Ciudad Victoria Zetas boss dies in shootout with Mexican army troops

July 17, 2012, 4:32 pm

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The Zetas cartel's boss in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, died in a shootout with army troops, the Defense Secretariat said. Carlos Alberto Fernandez Hernandez and three associates were killed last Friday, the secretariat said in a statement. "Mexican army personnel providing public safety support in Tamaulipas were the target of an armed attack by members of an organized crime group" while on a reconnaissance mission in Ciudad Victoria, the secretariat said. Soldiers responded to the attack "to defend themselves and citizens," engaging in a shootout "in which four attackers died," the secretariat said. Fernandez had been identified as a personal assistant of Los Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, coordinating the acquisition of houses, obtaining vehicles and recruiting people for the cartel boss, the secretariat said. Fernandez had been running the cartel's operations in Ciudad Victoria for just four months, smuggling drugs, staging kidnappings, stealing fuel and running extortion rackets, the Defense Secretariat said. He was also allegedly involved with Gregorio Villanueva Salas, known as "The Czar of Piracy," in the bombings that targeted media outlets, schools and businesses in Matamoros, a border city in Tamaulipas, in May and June. Villanueva was arrested by army troops on June 14 in Monterrey, the capital of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, along with three other members of the gang. Soldiers seized two rifles, two handguns, 811 rounds of ammunition, 35 ammunition clips, a vehicle, 38,000 pesos (about $2,883), $29,000, tactical equipment and communications gear after the shootout. Lazcano Lazcano deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel. After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas, considered Mexico's most violent criminal organization, went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories. Tamaulipas and neighboring Nuevo Leon state have been rocked by a wave of violence unleashed by drug traffickers battling for control of smuggling routes into the United States. The army is carrying out "Operation Northeast" in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi states in an effort to weaken the drug cartels that operate in the region. EFE Related Sources: Abaten a Carlos Alberto Fernández Hernández, “Doble K”, presunto jefe de plaza de los Zetas en Ciudad Victoria Ejército mexicano abate a jefe local de "los Zetas" en Tamaulipas

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Police Chief Disappears in Eastern Mexico

July 18, 2012, 5:40 am

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The police chief of a city in the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz has disappeared, co-workers and relatives said Tuesday.

Gregorio Juarez Vazquez was in charge of the police force in Cosautlan, a city in the mountainous central region of Veracruz.

Juarez Vazquez was last seen riding with his driver in a patrol car around 1:00 a.m. Monday, people close to the chief said.

The police chief’s patrol car was found several hours later abandoned on the Teocelo-Cosautlan state highway, but his whereabouts is unknown. Juarez Vazquez’s driver is also missing.

State and municipal police have launched a search for the police chief and his driver.

Cosautlan is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, in a coffee-growing area.

Veracruz has been plagued by a turf war between rival drug cartels that has sent the state’s murder rate skyrocketing over the past two years.

The federal government launched “Operation Safe Veracruz” last October in an effort to stem the wave of drug-related violence in the Gulf state.

On June 12, police found the remains of 14 people stuffed into an abandoned SUV on the Alamo-Potrero del Llano state highway near Los Cuates, a ranch in northern Veracruz close to the border with Tamaulipas.

The Gulf, Los Zetas and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels, as well as breakaway members of the once-powerful La Familia Michoacana organization, are fueling the violence in the state.

Veracruz, Mexico’s third-most populous state, is coveted as a key drug-trafficking corridor to the United States, officials say.

President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006, deploying tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The death toll in Mexico’s drug war stands at more than 50,000 since 2006.

Source: EFE

Mexican President Sees Anti-Drug Strategy Continuing Under PRI

July 18, 2012, 5:45 am

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Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in an interview published Sunday by Spain’s El Pais newspaper that he was convinced that his anti-drug strategy and reforms would be continued by Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who won the July 1 presidential election.

Calderon said he was “satisfied” with his legacy and expressed a willingness to work with the new administration to push forward energy, labor and tax reforms “that there is still enough time to get approved.”

“Many of these reforms were not achieved precisely because of obstacles from the PRI during these years and I expect this attitude, which has been damaging to the republic, can be corrected,” Calderon said.

“In terms of strengthening the institutions,” Mexico is better than it was six years ago, Calderon said, referring to the crime and drug-related violence that his administration has tried to fight.

“In terms of violence, evidently not,” the president said, adding that “there has been an exponential increase in violence in all of Latin America, and in the deaths caused by criminal organizations fighting not just for (smuggling) routes, but for territories, for the drug market.”

“I can assure you that I found truly rotted institutions at the federal, state and municipal levels, and today, at least, with their deficiencies, they are better than we got them,” Calderon said.

The government has acted “with scrupulous respect for the law” at all times, the president said in response to a question about human rights violations in the war on drugs.

Calderon said he was not concerned about being hauled before a tribunal in The Hague.

“I believe the irresponsibility for a leader would have been to not act. Surely, there have been human rights violations by the armed forces and the police. But these were exceptions, not systematic,” Calderon said.

After holding the presidency for 12 years, the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, will hand over power to the PRI and Peña Nieto following elections that are being challenged by leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador also refused to accept the results of the 2006 presidential election, which he lost by a razor-thin margin to Calderon.

“The problem with Mexican democracy is not with electoral accounting,” Calderon said. “It has to do with the freedom with which a voter gets to the booth to vote for one or another candidate.”

“Our democracy has many things that need to be corrected, but any disagreements should be handled via institutional channels,” the president said.
If its victory is ratified by Mexico’s electoral court, the PRI, which governed Mexico uninterruptedly from 1929 to 2000, will return to power.

During its 71 years of largely unchallenged hegemony, the PRI relied mainly on patronage and control of organized labor and the mass media, though it was not above resorting to outright vote-rigging and even violence.

“We all lost, those of us in the government, the PAN leadership, because, perhaps, the (candidate) selection process was erratic, tortuous, politically costly ... the campaign strategy was not one of continuity, but one of change or difference,” Calderon said.
PAN candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota ended up in third place in the presidential race, winning just 25.41 percent of the vote.

A “reconstruction of the PAN, the platform, the structure, the membership, the leadership, of the process for selecting candidates,” is needed, Calderon said.

“There is much to do and to revise, but if the PAN takes the path of reconstruction, it will govern Mexico again much sooner than many think,” Calderon said.

Source: AP

Google executives say technology can be harnessed to fight drug cartels in Mexico

July 18, 2012, 10:10 am

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By Eric Schmidt and and Jared Cohen

Eric Schmidt is the executive chairman of Google and a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Jared Cohen is director of Google Ideas and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. They are writing a book about the digital future and this week convened the Google Ideas summit “Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition.”

A couple of months ago we visited Juarez, Mexico, a city right across our border — yet so far away.

The scene was almost surreal: We got off the plane and were met on the tarmac by a convoy of armored cars and open-back trucks swarming with police. The officers were “policía federal.” Like the ones you hear about, they carried machine guns and wore masks to hide their identities. They hung off the backs of their trucks, alert, constantly swiveling as they surveyed the landscape.

They were looking for violent criminals. Meanwhile, everyone we met with — civil society leaders, nonprofit activists, private-sector officials and young people — was looking around for answers.

Their city has been overwhelmed by crime, their lives overcome with fear. They felt defeated, disillusioned and a little helpless. They asked us: What can we do?

And to us, at least part of the answer was obvious: technology.

The cartels that roam Juarez are savvy. Smugglers wear GPS bracelets so they can be tracked — the same blue dots that help smartphone users get from A to B are blipping along in the service of kingpins and their associates.

We know that technology can be used more potently for good. As more people around the globe become connected, they see, read and hear more. Greater access leads to stronger demands for accountability. We believe the spread of modern devices and access for those most threatened will create a virtual, albeit nascent, counterweight against the world’s worst criminals. Even stubborn governments will one day have to meet their citizens’ rising expectations.

Yet connectivity will not, on its own, disrupt illicit networks. People tend to assume that “name and shame” will fix things — as though, once a video of wrongdoing is uploaded, the world will pressure the bad guys. It’s clear that external pressure seldom fixes weak or corrupt institutions. As we watch violence unfold in Syria, more than video is clearly needed. The pressure has to be internal, from those who are directly affected and have the incentives and mechanisms to fundamentally reshape the world they live in.

Consider an all-too-familiar situation in Juarez: A man cooperates with law enforcement — or is believed to have cooperated — and his wife is subsequently targeted. Many people are aware of such occurrences but do not report it, thinking: Why take the risk when the chance of meaningful change is so low? Some version of this plays out every day in Mexico.

When people think about speaking out in the face of fear, they almost always do so in pre-Internet terms. Victims find individuals or institutions to confide in. Sometimes that institution is online, but the basic interaction model is telephonic or broadcast. The model relies on central authorities with trustworthy track records, broad distribution, charismatic leaders, technical sophistication, and staffs that balance discretion and distribution. Simply put, these criteria do not scale. The system breaks down in environments where retribution is common.

Now, consider a network like the Internet, where sources send out their messages in little pieces — or, packets — each labeled with the address of their destination. Intermediate nodes forward the packets onward, and they are reassembled at the destination. Each link in the network may not have the full message. The transmitter and receiver don’t need to communicate directly or at the same time. They don’t need to know each other’s location. There’s no single point of failure, no rigid hierarchy.

