DEA Reports Zetas in Northern and Southern Sinaloa

August 7, 2012, 11:36 am

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Borderland Beat

DEA Detects the presence of Zetas in Sinaloa. Ranks Sinaloa Cartel as #2

DEA documents the presence of the Zetas in the north and south of Sinaloa

RIO DOCE
The presence of Los Zetas Cartel in northern Sinaloa is so obvious that the DEA points to a map on how the organization has expanded not only throughout Mexico but also in Sinaloa state where they have succeeded with the help of Beltran Leyva cartel, former members of the group led by Chapo Guzman and Ismael Zambada.

That coalition has caused an unprecedented war in the municipalities of Sinaloa de Leyva, El Fuerte, Choix, Salvador Alvarado and Guasave, where clashes have occurred not only between government and cartel hitmen from these allies, but between those criminal organizations that are fighting for the territories, the report reveals Drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, sources and trends that increase violence.

"There are routes that go through that part of Sinaloa and Sonora extend to, and are fought by both organizations and subcartels, and endless violence seems to exist", reports the study conducted by The Congressional Research Service, as released last month.

An example of the above statement can be seen in early May this year, when there was a clash between gunmen and elements of the Mexican army in the mountainous area of the municipality of Sinaloa and Guasave, leaving dozens dead, including three soldiers.

The research also reports that violence is on the rise since the beginning of the administration of President Felipe Calderon, from 2010 to date the trend is lower but then returns with force. It also states that from 2010 onwards there are targets that were previously almost untouchable, such as politicians, journalists, Americans and Central American migrants who cross Mexican territory illegally.

"Violence is not only associated with disputes over territory or to maintain discipline within an organization. But it seems that in every place where the Zetas advance, they do not discriminate when targeting their violence, including applying it to media workers, or even the Government " observes the paper.

The map of death

According to the draft prepared by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Zetas have gained control of nearly half the nations territory. Everything that drains into the Gulf of Mexico, including states such as Chiapas, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, and parts of Durango and Guanajuato.

According to Jim Creechan, a Canadian academic who has researched drug trafficking for several decades, the opening of the new bridge on the Durango-Mazatlán highway can benefit the Zetas, allowing them easy access to build up forces in Sinaloa.

"If they are there or not, that ability to get to Mazatlan can be crucial in the short and medium term, everything depends on how the Army monitors the area," noted Creechan by telephone.

The Durango-Mazatlan Bridge benefits Los Zetas

The DEA map ranks the Sinaloa cartel as the second most powerful cartel, which controls the entire Pacific area, except for the area of Michoacan and Guerrero, which is controlled by the Knights Templar, and the Beltran Leyva cartel.

Precisely the latter cartel, which is led by Hector Beltran Leyva, is present in several areas controlled by Joaquin Guzman and Ismael Zambada, and these areas pass through Sinaloa and Sonora, and extend to the border with the USA.

The remainder of the map depicts the state of Chihuahua, mainly dominated by the Juarez cartel, and to a lesser extent by the Sinaloa cartel. while the Gulf cartel has presence in the area of Reynosa and Tampico, Tamaulipas.

Noted is the presence of different groups in cities like Mexico City, Mazatlan, Culiacan, where the DEA also identifies the presence of groups operating in the area such as Beltran Leyva.

According to the DEA, the map was completed in January this year and took six months to produce.

Windfall

According to Michele Leonhart, DEA policy expert, in 2011 drug trafficking organizations throughout the world had earnings of between 200 and 400 billion dollars, with profits coming producing, transporting and selling drugs.

"We're talking about an extremely profitable business, superior to human trafficking, arms trafficking and smuggling of diamonds, together," Leonhart explained in a statement sent to Ríodoce.

The DEA administrator added, "what we are doing now is damage to criminal organizations in their financial systems as a way to deny resources to keep producing, acquiring, transporting and distributing such substances.".

DEA's strategy includes impairing money laundering, and therefore have redoubled their efforts with the Department of the Treasury for the implementation of the Kingpin Act, and the projection is that the effort has produced favorable results.

In this respect, a recent case is that of Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, Blu, including a portion of his family. They are included in the list of people persecuted by the U.S. Government Treasury.
"There are organisms that suggest that legalization or regulating drugs will alleviate the problem, but common sense and history has taught us that this does not happen because then the criminals would focus its efforts and migrate to other equally illegal activity" , stated Leonhart.

