the contempt vote was scheduled.
Issa said committee staff are evaluating the letter but described the move as too little, too late as he and other GOP lawmakers questioned the basis for the assertion.
"This untimely assertion by the Justice Department falls short of any reason to delay today's proceedings," Issa said.
The chairman said, "We and the American people need answers sooner, not later."
Lawmakers on the panel reconvened Wednesday afternoon following a brief recess, with a vote on the contempt resolution presumably still on the table for later in the day. Lawmakers first took up, and voted down, several Democratic amendments to the contempt resolution. They did, however, approve a GOP amendment designating Obama's executive privilege claim as inappropriate.
The debate over the amendments capped an intense debate in which virtually every lawmaker on the committee weighed in.
'We and the American people need answers sooner, not later.'
- Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
Democrats roundly voiced disappointment with the proceedings, describing them as politically motivated and avoidable. They pleaded with Issa to seriously consider Obama's executive privilege claim -- the first Obama has asserted -- and some said Holder was being punished for withholding internal documents he shouldn't be turning over anyway.
Republicans praised Issa for pressing ahead, describing the vote as entirely unavoidable considering the department's alleged refusal to cooperate. They frequently invoked the name of Brian Terry -- Fast and Furious-linked guns were found at the murder scene of the Border Patrol agent. And Issa indicated he was waiting for a more detailed explanation from the White House, and a letter from Obama himself, before even considering changing course based on the executive privilege claim.
Issa also accused the Justice Department of trying to compel the committee to close its investigation in exchange for documents it hasn't yet seen. "I can't accept that deal. No other committee chairman would," he said.
But Issa's Democratic counterpart, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., fired back that Holder never made such a demand -- a Justice official also refuted Issa's claim -- and said the attorney general had come to the committee in "good faith" to try and work out an agreement.
Cummings said the upcoming contempt vote has "diminished" the prestige of the panel. "For the past year, you've been holding the attorney general to an impossible standard," he said, addressing Issa. "Mr. Chairman, it did not have to be this way. It really didn't."
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., added that she was "horrified" by the panel's looming vote, calling it a "political witch hunt" and accusing Republicans of "overruling" the president.
If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the contempt resolution. However, Holder would not be considered held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure.
The move by Holder and Obama to lock down some requested documents only complicates the fight over the botched anti-gunrunning operation between the legislative and executive branches.
After Holder made the request to Obama via letter on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote to Issa, R-Calif., on Wednesday informing him that the president has granted the request.
"We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee's concerns and to accommodate the committee's legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious," Cole wrote. "Although we are deeply disappointed that the committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the department remains willing to work with the committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues."
Obama's decision pertains to documents from February 2011 and afterward examining how Justice officials learned about the Fast and Furious probe.
Holder, in his letter to Obama requesting he assert executive privilege, said those documents pertain to the "deliberative process" on how to respond to congressional and media inquiries.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer slammed committee Republicans later Wednesday, saying in a statement that: "Instead of creating jobs or strengthening the middle class, congressional Republicans are spending their time on a politically motivated, taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition."
Wednesday's developments follow a flurry of activity Tuesday, as Holder tried to negotiate a way to avert the contempt proceedings. Issa had earlier indicated a willingness to postpone the vote after Holder indicated a willingness to make compromises and supply some documents in response to House Republicans' subpoena.
But Issa told reporters after a roughly 20-minute meeting with Holder Tuesday that the attorney general instead briefed them on the documents in lieu of delivering them.
Issa told Fox News that Holder didn't provide "anything in writing."
Issa further said during the committee meeting Wednesday that the purpose of the probe "has never been to hold the attorney general in contempt." He said the committee had an aide on Capitol Hill all night in the hope that the Justice Department might send over documents to the panel.
The failed Fast and Furious operation attempted selling thousands of guns to arms dealers along the U.S.-Mexico border to trace them to leaders of drug cartels. However, many of them showed up in crime scenes.
Congressional investigators have been trying to determine if and when high-level Justice officials knew about problems with the operation.
After a day in which their son's name was repeatedly invoked, Terry's parents Josephine and Kent Terry also released a statement Wednesday afternoon expressing disappointment with the administration's latest actions.
"Attorney General Eric Holder's refusal to fully disclose the documents associated with Operation Fast and Furious and President Obama's assertion of executive privilege serves to compound this tragedy. It denies the Terry family and the American people the truth," they said.
The Department of Justice has adamantly defended its response. Holder said Issa rejected what he thought was "an extraordinary offer." Holder called for the Capitol Hill meeting late Monday in a possible attempt to make a deal with Issa and avoid the contempt vote.
"We offered the documents that we thought would resolve the subpoenas," he said. "The ball is in their court."
The contempt vote in the oversight committee will likely pass considering Republicans outnumber Democrats 22 to 16.
GOP House leadership has given Issa the green light to proceed how he sees fit, sources told Fox News, which suggests the vote would reach the House floor.
Issa had demanded to see a trove of documents on the controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation. He also wants to know who prepared a now-retracted letter from Feb. 4, 2011, in which the department claimed the U.S. did not knowingly help smuggle guns to Mexico, including those found where Terry was killed.
Issa wrote back to Holder later Monday requesting he deliver roughly 1,300 documents pertaining to the Feb. 4 letter. The letter also stated Holder needed to deliver a description of all the documents he will not produce.
full text of letter deputy Cole
Dear Mr. Chairman:
After you rejected the Department's recent offers of additional accommodations, you stated that the Committee intends to proceed with its scheduled meeting to consider a resolution citing the Attorney General for contempt for failing to comply with the Committee's subpoena of October 11, 2011. I write now to inform you that the President has asserted executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4, 2011, documents.
We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the Committee's concerns and to accommodate the Committee's legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious. Although we are deeply disappointed that the Committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the Department remains willing to work with the Committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues.
Over the last fourteen months, the Department has provided a significant amount of information to the Committee in an extraordinary effort to accommodate the Committee's legitimate oversight interests. The Department has provided the Committee with over 7,600 pages of documents and has made numerous high-level officials available for public congressional testimony, transcribed interviews, and briefings. Attorney General Holder has answered congressional questions about Fast and Furious during nine public hearings, including two before the Committee. The Department has devoted substantial resources to responding to these congressional inquiries.
In addition, upon learning of questions about the tactics used in Fast and Furious, the Attorney General promptly asked the Department's Acting Inspector General to open an investigation into the operation. This investigation continues today. We expect that the Inspector General's report will further help the Department to understand how these mistakes occurred and to ensure that they do not occur again.
Finally, the Department has instituted a number of significant reforms to ensure that the mistakes made in Fast and Furious are not repeated. For example, a directive was issued to the field prohibiting the flawed tactics used in that operation from being used in future law enforcement operations. Leadership and staffing at ATF and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office were reorganized, and ATF instituted new policies to ensure closer supervision by ATF management of significant gun trafficking cases. The Criminal Division refined its process for reviewing wiretap authorization requests by its Office of Enforcement Operations. And component heads were directed to take additional care to provide accurate information in response to congressional requests, including by soliciting information directly from employees with detailed personal knowledge of the subject matter at issue.
The Committee's original report accompanying its contempt resolution identified three "main categories" of interest: (1) "Who at Justice Department Headquarters Should Have Known of the Reckless Tactics"; (2) "How the Department Concluded that Fast and Furious was 'Fundamentally Flawed"'; and (3) "How the Inter-Agency Task Force Failed." Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, Report at 39-40 (June 15, 20 12). With respect to the first category, the thousands of pages of documents and other information we have provided establish that the inappropriate tactics used in Fast and Furious were initiated and carried out by personnel in the field over several years and were not initiated or authorized by Department leadership. We have also provided the Committee with significant information with respect to the third category. In a revised report issued late last week, the Committee has made clear that these categories will not be the subject of the contempt vote. See Report at 41.
Rather, the Committee has said that the contempt vote will address only the second category, "How the Department Concluded that Fast and Furious was 'Fundamentally Flawed." See Report at 42; Letter for Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, from Darrell E. Issa, Chairman at 1-2 (June 13, 2012) ("Chairman's Letter"). In this regard, your letter of June 13 stated that the Committee is now "focused on" "documents from after February 4, 2011, related to the Department's response to Congress and whistleblower allegations" concerning Operation Fast and Furious, in order to "examine the Department's mismanagement of its response to Operation Fast and Furious." !d. The Committee has explained that it needs these post-February 4 documents, including "those relating to actions the Department took to silence or retaliate against Fast and Furious whistleblowers," so that it can determine "what the Department knew about Fast and Furious, including when and how it discovered its February 4 letter was false, and the
Department's efforts to conceal that information from Congress and the public." Report at 33.
The Department has gone to great lengths to accommodate the Committee's legitimate interest in the Department's management of its response to congressional inquiries into Fast and Furious. The information provided to the Committee shows clearly that the Department leadership did not intend to mislead Congress in the February 4 letter or in any other statements concerning Fast and Furious. The Department has already shared with the Committee all internal documents concerning the drafting of the February 4 letter, and numerous Department officials and employees, including the Attorney General, have provided testimony, transcribed interviews, briefings, and other statements concerning the drafting and subsequent withdrawal of that letter.
This substantial record shows that Department officials involved in drafting the February 4 letter turned to senior officials of components with supervisory responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious - the leadership of ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona - and were told in clear and definitive terms that the allegations in Ranking Member Grassley's letters were false. After the February 4 letter was sent, such assurances continued but were at odds with information being provided by Congress and the media, and the Attorney General therefore referred the matter to the Acting Inspector General for review.
As the Department's review proceeded over the next several months, Department leaders publicly indicated that the facts surrounding Fast and Furious were uncertain and that the Department had significant doubts about the assertions in the February 4 letter. For example, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on May 3, 2011, the Attorney General testified that the Department's Acting Inspector General was reviewing "whether or not Fast and Furious was conducted in a way that's consistent with" Department policy, stating "that's one of the questions that we'll have to see." The next day, May 4, 2011, in response to a question from Senator Grassley at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about allegations that ATF had not interdicted weapons, the Attorney General said, " I frankly don' t know. That's what the [Inspector General's] investigation . . . will tell us." As you have acknowledged, Department staff reiterated these doubts during a briefing for Committee staff on May 5, 2011. Testifying before the Committee in June 2011, Ronald Weich, Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs, acknowledged that "obviously allegations from the ATF agents . . . have given rise to serious questions about how ATF conducted this operation." He added that "we're not clinging to the statements" in the February 4 letter.
In October 2011, the Attorney General told the Committee that Fast and Furious was "fundamentally flawed." This statement reflected the conclusion that Department leaders had reached based on the significant effort over the prior months to understand the facts of Fast and Furious and the other Arizona-based law enforcement operations. The Attorney General reiterated this conclusion while testifying before Congress in November 2011. The Department's many public statements culminated in the formal withdrawal of the February 4 letter on December 2, 2011.
The Department has substantially complied with the outstanding subpoena. The documents responsive to the remaining subpoena items pertain to sensitive law enforcement activities, including ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions, or were generated by Department officials in the course of responding to congressional investigations or media inquiries about this matter that are generally not appropriate for disclosure.
In addition to these productions, we made extraordinary accommodations with respect to the drafting and subsequent withdrawal of the February 4 letter, producing to the Committee 1,364 pages of deliberative documents. And we accepted your June 13 letter's invitation to "mak[ e] a serious offer" of further accommodation in hopes of reaching " an agreement that renders the process of contempt unnecessary." Chairman's Letter at 2. Specifically, we offered to provide the Committee with a briefing, based on documents that the Committee could retain, explaining further how the Department's understanding of the facts of Fast and Furious evolved during the post-February 4 period, as well as the process that led to the withdrawal of the February 4 letter. See Letter for Darrell E. Issa, Chairman, from Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General at 1 (June 14, 2012). We also offered to provide you with an understanding of the documents that we could not produce and to address any remaining questions that you had after you received the briefing and the documents on which it was based. We believe that this additional accommodation would have fully satisfied the Committee's requests for information. We are therefore disappointed that the Committee has not accepted our offer and has chosen instead to proceed with the scheduled contempt vote.