In Juarez, we saw fearful human beings — sources — who need to get their information into the right hands. With our packet-switching mind-set, we realized that there may be a technological workaround to the fear: Sources don’t need to physically turn to corrupt authorities, distant journalists or diffuse nonprofits, and rely on their hope that the possible benefit is worth the risk of exposing themselves.

Technology can help intermediate this exchange, like servers passing packets on the Internet. Sources don’t need to pierce their anonymity. They don’t need to trust a single person or institution. Why can’t they simply throw encrypted packets into the network and let the tools move information to the right destinations?

In a sense, we are talking about dual crowdsourcing: Citizens crowdsource incident awareness up, and responders crowdsource justice down, nearly in real time. The trick is that anonymity is provided to everyone, although such a system would know a unique ID for every user to maintain records and provide rewards. This bare-bones model could take many forms: official and nonprofit first responders, investigative journalists, whistleblowers, neighborhood watches.

Technology is just a tool. The residents of Juarez told us they desperately want technologies that, when used in the right way by the right people, would make a difference. There will be real consequences of trial and error, but we cannot let fear prevent us from innovating. In a world where cartels and criminals are masters of innovation, technology companies can tip the scales over the long run, helping to provide an innovation advantage to those who need it most.


Published in The Washington Post

The sun came up (and Chapo was still there)

July 18, 2012, 3:32 pm

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Denise Dresser

Y El Chapo? 

Mexico, D.F. (Proceso). 7-16-2012. Today we have a stained election and a country in a waiting mode. Today there are election results that the left wants to question and the Electoral Tribunal will have to legitimize. Today, we have a "virtually" elected president and a portion of the population  that  sees his victory as an imposition. But day after tomorrow, when the post-electoral dust settles, Mexico will awake with the decades-old problems that the state has been dragging, with the political paralysis that the new Executive will have to overcome; the central challenge of how to reduce violence and deal with crime and combat the narcotics traffickers will still be there.

     Few places reflect this as well as Guadalajara. A disputed city. A city that several groups are fighting to control. A place that cartels are dead set on fighting over. A microcosm masterfully portrayed in William Finnegan's New Yorker article titled, "The Kingpins: the Fight for Guadalajara". Where, two days before the International Book Fair, 26 bodies were left under Los Arcos del Milenio. With signs of torture, with "narcomantas" (banners with messages) signed by the Zetas, all signs that it was a challenge to the dominance of the Sinaloa Cartel. "We're in Jalisco and we're not leaving," announced Los Zetas. "This is proof that we have penetrated even as far as the kitchen," they said. They have arrived to dispute control of the market, they told us with their atrocity.

     In Mexico-- Finnegan points out-- it's frequently impossible to know who's behind something: a massacre, a candidacy, a murder, the capture of a crime boss, the "uncovering" of acts of corruption in high places. The truth tends to be too difficult, or too fluid, or too complex to define, or it remains in the hands of the person charged with its manipulation. This explains how a city in the hands of an international crime organization, which is what the Sinaloa Cartel is, continues to be a refuge for fine literature and legitimate economic viability. Both descriptions are accurate and both realities are being threatened by the Zetas. Guadalajara-- like many other areas in the country-- is a territory under siege.

     Guadalajara provides evidence of the cost of a strategy that instead of reducing violence, has contributed to exacerbate it. The murder in 2010 of Ignacio Coronel, the King of Crystal, brought with it the end of the precarious peace that had characterized the city. The Zetas have tried to fill the vacuum by allying themselves aggressively with local groups dissatisfied with the Sinaloa Cartel. The growing number of dead bodies has become the way to send messages. If a corpse lacks a finger, that means that he fingered someone; if the legs are missing, it means he switched gangs; if his tongue is missing, it's because he said something he was not supposed to; if a hand is missing, he was a thief.

     Today, the PRI returns to power, pushed in great measure by the (special) interests it benefited. But it returns to a context (sic) in which there are no longer just a few cartels with which to make pacts or negotiate with. The Calderon strategy of capturing crime bosses has led to fragmentation, to  dispersion, to the rise of smaller and more violent factions. And one can't say that there's a unified government that pursues criminals consistently and forcefully. The low intensity civil war that afflicts the country is taking place among factions with changing loyalties, in towns and cities with interwoven histories. As Finnegan underlines, the "government" has innumerable faces-- starting with more than 200,000 police officers-- and its mechanisms for controlling corruption are too weak. The "narcobillions" permeate every community, every official, every commander. In practice, many at the local level aren't trying to deal with crime, but, rather, they are trying to position themselves in the lead.

     Guadalajara's worst problems aren't related to the explosive growth in the production of methamphetamine, but to inter-gang violence, robbery, growing addiction and the recruitment of young people,. Faced with that, the police are too corrupt to be able to take action. The Army is too distant from the local reality to be able to counterattack. There are few arrests and few convictions. Safety at the local level has deteriorated since the Zetas came.  And, like a local policeman said, "Things have to change or we'll end up like Afghanistan. The new president must change things."

     It's not exactly clear how he's going to do this. The simple fact that El Chapo Guzman remains free after so many years reveals a shift in the balance of power between the State and organized crime. Under the PRI, crime groups prospered, but, at the end of the day, the federal government dictated the terms of their coexistence. There were lines of command that the cartels did not dare cross. Today, they do it with impunity. Nobody in Mexico thinks that the government is in control of the situation, and the street blockages by the narcos a few months ago in Guadalajara suggest clearly that it is not.

     According to recent estimates, El Chapo employs-- directly or indirectly-- 150,000 people. His influence, including his popularity, have grown. Under the PAN, he has become a multimillionaire who appeared in Forbes magazine two years in a row, and his capture would probably have no effect on the buoyant drug market. What's even worse, the power of organized crime in Mexico has taken hostage a great portion of the country's territory, including its principal cities. It terrorizes the rest with a show of violence that is stunning. The Zetas are active in 17, and the Sinaloa Cartel in 16, of the 32 states. That's the reality that Enrique Pena Nieto must deal with. Today, tomorrow and the day after.

Body Parts Found on Train

July 19, 2012, 3:45 am

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Borderland Beat


Crime Scene From Guadalajara

 In less than a week more human remains appeared on a road near Guadalajara-Piedras Negras train platforms, between the Irapuato and Silao stations.

The victims most likely were murdered and dismembered in Jalisco and their remains placed in plastic bags, on the train, according to the investigator working under the Attorney General of Justice of Guanajuato.

On Thursday three bodies all dismembered were placed into eight plastic bags found around some of the platforms of the trains between the community of San José Villalobos, at the Irapuato and Silao station.

Yesterday afternoon authorities were alerted to the discovery two bags, the incident was reported to the Municipal police of Silao, rather than from the community of San José Villalobos, in Irapuato, however authorities were also alerted to suspicious packages on another part of the train.

Upon arrival in Silao around noon, train security confirmed the existence of the bags and notified the public prosecutor's Office and ministerial police, who found an arm, part of the forearm and the left hand of a male body inside one the train’s compartments.

The second bag had a torso also male, said the Director of preliminary inquiries of the Attorney of the region, Laura Edith Ortega.

"We conducted a search along the route of the train of Irapuato to San José de Villalobos, no more remains or bags was found," she said.

She explained that the main line of research is pointing to the victims, both found on July 12 as related to those found yesterday, and are not believed to have been killed in Guanajuato territory.

"Both trains come from Guadalajara;" one theory is that they were killed in that State. "We are asking collaboration in Jalisco to know if they have any record of disappeared that match the descriptions," he explained.

Such information shall be compared with the results of DNA tests practiced each of body parts, as well as a fingerprint that was recovered from one of the hands of the victims.

She also added that the bodies also showed signs of rot.

http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=314422

Matamoros drug connection to Brownsville kidnapping & murder

July 19, 2012, 9:34 am

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Valley Central News

By: Hannah Linn

A slew of authorities, from the local and federal level, surrounded Roberta Road off Expressway 77 in Brownsville Wednesday, after the body of 22-year-old Reyes Gilberto Bocanegra was found in the back seat of his white Tahoe.

Brownsville Police said the man was shot execution style. They said it began with Bocanegra’s kidnapping from the restaurant Mariscos Playa Azul, located on the 300 block of Military Highway. They continue reviewing surveillance video captured at the restaurant, looking for leads to the suspects.

According to witnesses, police said, Bocanegra put up a fight.

"He was taken by force in a vehicle, and he put up a struggle,” Interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said. “Witnesses did say that he, at one time, looked like he had forced a window open and was sticking his head out the window."

Rodriguez said they have yet to determine a motive for the murder, but preliminary evidence indicates it was drug related. He adds that the suspects weren’t out to harm people at the restaurant, but were specifically there for Bocanegra. They add the victim had a lengthy criminal record.

"This is drug related - there's actually a history with this individual for narcotics and alien smuggling,” Rodriguez said. “He has done some time."

Police have not confirmed if Bocanegra was an owner, employee or customer at the restaurant.

They're also trying to figure out if there was a get-a-way vehicle, and exactly how many suspects were involved in the hit.

Rodriguez wants to ensure citizens that Brownsville is a safe city.

"This is important that we get this out to the public,” Rodriguez said, “Brownsville is safe for individuals who are not involved with this type of activity.”