Kingpin Act; zero results

However, the U.S. government claims that freezing the assets of drug barons in the US and his citizens avoid establishing business relations with people identifed as drug dealers is part of the solution to the problem, some feel otherwise.

June S. Beittel, international affairs analyst at the Congressional Research Service, and author of the report on criminal organizations in Mexico, mentioned in her report that this law, is more than ten years subsequent to implementation, at this time has not yet yielded results.

"That strategy worked very well to dismantle the cartels of Cali and Medellin in the nineties, but clearly has not been as successful here in Mexico," said Beittel.

Other analysts agree that the strategy has created more Kingpin violence in the country, and that has caused the fragmentation of several organizations, and therefore the violence has spread.

"When Calderon came to power there were four key cartels: the Tijuana, Sinaloa, Juarez and the Gulf. Now we see the Zetas, the Beltran Leyva, the Knights Templar, and it has influenced the strategy Kingpin, but the results are obvious, "said Beittel.

The DEA maintains a close relationship with Mexican authorities in their fight to eradicate drug trafficking networks that exist in Sinaloa and the remainder of the country.

The collaboration continues, not only as far as arrests are concerned, as we have collaborated in the arrest of several leaders of various organizations, but, for once have extradited several in our territory to be prosecuted to the full weight of the law, "said Leonhart.

However, the sentences of Benjamin Arellano Felix and Osiel Cardenas Guillen, far from signifying "the full weight of the law." Both were seized a combined $ 150 million, and both were sentenced to 25 years in prison with the possibility of leaving in twelve years.
"The United States, with the help of Mexico will succeed in its fight against drugs," he said Leonhart, but not dwell in the sentences above lords.

According to Justice Department data, between 2010 and 2011, Mexico extradited 187 drug traffickers, including high-profile drug lords.

This is a repost found on Borderland Beat Forum, posted by Siskiyou Kid

Translation editing, photos, map and links by Chivis

KINGPIN ACT LINK HERE
CONGRESSIONAL REPORT-MEXICO'S DTOs AND RISING VIOLENCE LINK HERE

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US and Mexico Seek Secrets of La Barbie

August 8, 2012, 7:06 pm

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Borderland Beat

What was behind the smile? Perhaps he was thinking how his secrets will cut him a sweet deal

by Dianne Schiller

"He is in the middle of everything," said Mike Vigil , a retired chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"He deals with the people at the top and, at the same time, directs people at the bottom. He'd have tremendous knowledge," Vigil said of Valdez.

The U.S. government offered a reward of up to $2 million for his capture.

"I think there are a lot of reasons why the Mexican government is reluctant to let him go," said his American attorney, Kent Schaffer of Houston.

"Number one, if they think there are crimes committed in Mexico, they'll want to prosecute him," Schaffer said. "And there is always a concern on the part of the government that he may know things about the government that may prove to be an embarrassment for the government."

Before his arrest two years ago, Valdez was the heir apparent to lead the heavy-hitting Beltran Leyva Cartel after leader Arturo Beltran Leyva, the so-called "boss of bosses," who was killed in a gunbattle with the Mexican military.

Valdez's attorney has said the accused gangster, who is notoriously known among his foes, would be safer in the U.S.

U.S. indictments

Valdez is charged in federal indictments in Atlanta, New Orleans and his hometown of Laredo and accused of running drugs across the U.S.

Agreements almost certainly would be on the table to offer Valdez leniency in exchange for cooperating.

Juan Garcia Abrego, the former head of another cartel, refused to cooperate when he was captured and sent to the U.S. and now is serving multiple life sentences.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who took over a few years after Abrego was captured as the top leader, reached a plea agreement to cooperate in 2009 after he was extradited from Mexico to the U.S. The 45-year-old Cardenas is due to be released in 2025.

Since the world last saw Valdez in September 2010 - clad in an expensive green Polo shirt and flanked by hooded Mexican agents who captured him outside of Mexico City - the behind-the scenes tug-of-war over his fate has gone unresolved.

The United States twice has requested he be extradited to face American justice, or be deported.

Mexico, in turn, has kept him locked in a fortress-like police base, then the Toluca prison where he now sits.

Grew up in Laredo

Valdez was born and raised in Laredo. He played high school football there, and a coach nicknamed him "La Barbie," like the doll, for the color of his hair and eyes.

His family has kept a low profile but last year spoke with the Houston Chronicle and other media about the need to have his rights, such as access to a toilet and clean clothing, protected.

Schaffer declined to comment on whether Valdez knew the military men in the latest round of charges, but he said authorities likely would either prosecute him or seek his cooperation, if he knew anything of value.