As I noted at the outset, the President, in light of the Committee's decision to hold the contempt vote, has asserted executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4 documents. The legal basis for the President's assertion of executive privilege is set forth in the enclosed letter to the President from the Attorney General. In brief, the compelled production to Congress of these internal Executive Branch documents generated in the course of the deliberative process concerning the Department's response to congressional oversight and related media inquiries would have significant, damaging consequences. As I explained at our meeting yesterday, it would inhibit the candor of such Executive Branch deliberations in the future and significantly impair the Executive Branch's ability to respond independently and effectively to congressional oversight. Such compelled disclosure would be inconsistent with the separation of powers established in the Constitution and would potentially create an imbalance in the relationship between these two.co-equal branches of the Government.
In closing, while we are deeply disappointed that the Committee intends to move forward with consideration of a contempt citation, I stress that the Department remains willing to work toward a mutually satisfactory resolution of this matter. Please do not hesitate to contact this office if we can be assistance.
Sincerely,
James M. Cole
Deputy Attorney General
Sources: Business Insider and Fox Business

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder draws House panel's rebuke over Fast and Furious

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More on the congressional contempt charge against the US Attorney General.

After President Obama asserts executive privilege in the Fast and Furious investigation, a House committee votes along party lines to recommend that Atty. Gen. Eric Holder be held in contempt of Congress.

By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), right, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) during proceedings on whether to recommend that Atty. Gen. Eric Holder be held in contempt of Congress. (Michael Reynolds, European Pressphoto Agency / June 20, 2012)

A House committee voted along party lines to find Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for failing to provide subpoenaed documents in the flawed Fast and Furious gun-tracking case, just hours after President Obama for the first time asserted executive privilege and backed the attorney general's refusal to release the material.
The developments Wednesday set up a political standoff going into the November election and a significant constitutional clash between the White House and Congress that may not be resolved until after a lengthy journey through the courts.



The legal conflict was quickly subsumed by the intense partisanship that has characterized relations between the Obama White House and the Republican-controlled House.

Republicans asserted that Obama was covering up White House involvement in Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives surveillance operation that lost track of guns that ultimately were used in crimes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Democrats said Republicans were engaged in a "witch hunt."

Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cole said the Justice Department had already "substantially complied" with the subpoena.

He said the additional documents requested "pertain to sensitive law enforcement activities, including ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions, or were generated by department officials in the course of responding to congressional investigations or media inquiries about this matter that are generally not appropriate for disclosure."



But Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said it had "uncovered serious wrongdoing by the Justice Department. That wrongdoing has cost lives on both sides of the border."

If the full House votes next week to hold Holder in contempt, it would be only the fifth time since 1980 that the House has taken such a step against a current or former administration official.

Political analysts said they thought the issue would have limited effect on the presidential campaign.

"This is the kind of thing that reinforces rather than changes existing views," said Q. Whitfield Ayres, a Republican pollster and strategist. "The people who dislike the president will find his decision obdurate and defensive. The people who like the president will find his decision perfectly well justified."

Most, however, will probably be focused elsewhere. "There will be nothing that we can possibly see on the horizon at this point that is going to supplant the economy as the overriding issue in this election," Ayres said.

Even some Republicans conceded that they needed to keep the focus on the economy in the campaign and not get distracted.

"Do I think that's going to be the major issue of the campaign or that we should shift focus as that should be our major message? Absolutely not," Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) told a television interviewer.

All 23 Republicans on the committee voted for finding Holder in contempt, and all 17 Democrats voted against the resolution.

Rep.Carolyn B. Maloney(D-N.Y.) said she was "extremely disgusted" with the committee's action.

"I am horrified you are going through with this contempt charge," she said. "This shouldn't be a witch hunt."

Holder, in a statement, called the vote "extraordinary, unprecedented and entirely unnecessary" and said it was designed "to provoke an avoidable conflict between Congress and the executive branch."

The attorney general added: "This divisive action does not help us fix the problems" with illegal gun trafficking or protecting the public and law enforcement on the border.

According to the Obama White House, PresidentGeorge W. Bushasserted executive privilege six times during his two terms, and President Clinton 14 times during his eight years in Washington.

Michael Steel, spokesman for House SpeakerJohn A. Boehner(R-Ohio), said Obama's decision to insert himself in the matter "implies that White House officials were either involved in the Fast and Furious operation or the coverup that followed."

"The administration has always insisted that wasn't the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?" he added.

At the White House on Wednesday, communications director Dan Pfeiffer sharply criticized House Republicans for taking up time with Fast and Furious. "Instead of creating jobs or strengthening the middle class, congressional Republicans are spending their time on a politically motivated, taxpayer-funded election-year fishing expedition," he said.

But the Mitt Romney presidential campaign replied that Obama's executive privilege claim showed he never intended for his administration to be transparent. "Just another broken promise," said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

Stanley Brand, a former House counsel for Democrats, said the Republicans might have better luck obtaining the documents by filing a lawsuit. Contempt votes, he said, tend to "evaporate" and are "not legally enforceable in a practical way."

To enforce the contempt holding, the Republicans would normally have to turn to the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, who works for Holder.

At issue are 1,300 pages of Justice Department documents from February of last year, when the department first claimed no one in Washington was aware of the Fast and Furious tactics, and from December, when it admitted there was some knowledge.

On Tuesday evening, Holder offered to allow committee members to review some of the material because he said it would answer some of their questions. But Issa said Holder also said that the committee must drop its intention to vote for contempt first. At that point, their talks broke down.

Fast and Furious was run by Arizona agents with the ATF. It began in fall 2009, and ended a month after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010 south of Tucson.

The goal of the operation was to allow illegal gun sales on the border so agents could track the firearms to Mexican drug cartel leaders. Instead, some of the weapons were lost and many turned up at crime scenes in Mexico.

Two of the weapons were recovered after the Terry slaying, and his family said in a statement Wednesday that after 18 months they still did not have answers about his death. Obama's privilege claim, they said, "denies the Terry family and the American people the truth."

Times staff writers Michael A. Memoli, Richard Simon and Mark Z. Barabak contributed to this report.

The Cocaine Highway

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By ACI for Borderland Beat

It all begins in the steamy mountains of Colombia, up mist covered hills, hidden under the lush canopy of forests; a plant is being cultivated.  The farmer growing the plant knows little of the journey his crop will take.  This is an examination of that journey.


Every day from his humble one room shack nestled in one of Colombia's many rural departments, he waters and tends to his crop.  If he is lucky enough to survive the weather or the fumigation from government planes he is able to harvest.  After he harvests his crop he must go through the laborious and time consuming effort of converting the leaves into what is known as coca base.  After his work is through he looks at his harvest and thinks of how lucky he is.  This should provide just enough money for his family survives till the next crop is ready. 

He meets a man known locally as El Leche at local village, El Leche is a known as a go between for the farmer and the FARC.  He meets with the farmer and pays him his salary for his work.  He tells the man he will be sending some of his people to collect the base and that they will speak again soon. 

Later at the man’s farm, a small armed group shows up at his shack to collect their payment.  They are all young, dressed in military fatigues, worn out boots and rifles rusted from the humid jungle heat.   They look tired and dirty, the result of living in the forest and moving from camp to camp.  These are the front line troops of one of the armed wings of the FARC.  The look tattered, paranoid and scared, they take the paste from the farmer and leave, vanishing back into the forest.


The small group consisting of both young men and women trek through the forest, each one listening for the nightmarish low thumping sound of helicopters in the distance.  They all seem on edge, they have spent too much time in the forest, moving from location to location, unable to enjoy the small luxuries we all take for granted.  If they stay in one spot for too long they may not see tomorrow.  So they trek on for what seems like miles.  After days of hellish hiking through dense and rugged terrain they approach a clearing; they have reached their destination, a large scale laboratory which sole purpose is refinement of the coca base into cocaine. 

As the walk up to the compound it is easy to see the many guards standing around with their assault rifle at their sides.  The group drops off their merchandise and once again vanishes into the mist of the jungle.  This factory is run by the Rastrojos, a group which was formed out of the now defunct AUC.  These labs are known as high value targets for the Colombian Government and are often targets of the US/Colombian effort to eradicate the production of cocaine.





Once the coca base has been converted in to what most would recognize as cocaine it is pressed into blocks and loaded on to a beat up, rusty truck.  Smoke pours out the back as the truck is barley able to turn over its engine.  Loaded up with its precious cargo, the overworked truck rumbles down the precarious road towards the mangrove swamps to the north. 
There waiting for them in the cover of the mangroves is what could only be described as a testament to the shear will of the traffickers; a fully submersible submarine.  The ship has a crew of 3 and they are all waiting on this payloads arrival.  Everyone starts packing the cramped space with as much cocaine as would fit.  The journey ahead for these sailors will not be easy.   They will be out in the open ocean for days with no one but themselves to insure delivery of the product.  In this cramped space the men will have to navigate the thousand mile journey to Guatemala, their final destination.  

After docking in a remote region of Guatemala the shipment is unloaded to group who works for a family known as the Lorenzanas.  The Lorenzanes are intermediaries whose sole purpose is to move the product from one end of the country to the other.  Guatemalan Soldiers provide them with security.  This is generally the smooth part of the operation with little risk due to the deep ties the family has fostered within the government.  Once the shipment has been moved, contact will made with a coordinator of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest cartels in Mexico.  Arrangements will be made to move the contraband into Mexico.