Related news:

Man kidnapped at gunpoint, found dead

The Torture Palaces: Elite Dungeons

July 24, 2012, 1:04 am

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Looking for "halcones" (lookouts), state police detain and torture motorcycle riders.

Rio Doce. 7-23-2012

Luis Fernando Najera

In Los Mochis, it's dangerous to be young and ride a motorcycle

He felt the blow when he was already on the ground. His cheeks were burning like crazy and a tactical boot was pressing down on his chest. The burning concrete made his skin sizzle, as if a piece of fresh, moist meat had fallen on boiling oil, but he couldn't complain because the barrel of a rifle was stuck in his mouth. Afterwards, he was lifted off the ground and another round of blows stunned him, almost to the point that he forgot who he was.

He managed to pay attention to what was happening when he heard his cousin's cries. His cousin, a minor, was in the grip of other ministerial policemen. The elite cops, the ones quartered in this area.

He's afraid, very afraid of telling his story. And he's got some pretty heavy reasons for that. The elites, after torturing him for almost twelve hours inside the walled yards of the Ministerial State Police, photographed him, they took his credentials and stole his cell phone, including his watch. Before they took him into a holding cell of the Municipal Police, the abusive sister agency of the Ministerial police, they showed him photographs of his wife and children, and they made a sinister promise: "If you talk or file a complaint against us, they die. We know where you live, cabron. So you know, you talk, you die."

But with fear and all, he still tells his story. His bosses, indignant, support him. Their support gives him courage. But he has conditions; no names, don't even mention his work place, because the cops kept everything. "They even took my belt and apron."

Juan, that's what we'll call him in this story, works two jobs to support his family. Under the sun, he's a construction worker, and at night, an all-around employee. That's why he's always busting his ass to keep up with the two work schedules.

On Thursday of last week, he was already late 40 minutes, time he planned to make up by working late, when he asked one of his teenage cousins for a ride. They both got on the motorcycle and took off from the west side of the city towards the first commercial district.

Near an auto parts store, the elites knocked them down off the bike, and the last thing he remembers about those few seconds is a metallic taste in his mouth.

Tied up, they drove them to the fortified Ministerial facilities and separated them. Him, they left under a tree and afterwards placed him against a wall, with his head stuck into his shoulders. They ordered him to close his eyes and used wide blindfolds to block his sight. Only his mouth and nose were left uncovered.

He let them lead him. He doesn't know what they made him lie on, whether it was the patrol vehicle's hood or a board, but he felt two cops sit on top of his body, one on both his legs, on his ankles, and the other on his genitals.

The first questions came: "Who's your boss? Who are you working as lookout for? What do you work at? Who did you steal those things from?" After listening to his answers, the elites weren't convinced, and told him he would be interrogated using the traditional methods for getting a statement. Suddenly, a lot of blows. First the head, then the stomach.

Annoyed, the cops increased the intensity of the torture, and made fun of him saying he couldn't take the heat.

Open your snout, ordered one of the belligerent cops. He was unable to do that. They opened it with a blow. He closed his mouth when they rammed the neck of a plastic bottle down his throat and squeezed it to force the water down. They wanted to drown him, but they weren't able to do it. More blows loosened his stomach.

A change in tactics: a sheet on his face, which was already half covered with the blindfold, and a plastic bag covering both. Water and more water. Again the beating, water and more water entering through his nose and mouth. Brief periods of unconsciousness then a violent wake up; he manged to survive that part of the torture.

Then came the steel drum: blindfolded, they lifted him in the air and put him in it, not once, but many times, so many that he lost count. They would only pull him out so he could breathe and, according to them, finger his boss, his organization, the lookout.

A thousand times he told them who he was, where he worked, but having taken his life by force, the elites didn't believe him. At that moment, they were gods and decided who was to live and who to die, because, in the end, the hoods prevented their identification, and, without registration numbers, nobody can identify the patrol vehicles. And, in case that happens anyway, they can claim that the vehicles were cloned, or better, that the incident was a mistake caused by the stress they, the cops, live under, they told him this when they were about to let him go.

These explanations, which prove the criminal conduct of the Elite Police, almost made Juan urinate and defecate in his pants.

Finally, they decide to let him go. And they tell him that he will be sentenced to death if he talks or denounces the incidents.

He's taken to the Municipal Police booking station. There, he admits that the blows he suffered were because he was drunk, the same reason he lost all his belongings. He's jailed, not a few hours, but almost a day. That night he pukes blood and all his body hurts. He knows he made it, for the moment, because a few yards from where he was, they are torturing another motorcycle rider, but in the municipal cells.

His cousin had it worse and he is almost dead, but from fear.

Days after they were tortured by the elites, Juan finds out from the newspaper that the body of an unidentified person was found near the Primero de Mayo community. Actually, he read, it was Juvencio Quiroz Ibarra, a 42 year old businessman, a resident of Colonia Scally, who liked to wear boots and "gotcha" pants that, at first glance, resembled "tactical" gear.The businessman was blindfolded, with the same ties and knots the elites used on him. And Juan trembles, he just trembles.

Juan's story is similar to the stories that five other employees in the same department store have told their managers. These managers have referred the cases to their superiors, because in their view, the police abuse may result in the death of their employees.

From admiration to hate

"I used to admire them, because the papers said they got it on with gunmen and paid killers; those guys have balls, I thought often, but now I don't think like that; what's more, I think that they deserve whatever the killers do to them, because these sons of bitches are animals, with their damned fear, their fucking hoods, in a bunch, without anything to identify them, they act like sons of bitches with you, with any poor bastard who doesn't have anybody to defend him. They fucked me over good, just because they can do it, but now I wish them death."

This is the way Ricardo talks, who works in another department store that has several branches in the city. 

The day his life got complicated, he had left work almost 60 minutes after midnight. He was riding his motorcycle home, praying he would not get robbed or that some reckless driver wouldn't run him over or that he would not get hit by some stray bullet.

"God heard my prayers and protected me, but he let out these blue and black uniformed sons of bitches," he says.

Going at less than 30 miles per hour, he slowed down his motorcycle when he saw the patrol vehicles. "You have to respect these guys because they lay it on the line", he thought, and he even remembers he nodded his head at them.

He doesn't know what triggered their rage, but, as if shot from a spring, they caught him. "They gave me a super beating, and they insisted that I was a lookout (halcon), and bam!, more blows. I thought I was in a safe house, but no, I was in the holding cells."

"The cells, the grass, the rocks, everything is from inside that place. And there's no arguing with them, because they brag they've got the support of their bosses, from the chief to the mayor."

"We can fuck over anybody we want, and what, dude? Not even your little lawyers can do anything to us."

That's what they told me and no choice but to believe them. But that's OK, dude, I thought they were good guys, I defended them, but I won't do that again. If somebody fucks them over, it's because they deserve it, and it's too bad, in their sin is their punishment."

Carrasco will be placed on the witness stand 

Made aware of the abuses of authority by the constant complaints by members of the city council, the mayor Zenen Aaron Xochihua Enciso stated that the chief of police will be called to appear before the city council to offer explanations to the city leaders.

"The Commission on Political Reconciliations has asked Carrasco to appear before them. We're organizing it and negotiating the terms for his appearance. We don't know whether it will be in private or in public. We'll know what kind of appearance it will be when we have an agreement, but it will not be soon because we have other priorities on the agenda," said the mayor in response to reporters' questions.

He recognized that council members of the opposition have felt uneasy with the chief of the Municipal Police for what they consider police abuses and excesses against the civilian public, mostly young people, and, in some cases, against the city leaders.

"It may be due to confusion," the Mayor offered, "but that should be explained by the chief himself to the complainants."

The operation against license plates

At the General Offices of the Municipal Police and Traffic, nobody will explain the operation against motorcyclists that is the basis for torturing civilians. The interim director, Jesus Carrasco Ruiz, refuses to see reporters because they make him uncomfortable and he chooses to hide in his brick and Sheetrock offices, flanked by police officers.

In their own headquarters, lower ranking commanders see in notebooks, recorders and cameras a case that involves terror, and they likewise flee. The secretaries have run out of explanations and don't know what to tell reporters when they come out and say, "He won't see you, he's got a lot of work."

Only the chief of the docket court, Juan Lopez Cardona, an administrative, not a political, authority, reveals that from July 6 to date they have brought in 55 motorcycles because they didn't have license plates. Nobody gets fined, but rather, the case is turned over to Traffic. Some of those units have been taken by ministerial (police).

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You May Want To Ignore Mexico: But If Americans Remain Indifferent, We’ll All Pay the Price

July 24, 2012, 9:37 am

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Borderland Beat

Federal Government Photo

by Andrés Martinez
When the second most powerful man in Mexico’s government, the cabinet member leading the war against the drug cartels, died in a helicopter crash.

Mexicans were stunned: Francisco Blake Mora was President Felipe Calderón’s second interior secretary to die in an air crash in three years.

North of the border, Blake’s death did not make the TV networks’ evening newscasts. A stringer for one of them in Mexico told me that unless Calderón is gunned down by the cartels in broad daylight, the network bosses aren’t interested. Saturday’s Los Angeles Times carried the news on page A-5; The Washington Post did so on A-6. Only The New York Times, exercising sounder judgment, carried the news on the front page.