Schaffer noted that shortly after Valdez was arrested, he seemed destined to be quickly sent to the U.S. But instead, Mexican officials cut off communication with Valdez's legal team and put him in prison.

Vigil, the former DEA agent, said Mexico likely wants to send a message. "They want to show they are able to arrest high-level traffickers and keep them in prison in Mexico," he said. "Unfortunately, they have a very low success rate in federal prosecutions."

Source Houston Chron

Links:
To access further information, the backstory, and legal documents see the links I have added below

Osiel Cardenas

RE: Osiel Cardenas LINK HERE AND HERE
RE: Rafael Cardenas "El Rolex" and Osiel's nephew PLEA AGREEMENT HERE
RE: Juan Garcia Abrego LINK HERE AND HERE

An undated foto from REFORMA. Abrego is standing as his uncle Jaun N Guerra sits at left

Juan Abrego

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Acapulco: Five Family Members Executed, Including a Toddler and Pregnant Woman

August 9, 2012, 1:16 am

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Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

The bodies of four family members were found outside the home and that of a pregnant woman inside

A group of armed men executed five people of the same family. Among the deceased are three women including one that was pregnant. The other victims were an adult male and a 3 year old toddler.

Gunmen burst into the home on Loma Bonita Street, in the Colonia “Cinco de Mayo” of Acapulco. Neighbors informed Police that at midnight on Tuesday, gunmen stormed the home of those killed, immediately the sounds of rapid gunfire could be heard. However, out of fear, no one contacted the police until day break.

The bodies of three women were identified as Anabel Rincon Hernandez, Nava Navil Elena Hernandez and Nayeli Nava Hernandez, who reportedly was pregnant and was murdered boy's mother, the child was identified as Alexis Nava, the man is identified as Joel Macario age 30.

Arriving at the scene was the public prosecutor, who inspected the crime scene. Upon arrival, he found the bodies of man, the toddler and two women out of the home and the pregnant woman, indoors.

Coroner stands by van containing the five bodies

All victims had obvious bullet wounds. Also found in the home was another a three year old, a girl named Amelia Ramirez Nava, who survived the attack but suffered from a bullet wound to the left eyebrow area. In and around the home was found numerous 9 mm and 38 special caliber shell casings.

Notable is that on the living room wall was a framed photograph of a man identified as Ramiro Nava, reportedly Mr. Nava is a family member. Along with the photograph was a certificate of appointment to second level master of the Mexican Marina. Mr. Nava was not present at the home when the shooting occurred.

On receiving the report, members of law enforcement local, state and federal agencies, including members of the Army, arrived at the scene to conduct an investigation.

Sources used to compose this post: Noveda Aca-Informador-Hoy

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14 Bodies Found in SLP- Death Toll Climbs in Mexico's Bloody Week

August 9, 2012, 12:29 pm

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Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat
8-10-12 UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF SLP KILLINGS One victim escaped...

Van where 14 bodies were dumped and the gas staion where one victim escaped

Mexico’s Bloody Week In August –Death Toll At least 36 In 2 Days

In the latest report of killings it is a mass murder with a death count of 14 left in a van (21 in total in S). A total 36 in a little over 2 days. These include multiple murders, such as five family members killed in Acapulco, 6 patrons in a bar in Mexico state and 4 women in Torreon.

At the "Pachangon Bar", gunmen entered the facility in the early hours of Wednesday and began indiscriminately shooting patrons and employees. There were injured victims in addition to the 6 killed.

Four in Torreon, Coahuila above-Pachangon Bar below

In Torreon, Coahuila the bodies of 4 young women were discovered Wednesday outside a baseball field. The women were between 19-24 year old, including 19 year old twins. The cause of death of the four was by strangulation.

In the latest reported murders the Attorney General of the State of San Luis Potosí (PGJE) reported the gruesome discovery of 14 bodies, all were men who bodies were discarded inside a van, at kilometer 12 on the road leading from Zacatecas to San Luis Potosi. Police reported 21 dead in total with the 14, all in SLP. (see El Universal article at bottom for details)

Via his Twitter account, the State Attorney General said the bodies were found near a gas station known as La Posta and according to the information received, the men are most likely originated from Coahuila, where they were kidnapped. "So far we know that the victims were kidnapped in Coahuila state, then made a stopover in Zacatecas, and on the way to this city, were killed," the state attorney said in a statement.

Although the bodies were dumped in SLP, it appears they were killed elsewhere.