 
Once inside Mexico, our shipment will traverse the country, making several stops along the way, all the while being broken up into smaller parcels and given to different plaza leaders.  The broken down shipments are then housed in safe houses until they are ready to be moved towards the border with the US.  These leaders are responsible for ensuring the distribution of the product along the various parts of the border which the Sinaloa Cartel controls.
 
Various methods will then be utilized to move the product across the border and into the United States.  Each area has a variety of ways of managing this; some techniques are locally based while others are used throughout the border region.  In the area of Arizona, where our shipment has arrived; has been using an innovative way of crossing drugs; remote controlled toy airplanes.  They are too small for radar to pick up and can been flown for some distance, it is a highly effective method of smuggling.  Our Kilo is taped to the bottom of one of these planes and flown to spotter on the other side.  GPS is often used to locate the planes once they have crossed the border.  Throughout this whole process those responsible watch in the shadows making sure everything runs smooth.  They know that if a load doesn’t make it, they will be left with the bill.  Spotters and decoys are used to throw off law enforcement and further the odds of success. 


Once a load has successfully crossed the US border the shipment is then taken to safe houses located in regional distribution points.  In the case of our load it ended up in Nogales, Arizona.  Given its close proximity to the border and national highway system, Nogales makes for a perfect place to stash this shipment.  From here the shipment is further divided and sent to different regions, each run by cartel distributers.  The kilo we have been watching eventually ends up in Chicago.  It is sold to someone who only deals in bulk, several kilos or more.  It then gets broken down further and sold to street gangs which then sell to the end users.
 
 
This is the journey of how one kilogram of cocaine makes on its way to the consumer.  It involves the effort of thousands and the complicity of many more.  Its journey led through multiple countries; it flew, floated, was driven and carried; it traveled through jungles and seas, mountains and deserts, all to reach a consumer who doesn’t have the slightest idea of the blood that was split along the way, same as the farmer who grew it.  The illegalization of narcotics lead to all the blood in-between the two.  The farmer never wanted to shed blood, he just wanted to feed his family, and neither did the consumer who was just looking for a good time.  Both are blind to the destruction.  But those that are really blinded are those who think prohibition is worth the blood stained soil from which their policies stem from.  Only through truth can one clearly see the entire picture, we as world citizens need to weigh the cost verse benefits of our policies, for good intentions often come with unintended consequences.


Chapo's Son Captured "El Gordo" Key Figure in The Sinaloa Cartel

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Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

At the presentation an hour ago

The Mexican Marina announced the capture of Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 26,  son of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who had been captured in the last hours in an planned operation. 
Whereas the exact location has not been revealed, it was reported to be in Zapopan, Jalisco.   The operation began days before the capture, Army and Marina elements were deployed at that time.    Presently, this is breaking news, with scarce details, however an official announcement and presentation of the younger Guzman will take place in the next few hours, or possibly tomorrow.
Last week the US Department of Treasury announced sanctions against Guzman Salazar and his mother Maria Alejandrina Salazar Hernandez, age 53.  Two other of Chapo’s seven known children were listed of those sanctioned; Ivan "El Chapito” Guzman Salazar Lopez, age 35 and Ovid Guzman Lopez age 22.
Click to enlarge
Sanctions authorize authorities to seize any property of those listed in the U.S. and could potentially prosecute anyone doing business with them, or assisting them in business.
Further details will be posted as they come in
UPDATE after presentation:

The Navy Secretariat presented this afternoon to Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar alias'' El Gordo'' identified as'' son of Joaquin Guzman Loera El Chapo'' and considered " as one of the top leaders "of the Sinaloa cartel and a" key element "of this group of drug traffickers. Semar spokesman Jose Luis Vergara, Salazar said Guzman was "presumably in charge of managing the assets" of their father, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, "El Chapo" Guzman.
On the premises of the Office of Special Investigations into Organized Crime (OFDI), said Guzman Salazar has an extradition order in the U.S. and with  warrants in Chicago.
Vergara said that, as a result of an intense naval intelligence and information sharing with U.S. agencies, this morning was arrested by special forces of the Navy of Mexico Guzman Salazar, in a home in Colonia Jardines de la Patria, municipality of Zapopan, Jalisco. Guzman was arrested with Kevin Daniel Beltran Rios 19-year-old, who was also presented and identified as a suspected collaborator and member of the Sinaloa cartel.
In the operation they seized two rifles and two short, four grenades, $ 135 thousand, 295 thousand dollars, identification with different names and two vehicles. Guzman Salazar, a native of Jalisco, "is considered one of the main leaders of the Sinaloa cartel and key element of the criminal organization, not only because of its direct link with their leader by blood, known as 'El Chapo', but it presumably is responsible for the management of its property, "added the spokesman read a statement. said Guzman Salazar "was coordinating the movement of most of the drugs sent to United States for the Sinaloa cartel, including cocaine and heroin" .
Vergara explained that Guzman Salazar, son of Alexandrina Maria Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán Loera, has an arrest warrant in Chicago, because since 2009 the Northern District of Illinois charged him with participating with his father in a series of crimes for drug trafficking

Source for update: Informador

Did Mexican Drug Cartel Fix Horse Race Result?

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The players in the Zetas horse racing laundering scandal.

By Nick Carraway
Mason County Daily News
The general manager of a U.S. horseracing track denied allegations Monday that the chief of Mexico's most violent drug cartel had fixed a $1 million race so his own horse would win.

According to two confidential FBI informants, Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, also known as "40," bragged that he had paid the gatekeepers at New Mexico's Ruidoso Downs $10,000 "to hold back the horses" competing against his own horse, Mr. Piloto, in the 2010 All American Futurity Race, which Mr. Piloto won.

Trevino Morales and 13 other defendants were indicted last week for allegedly laundering at least $20 million in cocaine profits through horse racing, breeding and training in the U.S. The informants' claims were part of an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant for an Oklahoma horse ranch allegedly owned by a Zetas front corporation.

Shaun Hubbard, general manager of Ruidoso Downs, adamantly denied the informants' alleged charge.

"We have looked at the videotape of the 2010 All American Futurity from every angle many times in recent days and can see no evidence of any horse being held or denied a fair start," said Hubbard in a statement to ABC News.

"We can find no evidence that there was any wrongdoing by our starting-gate crew," added Hubbard. "We also want to make it clear that we have totally cooperated with the FBI investigation and will continue to offer support for this investigation."

One of the confidential informants also alleged in the affidavit that his horses had competed against horses belonging to Omar Trevino Morales, AKA 42, in Mexico but, that 42's horses "would always win because of CI #1's knowledge that '42' would get upset at a loss and most likely kill his opponent as a result."

A third confidential informant allegedly stated that in 2007, in Monclova, Mexico, an individual named Triana had entered his own rooster in a cockfight against a rooster owned by 42. Triana's rooster won. "Approximately 15 days after the rooster fight, '42' had Triana killed because '42's' rooster had lost the fight," CI #3 allegedly said.

Miguel Angel Trevino and Omar Trevino allegedly laundered their drug profits through a horseracing operation run by a third brother, Jose, and his wife, according to the U.S. indictment handed down in Texas last week. Jose Trevino Morales, his wife and six other defendants were arrested. Miguel Angel and Omar remain at large in Mexico. The Drug Enforcement Administration has offered $5 million apiece for information leading to the capture of Miguel Angel and Omar.

The brothers, whose numeric aliases refer to their alleged rank within the Zetas at the time of the cartel's creation several years ago, are now allegedly top leaders of an organization that controls drug trafficking in the east and south of Mexico. Miguel, or "40," allegedly runs the Zetas along with "3," Heriberto Lazcano.

The Zetas began in 1999 when former members of the Mexican military signed on to work as security for the Gulf drug cartel. The Zetas went into business for themselves and are now at war with the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas are based in Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state just across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Indictment Links Prominent Texas Family's Horse Stable to Zetas Money-Laundering Case

Grahams have made campaign contributions to Texas' top elected officials

By Andrew Wheat and Forrest Wilder
The Observer

A prominent Texas family with connections to the state’s top officials is alleged to have purchased and boarded horses for a Mexican drug cartel engaged in money laundering, according to court records.

Federal indictments recently unsealed in Austin allege that 14 defendants with Spanish surnames used elite U.S. racehorses to launder millions of dollars of drug money for Mexico’s ruthless Los Zetas cartel. The indictments also implicate the renowned Southwest Stallion Station breeding stables outside Austin, run by a veterinarian named Charles Graham and his grandson Tyler.


Over the past decade, they have contributed almost $250,000 to federal and state politicians led by Texas’ top three officials. In 2008 Gov. Perry appointed Dr. Graham to the now-defunct Texas Department of Rural Affairs. The Grahams haven’t been charged with wrongdoing, and their names don’t appear in the indictments.

But allegations made against their stables in the indictments suggest that the Zetas cartel paid the Grahams a small fortune in recent years. In all, Tyler Graham bought more than $1 million worth of horses that ended up in the hands of the Zetas cartel, which made at least $550,000 in payments to the Grahams’ stable, according to trade publications and the indictment.

The Grahams didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
While never mentioning the Grahams, the money-laundering indictment alleges that the Zeta conspirators paid their Southwest Stallion stables $550,000 last July to board and breed Zeta racehorses. One way the cartel laundered money, according to the indictment, was to let cartel flunkies hold title to a horse until it won a big race or became lucrative through the sale of breeding rights.

Then backdated contracts were drawn up suggesting that Jose Treviño—one of three brothers at the center of the conspiracy—presciently bought the champ on the relative cheap just before it hit the big leagues, according to the indictments. One Zeta horse was not-so-subtly christened Number One Cartel.

In 2010 Tyler Graham went to Oklahoma City to attend the horse auction at Heritage Place, a 40-acre facility co-owned by Charles Graham, according to TRACK Magazine. Amid a global economic crisis, average sales prices at the auction increased by 14 percent over the year before. Driving this inflation, Tyler Graham placed the winning bids on the event’s two most-expensive horses. He bid $250,000 for a young mare named Coronita Cartel and a record $875,000 for the breeding mare Dashin Follies.

TRACK Magazine reported at the time that Graham shipped the mares home to Southwest Stallion Stables—but not on his own account. The trade publication reported that Graham “was acting as an agent for an undisclosed buyer who reportedly is a Mexican resident.”

Describing that same auction, the recent indictments allege that defendant Jose Treviño “directed the purchase” of both horses “in a nominee name.” Then a company controlled by Mexican businessman Alejandro Barrandas allegedly wired more than $900,000 while defendant Luis Gerardo Aguirre allegedly supplied another $100,000 in cash, according to the indictments.