Initial indications point to an accident in the Blake case, but, for obvious reasons, the possibility of foul play is being investigated. The Mexican government has had a lot of recent success in hunting down the leaders of some of the most powerful criminal organizations on earth (a success that hasn’t translated into diminishing violence or a reduction in the flow of drugs across the border). That’s why few people, anywhere, had a longer list of resourceful enemies than Blake Mora did.
              (Photo:Blake Mora) 

That said, even if Blake Mora had passed away in his sleep, the death of Mexico’s interior secretary would be big news.

(The Spanish designation for the title, Gobernación, conveys its sweeping writ.) And I can’t help but think that the death of a similarly important Afghani or Iraqi security official would have registered more on the American media-scape.

The truth is, American media elites—not to mention the man on the street—aren’t invested, or even much interested, in the fate of Mexico. When I became the assistant editor of the New York Times editorial page, I was asked if I’d been to Israel. No, I answered, and soon found myself on a plane heading for Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, where I’d spend a fascinating week meeting with players from all sides in a long-running saga that I’d followed for years but never experienced up close. I wasn’t going to be the lead writer on Mideast editorials, mind you, nor did we lack for deep expertise on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No, the issue was that one couldn’t be part of the newspaper’s leadership without having a first-hand sense of a place deemed so strategically important.

Mexico, clearly, doesn’t have that status. I think it should, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why it doesn’t. Yes, I grew up in Mexico, but there’s a lot more to it than that. More than 40,000 people have died in Mexico since its government decided to take on drug cartels that are nourished by American consumers and armed by U.S. gun dealers. There is an almost direct causal link between Wall Street bankers doing blow or Occupy Wall Street protesters getting high and journalists and elected officials getting assassinated in Mexico. Not only is this violence undermining a democracy next door; we as Americans are responsible for much of it. At a time when the idea of socially responsible consumption has swept this country—think of the anti-sweatshop movement, the Darfur divestment campaigns, Fair Trade coffee, and so on—we take in the violence in Mexico with barely a nod.

For starters, then, the issue of our moral culpability alone should make Mexico matter to us. But, beyond that, the growing strength of these transnational criminal organizations is a threat to the rule of law north of the Rio Grande as well.

Intimidating and bribing officials might be easier in Mexico than in it is in the United States, but it would be foolish to pretend that these criminal behemoths, headquartered in Mexico but making tens of billions a year operating in our country, won’t succeed in corrupting the rule of law in any number of southwest jurisdictions.

There are also plenty of non-drug-war-related reasons why American media (and political) elites should pay more attention to Mexico. Did you know that, last year, the United States imported more oil from Mexico than it did from Saudi Arabia? Or that this safe, reliable source of oil (second only to Canada) may soon cease being a net exporter of oil, unless it embraces needed reforms that would allow for more investment in its production capacity? Given how much time we spend in this country fretting about our dependence on oil from the Middle East, maybe we should spend a little more thinking about the North American market and Mexico’s role as a counterweight to Middle East sources.

Our lack of appreciation for Mexico cuts both ways, because we ignore the good along with the bad. And there is plenty of good. Despite rising violence, Mexico is more democratic than it has ever been. Mexico is also the second-largest buyer of U.S. goods in the world, belying the idea of an impoverished country at the mercy of our generosity. Brazil, China, and India get a lot of buzz among U.S. elites for their rise out of poverty, but Mexico is further along in that transformation, with a higher standard of living than those nations, a thriving middle class, and more than a decade of sound economic and financial stewardship resulting in unparalleled stability. It’s a G-20 nation that offers a phenomenal market for U.S. goods, as the executives of any number of multinationals that rely on Mexico for a healthy share of their profits (such as Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, and Citicorp, to name a few) will tell you—or would tell you, if the political environment weren’t currently so hostile to the idea of businesses investing abroad.

Last week, I was shepherding a delegation from Zócalo Public Square, the New America Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute through Mexico. We met with political and economic analysts, journalists, and five of the contenders vying to be elected Mexico’s next president. Reflecting Mexico’s traditional backwater status, a majority of our delegation—including such accomplished journalists as Steve Coll (former Washington Post managing editor), Susan Glasser (editor of Foreign Policymagazine), and Franklin Foer (editor-at-large of The New Republic)—had never been to Mexico City. I asked people on the trip for their gut, one-word reaction to the place. The most interesting (if two words) might have been “public art.” I also got “world-class,” “money,” “inequality,” “traffic,” and, perhaps most fittingly, “contradictions.”

A number of us did a TV show with respected Mexican journalist Sergio Sarmiento (whose network, TV Azteca, is part of the Salinas Group, our host in Mexico City and at the Ciudad de las Ideas conference in Puebla) on the question of whether Mexico matters to the United States. (We agreed that it should matter but doesn’t—an answer at odds with the notion many Mexicans have of U.S. elites eager to micromanage their nation’s destiny.) I insisted that this would change over time (for one thing, we have a least 15 million U.S. residents who were born in Mexico), but frankly I am not so sure.

There are many reasons Mexico punches below its weight in the collective mindshare of U.S. elites. One underappreciated reason is that, despite present anxieties over drugs and immigration, Mexico has been a fairly desirable neighbor. Even after the United States annexed half of its territory, Mexico has been a peaceful, sensible neighbor for most of our shared history. The United States has had the rare luxury, for a continental power, of not having to deploy large armies to secure its borders throughout history. Thanks to Canada and Mexico, we could behave like an island nation.

American elites, too, have had the luxury of ignoring Mexico, and proximity has bred contempt. Had our neighbor been more of a threat (imagine if Mexican terrorist suicide bombers made it a habit of crossing the border to reclaim California or Arizona), generations of our best and brightest would have been attracted to the study of Spanish and Mexico, the way they once were drawn to Russia and are now drawn to the Middle East. Meanwhile, for vast majorities of Americans, impressions of Mexico are formed by the flows of drugs and migrant workers—with maybe a stint at a Mexican beach resort. And, speaking of immigration, you may not have noticed the underreported story that the flow of immigrants has nearly ceased as the job market has constricted in this country (they really docome to work).

The story down south is decidedly mixed—one of many positive trends imperiled by rising violence and a lingering authoritarian political culture. Our delegation’s talks with leading politicians were disheartening on many topics, but heartening insofar as they seem less obsessed than ever with what the United States is or isn’t doing to Mexico.

Now we just need American elites to become a little more obsessed with what is happening south of the border. There is an imperative, and an opportunity, to start thinking more strategically about North American development and competitiveness. Mexico is an important, if underappreciated, partner for a number of positive reasons. And, if all hell breaks loose there, the United States, simply by having the power to have been a better (and less drug-ravenous) neighbor, will bear a large part of the blame. That’s another reason to start paying closer attention .

Source: Zocalo Public Square

Diablo Confirms The Executed Were His Family-Sends Message With Decapitation Video

July 25, 2012, 3:44 am

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Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

“Nothing helps... neither threat nor prayer.
One man talks well, the other's mum;
it's the other one that I prefer.
He's silent but I like his looks”

The above lyrics are an extract from “Habanera”, the classical aria used in “Silence of the Lambs”, it was also selected for decapitation ambiance by “El Diablo” in his latest execution video.

The video appeared Tuesday, it depicts the interrogation and decapitation of at least one man  who in his  interrogation states he works for the Zetas cartel. The video is the work of "El Diablo"  the leader of a brutal group of sicarios in the NE Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

It was two weeks ago that a Zetas execution video was released that featured the decapitation of four members of Diablos family, his; mother, brother, sister and sister-in-law.  At the time, bloody revenge was anticipated by all that follow the Narco war.    However, if one is to believe Diablos message with respect to the execution of his family, he states the executions were  "not a problem",  it illustrates the psychopathic nature of the man known for his exceptionally monstrousexecutions.

This execution is of a "halcon" Halcones (Hawks) are lookouts for organized crime organizations.  They are hired to follow the movements of the police agencies and military. They are at the bottom of the organizational order.  Often Halcones are teens.  For sicarios (hit men) to capture a halcon for execution is an easy feat, far from hiding, their jobs require they are out in the open and they are easy to spot.  It would seem  such a pitiful statement to the brutal execution of his family, as to pick up a lowly halcon, and execute him to send a message.  In this case however, though the victim says he is a halcon, he also states he is the brother of a Zetas sicario, one that his executioner refers to in the video  as "El Pelon".  "El Pelon" of the Zetas is not a high profile sicario that this reporter is aware of, therefore I am unable to provide further information on the individual.

The video is of very poor quality, however it has enough clarity to know the execution was brutal. The sicarios used  a large folding saw to behead the man, he was subjected to the severing  and removal of his tongue prior to being decapitated.

The video was filmed in Cd. Victoria, Tamaulipas

The video begins  with the message in the photo above which reads:

Ya chingaron a mi familia no hay pedo todos sabemos en lo que andamos.

Van a llorar sangre vamos a ver quien es mas verga culeros y los va llevar la verga a todos los mugrosos "Z" con todo y familia ya me lo hicieron a mi ahorra va la mia.

Translation:

"You already fucked my family up but no problem we all know what we are into. You will cry blood and we'll see who's more of a badass fucking assholes and all the dirty motherfuckers "Z" are gonna get fucked up along with all their families you already did to me so now it’s my turn"

Narrative Translated:

Sicario: What’s your name?