The discovery was made at 4:00 Thursday morning, when the abandoned vehicle was inspected. According to the PGJE, the vehicle was obtained through a violent carjacking and it is described as a Mercedes Benz type white van with curtains on its windows and license plate TP-55240.

There are reports that there is an injured person that is related to the death of the 14 men. Furthermore, the injured victim is hospitalized. The circumstances were not given surrounding the injured person.

The vehicle was confiscated by the authorities to initiate investigations. After the discovery, authorities and the state police director Jose Luis Urban, and the head of the Ministry of Public Security in the State, Joel Melgar, rushed to the scene, as well as prosecutors, staff of Expert Services and Investigator agents, to begin with investigations. This occurs within 48 hours of Heliodorus Guerrero Guerrero resigned as head of the Ministry of Public Security of the State.

Notimex-Vanguardia-Hoy Por Hoy

Photo: EFE

UPDATE 8-10-12

Looks like my orginal report of 14 dead and one injured was correct and here are the details. Translated from El Universal

Thursday San Luis Potosi experienced a series of chases and shootouts, leaving three dead plus four prisoners, and the discovery of 14 bodies dumped in a truck, with one man managing to escape this slaughter because he faked his death and fled to a mountain.

According to the federal Public Security Secretariat (SSP), that person was assisted by state police who found him after having escaped and taken to a hospital where he was reported out of danger.

The victim stated that when he realized what was happening, he pretended to be dead, allowing the sicarios to throw him into the van with the other bodies. When he determined there was an opportunity to escape as the gunmen stopped for fuel, he fled to the mountains where he was subsequently helped by elements of the State Police," he said.

On Thursday morning, a call alerted authorities about the presence of an abandoned truck with bodies inside on the road to Zacatecas. At the site were found 14 bodies bearing signs of torture and gun shots.

The violence continued in the western part of the town with gunfights and chases. In total 21 deaths were reported, including victims of the truck and the discovery of four bodies in different parts of the city, and four federal police arrested and three wounded.

In a statement, the SSP confirmed that the Federal Police learned of the presence of armed persons near the Plaza San Luis, and proceeded to the site, gunmen attacked police in the Glorieta de La Familia, which converges with the Highway 80 Tampico-Barra de Navidad.

"The attackers fired from a pickup truck, Chevrolet Sierra gray and trying to escape. It has just experienced a confrontation with staff of the Secretariat of National Defense", said the agency.

After the attack, federal police, military and government agents continued the pursuit of the subjects, who were intercepted at the colony Balcones del Valle.

It was reported the presence of armed men in a building of the Lomas of Technology, from which several subjects were shot with rifles, which led to a clash that killed three suspected criminals and four more were secured.

These events took place when the Federal Police carried out works of inspection, monitoring security and surveillance in investigations arising from the discovery of the van with the 14 dead bodies.

During the raids, authorities said 16 guns and a short, two 40 mm caliber grenade launchers, 19 grenades, 40 mm caliber, 6 hand grenades, 182 7.62x 39 caliber magazines, 30 magazines and a charger 223 caliber 45 caliber.

In addition to 4 000 060 7.62x 39 mm caliber cartridges, 810 cartridges caliber 223, two buildings, 5 vehicles (one armored), various media and tactical equipment.

In these operations, injuring three elements of the Federal Police who received medical care and are now out of danger, he added.

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Wave of Violence Leaves Another 23 Dead in Zacatecas

August 12, 2012, 4:59 pm

≫ Next: Mexican Mayor-Elect Shot to Death

≪ Previous: 14 Bodies Found in SLP- Death Toll Climbs in Mexico's Bloody Week

Fifteen suspected cartel gunmen were killed and 14 others were arrested in different operations by federal security forces and state police in the north-central Mexican state of Zacatecas, where another eight badly decomposed bodies were found in a van, officials said.

In one of the operations, six reputed organized criminals, including a most-wanted suspect known as “Comandante Mara,” were killed in clashes with marines in the town of Sain Alto, Zacatecas’ government secretary told the media Friday.

Esau Hernandez said in a television interview that 14 other suspected criminals were arrested in another operation led by the federal police in the municipality of Rio Grande, where officers also seized communications gear, assault rifles, ammunition and some vehicles.

Another nine alleged organized criminals were killed in other operations involving federal forces and state police in that state, according to official reports.

Separately, spokespersons with the state’s Attorney General’s Office and Public Safety Secretariat said that eight bodies were found inside a van in the town of Fresnillo, a few kilometers from an army checkpoint.