Two other defendants allegedly then paid to board the horses for six weeks at the stables before the prize horse were shipped to Jose Treviño’s Oklahoma ranch, according to the indictment.

In August, Tyler Graham posted photos on Facebook of some of his yearlings, including Tahiti Cartel. Sired by Carona Cartel, the horse sold at Heritage Place in September 2011 for $50,000.

Among Graham’s friends on Facebook: Ramiro Villarreal, a gifted Mexican horseman who Miguel Treviño, the second-highest ranking Zeta, recruited to help build his quarterhorse enterprise. At some point, Villarreal reluctantly became a DEA informant, according to The New York Times; in March 2011, his charred remains were found in a car outside Nuevo Laredo.

Trade publications and the recent indictments indicate that Tyler Graham bought more than $1 million worth of horses that wound up with the Zetas and that cartel made at least $550,000 in payments to the Grahams’ stable. It’s not clear if the Grahams knew who they were buying horses for. The copy of the indictments made public redacts the name of one unknown defendant.

Not in doubt are the Graham’s political connections. Since 2001, the Grahams have contributed $32,025 to Perry’s campaign account, accord to state records. They’ve also donated to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst ($17,100), House Speaker Joe Straus ($15,500), a San Antonio Republican, and state Sen. Kirk Watson ($15,500), an Austin Democrat.

El Paso man accused of helping Zetas appears in court

US Open Borders


An El Paso man accused of helping one of Mexico’s most brutal drug cartels launder money appeared in court on Tuesday.

Raul Ramirez, 20, was arrested in El Paso on Monday afternoon, said Daryl Fields, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Antonio.

Ramirez is accused of participating in a money-laundering scheme to buy racehorses worth millions of dollars on behalf of Francisco Antonio Colorado Cessa. A federal indictment says Colorado Cessa would then transfer ownership of the animals to Jose Trevino, whose brothers are reputed Zetas' drug cartel leaders Miguel Angel and Oscar Omar Trevino.

Ramirez was indicted on May 30 along with 13 others, four of whom remain at large, and one who has posted bond. The group is accused of using $20 million raised since 2008 by Los Zetas cartel to buy, sell and race quarter horses — including at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack and Casino.

Among those indicted was Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, 38, also known as “40.” He is co-leader of the Nuevo Laredo-based Zetas, federal authorities said in court documents.

Treviño and a brother, Oscar Omar Treviño Morales, 36, also known as “42,” are thought to be hiding in Mexico. A third brother, Jose Treviño Morales, 45, was arrested last week in Oklahoma on allegations that he ran his brothers’ U.S. horse operation.

Ramirez is accused of bidding on quarter horses for the Treviños on behalf of shell companies meant to hide the horses’ true ownership.

He is charged with a single count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. If convicted, Ramirez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Mesa told him in court on Tuesday.

Standing with about 25 other prisoners in shackles, chains and a jail jumpsuit, Ramirez responded “Presente” when Mesa called his name. But the slight young man said he did not need a headset carrying a Spanish translation of the proceedings.

Ramirez told the judge that he planned to hire his own lawyer, who is expected to be present when Ramirez appears for a bond hearing on Friday.

Federal prosecutors have filed papers asking that Ramirez be denied bail, citing the risk that he might flee and “a serious risk that the person will obstruct or attempt to obstruct justice, or attempt to threaten, injure or intimidate a prospective witness or juror.”

Los Zetas have become known in recent months for dumping scores of bodies in Mexico with no heads, hands or feet.

Informants told federal agents that Oscar Treviño has boasted that he personally has killed more than 1,000 people and his brother, Miguel, has killed more than 2,000, according to an affidavit supporting a search warrant that was executed last week in Balch Springs, Texas.

The affidavit supporting the search warrant served at Ruidoso Downs Racetrack remains sealed, Fields said.

Horse trainer accused in Zetas case to be released from jail

By Steven Kreytak

After questioning the strength of the government's case against a Central Texas horse trainer accused of conspiring to launder money with members of a brutal drug cartel, a judge in Austin on Monday ordered the trainer released from jail pending trial.

Government prosecutors, who had argued that Eusevio Maldonado Huitrón could flee the country or be at risk of violent retribution if released, initially appealed the ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Austin but later dropped that appeal. Huitrón is expected to be released today, said his lawyer, José Gonzalez-Falla, an assistant federal public defender.

Austin's ruling came at the end of a hearing that lasted parts of two days and touched on the brutal reputation of the Zetas drug cartel and whether Huitrón, 49, knew that he had been training horses for the cartel with drug money.

"All I've heard is that Mr. Huitrón was a trainer that was hired by" accused cartel members, Austin said from the bench. "Is there any allegation beyond that?"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Fernald referenced court documents that included allegations that Huitrón received money from the Zetas and said: "The allegation is that ... Los Zetas only has blood money, and when they pay that money out to someone who knows that is blood money, then that is conspiracy to commit money laundering."

Huitrón, who lives in Austin and trains dozens of horses at a ranch in the Bastrop County community of Dale, is one of 15 accused Zetas members or associates charged with laundering millions of dollars in drug-dealing profits through the U.S. quarter horse industry. Eight of them, including Huitrón, were arrested last week across several states, where search and seizure warrants were carried out in a coordinated federal effort.

An indictment handed up in Austin charges the defendants with conspiracy to commit money laundering, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Charged in the indictment are Zetas leaders and brothers Miguel Angel Treviño Morales and Oscar Omar Treviño Morales, who are believed to be in Mexico and have not been arrested.

The indictment and a federal search warrant affidavit said that the brothers recruited a series of straw purchasers and others to buy racing horses on their behalf and then paid for them to be trained at several locations, including Huitrón's.

If a horse became profitable, its ownership was transferred to José Treviño Morales or various companies he controlled at low prices, allowing him to show large, apparently legitimate profits from minimal investments, a search warrant affidavit said.

Prosecutors say José Treviño, a third brother, ran the operation in the United States.
Treviño was arrested in Oklahoma and will be brought to Austin to face the indictment.

At Monday's hearing, Huitrón's brother testified that together they came to the United States from their native Mexico in 1980 and both are resident aliens. Together they started a homebuilding business and also went into the horse business, Jessie Huitrón said. They once sold a horse for about $300,000, he said. Under questioning by Fernald, Jessie Huitrón said he had only heard of the Zetas through news reports.
Shae Cox, an El Paso woman who met Eusevio Huitrón through the horse business, described him as extremely honest.

GORDO-GATE: Arrest Mixup- Not Chapos Son- Mexico Pointing Finger at U.S. and US Pointing back-DNA Testing

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Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Latest update
Mother of man arrested says her son is an American born in Los Angeles...DNA being tested, Mexico says the information of identity came from the U.S.

While the U.S. says the information came from Mexico...Both are reportedly testing DNA independently.  The person arrested is Felix Beltran Leon the leader of a cell under the command of the son of "El Chapo" in Jalisco.

The Federal Attorney General's Office reports:
On 21 June elements of the Secretary of Navy presented  two people, one of which was identified as Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, therefore, the public prosecutor of the Federation launched an investigation following PGR / SIEDO / UEIARV / 051/2012, for his alleged responsibility in the crimes of organized crime, possession of firearms for exclusive use of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and operations.   .
After performing the necessary tests to know their identity, has been determined that those presented are Felix Beltran Beltran Leon and Kevin Daniel Rios, 23 and 19 years of age, respectively. The men are half brothers.
Read additional update information at the bottom of this post.
In the video below is  the attorney and  mother of the man misidentified as a son of El Chapo.  Elodia is the name of the mother..  The attorney offers proof of the mistaken identity by displaying photos & documents.



Yesterday this reporter posted a photo of a person said to be Jesus  the son of Chapo Guzman.  Reporting the presentation would be within hours.  After the presentation and viewing the photos, in my opinion the people in my early photo and that at the presentation looked strikingly different.  Thinking I had mistakenly posted a photo that was not in reality that of Jesus Guzman, I removed it from the post and posted new presentation photos. 
Later in the day, rumors flew  that in fact questioned if the man was in fact Jesus Guzman.  Today the attorney representing the Guzman Family announced they would present a news conference to reject the notion that the man arrested is El Chapos son.
It is hard to believe as true that the federal agencies and the Marina could make such an error, so hopefully the attorney's will present a video of the true person or some iron clad proof that it is not the man presented.

At 11AM this morning, the family lawyer of Guzman Loera is holding  a press conference to deny the arrest of Alfredo Guzman Salazar as being the son of El Chapo.
A man who was introduced yesterday as the alleged son of "El Chapo" Guzman is not the son of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, says the family.  By means of an email sent to several media outlets,  family lawyers announced there would be a news conference  at 11 AM in Sanborn's Plaza Pavilion in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
The  sender of the mail, which was read by Carmen Aristegui on MVS Radio, reads: "From: Jesus Alfredo Guzman  despachopenalistasdeabogados@yahoo.com.mx.
"Gentlemen communicators, (press)  this Friday June 22 at 11 am we expect the presence of representatives of the media to raise awareness of important issues relating to detention of an individual who federal authorities say  is part of Guzman Loera family.We'll show them otherwise.  

                                 (Beltran's attorney displaying photos at news conference)
                                                  Below is video of transfer
Lawyers and family members Guzman Loera, I call for the press to be at the conference at 11 am at the Plaza Pavilion Sanborn coffee. " Grupo Reforma reported that the lawyer Jesús Alfredo Guzman, Heriberto Rangel Mendez, said the arrested man is  actually Felix Beltran Leon  who bears no relationship to the Sinaloa cartel leader but  his nickname is "El Gordo."
Yesterday evening, the Marina of Mexico arrested Alfredo Guzman Salazar, whom he introduced as the alleged son of Joaquin Guzman Loera, however, according to another version says that the subject would be really presented Felix Beltran Leon, who is engaged in buying and selling cars in Guadalajara. For its part, the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) applauded yesterday as a "tremendous victory" the arrest of Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar.
Another related fact is that Mexico has plans to extradite to the U.S. Jesus Guzman, pending the person arrested is in fact the son of Chapo.