Zeta: Mario Alberto …

Sicario: What did you do for work?

Zeta: We give information to the zetas

Sicario: Who got you in?

Zeta: I asked for work there in *inaudible*

Sicario: As a halcon?

Zeta: Yes

Sicario: And your brother?

Zeta: My brother works for the zetas

Sicario: And what does your brother do?

Zeta: He's an estaca (sicario)

Sicario:  What is your commandante's name?

Zeta: Candado

Sicario: And whose that punk?

Zeta: He's a commandante, but I don't know him

Sicario: And the rest of the people?

Zeta: They all got the fuck out of here

Sicario: Why?

Zeta: They can’t be around here, they are afraid

Sicario: And why is that?

Zeta: There are too many laws they are just scared 

Sicario: Tell me where are the taxis that work as halcones for the zetas?

Zeta: Victoria

Sicario: What’s the numbers of the halcones?

Zeta: 1211

Sicario: This is what’s gonna happen to all the people who keep supporting the dirty (Los Zetas).You are scared and can’t fight this war no more. You ain't worth a fuck! Look Pelon, here’s your brother, here is your brother asshole.

Sicario: Say sorry to Comandante Diablo and El Rey de Reyes

Zeta: I’m sorry Comandante Diablo and Senor Rey de Reyes

Zeta: Forgive me for being part of the filth. Forgive me for being part of the filth

Sicario: For all of the people and sting like the filth, go fuck yourself. Comandante diablo is coming for you assholes.

Heard are the sicarios enjoying themselves watching  the condemned man being savagely tortured, enthusiastically laughing as a one sicario begins cutting off the victim’s tongue.

Sicario: You all are going to die fucking bastards. Open his legs open his legs. Open your legs open your legs. This has to be seen, this has to be seen. No… it won’t be seen. Stand him up, stand him up. It can’t be seen. He just died. The fun is over…

As the Zeta is screaming, the sicarios are laughing:
Sicario: Kill him like a dog. This is going to happen to all the filthy people. Keep supporting them assholes. Comandante is going to kill you all fuckers. Let me finish him, let me finish him. Here you go assholes, keep reporting to soldiers. Long live El Diablo Culeros. This is from Comandante Rey De Reyes. Here come the filthy people.

THIS VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE INCLUDING A DECAPITATION

Thank you to Milo and 777 of Borderland Beat forum for the translations

Note:  Narrative has been revised for greater accuracy.  Huge thanks to readers who sent information and to 777 for taking the task to view the video once again to glean better narrative from the audio.

Fierce Shootout In Juarez-Police Agencies vs El Chapo's Sicarios

July 25, 2012, 10:54 pm

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Borderland Beat

Chief Leyzaola shares a laugh with reporters after the intense gun fight

A firefight among ministerial, federal and municipal police with an armed group that barricaded themselves in an address located in vicinity of the Avenue Municipio Libre and Libertad Street, created terror among the inhabitants of that section and resulted in two deaths and 3 arrests.

The Municipio Libre Avenue, at the height of the Carlos Adame Street was closed to vehicle traffic, while in Globo Street, lay the bodies of two persons killed in the brutal shootout.

According to official records, at least 10 men took cover in a two story building located on Ulises Irigoyen Street. At  that point they confronted the authorities, from 8:20 pm for about one hour until they were subdued.

The aggressors were constantly challenging the corporations and at least one of them identified himself as municipal agent.

The Municipal Police snipers placed SSPM to repel aggression, while the perpetrators often interfered with police radio frequency and challenged the corporation by issuing warnings such as “Do not mess with Salvador Chairez”. Chairez is a local leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The vicinity was bursting with  police officers of all corporations and fire elements. Usage among the different radio bands was compromised, which prompted  the Federal Police to contract  the armor vehicle “Rhino”, and advance to the area of the intense gunfire. The bullet-proof vehicle was  used to blast through the door of the building and subdue  the gun men, whom one of them was a municipal police.

Julian Leyzaola, chief of this corporation, stated that the  clash started when a kidnapping attempt of a woman was reported to the Municipal Police and agents of this corporation located the group that was travelling with long guns in sight.

After following them, the men took cover in the building of the Colonia Chavena, located in the streets of Municipio Libre and Ulises Irigoyen, which in minutes the gunmen were surrounded causing the confrontation, he added.

The chief detailed that two aggressors died and two were injured while one more was unharmed.

Source: DiarioTV-La Jornada

Thank you to Jlopez of Borderland Beat forum for the heads up on the story

Death in Durango: 6 die

July 26, 2012, 9:00 pm

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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of six unidentified individuals were killed or were found dead in drug or gang related violence in Durango state, according to Mexican news reports.

• Four men were found shot to death in Santiago Papasquiaro municipality early Wednesday morning, according to a news item posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily.  The victims were found near a dirt road at its terminus in the village of Francisco Javier Leyva.
• An unidentified woman in her 20s was found shot to death Sunday in Gomez Palacio municipality, according to a news item posted on the website of El Contexto de Durango news daily.  The victim was found on a road near the ejido San Isidro shot once in the head.
• An unidentified man in his early 20s was found shot to death in Gomez Palacio municipality Tuesday afternoon, according to a news report posted on the website of El Contexto de Durango news daily.  The victim was found near the ejido Santa Rita shot in the head.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

62 Mexican Policias Federales kidnapped in Michoacan

July 26, 2012, 9:00 pm

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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com


A total of 62 Policia Federal (PF) agents have been kidnapped in Uruapan municipality in Michaocan state, according to a several Mexican news accounts.

Twelve PF agents apparently happened upon a roadblock maintained by local indigenous Angahuan and Carapan Indians when they were taken prisoner   Indigenous Indians are protesting illegal logging in the Meseta Purepecha area, according to a report posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily.

According to a late article posted on thw website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, a total of 50 additional PF agents were kidnapped. The article failed to elaborate when and where the additional police were kidnapped.

The roads between Uruapan and Paracho, and Los Reyes and Zamora are being blocked as well as roads near Angahuan Capacuaro, Santa Cruz Tanaco and Tlazazalca.  Those stretches of roads are less than seven kilometers from Cheran municipality, where continual protests against activity residents have claimed as illegal logging has taken place the past two years.

Wednesday a Michoacan government news release said that at least three mixed operating bases would be established in the areas around Cheran, Paracho and Santa Cruz Tanaco. BOM or Base de Operaciones Mixtas, is a mixture of federal and state security forces. The mixing of security forces from all levels of gvoernment is a practice in routine use in Nuevo Leon state to counter drug gangs operating in the area, and to provide patrols.

According to the El Sol de Mexico article the kidnappings are a response to the Michoacan state government plan to beef up security forces in the area.  PF have also been asked to leave the area by indigent Indians.

The news release, which names Michoacan governor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa said a number of repeated meetings would take place to assess the security situation in the area.

The uptick in activity takes place in the wake of the murder of two Cheran residents two weeks ago near Cheran.  The victims, Urbano Macias Rafael, 48, and Guadalupe Geronimo Velazquez, 28 were kidnapped as they attempted to bring in cattle from the fields.  A protest by Cheran residents not only locked local officials in the town hall, but also took place in the capital of Morelia at the legislative palace.

The two men were later found dead.

Issues for local indigenous Indians in Michoacan boil down to illegal use of lands they consider tribal and sacred.  Residents of Cheran have been protesting illegal logging and organized crime activity in the area for years.

Even so, indigenous Indians such as the residents of Cheran have allegedly themselves been involved  in a number of illegal acts such as auto theft carjacking, illegal roadblocks and imposition of illegal duties, as well a number of other petty crimes.

Michoacan is one of the six most heavily reinforced states in Mexico with at least 8,000 Mexican army troops deployed to the area.  Those troops along with elements of Mexican Naval Infantry troops and Policia Federal troops were ordered into the state to provide additional security for the November 2011 elections.  Those troops have only been reinforced since then.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

Mutilated and imprisoned...as discipline

July 27, 2012, 3:00 am

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Proceso. 7-26-2012

He acted at all times in compliance with the dictates of military protocol. Health Lieutenant Nestor Ramirez tried to control insubordination and, believing his life was in danger, killed a subordinate. But he didn't know that, apparently, he was surrounded by soldiers working for drug traffickers, who, in addition, injured him so severely that he lost his legs...today he is mutilated, in jail and accused of homicide. 

Mexico, D.F. When Health Lt. Nestor Ramirez Bautista saw that two trailer trucks were hitching and unhitching boxes in the yards of the International Bridge No. 2, in Piedras Negras, he knew something was wrong. Even though he was on break, he decided to order his subordinates to inspect the loads.

Flanked by a private and a corporal, he summoned the drivers of the tractor trailers, which he thought were acting nervously. The drivers admitted they were transporting an illegal substance. To corroborate this, Ramirez approached the first vehicle, but, before he got there, the private took off running.

The corporal was the only one who agreed to climb onto the truck, but once on top of the tractor trailer, instead of obeying the order, he called the military base on his cell phone. He told them that Lt. Ramirez had gone crazy and wanted to inspect a clean trailer.

Nestor Ramirez is a health lieutenant, that is, a military nurse. His superiors decided to place him in charge of an armed unit. Complaining was useless. "These are operational needs," he was told when they made him commander and put him in charge of a handful of soldiers that were guarding the border crossing between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Eagle Pass, Texas.