They said the bodies were badly decomposed and that preliminary reports indicated the victims bore signs of torture.

Earlier this week in north-central Mexico, a van containing 14 bodies was found on the outskirts of the city of San Luis Potosi, capital of the like-named state.

Investigators gathered information indicating that the killers made a stop in the state of Zacatecas and the victims – discovered Thursday – were executed on the drive to San Luis Potosi.

The deaths come amid a turf war in that region pitting different organized crime gangs.

More than 50,000 people, according to official figures, have died in drug-related violence since late 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon militarized the struggle against the nation’s heavily armed, well-funded cartels.

The Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which was founded by human rights activist and poet Javier Sicilia, puts the death toll at 70,000.

Source: Associated Press

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Mexican Mayor-Elect Shot to Death

August 12, 2012, 5:10 pm

≫ Next: INFOGRAPHIC: Mexican Cartels (Sinaloa vs Los Zetas)

≪ Previous: Wave of Violence Leaves Another 23 Dead in Zacatecas

Police say gunmen have shot down the mayor-elect of a town in San Luis Potosi state and a campaign adviser while they were riding in a vehicle with another person.

The local public safety secretary says Matehuala Mayor-elect Edgar Morales Perez and aide Francisco Hernandez Colunga were returning from a birthday party when they were ambushed early Sunday in the town. Hernandez Colunga's wife was also in the car but survived the attack. The assailants remain at large.

Morales Perez had belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which regained the country's presidency last month. He was scheduled to take office in September. The National Action Party had governed Matehuala for years before his electoral win.

A car filled with 14 corpses was found Thursday by a gas station along a highway in San Luis Potosi state.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Mexican Cartels (Sinaloa vs Los Zetas)

August 12, 2012, 5:18 pm

≫ Next: The Pentagon Mission: to Catch El Chapo. . . . or to Kill Him

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This is an infographic chart that was published by Hispanically Speaking News. Is it based on confirmed facts, rumor mill or someone who reads CNN for Mexican cartel news? I found some misinformation, but I will let the very knowledgeable and very capable BB community point it out. This is what they said about the chart:

"Currently, the Sinaloa and Los Zetas Cartels are in a war, forcing other cartels to take sides and new alliances are forming. Unfortunately, 60,000 people have died since President Calderón (PAN) declared war on drug traffickers in 2006. Hispanically Speaking News does a side-by-side comparison of Mexico’s most ruthless cartels, Sinaloa and Los Zetas."

Click image to enlarge

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The Pentagon Mission: to Catch El Chapo. . . . or to Kill Him

August 12, 2012, 7:22 pm

≫ Next: The Rise of Mexico's Narco State

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From the Borderland Beat Forum by AJ

By Jorge Carrasco Araizaga and J. Jesus Esquivel
Proceso

Military sources in Mexico and the United States confirmed the existence of a plan to catch "Or Kill" El Chapo Guzman, prepared by the Pentagon and the Mexican government, proposed and accepted in principle by President Calderon. Virtually the same plan that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, the plan would be carried out exclusively by members of the United States Navy, with no intervention of the Mexican military or Mexican police. Only outright rejection from the high command of the Mexican military has denied the operation....But the Pentagon remains hopeful that the next administration will be open to accept it.

Given how difficult it's been to catch Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, the U.S. government has prepared a plan to capture the drug kingpin, in an operation similar to that held in Pakistan last year in the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

Military sources in Mexico and the U.S. confirm the existence of the plan, which was developed by the Pentagon several months ago and now is being held back because it is an operation that was designed with only Americans in mind, an idea that is not viewed with pleasure by their Mexican counterparts.

The plan was introduced to Felipe Calderon who promoted it among the armed forces. And although there was a sharp rejection by the Mexican Army and Navy, Washington has not thrown away the plan and propose to show it to the next Mexican president, Enrique Pena.

The plan exists upon an order from the Department of Defense and the U.S. Northern Command who have it considered as a priority mission, said a senior Mexican Army source, who by agreement is kept an anonymous.

The Pentagon is frustrated that the Mexican government has not been able to recapture Guzman Loera since his escape from the maximum security prison Puente Grande, in Jalisco, on January 2001 during the presidency of Vicente Fox. El Chapo has escaped at least six times from being captured, military sources have confirmed.

The most recent occurred last February in a seaside mansion in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on an official visit to Mexico. The information needed to capture the drug lord has been provided by U.S. agencies, primarily the DEA, so Mexico's "failed attempt" at capturing El Chapo has angered Washington.