UPDATE: Man arrested is an American born in Los Angeles, family charges the government with planting weapons: 

Guadalajara, Jalisco,; the attorney  and family of the arrested man identified as the son of the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, assure that he is not  the son of "El Chapo" Guzmán.  They  are working gathering  documents such as birth certificate and official credentials to prove the identity of the young man arrested by  Semar.  They contend the man is  Félix Beltrán Leon and not Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar.
In an interview with Radio Formula, Veronica Guerrero, the León Beltrán family lawyer said that the arrest of Felix was "mere confusion" and they will lodge an appeal.
He explained that in addition to presenting official documents to prove the true identity of his client  they would  resort to a DNA test.
Elodia Leon, who claims to be the mother of León Beltrán, meanwhile, said that his son was born on October 8, 1988 in Los Angeles, California and is married to Karla Giovanni Pacheco and the couple has lived in Guadalajara for two years.  She is quoted as saying “ my son has no connection to the Sinaloa cartel.
The attorney for the man arrested had arrived to the conference, but said she needed to wait for the family before answering questions.  The family is 7 hours late and reporters have begun to leave feeling that no one is arriving. 
This puts another spin on the story, that  perhaps it was not the attorney for the Guzman family that was staging the news conference after all.  It was from the man the Beltran family is referring to as Felix.
Or so it would seem.
The Mexican navy identified him as Alfredo Guzman Salazar, saying he is believed to be the son of Sinaloa Cartel head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, as well as a rising operator in the international drug trafficking organization.

"There is total confusion," said his lawyer Veronica Guerrero said, "... which is having a serious effect on their personal and family situation."
The Mexican Attorney General's Office issued a statement Friday saying its information came from the U.S.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the information came from Mexico.
Both say they're checking DNA.

"The Mexican Navy and Mexican law enforcement have said this is El Chapo's son and that's is who  was captured,".  said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne, noting that the DEA is working separately to confirm the man's identity.
Pacheco showed The Associated Press what she said were her husband's voting credential and driver's license. The man arrested bears only slight resemblance to a photograph of Guzman's son recently issued by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Elodia Beltran appeared with Guerrero at a press conference Friday saying she is the mother of the detained man.
"He's never been arrested," she said. "This is a real injustice."
Pacheco said the couple and their 1-year-old were sleeping in their home in Zapopan, a suburb of the western city of Guadalajara, when marines kicked in the door and arrested her husband and his half-brother, 19-year-old Kevin Daniel Beltran Rios.
Authorities identified Beltran Rios as an alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
The men were found with a grenade launcher and four grenades, two assault rifles, two pistols and $135,000 in cash, the navy said. Pacheco said there were no drugs or guns, but the family did have the cash because of a recent home sale.
Another lawyer, Heriberto Rangel Mendez, said the government planted the weapons.
Zapopan has been the scene of much drug violence and arrests. It's where Guzman's other son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, also known as "El Chapito," was detained on money laundering charges in 2005, and where top Sinaloa lieutenant, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, was killed in a 2010 shootout with Mexican army.
Pacheco said her husband works at Autos Pacheco, a used car dealership that gunmen attacked in May, killing one man. The target was a customer looking at cars, not the business, Pacheco said, though media reports said the dealership owner was killed.
"We've never had any links to drug traffickers," Pacheco said. "He's not the person they say he is.

NOTE:  It was in the afternoon that reports from the attorney representing Beltran, that Beltran had been born in Los Angeles, this supposedly from the mother, and Beltrans father born in Durango.  Subsequently, in the late afternoon a few reports were that it was the arrested man born in Durango.  I really don't know and frankly no longer care about this merry go round. 

I find it interesting that Mexico gave no mention of the US being involved with the capture of "El Chapos's son", yet the tide whipped fast once Chapo's "son" became Felix Beltran, when at that time Mexico was quick to blame the US, and stated that it was DEA that lead the arrest by the information they gave to Mexico.

And interesting again is the family declaring the weapons planted BUT the 135K in cash was theirs.

I am not buying it.  Why would the DEA then congratulate Mexico after the arrest?  The entire scenario is best described as the Keystone Cops in a pit of revolving "truth" and a landslide of incompetence,  on both sides the border.

Sources: Milenio, Informador, Vanguardia

Detainee mistakenly arrested as Loera Guzman's son

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Some of the information provided came from Borderland Beat reporter Chivis Martinez

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A man detained by a Mexican naval infantry special forces unit in Zapopan, Jalisco Wednesday was not Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar AKA El Gordo, the son of Sinaloa drug cartel boss Joaquin Guzman Loera AKA El Chapo, but a hapless used car dealer from Guadalajara caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to various Spanish and English language news reports.

The counternarcotics operation took place in Jardines de la Patria colony where the misidentified detainee now identified as Felix Beltran Leon, a used car dealer by trade with family in Los Angeles California. 

According to a statement, Mexican marines found two rifles, two handguns, four grenades and USD $135,000 (MX $1,867,454.96) and MX $295,000 (USD $21,325.81) in cash.  Kevin Daniel Beltran Rios, 19, was also detained at the scene and identified in Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR) news release as a Sinaloa cartel operative.

An attorney for the family sent out several emails Friday to various Mexican media outlets and had released an oral statement on MVS Radio saying the detainee was not Guzman Salazar.

The attorney. Jesus Alfredo Guzman, had scheduled a news conference for 1100 hrs CDT Friday in Guadalajara, but to date the media event has not taken place.

A juicio de amparo suit has already been filed in Mexican federal court challenging the extradition of Beltran Leon to the United States.  Under Mexican jurisprudence, amparo suits must be adjudicated before prosecutors can move forward on any criminal case, even in a high profile extradition such as the putative Alfredo Guzman Salazar detention.

Juicio de amparo suits are procedural appeals meant to slow down legal procedures and to ensure an individuals' rights under the law.

Despite the amparo suit Beltran Leon will likely serve prison time for possession of illegal guns and cash.

The errors likely committed in this case are of epic proportions.  Loera Guzman himself was detained by Mexican authorities in 1993 but escaped in 2001.  That means that the Mexican Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada (SIEDO) the organized crime unit of the Procuraduria General de la Republica or attorney general probably had a DNA profile on Loera Guzman.  A report could have easily been prepared in advance of the marine operation that could have compared DNA profiles taken immediately following the raid.

Word on the narco blogs is that the operation was a DEA operation from the very start, which if true means the raid and subsequent news of the capture was from its basis a political operation by an American administration in deep political trouble at home trying to score cheap points by using a foreign counternarcotics operation.


For example, the administration of US president Barak Obama has been milking the 2011 assassination of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for months using questionable leaks to reliable news outlets such as the New York Times.

The US DEA has played politics with Mexican politics and politicians in the past.  A good example is the 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning series of articles in the New York Times which smeared, among others, then Sonora governor Fabio Beltrones as having connections with organized crime.  Nearly every source in that series were unnamed or were from the DEA itself.  None of the rumors and allegations against now Senator Beltrones has ever been proved.

Most dismaying to all concerned with legal reforms about to be imposed on Mexico is Marisela Morales, Mexico's current PGR who took over that post two years ago.  Her elevation to the top legal job in Mexico has been praised by US news outlets such as the Los Angeles Times as exemplary of how far Mexico has come in jurisprudence.  SIEDO was Morales' job prior to becoming attorney general.

Far more revealing is the current US administration that is under intense pressure because of its refusal to provide Congress with documents pertaining to the failed gun running monitoring operation dubbed Fast and Furious.  That operation has allegedly cost the lives of 300 Mexican citizens and three US Federal agents from weapons illegally purchased in the US and permitted to cross the border into Mexico.

It is hard to imagine the DEA not trying to score points for its boss as well as itself by rushing a questionable bust.  It is equally hard not to imagine no fallout coming from such as sloppy attempt.

The current Mexican national administration under President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa is on the way out as its longtime political rival the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) is about to retake the Mexican presidency as well a substantial portion of the Chamber of Deputies in next week elections.

It is therefore very likely the Mexican government did nothing more than react to a set of facts provided by the US DEA.

SEMAR, Admiral Mariano Francisco Saynez Mendoza must be furious as a tremendous waste of his best counternarcotics forces.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
© Copyright 2012 by Chris Covert
You must obtain permission to reprint this article.

My Encounter With Drunk Sicarios

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Written by Buggs for Borderland Beat Originally published April 18, 2010

Note:  I read this post yesterday for the first time.  Buggs wrote in in 2010, I don't know how it slipped by me, but it did, and it is a gem.  I asked Buggs for permission to republish this real life story for those BB readers who, like me, , missed it the first time around.  Buggs not only wrote the article but all the photography is his work.  Jefe is not only a talented writer, but a talented photog as well.....Paz, Chivis

Many people in the U.S. are always asking me how safe it is to travel to Mexico with all the daily reports of violence. And I am very reluctant to tell them my opinion. One of the reason is because there is a legitimate risk. And the second reason is because I love to travel to Mexico, and sometimes do despite the potential danger.
My friend Everestt while descending the switchbacks of Copper Canyon last December
I am an avid dual sport motorcycle adventure rider and have done many rides in to Mexico. Last December, I and another rider from the U.S. decided to ride the "Tarahumara Sierra" of Copper Canyon. We started our journey in Creel and spent about four days in the back country of the Sierra Madre. I usually keep a journal of my travels and to help people decide as to what can happen, I have decided to post some of my entries of the journey. The following entry is day two and it starts in Batopilas.


December 25, 2009, Batopilas Chihuahua

The motel Mary is in the heart of Batopilas, right across from the main church. The sounds of children singing Christmas songs and Christmas music from a loud speaker serenaded us late into the night. We woke up in Batopilas on Christmas day.

I saw that Everest was getting ready for the day, cleaning his helmet. It is amazing how one day he is lying in the middle of the road breathing his last breath and the next day he is full of life waiting to ride out of the Copper Canyon.

We ate a quick breakfast in the motel restaurant and headed out. Today we try to make it to Urique. On our way out we stopped in the Cathedral of Satevó. I tried to get direction out of the canyon from here, but no one seemed to know.

We went south on a dirt road and when we came on a fork we were not sure which direction to go. We asked a young man in an old beat-up truck. He looked nervous looking around as if someone was watching him and seem upset that we had approached him. He pointed to the right up a huge mountain.

We could see the road winding its way up the top of the crest. As we were climbing we came to another fork and decided to go left, but after a while the road was getting really rough. We had to track back as we saw that we were going the wrong way.

The dirt road up the mountain was very good, rocky in some areas, but not bad. We continued the climb up the road, eventually we made the left turn and continued through a few small towns reaching a small town of Rodeo where we stopped for a break. Some kids came out to greet us and I bought them some candy at the small local store.


We continued on some very interesting roads and scenery. It was a nice day, it was Christmas day and we were having a blast riding in some of the more interesting roads in Tarahumara country. The accident from yesterday was still fresh in my mind and I attempted to put it out of my mind, but I still had the strange and unexplainable premonition.

It actually started to get warm and Everest wanted to stop to shed some clothing. Suddenly the road took us to a river without a bridge. It was not very deep, perhaps knee deep, but there was a lot of gravel made up of huge rocks. I thought Everest would stop to talk about how to enter the river, but he stood up and accelerated his bike to enter the river.