He was used to certain rudeness from those who had trained for combat roles. But never insubordination like this. He became suspicious.

When he heard what the corporal was saying on his cell phone, he pointed his weapon at him and ordered him to get off the vehicle. He disarmed him while other soldiers approached to try to calm him down. Suspicious of all of them, he ordered them to lower their weapons and brought them under control, shooting twice at the ground. But the corporal's call had summoned four reinforcements who got there aboard a Suburban. With two more shots to the ground he placed three more soldiers under submission. Bullet fragments from the shots fired into the concrete struck Private Juan Cortes Hernandez.

Yelling and making threats, one of the newly arrived soldiers refused to lower his weapon.

"Don't make a big deal, it's fixed, you're going to get screwed!", warned Zapper Corporal Onesimo Diaz Robles.

Military personnel hold weapons in three positions; they're called "low guard" (pointing the weapon at the ground), "middle guard" (pointing it to the front) and "high guard" (pointing it upwards). From a low guard, Lt. Ramirez fired two more times but  this didn't have any effect. Two more shots. Nothing. Corporal Diaz raised his guard, but before he fired, the lieutenant fired.

The bullet entered the thorax and exited through his neck. Onesimo was choking on his own blood and couldn't talk. Ramirez insisted:

--What's in the trailer? Who does the load belong to? -- he yelled at him.

The wounded corporal could only manage to wave his hands with his palms open, simulating wings. In the Army, that's a sign used for referring to Generals.

Ramirez believed that reinforcements would arrive at any moment. The shots echoed on the meadows around the customs office on Bridge No. 2, and they were heard on the Texas side the morning of April 24. He thought that help would come soon...and it did come.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw several military vehicles approaching fast. Trustingly, he remained with his back to them. He didn't want to lose sight of his subordinates. He heard doors open and close, the sound of boots on the ground...and a burst of bullets struck him on the legs.

At the discretion of the judge

The narrative of these events is contained in File No. 378/2012, and includes a video in DVD format, identified as "Videos Record 29 C.P. 300/2012" which makes the statement of Ramirez Bautista more coherent.

However, military justice Colonel Jose Antonio Romero Zamora, second judge of the First Military Region, refused to accept the disc as evidence and ordered that Ramirez Bautista, who lost his legs from the bullet wounds and from the way he was transported, be imprisoned.

Romero Zamora chose to accept the version given by the the insubordinate soldiers, and they ratified the version that was leaked to the media moments after the incident.

On that same day, April 24, several news services, among them El Universal, reported that an active duty Army soldier had wounded two of his fellow soldiers, one of whom died two hours later in  a local hospital. In quotes, the note cited an anonymous military source:

"It was after 9:00 this Tuesday morning when all of a sudden, for no reason at all, the soldier took out his weapon and began firing like crazy. First he shot into the air and then at his fellow soldiers, who were trying to calm him down."

That is how Lt. Ramirez was described, firing like a crazy person. But the statements from the other persons involved are contradictory.

For example, the wounded soldier, Juan Cortes Hernandez, asserted that while he was alongside Lt. Ramirez he noticed he was carrying a 9mm MP-5 submachine pistol, when in fact he used a 7.62 cal.
G-3 automatic rifle. At the hearing, the lieutenant's lawyers pointed out that the confusion is not believable, especially for a soldier with several years of service, since the MP-5 is a long weapon while the G-3 is short; the first is semi-automatic while the second is fully automatic. [Note; the Proceso writer is confused. The G-3 is a long weapon, and the MP-5 a shorter one. Both are selective fire.]  This was also rejected by the judge.

The DVD that was rejected as evidence by Judge Romero contains seven videos taken by the security cameras at the customs checkpoint, and, apparently, was provided by the defense for Lt. Ramirez. This reporter could not locate his lawyers.

The first video shows almost completely the scene described by the accused and mutilated lieutenant. In addition, it also showed the way the soldiers who shot him picked up the fired cases and the weapons, altering the (crime) scene. In general, forensic material is scarce in the investigation case number GN/CDACUNA/02/2012, with which the military trial started.

The forensic evidence in the file is so weak that it does not even include the  [sodium] rhodizonate test applied to Lt. Ramirez to determine whether he fired or not. Nor [does it include] the test for the others involved. It also does not contain the medical evaluation performed on Ramirez Bautista in Clinic 11 of the Piedras Negras IMSS (social security hospital), but it does contain the one performed when he left the General Military Hospital in Mexico City, two and a half months later, when Surgeon Major Juan Carlos Leon Cruz wrote that he did not show any signs of torture.

The military judge also did not want to accept testimony that contradicted the soldiers' version, on the basis that they were too far away. For example, the testimony of Military Public Ministry Major German Rodriguez Morales, the one who ordered cavalry sergeant Juan Carlos Ramos Roman to fire at the lieutenant's legs.

In the video, after the shot Lt. Ramirez fired at Corporal Diaz Robles, he Diaz can be seen squatting,  watching the arrival of the reinforcements, then being carefully led to a military vehicle, the same with Private Juan Cortes.

It gets worse. In the video one can see that Lt. Ramirez only fired once, although the death certificate for Corporal Diaz establishes that there were two, not one, bullet wounds. The second shot is unexplained and neither the prosecutor that led the investigation nor the military judge wanted to broaden the inquiry with respect to this matter.

As for Lt. Ramirez,  his fellow soldiers grabbed him by his wounded legs, carried him about 15 yards until they got to a pickup truck, where they threw him carelessly.

High impact nurse

He had arrived to the north of Mexico a few days before, coming from Tonala, Chiapas. The Defense Department decided that the 61st Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army, deployed there, would travel to Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, although its scope of operations was broadened to include Ciudad Juarez and several cities in Coahuila.

Lt. Ramirez had taken leave of his family on February 20, 24 hours after the Day of the Soldier, when according to newspaper reports, General Oswaldo Angel Sanchez Velasco, battalion commander, read the same speech that Defense Secretary Guillermo Galvan Galvan had read before Felipe Calderon in Mexico City.

"A united Mexico is stronger than the criminal factions, no matter how violent they may be. Reason and law are on our side." 

In Tonala, the battalion had already faced members of the Mara Salvatrucha and the Zetas that smuggled drugs and migrants through that zone. The arrival of the 21st Battalion to the north of the country was celebrated in the media, which published images in which could be seen the arrival of the huge military convoy.

But as the members of the battalion were distributed to Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Chihuahua, the units were disintegrated. Lt. Ramirez was placed among strangers.

Today he is in prison, accused of abuse of authority, homicide and injuries. He doesn't have legs any more and before his rehabilitation was complete he was interned in Military Camp Number 1.

Last (July) 6, the judge on the case asked for a medical evaluation to reactivate the proceedings for the murder charges. The (hospital) discharge order notes that Lt. Ramirez's vital signs are stable. It states also that he is post-operative after amputation of his lower extremities, in "physical therapy phase" that could be done at home, which is why "it was decided to release him."

Interned in the military prison, where there are no wheelchair ramps, toilets or showers for disabled persons, nor facilities where he can develop and carry out the rehabilitation he still needs, Lt. Ramirez was confined in the prison's sick bay, although, according to regulations, no intern may stay there permanently.

He has also lost all his benefits and half of his salary, although there's been no firm sentence issued in his case.

In his testimony, Ramirez declares that his actions were intended to prevent passage of two vehicles that were trying to take drugs into the United States, an activity related to the orders he had been given, because he was assigned to a "high impact operation."

In accordance with Article 6 of the Disciplinary Law  for the Army and the Air Force, the insubordination justified the use of force --in this case, the weapon-- to impose discipline. That is to say, Lt. Ramirez asserts that he acted in accordance with Army directives. He also argues that the judge did not take into consideration that Article 119 of the Code of Military Justice provides that self defense exempts a defendant from criminal responsibility.

Despite this, the lieutenant is charged with abuse of authority resulting in homicide and injuries.

With respect to the two tractor trailers mentioned in the file, and visible in the videos from the customs station, that disc the judge did not want to admit [into evidence] and about which he made no findings at all, there is no report or investigation because the other soldiers let them go.      

Mexican Marines Nab 5 Zetas, Seize $1.6 Million

July 27, 2012, 10:28 am

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Mexican marines detained five suspected members of the Zetas drug cartel this week and seized more than $1.6 million in cash, the Navy Secretariat said in a statement.

The arrests in Mexico City and in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz were the result of intelligence gathering and several operations conducted in recent days, the statement said.

Rafael Antonio Medina Rea and Ricardo Fuyivara Romero were detained Tuesday in this capital in possession of a suitcase with $880,000 in cash, as well as a handgun and a grenade.

The military personnel also detained suspected Zeta Jesus Rosas Ibarra on Wednesday in Mexico City and confiscated a box inside his vehicle with $730,890 in cash, as well as a handgun and another grenade.

According to the statement, authorities suspect Rosas Ibarra of serving since 2008 as a money manager for Los Zetas, a criminal gang notorious for its brutality.

Rosas Ibarra told authorities the two men detained Tuesday in the capital worked with him and were involved in transporting ill-gotten cash in hidden vehicle compartments.

The secretariat also said two men suspected of transporting money for the Zetas – Feliciano Ruiz Atilano and Rafael Vazquez Solis – were arrested Wednesday in Xalapa, capital of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Los Zetas, a group founded by deserters from a U.S.-trained Mexican special forces unit, started out as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, but the two criminal organizations had a falling out in 2010 and the Zetas went into the drug business on their own account, gaining control of several lucrative territories.

Even in the violent world of Mexican organized crime, the Zetas stand out for their propensity to dismember the bodies of their victims.

President Felipe Calderon, who will step down in December, gave marines, army soldiers and federal police the lead role in the battle against drug cartels shortly after taking office in 2006.

Source: EFE

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Treasury Targets Sinaloa Cartel Leader’s Corporate Network

July 27, 2012, 10:48 am

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From the archives that were awaiting publication:

By Samuel Rubenfeld
Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Treasury Department said Tuesday it slapped Kingpin Act sanctions on nine entities and 10 individuals linked to a leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, also known as El Azul, has used money from his involvement in the drug trade to build a network of businesses that includes a housing development, a shopping mall and an industrial park, Treasury said.

“While other Mexican narcotics traffickers have garnered and in some cases sought more attention, Esparragoza Moreno has purposely kept a low profile hoping to avoid scrutiny while increasing his influence and ill-gotten gains,” said Adam J. Szubin, director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement.  “His entire corporate network that was created with illicit drug proceeds is in our sights.”

El Azul, whom Treasury said has been active in the drug trade since the 1970s, was identified in 2003 under the Kingpin Act as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker. Sinaloa was identified in 2009.

He was indicted on drug-trafficking charges in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in 2003, and is wanted in both the U.S. and Mexico, Treasury said.
The U.S. State Department Narcotics Rewards Program is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to El Azul’s arrest, while Mexican authorities are offering 30 million pesos for information leading to his capture.

Six of the 10 individuals placed under sanctions Tuesday are members of El Azul’s family–two of his wives and four of his children. One of the wives owns property on his behalf. She, along with the four children she had with him who were sanctioned Tuesday, own and operate two companies that manage the property, where they developed a residential community and a shopping mall, Treasury said. One of the companies also manages an industrial park.

The other wife, along with three others, were slapped with sanctions for owning or controlling seven gas stations on El Azul’s behalf, Treasury said.

Zetas split: Would this bring more violence or peace for Mexico?

July 27, 2012, 11:03 am

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From the archives that were awaiting publication:

A weakening of the Zetas in the northeast may discourage the drug gang's forays into other parts of Mexico, but internal strife often leads to more murders, writes InSight Crime.

By Patrick Corcoran,
InSight Crime

Reports of a split between the two leaders of Mexico’s notorious Zetas drug gang suggest that a violent power struggle may be brewing in the group's northeastern home turf, a conflict which could shake the established order in the country's criminal underworld.

According to a new report from Proceso, the partnership of the Zetas' two main leaders – Heriberto Lazcano, alias “Z-3”, and Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, alias “Z-40” – has come under strain, and the two appear to be headed for an open confrontation.

In recent months, a series of public banners (known as “mantas”) and videos uploaded to the internet have made reference to the two Zeta leaders’ capacity for betrayal. One manta, which appeared both in Monterrey and Zacatecas on June 1, placed a photo of Lazcano amid several former Zeta leaders who have been killed or arrested over the past several years, implying that Mr. Lazcano arranged their downfalls so as to secure control of the group.

However, the manta also alleges that Mr. Treviño was involved in the betrayals and asks, “Are we better off with Lazca or Z-40?”, which suggests that the authors were either disgruntled lower-level Zetas or a rival group passing themselves off as such. A series of videos was posted online over the following days which referred to Treviño as the “New Judas” and accused him of using federal troops to have his fellow Zetas commanders picked off one by one.

The Proceso report points to Treviño as the more powerful of the two leaders today, with Lazcano evidently spending much of his time in recent years in foreign countries, among them Germany and Costa Rica.

But the tangle of accusations and apparent betrayals, which are far more numerous than those outlined above, suggests a breakdown in organizational structure that goes beyond the two principal leaders. As InSight Crime has noted in the past, this hypothesis is supported by the numerous incidents of disobedience in the ranks of the Zetas.

Proceso describes the 49 dead bodies left in along a highway in Nuevo Leon in May as another example of this phenomenon. According to the magazine, the local boss charged with carrying out the crime disobeyed Treviño in not tossing the bodies in a nearby town plaza, because of his worries about the backlash of such a provocation. Instead, he dumped the bodies along a comparatively remote stretch of highway, where they were subsequently discovered by authorities.

Treviño’s relative strength doesn’t assure that he’ll emerge victorious or (even less likely) strengthened by the internal strife. Indeed, the reports of internal decay make it likely that whatever the result of the recent tensions, the victorious capo will be heading a weaker organization.

Continuing degradation in the Zetas' command structure would likely be a source of violence in the group’s territories in the northeast, especially Veracruz, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas. Certainly, internal strife within a group typically leads to a sharp uptick in murders. Such has been the case in Mexico’s northeast for years: the 2010 conflict between erstwhile allies the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas has driven a sharp increase in murder rates in the state's named above.

A similar dynamic was at play in 2008, when the Beltran Leyva Organization split from the Sinaloa Cartel, which drove an outbreak in violence across wide swaths of western and southern Mexico. Or, further back, the split between the Carrillo Fuentes family and the Sinaloa Cartel following the latter’s murder of Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes in 2004 eventually precipitated the fight over Juarez that has turned the border town into Mexico’s most violent city for the past four years.

In such cases, the subsequent fighting may be initially motivated by revenge or personal hatreds, but the dispute for territorial control is often not far from the surface, and helps sustain the conflict for years to come.

For instance, Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes’ murder may have helped spark the tension that led to the fight for Juarez, but it was control of the border town itself, one of the busiest along the US-Mexico border, that turned a blood feud into something like a war zone.

However, a prolonged spiral of violence isn’t inevitable; the division between the Familia Michoacana and Caballeros Templarios, which followed the 2010 death of Familia boss Nazario Moreno, provoked a relatively mild increase in violence in Michoacan. Indeed, the state’s murder rate in 2011 (a little more than 17) remained below the national average (just shy of 21), and the rate through six months of 2012 is virtually identical.

A weakening of the Zetas in their home turf may also discourage the group’s forays into far-flung regions of Mexico, such as Jalisco or Sinaloa. The organization’s presence in such areas has led to a great deal of violence, and has helped cement the Zetas’ reputation as the most expansionist, destabilizing gang in Mexico. Should fighting at home lead bosses to call their gunmen deployed elsewhere back into the state’s northeastern home, this could lead to a lessening of tensions elsewhere.

Furthermore, reports that a significant chunk of the Zetas could align with the Gulf Cartel could be a key factor in determining the impact of the split.

If a resulting alliance is capable of overwhelming the divisions between the Gulf Cartel and Zetas bosses – i.e., if the Zetas resisting collaboration with other groups are eliminated from the industry – then it could ultimately turn into a driver of a more peaceful interaction between the various gangs in Mexico’s northeast.

That’s the most optimistic scenario, and while not implausible, unfortunately recent history suggests that it is not a particularly likely outcome.

– Patrick Corcoran is a writer for Insight – Organized Crime in the Americas, which provides research, analysis, and investigation of the criminal world throughout the region.. Find all of his research here.

Alleged Juárez Cartel Leader Arrested

July 27, 2012, 11:26 am

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From the archives that were awaiting publication:

By Lourdes Cárdenas
El Paso Times

A top leader of the Juárez drug cartel who was born in the United States was arrested Friday night in Mexico City, federal police authorities said.

Benjamin Valeriano Jr., also known as "El Cachitas," was identified as one of the main operators of the Juárez cartel. According to authorities, he worked for Guillermo Castillo Rubio, "El Pariente," who was arrested in 2012 and who was considered the second in command after Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who is known as "El Viceroy."

Valeriano, 32, was born in Pecos, Texas, and allegedly started his criminal career in 1998 distributing drugs in the United States, Mexican officials said. Later, he moved to Ojinaga, Chihuahua, where he was allegedly moving drugs from Parral, Jiménez, Camargo, Manuel Benavides and Villa Ahumada, Mexican authorities said.

Valeriano is on the most-wanted list of the Drug Enforcement Administration in El Paso. He was charged with continuing a criminal enterprise and conspiracy.

An affidavit in support of his extradition was filed in U.S. District Court in Pecos on Nov. 21, 2011.

The affidavit is based on Crispin Borunda-Cardenas' deposition in which he, as the former leader of a drug-trafficking organization in Chihuahua, stated that in 1997, Valeriano smuggled large quantities of marijuana from Mexico to the United States for his organization.

The affidavit states, "Valeriano was very successful and quickly began to oversee some marijuana smuggling operations for me. From 1997 through 2003, Valeriano conspired with me and others, both known and not known, to possess with intent to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana."

In the affidavit, Borunda-Cardenas said that he and Valeriano began to have problems about 2004 because other people were running their own drug-trafficking organization.

By that time, the affidavit continues, Carrillo Fuentes took control of the distribution of marijuana in Ojinaga. Then Carrillo Fuentes put Valeriano in charge of the "Ojinaga plaza."