I don’t have to tell you what happened next. He went down right on the middle of the river. The current was strong and I was trying to still find a good place to set down my side stand on the huge rocks. Somehow Everest was able to pick up his bike and push out of the water. He was soaked. I placed my camera and clothed in a plastic bag and rode through the river at a slower pace.


We continued to ride, it was starting to get late and we were not sure how far we were from Urique. As we came around a bend and started to climb a hill, I could see a large white truck coming down the hill. I could see several indian men on the back of the truck. There was a narrow gap between some trees just enough for the truck to fit. Everest managed to cross the gap before the truck made it through. He sped up the hill and I had to wait for the truck to make it through the gap so I could get through.


But the truck stopped in the middle of the gap blocking my path.

I could see two men inside the cab of the truck. Suddenly the driver got out and I could see he was wearing a military jacket with blue pants. He was carrying an assault rifle, AR-15.

I did not like this a bit.

I tried to back up to turn around fast, but he was moving too fast toward me. I then saw that the passenger had also exited his truck and he also was armed with an assault rifle. I became afraid of what they might do and thought for a second of ditching the bike and running as fast as I could, but I knew I didn’t have time to do anything.

I could see that Everest was reaching the top of the hill kicking dust in the distance.

The driver reached me first but he was laughing and that made me relax a bit. One thing you never want to do in these kinds of situations is show fear. He stopped right in front of my bike and asked where I was going. I told him Urique and he asked where I was from. I said the U.S.

I told him we were just doing a motorcycle ride to see the country. I notice he had two beer cans of Tecate in his hands. He reached out and tried to give me one saying “here cabron have a beer.” I said no thanks and I could see in his facial expression that he did not like my response.

He stood there looking at me and I could tell he was intoxicated as he swayed in his stance. His friend pointed at me with his weapon, “did this cabron just say no?”

“Listen guys, I would be happy to join you for a beer, but it is getting late and we are trying to reach Urique before it gets dark. Otherwise, I would be honored to join you for a drink.” I pointed up the hill.

“You see up there?”

Everest had reached the top of the hill and had stopped far up the distance.

“That is my friend up there and he is waiting for me, so I need to go,” I said trying to sound unalarmed, but my heart was beating a hundred miles an hour.

They both looked up and they could see a tiny figure of Everest waiting for me to come up. The driver came around the bike and looked at me real closely. He could not really tell who I was, as I was wearing my helmet and sunglasses.

He seem to relax a bit and was smiling at me, "do you want some perico?'

"No thank you," I responded while playing with the buttons of my GPS. He got even closer to get a better look at my GPS that looked like some form of communication device.

“Are the gringos in the bicycles up ahead your friends?”

He kept playing with his rifle and I could see that he had two more magazines sticking out of his jacket pocket.

“No,” I responded.

He started to laugh real loud.

“Well we scared the shit out of them, not sure where they went,” he said while both he and his friend laughed out loud.

They both turned around still laughing and went inside their truck. They both were having a hard time keeping their balance and I could tell both were very intoxicated. I could hear the gear grinding as he shifted to first and drove past me, even the men in the back of the truck were laughing.

I started to ride up the hill and met Everest mid way, he was coming down to see what was the holdup. I was glad he did not make it down any time sooner. I motioned him to keep going.


We travelled another hour or so and we came to a “T.” We decided to turn left to reach a small town down the hill called Tubares. In the small town of Tubares I saw a small church that was falling down. I parked my bike to take some pictures. As I was taking pictures I could detect movement underneath a pile of wood inside the dark shadows of the church.

I called out to Everest and I saw two blond men come out of the shadow with their eyes wide open. They were bicyclists from California and they told us they were hiding from two drunken armed Mexicans that were making them drink beer. They said that the two armed men had been shooting down toward their feet and they were very scared.

They asked me if I thought it was safe to stay here for the night. I did not think it was a good idea. On my way in I saw several houses with a bunch of pickup trucks and SUV’s parked in the front. I could also see a bunch of men drinking beer outside. This is narco territory and I myself would not feel safe staying here. I told them they should ride out and find a secluded hidden area to sleep for the night.

It was getting dark and we still had many miles to reach Urique. Everest and I decided that we would ride to Urique even if it took us all night. I watched as the bicyclist rode out and we mounted our motorcycles to try to reach Urique in the dark of night. I could hear gunshots in the distance, echoing in the walls of the far away canyons.

14 mutilated bodies found in Tamaulipas

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El Diario. 6-23-2012.  A total of 14 mutilated bodies were found in an abandoned truck in the parking lot of a shopping center in Mante City, in the northern state of Tamaulitpas, reported state authorities.

A source with the state attorney general's office reported that 14 bodies with a narco message were found this morning at 9:00 a.m., local time,  in the parking lot of a supermarket store in the center of this municipality. The source stated that municipal employees were the ones who discovered the abandoned truck.  The source stated that the mutilated bodies were of 10 men and 4 women, with a message directed at the Gulf Cartel.

This is the second time in less than a month that dismembered bodies have been left in the center of this municipality, because last June 7, (2012) 14 bodies were left in front of the city hall in a pickup truck with a message directed at the opposing cartel, the Zetas.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Ciudad Victoria, capital of Tamaulipas, there were attacks with explosives at several locations in the city, with a total of 8 civilians injured.

Texas Photographer Missing in Nuevo Laredo-Had Been Tracking Actions of CDS

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Borderland Beat

Texas-based freelance journalist has been missing for a month after crossing into Tamaulipas to capture photographs of a shooting, a journalism advocacy group said.

According to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Zack Alejandro Plemmon Rosales, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico, had been staying at a hotel in Nuevo Laredo, Tamps., when he left to cover a shooting and never returned.

Nuevo Laredo is considered a main base of operations for the Zetas cartel, which has been in a bloody struggle with their former masters, the Gulf Cartel.

The Knight Center for Journalism is a training and outreach program for journalists in the Americas and the center has also kept a close eye on violence against journalists.

Because of the intense wave of violence, newspapers in the city of Nuevo Laredo have stopped publishing stories about organized crime, according to the Knight Center, which emphasized that Mexico is the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere for journalists.

According to KABB-TV in San Antonio, the 30-year-old Plemmon was a crime photographer who had been working for the Sinaloa newspaper El Debate and had been tracking the actions of the Sinaloa Cartel. The television station reported that hotel employees said two masked men went into the building and took Plemmon’s belongings.

The following is the notice published in the Knight Center website:

 
A month has passed since a freelance photojournalist from Texas working in Mexico has been heard from, reported the television station Fox 29 of San Antonio the night of Thursday, June 21.
Freelancer Zane Plemmons was staying in a hotel in the border city of Nuevo Laredo when he left to take photos of a shooting, the hotel's receptionist told the journalist's sister, Lizanne Sánchez.

Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales, who has dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship, was working for the Mexican newspaper El Debate at the time of his disappearance.
Because of the intense wave of violence, newspapers in the city of Nuevo Laredo have stopped publishing stories about organized crime. In 2011, a journalist in Nuevo Laredo was decapitated for reporting anonymously via social media about organized crime.
About the reporter:
Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales is a freelance writer who regularly has work published in Canada, the US and Mexico. Zane is a dual citizen and member of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. He is multi-lingual and was educated in three countries, traveling North America extensively; leading to his varied works.
Sources: lldefonso Ortiz for the Monitor and The Knight Center for Journalism

Forfeiture of property has no effect on narcos

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El Universal. 06-24-2012. While in countries like Colombia or Guatemala the number of properties seized from organized crime groups and subject to forfetiture actions numbered over 28,000 in one year, in Mexico, only 8 properties have been the subjects of such an action, according to the report  "Forfeiture of property", drafted by the Center of Social Studies and Public Opinion (Centro the Estudios Sociales y de Opinion Publica--CESOP) of the Mexican House of Representatives (Camara de Diputados ).

CESOP's analysis shows that the most notable cases of forfeiture of property in Colombia in 2011 affected property valued over 3 billion 400 million Mexican pesos, and that between 2003 and 2009, nearly $11 billion dollars in criminal assets have been forfeited in that South American country, while in this country, the value of assets subject to forfeiture is "merely symbolic."

In Guatemala, up until February, 2012, ten months after the law on this subject matter became effective, courts have issued 12 judgments on behalf of the State involving assets that authorities have seized from organized crime and drug trafficking, amounting to around $760,000 dollars, plus 226,000 Colombian pesos.

CESOP adds that in Mexico, from the date that the 2009 Federal Law on Forfeiture of Property (Ley Federal de Extincion de Dominio) went into effect, the Office of Attorney General (PGR) has initiated only 10 proceedings, of which they have won only one, and that no proceedings have been filed in 2012.

The document also states the statutory grounds that provide a basis for initiating a criminal forfeiture proceeding in [Mexico] are fewer compared to Guatemala, [whose law] contains 40 (causal factors), and Colombia, which has 25 (causal factors), while in Mexico the law only allows 5.

In the "Report on the Results of the Superior Inspection of Public Accounts 2009" (Resultado de la Fiscalizacion Superior de la Cuenta Publica 200), the review that the Auditoria Superior de la Federacion (functionally eqivalent to the Congressional Budget Office) performed concluded that the Office of Administration and Transfer of Property did not receive any real or personal property from the operation of this law between August and December 2009.

CESOP points out that ITAM (Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico) specialists like Edgardo Buscaglia find it "incredible" that the institutions charged with combatting organized crime in Mexico lack the tools to dismantle the financial and property structures used by organized crime groups.

In Buscaglia's view, who is the coordinator of ITAM's International Program on Justice and Development, the Mexican government is not complying with the recommendations of the International Financial Group  (GAFI) to prevent money laundering, nor does it use the technical and legal tools it has available to prevent dirty money from circulating through the arteries of the Mexican financial system.   