Valeriano became part of the Juárez cartel command, almost at the same time that José Luis Ledezma, also known as "El JL," became the leader of "La Línea," the armed branch of the organization.

Valeriano was arrested in Lomas de Chapultepec, a wealthy neighborhood in Mexico City, where he supposedly moved after the arrest of José Antonio Acosta Hernández, also known as "El Diego." Acosta Hernández was extradited to the U.S.

Narcos Stealing Millions in Texas Oil Field Equipment

July 27, 2012, 7:36 pm

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Borderland Beat

Narcos buy or trade drugs for stolen oil field equipment  used to cap PEMEX pipelines, subsequently, trucking the PEMEX stolen oil back into the U.S. and selling it to American oil brokers....Chivis

KRGV - Investigators say Mexican cartels are stealing millions of dollars in equipment from oil companies along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Officials said the equipment is behind used to steal fuel from Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex.

"The cartels (are) buying, or trading narcotics for stolen oil field equipment so they could put taps on Pemex's pipelines," said Midland County Chief Sheriff Deputy Ed Krevit.

Many of the thefts are happening at oil fields in the Permian Basin.

"There's more oil field theft in this area than any place I've ever worked," said Dustin Brown, with Savanna Drilling.

Krevit estimates that Pemex may be losing up to $350 million a year from illegal taps on their pipelines.

He said cartels often truck the oil back to the U.S. where they sell it to oil brokers.

"Some of the cartels have been shouldered out of their traditional smuggling paths, so they've had to turn to other ways of generating revenue," Krevit said.

The cartels use the money to buy weapons and ammunition, he said.

"If they are doing it in West Texas, they're doing it in South Texas," said Phil Jordan, former DEA supervisor.

Jordan said there is intelligence that cartels are stealing equipment in South Texas.

More than a dozen companies drilled more than 3,000 wells in South Texas last year.

"If I'm losing equipment, losing parts, losing pieces, it's passed on to the operator and the operator has to pass it on to the consumer," Brown said.

Task force investigators said they are trying to stop the cartels in their tracks. They will start training law enforcement to spot oil field thefts.

Topics: oil field theft, permian basin, south texas, mexican

 

The Gang That Took on Chapo: Los Mazatlecos

July 28, 2012, 4:16 am

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By ACI for Borderland Beat

There has been a lot of talk of Choix and Northern Sinaloa lately.  Currently the area is at the center of the cartel wars.  With gun battles raging, mass exodus of civilians from their homes, the area harkens back to towns such as Meir or Saric.  Ghost towns, whose residents had to flee for fear of death; those who haven’t left yet stay inside, only venturing out if necessity.  Abandoned homes dot the landscape, homes which had been passed down generation after generation, inhabited now only by ghost of the past.  Gunmen roam the hills, these men bring the devil with them.  Those who have left, leave behind their culture, their history, their lives, everything they knew.  America doesn't like these stories, it shocks most who become aware.  As this nightmare continues the people of the Sierras can only watch as the outlaws battle it out, with federal forces in the middle.          

The man thought to be at the center of it all, is Chapo Isidro, he has been a character of interest for some time now.  Many wish to know how one man has been able to bring so much hell upon the Sinaloan Cartel.  The answer is not as simple as one would think, its a complex tapestry of what remains of the Beltran-Levya Organization.  Many of the leaders of los mazatlecos have been killed or arrested recently.  It is not yet clear how the group may recover from these loses but because they work closely with los zetas, it is difficult to discount this group.  So the question is who are the Mazatlecos?

Los mazatlecos are one of the largest groups working under the Beltran-Levya umbrella.  Los mazatleco’s took their name from their place of origin, Mazatlan, located on the southern coast of Sinaloa.  The city has long been prized by traffickers for its geographic location and its thriving port.  Mazatlan is one of busiest ports in Mexico.  Los Mazatlecos were at the direct service of El Mochomo before his arrest in 2008.  Since his arrest it is believed their loyalties have shifted to that of Hector Beltran-Levya.  The groups influence stretches from Sinaloa to the state of Nayarit and could be considered the largest and strongest cell operating under the Beltran Levyas as well as one of its last.

The mazatlecos leaderships came to light after the arrest of one of its patriarchs Geovany Lizarraga Ontiveros, who was arrested in Los Mochis in May of 2011.  The group attempted a daring rescue but failed and were repelled by elements of the military. 

Marcos Lizarraga Ontiveros the brother of Geovany was also arrested in May.  Geovany Lizarraga Ontiveros was thought to have given him control over distribution for the entire state of Sinaloa for the Beltran-Levya Organization.  He was taken to Mexico City to be tried for connection to organized crime and distribution of drugs.

Since this time much has happened to the group and its ability to operate.  Fighting has been long standing since since 2008 when the federation split. Recently though, violence has become a full fledged battle for control of the lucrative drug producing area known as “The Golden Triangle.”

The following people are part of Chapo Isidro's network.

Gonzalez Penuelas Jesus or “El Chuy” Gonzalez is thought to have taken part in the fighting that has been raging in Northern Sinaloa.  There was a rumor that he may have been killed in the fighting but there has been no official confirmation to substantiate this claim.  It is thought he took over the Batamote plaza after the arrest of Jose Luis Lizarraga Ontiveros Juan Manuel.  He is said to control distribution in the area of Batamote, working very closely with Chapo Isidro.  He was there with Chapo Isidro at the shoot out at Saric with El Gilo and his men.  El Chuy and El Nacho Gonzalez were feared through out the area for for killing and torturing many Sinaloan gunmen by their own hands.

Patron Sanchez Juan Francisco or “El H2” controlled a cell of Los Mazatlecos in the state Nayarit.  Juan Francisco is one of the most feared and respected lieutenants working under Chapo Isidro.   He was revered by those who knew him, he earned the respect of Hector Beltran-Levya quickly. He was most infamous for his attack against a group of gunmen at the disposal of the Sinaloa Cartel.  The attack which was a cleverly executed ambush which destroyed a convoy of well armed, Sinaloan gunmen, leaving some 25 dead Sinaloans dead.  He lost four men, the message was clear, El H2 was a man who knew what he was doing.  The operation was a humiliating defeat for Chapo Guzman and Mayo Zambada and displayed los mazatlecos as fearless and ruthless as ever, some of the most feared sicarios in Mexico. 

He was thought to have died in a gun battle off federal highway 15, near Tepic, a city he had waged a war to obtain, against Roger Armando Lopez Magellan throughout 2010 and 2011.  While rumors persist, it is likely he is still very much alive since there has been no official confirmation of his death.  If he did in fact die his brother was thought to have been the one next in line to replace him.  His brother Jesus Ricardo Sanchez was arrested in the city of Tepic on July 24, 2012.

Carlos Fernando Romero Bakir was the head of Isidro sicarios until his arrest in July 2011.  He is one of the few of this group to post numerous photos of himself on the internet.  He was a trained killer responsible for the deaths of numerous law enforcement officials and rivals.  He is also held responsible for the deaths of two innocent girls from Los Mochis.  He was arrested in 2009 on weapons charges but was strangely released from prison in 2010.  He was rearrested in July 2011.

Osuna Sanchez Juan Pablo or El 100 was part of the cell out of Los Mochis.  He was recently involved in the fighting that has been taking place in Choix.  He and his group of gunmen set up an ambush for the federal authorities on a road leading from Tetamboca to Feurte. They set up camp at the top of a hill and waited for their chance to strike.  When they attacked the police phoned in for backup, a chopper which was in the area came to their aid, the gunmen also fired upon the chopper.  Juan Pablo and his men killed seven police and wounded another ten before the shooting stopped.  When it was all over Juan Pablo was dead with a bullet to his head.

Pachero Samaniego Jesús Miguel “El Pecas” also a top leader of a cell out of the city of Los Mochis was arrested in Ahome.  Many in town feared retaliation from the group since it has garnered the reputation for brazen rescue attempts and mayhem.  He was arrested on weapons charges and then was sent to Mexico City to await further charges related to drug taffiking and sales in collusion with los mazatlecos.  He was the most sought after of the group immediately after the arrest of his boss Geovany Lizarraga Ontiveros, at least according to the authorities. 

Samuel Lizarraga Ontiveros ''El Tortillero'' is considered the groups leader along with Chapo Isidro.  He controls much of Mazatlan and is the patriarch of the clan since Geovany Lizarraga Ontiveros arrest.  He is thought to hold significant power over both local and state officials in the coastal city. 

Avalos Sanchez Jose Saba El Guero-Saba Works directly under Samuel Lizarraga Ontiveros ''El Tortillero'' in Mazatlan.  He is considered the top enforcer for El Tortillero.    

While the group has sustained many casualties in the current struggle for northern Sinaloa, one can not discount them.  They are fearless, they are rough and even upon capture the chance for a violent backlash is great.  Los mazatlecos have defied those who discounted them and have lifted the Beltran-Levya Organization from the ashes.  Without the backing of los mazatlecos, Hector Beltran-Levya would have most likely lost his war with la Barbie.  With los mazatlecos in Sinaloa and Nayarit, and what remains of los gilos in Sonora, los zetas have gained a foothold in their enemy’s home turf.  While los zetas are being bombarded by federal and military forces, Chapo’s biggest fear may not be the government but the remnants of the once thought to be washed up Beltran-Leyvas.