Mexico’s Tarahumara Are The World’s Greatest Ultrarunners—And The Latest Victims of The Drug War

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Borderland Beat

The Sierras Tarahumara Indians: Mexico’s Unwilling Drug Runners
In drugwar reporting, articles of those living on the fringes of Mexican society is a rare occurrance.  The forgotten people, before the war, during, and in all probability after.  Proud citizens such as the I people of the Sierras ,and  the Mayans of the highlands of Chiapas and Mexican rain forest are largely ignored in and out of "war".  Most likely few of you have ever even heard of the indigenous peoples such as the Tarahumara Indians, or Black Seminoles, or the Mayan Zapatistas.  Not enough has been explored with respect to the drugwar, and how or if, the indigenous peoples have been affected.  I was pleased to see this article and wanted to share it with the good people of BB.
Paz, Chivis 
The Tarahumara’s native Copper Canyons have been invaded by narcotraficantes. (Jason Florio for Newsweek)
by Aram Roston for Newsweek Magazine
Camilo Villegas-Cruz is wistful when he talks about happier times, running in the shadowy depths of Sinforosa Canyon, in Mexico’s lawless Sierra Madre. A member of the Tarahumara Indian tribe, renowned for their agility and running endurance, Villegas-Cruz grew up competing in traditional rarajipari races, in which contestants kick a wooden ball along a rocky trail. But by the time he was 18 years old, he was running an entirely different kind of race—hauling a 50-pound backpack of marijuana across the border into the New Mexico desert.
Today, Villegas-Cruz is 21 and languishing in a U.S. federal prison near the Mojave Desert in Adelanto, Calif.
Villegas-Cruz’s unlikely journey from young athlete to drug mule shows how a little-known tribe, having been catapulted into the limelight by a runaway bestseller, is being ground down by forces out of its control, including Mexico’s all-consuming drug war, a disastrous economy, and an unrelenting drought.
In their native language, Villegas-Cruz’s people call themselves the Rarámuri—the light-footed ones. Their unique physical abilities were largely unknown to the outside world until 2009, when the book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen made them famous. “When it comes to ultradistances,” author Christopher McDougall wrote, “nothing can beat a Tarahumara runner—not a racehorse, not a cheetah, not an Olympic marathoner.” Among the characters in the book was a Tarahumara champion who once ran 435 miles, and another who won a 100-mile ultramarathon in Leadville, Colo., with almost casual ease. McDougall described the reclusive Tarahumara as “the kindest, happiest people on the planet,” and “benign as Bodhisattvas.”
Sinforosa Canyon (Photo:Richard Fischer)
The central message—that nature intended human beings to run—struck a chord in the United States, where Born to Run had a staggering impact on the amateur-running world (and on the $2.3 billion per year running-shoe business). The book triggered the barefoot running rage, including popular “foot gloves” that are as close as you can get to not wearing shoes at all.
But there’s a painful twist to this otherwise uplifting tale. According to defense lawyers, law-enforcement sources, and some Tarahumara Indians, drug traffickers are now exploiting the very Tarahumara trait—endurance—that has been crucial to their survival. Cartel operatives enlist impoverished Tarahumara Indians to make a grueling odyssey running drugs by foot across the border to the U.S.
Tarahumara Indians: Mexico’s Unwilling Drug Runners
 American defense lawyers on the southwest border say Tarahumara drug runners are a growing segment of their court-assigned clientele. Ken Del Valle, a defense attorney in El Paso, Texas, says he’s represented more than a dozen of the Indians since 2007, all in similar “backpacking” cases. Statistics are impossible to come by since law enforcement agencies don’t differentiate between Indians and other Mexicans, but Del Valle says it is precisely the Tarahumaras’ aptitude for endurance running that makes them so heavily recruited: the cartels “can put them in the desert and just say, ‘Go!’”
Del Valle says when the cases first starting appearing, U.S. courts were ill-equipped to handle the defendants. In one early case, he recalls, a Taruhamara was released when the court couldn’t find an interpreter. Now, lawyers and judges have a translator on call.
Don Morrison, an assistant federal public defender, first represented a Tarahumara in 2010. “I had no idea that right across the border there was a tribe of people who lived like this,” he told me. Many Tarahumara men still wear handmade sandals, skirt-like loin cloths, and brightly colored tunics. “If the drug war can start involving the Tarahumara,” he says, “then no one is immune.”
Until recently, the Tarahumara have been partially protected by the fearsome geography of the region they inhabit— the Sierra Madre mountains. The terrain here is psychedelic: plinths and boulders and impossible overhangs. The canyons stretch down more than a mile, though the Tarahumara navigate the cliffs as easily as staircases. But in the past decades, ranchers, miners, loggers, and narcos have moved ever closer into traditional Tarahumara enclaves. One of the last travel books to chronicle the region was the acclaimed God’s Middle Finger, published in 2008 by British writer Richard Grant. It describes a run-in with armed thugs, then closes with this thought: “I never wanted to set foot in the Sierra Madre again.”
Exacerbating the situation is what -locals say is the worst drought in 70 years. Even in the best of times, many Tarahumara live on the edge, tilling just enough to survive. Now farmers can’t get most food crops to grow, and last winter an unusual cold spell killed off much of what they did plant. That’s left the Indians desperate—and easy prey for wealthy drug barons looking for mules to take their product north.
“You get a guy who can go 50 miles with almost no water ... they’ve been indirectly training for [cross-border smuggling] for 10,000 years,” says McDougall, author of Born to Run. “It’s just tragic and disgraceful. This is a culture that has tried its best to stay out of this mess, all of these -messes—the messes of the world—and now the messes have come and found them.”
“I can’t even weigh the cultural impact of what the drug industry is doing to the Tarahumara,” says Randy Gingrich, an American based in the city of Chihuahua for 20 years. He spends much of his time in the Sierra Madre and his NGO, Tierra Nativa, battles threats to the Tarahumara and other Indian tribes from miners, loggers, drug dealers, and the occasional tourist scheme. He says one former drug baron once forcibly evicted Tarahumara from their ancestral homes so he could build a giant Astroturf ski slope overlooking the 6,000-foot Sinforosa Canyon. The project fell through when the trafficker died in a plane crash.
The Tarahumara are legendary for their endurance—and their reclusiveness. (Jason Florio for Newsweek)
In the town of Guachochi, a Tarahumara woman named Ana Cela Palma says she knows four Indians who have become “burros” and made the trek up to the U.S. for the cartels. None was paid what they were promised, she says. “They make it back, but in really bad condition,” she says. They were broken down physically, impoverished, and angry, she says.
Palma took me from a little settlement called Norigachi, along a ridge road cut by loggers, and into a small and tranquil valley. On the east side of the valley, past a shallow rise, we found a Tarahumara shaman, known as an owiruame, sitting on a pile of rocks. Jose Manuel Palma is 82 years old and a distant relative of Ana -Cela’s. The old man’s face lit up when I asked about running. He used to be a long-distance runner, he said, and was proud of it, though there aren’t a lot of races in the community anymore. His job now is healing the sick, mostly through dreams. The Tarahumara believe that people possess several souls, and that illness is the result of souls losing their balance. “This is the highest level of shamanism in the Sierra,” explains Gingrich. “They are called sonaderos—people who dream for others.”
Click to enlarge
Palma said “the traffickers have not approached the traditional leaders of the Tarahumara,” recruiting instead the younger people, who then recruit their friends. That’s how his nephew, Alfredo Palma, got involved. He was approached by a Tarahumara friend, who apparently was planning to carry a load for the traffickers and wanted company.
Court records in the U.S. show that Alfredo Palma, 29 years old, was offered up to $800 to make the dangerous trek across the border—more than a typical Tarahumara Indian might see in a year. As Palma and seven other backpackers trekked through the cold desert night, over the border into New Mexico, an infrared radar picked them up. Four men slipped away, but the border patrol found Alfredo and two others trying to hide behind some shrubs. Nearby, in their backpacks, was 260 pounds of Mexican pot.
Thirty yards away from where Jose Palma sat, a man used a horse to pull a plow through some dry fields, and the old Tarahumara said that the man was one of his sons. The old man said they were praying for rain, but in the meantime, his other son had moved to Chihuahua City to look for work.
It was the drought that also drove Camilo Villegas-Cruz to look for work elsewhere. His father couldn’t manage to grow enough beans, peas, and corn to survive on their little rancheria. So when Villegas-Cruz and one of his brothers were approached in early January 2009 by a stranger offering to pay them each $1,500 to be burros, they quickly accepted.
Late one evening, they shouldered their 50-pound backbacks and set out from a small farmhouse near the border. It was just a half-hour walk to a remote unguarded section of the barren border-crossing into the U.S. They carried smaller packs on their chests with food and water. Marching all night in the desert, they would stop when the sun rose every day, and would stash the huge marijuana packs and sleep. It was a tedious and grueling trek, and on the third day they woke up to the sound of a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter overhead.
They were arrested and charged with conspiracy with intent to distribute, and could have faced 20-year sentences. The American judge in Los Cruces, New Mexico, let them off easy, sending them back to Mexico, each with a sentence of three years of unsupervised release.
With the region suffering a terrible drought, families are struggling. (Jason Florio for Newsweek)
When Villegas-Cruz returned home, his parents were furious, he says. His mother sobbed. But soon enough, life went back to normal. He met a Tarahumara girl and fell in love. He went to traditional corn-beer festivals. He volunteered during a 50-mile Tarahuma race, holding a torch through the night to light the way for runners kicking a ball before them in the old way of the tribe. (The race had been organized by a legendary ultramarathoner, Micah True. True, an American nicknamed “Caballo Blanco,” spent years working on behalf of the Tarahumara, and was a central character in Born to Run. He died in March of heart disease, while running.)
But Villegas-Cruz’s family was still struggling. So once again, he set off to find work. First, he planted chilis for a farmer, earning $10 a day for backbreaking work in the searing summer heat. Then a more lucrative offer came. “I’ve got a job for you,” said a man nicknamed Cholo, recalls Villegas-Cruz. “It’s only going to be three days.”
He knew the risks but he says the money was too good to turn down. He says the traffickers took him to a store in town and bought him clothes, new shoes, and a coat to keep him warm while trekking during cold desert nights. There was a catch, however: the cost for the clothes, the cartel operatives told him, would come out of his $1,500 in pay. At least until he completed his mission, Villegas-Cruz was in debt to the smugglers, and couldn’t back out.
He was driven in the bed of a pickup truck to a little ranch near the U.S. border, where the backpacks were already prepared—heavy burlap sacks taped tight, full of compressed packages of marijuana. Villegas-Cruz shouldered the heavy load, and with a handful of other men, walked at night in his new shoes, behind the guide. They crossed the border within a half hour, and soon were walking through a desert in New Mexico. In unfamiliar territory, Villegas-Cruz got nervous and wanted to turn back. “I was really sad, and really scared,” he says. But without a guide, he knew he’d never find his way back to the Sinforosa Canyon.
Three days in, it began to rain, and as he trudged with his huge backpack full of marijuana, he slipped and fell. Covered in mud, he kept on walking. By now he was completely terrified, he says. On the morning of the fourth day, the Border Patrol found him and two others. The guide, who didn’t carry the same load as the “mules” he was leading, managed to slip away.
Villegas-Cruz pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and reentering the country illegally, and this time he was sentenced to 46 months. “Someday,” he says, dressed in a prison uniform and sitting in a large room usually used for court proceedings, “I’ll get home and I’ll never come here again.”

Drug trafficking enforcement action in Mexico city's international airport leaves three dead

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The shootout that took place in Terminal 2 of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) was triggered when suspected drug traffickers were about to be apprehended by Federal Police officers; a third officer dies in hospital.

Universal. 6-25-2012.

The shootout that took place in Terminal 2 of the Mexico City international airport (AICM) was triggered when Federal Police agents tried to detain suspected drug traffickers, according to the an official report on the incident issued by the Federal Department of Public Safety (SSP).

In the report, they indicated that Federal agents were performing investigative duties and "proceeded to take into custody suspects linked with drug trafficking."

The suspects (number unknown) were in Terminal 2 of the Mexico City International Airport and, "when the saw themselves surrounded by Federal Police, began shooting their firearms at the federal agents."

Authorities within the agency indicated to El Universal that apparently the suspects were also Federal Police officers, which is why they were carrying weapons inside the terminal area, and they managed to fire their weapons to prevent being apprehended, although the investigation will continue to try to determine the aggressors' identities.

The SSP confirmed that two Federal Police officers lost their lives in the incident and another was transferred to a hospital, where he later died.

The (SSP) also reports that in anti-drug trafficking actions they have conducted in the AICM, in 2011 Federal Police seized a total of 90 kilos of cocaine and more than 200 kilos in 2012.   

 

House Holds Holder in Contempt

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By Alan Silverleib,
CNN Congressional Producer



The House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over documents tied to the botched Fast and Furious gun-running sting -- a discredited operation that has become a sharp point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

The House approved a pair of criminal and civil measures against the attorney general, marking the first time in American history that the head of the Justice Department has been held in contempt by Congress.

House members approved the criminal contempt measure in a 255-67 vote. Almost every House Republican backed the measure, along with 17 Democrats. Shortly thereafter, the civil measure passed in a sharply polarized 258-95 vote.

A large number of Democrats -- including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi -- walked off the House floor in protest and refused to participate in the criminal contempt vote. A slightly smaller number of Democrats appeared to boycott the vote on the civil measure as well.


Speaking in New Orleans, Holder dismissed the House action as "the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided -- and politically motivated -- investigation during an election year." In a written statement, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer blasted congressional Republicans for pushing "political theater rather than legitimate congressional oversight."

The criminal contempt charge refers the dispute to District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen, who will decide whether to file charges against Holder. Most legal analysts do not expect Machen -- an Obama appointee who ultimately answers to Holder -- to take any action.

The civil measure allows the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to file a lawsuit asking the courts to examine the Justice Department's failure to produce certain subpoenaed documents, as well as the validity of the administration's recent assertion of executive privilege over the documents in question.

Legal experts contacted by CNN have said, based on recent precedent, that it could take years for the courts to reach any final decision in the civil case.

Fast and Furious, a so-called "gun-walking" operation, allowed roughly 2,000 guns into Mexico with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels. Two guns found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's fatal shooting were linked to the operation. Guns from the operation have also been linked to an unknown number of Mexican civilians' deaths.

GOP leaders say the documents they seek are needed to get to the circumstances surrounding Terry's death. Democrats insist the Republican-led probe is all about politics. Thursday's vote came two days after House Republicans rejected the latest offer by the White House and Justice Department to turn over some of the documents sought by congressional investigators in exchange for dropping the contempt measures.

A senior House Republican aide told CNN the offer was insufficient.

In the hours leading up to the criminal contempt vote, Republicans repeatedly insisted that they were exercising proper legislative oversight of the executive branch and seeking answers for Terry's family.


"In the real world Americans are expected to comply with subpoenas. Is the attorney general any different? No he is not," said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Florida. "The attorney general can stonewall all he wants. The attorney general can misremember all he wants. But whether he likes it or not, today responsibility will land on his desk."

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, warned that "even the attorney general cannot evade the law. (It's) time for America to find out the truth. ... (It's) time for a little transparency. Today is judgment day. That's just the way it is."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the "House needs to know how this happened, and it's our constitutional duty to find out. ... No Justice Department is above the law, and no Justice Department is above the Constitution."

Democrats accused Republicans of playing political games with an operation that leaders on both sides of the aisle concede was a mistake.

"What the Republicans are doing with this motion ... is contemptible," Pelosi declared. "This is something that makes a witch hunt look like a day at the beach. It is (the) railroading of a resolution that is unsubstantiated by the facts, based on a false premise."

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, complained that "every single attempt for even-handed investigation has been thwarted by the Republican majority." Holder is "a good, decent, honorable man. He's doing an excellent job as attorney general. He does not deserve this."

Among other things, Democrats contend that California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has refused to let witnesses proposed by Democrats give public testimony. They also claim he has been demanding documents outside the scope of the subpoenas Holder is accused of violating.

Specifically, Issa and other Republicans are seeking documents showing why the Justice Department decided to withdraw as inaccurate a February 2011 letter sent to Congress that denied any major flaws in Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder has repeatedly refused to turn over materials containing internal deliberations, and asked Obama last week to assert executive privilege over such documents.

A video released Tuesday by Democrats on Issa's panel showed the chairman making past allegations of White House links to Fast and Furious, juxtaposed with Issa saying Sunday there was no evidence of a White House cover-up.

Some gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, maintain that the program allowed hundreds of weapons, including assault rifles, to end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels in order for the Obama administration to press for new gun control laws. The NRA heavily pressured House members -- most notably moderate and conservative Democrats -- to back the contempt measures.

The contempt vote in Issa's committee last week fell along strict party lines, with Republicans supporting a contempt recommendation and Democrats opposing it. The vote occurred before the gun lobby formally registered its support for the contempt resolution.

Rarely has any pro-gun-rights Democrat representing a rural and Southern district broken with the NRA's position on key votes, especially in an election year.

Meanwhile, Pelosi argued last week that Republicans were targeting Holder because he is fighting their efforts to suppress voter turnout in November. Rep. John Larson, D-Connecticut, chastised Republicans earlier this week for pushing ahead on the contempt vote as part of a strategy to prevent economic progress and harm Obama's re-election chances in November.

"This is just all part of a continuing plan, and whether it's suppressing the vote or suppressing the economy -- this obstructionist regime that we see that continues to block because they think they would rather see President Obama fail than the nation succeed," Larson said.

Federal Police "traitor" identified

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The Federal Police reveals the way the crime was committed by three Federal Police agents during an anti-trafficking enforcement opertion in the airport. Federal agents involved in drug trafficking shot their fellow officers in the back. 


El Universal. 6-28-2012. The Chief of Regional Security Division of the Federal Police (SSP) , Luis Cardenas Palomino, revealed that Mexico City International Airport (AICM) authorities and several other local and federal agencies are being investigated for participating in a drug trafficking network that began in Peru and ended in the airport terminal. He also disclosed the names and photographs of the three federal police agents that took part in the murder of three fedeal police agents that took place last Monday in the AICM Terminal 2 corridor, who are part of a drug trafficking network.

Cardenas Palomino called the oficers who murdered their fellow officers "traitors." He identified them as Zeferino Morales Franco, Felipe Lugo and Daniel Cruz Garcia, this last was the one who shot his companions in the back.

Cardenas Palomino states that the Federal Police is not currently investigating AICM director Hector Velasquez y Corona, although he said he did not know whether the PGR was investigating him.

Last Monday, Federal Police officers implicated in a drug trafficking network, which involved several public employees from various federal and local agencies that work in the AICM, started the shootout in which three of their companions investigating their acts of corruption were killed. Security cameras that allowed the identification of the suspects were key in investigating the case, which is being handled by the Subprocuraduria de Investigacion Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada (SIEDO- Specialized organized crime investigations unit).

The SSP revealed that after several drug seizures over the past 18 months at the AICM (around 300 kilos of narcotics), a cell was detected composed of public employees working for drug traffickers, presumably for a group with the Sinaloa cartel, whereupon federal police agents were assigned to locate the members (of the cell).

The web of corruption discovered in the AICM; the hub Colombia, Mexico and Spain

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Felix Fuentes

El Universal. 6-28-2012. Three federal officers shot to death and information from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), obtained by El Universal reporter, Doris Gomora, uncovered the drug drainage system in the Mexico City International Airport (AICM). El Gran Diario de Mexico  (newspaper) revealed the presumed responsibility of Hector Velasquez Corona, director of the AICM, in the trafficking of drugs on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas, human trafficking, piracy in the loading areas and black market of jet fuel.

Vasquez Corona has managed the capital's airport terminal since Jaunuary, 2005. In other words, he was appointed during the Fox administration and has stayed in place because of a close friendship with President Felipe Calderon. According to U.S. DOJ reports the general manager of AICM has links with several drug cartel employees and has only taken part arrests of "independents drug traffickers" or when shipments were destined for adversarial groups. As a result, he has received threats for raising the costs of "rights of way."

Reporter Doris Gomora pointed out that DEA agents and other U.S. agencies identify Velasquez as the principal suspect in AICM drug trafficking , but the Mexican government "lacks any intention" of investigating him. Information obtained from the U.S., reveals that, according to protected witnesses, Velasquez has collected right of way fees for transshipment of drugs beteen Colombia and Mexico, and between here and the Caribbean, the U.S. and Europe. This would explain why some shipments reached Spain, shipped out of AICM, and information media could not understand how that could happen without "anybody noticing anything." Now we know who authorized the shipments, but the PGR denied having any information that Velasquez had ties to the narcos.

In short, the PGR knows nothing. In the case of the three Army generals under arraignment (custody), [the PGR] tells us that Angeles Dauahare has been under investigation since 2010 and the PGR has just extended his arraignment (custody) due to its inability to substantiate the current charges.  

When Felipe Calderon convened PAN congressional representatives in San Lazaro, Velasquez was Secretary of Administrative Services and, together with Patricia Flores, awarded themselves bonuses of 200,000 pesos each. In Banobras (organization), this individual negotiated a 3,000,000 peso loan for the president to buy a house. In Washington, Velasquez Corona is listed as a "member of the Felipe Calderon inner circle."  This tells you why this person has been considered untouchable for more than seven years and why he has been kept at the AICM.

Perhaps Velasquez's actions will be made clear after the murders of three federal officers by fellow agents in Terminal 2 of the metropolitan airport.  There has been a deep silence over the motives for the murders and they're trying to give the matter a money laundering slant, because they are conducting audits of the Podrira currency exchange business in the DF and two of its branches. According to official reports, the suspects have been identified, but their names have not been released, and it is expected that this case will be cleared properly, that it will be disclosed if drugs are involved and whether Mr. Velasquez is involved. The day of the murders, President Calderon declared that "we have advanced to a trustworthy Federal Police that likewise looks for trustworthiness in all of its members."  

Day before yesterday, the president continued on the same theme. He asked that the next administration not throw overboard everything that has been done against crime and demanded that it "truly commit itself to fighting (crime)!"     
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