For Mexico, the eventual U.S. military intervention of detaining El Chapo on Mexican land is "Very Risky," because in addition to a clear violation of Mexico's Constitution could also lead to all sorts of problems, said the military official. The proposed operation is in accordance with Mexico and was designed by military strategists of the special forces of the Department of Defense of the United States (the Pentagon).

The execution of the operation would be run by the Navy SEALs, a specially trained group consisting of navy commandos trained for covert actions in enemy territory by sea, air or land. The operation would be similar to the one accomplished in Pakistan (Capture or kill) Bin Laden, who was killed in his hideout in May 2011.

Special Forces helicopters reached the Muslim leader's bunker on the outskirts of Islamabad, near the Pakistani military academy. From the success of the Bin Laden operation, Calderon explained that the plan to stop El Chapo would be "simple, quick and precise".

In the mountains of Sinaloa, where Guzman Loera is known to go in and out at will, The plan states that capturing him would require a special seals team with the support of three digital high-tech drones operated by remote control and armed with missiles. Special forces would move in from Sinaloa and Durango in weapons armed helicopters. On reaching the target, two of the teams would remain with one on the ground and another in the air, backed by drones, to prevent any retaliation from Chapo's soldiers.

In 10 or 15 minutes both teams would catch the target and complete the objective, according to the proposed operation. The special forces would eliminate any of Chapo's security on the spot (shoot to kill) as they did with the 'Bin Laden' operation and in case El Chapo were killed, the SEALs team would have to recover the body.

The operation against El Chapo would be observed and addressed in "Real Time" from the headquarters of the Pentagon's Northern Command, and also from the offices of the National Security Council of the White House.

In the operation against bin Laden, President Barack Obama followed step by step from the White House (the work of the Navy Seals), but in the Mexican operation, the Pentagon commanders would be responsible for monitoring the operation.

The plan does not include the Mexican military, Army or Navy. Mexican soldiers will enter only to present the results of the operation.
According to the military commander who consulted with PROCESO, it is clear that the U.S. has the capacity to capture Chapo in Mexico, but in order to do it, the U.S. soldiers would have to disguise themselves by wearing the uniforms of some kind of Mexican Law Enforcement, for example, the Mexican Federal Police.

The U.S. Northern Command was created in 2002 by the Pentagon after the attacks of Al Qaeda in order to perform "delicate" missions and to protect the security of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico," so capturing El Chapo is considered as a mission.

Washington equates the Mexican drug cartels with terrorists and therefore are (both) considered a threat to national security. Consequently, the Northern Command takes an obligation to act against drug traffickers, the military chief added.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:
http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=316815

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The Rise of Mexico's Narco State

August 13, 2012, 9:00 am

≫ Next: New Generation's "CEO" Apprehended

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Borderland Beat

This is an old article from 1995 which details the rise of the narco state within Mexico, including many politicians who remain free to this day. It is truly a telling account of how interwoven the narco economy is with a political machine tailored to the elites. While most of these kingpins are either dead or in prison, most of those who facilitated the narcos power remain free. For this to have been written 17 years ago shows remarkable insight on the part of Peter Lupsha.

By Peter Lupsha

Under the Volcano: Narco Investment in Mexico

While President Clinton worked to create sand castles on the tidal flat that is Haiti, on the great and vital landmass to the south volcanic pressures and violent eruptions squeezed and shook a political system that is critical to US national interest. Haiti sits near the bottom of any rational listing of US vital interests, while Mexico stands at the apex of any hemispheric agenda. Mexico is the gateway to Central and South America.

As we go beyond NAFTA, Mexico is the hinge on which The South America Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) will turn. President Carlos Salinas de Gortari recognized this, and his foreign policy genius placed him in the front rank of hemispheric leaders. He and his aides brilliantly orchestrated Mexico's interaction with the United States in the NAFTA negotiations, spending millions on Congressional lobbying and persuasion and targeting the US-Mexican community with a huge public relations outreach campaign. he also made important structural changes, investments and infrastructure development in ports, highways and airports to lure US financial and investor support.

Finally, almost single handedly, he sold NAFTA to the Central American nations and South America. Not only did he open Mexico's southern door to smoother trade relations with the Central American nations, he opened the door further south with Colombia and Venezuela in the G-3. No President in Mexico's history has had greater hemispheric foreign policy successes than Salinas de Gortari.

To create strength in this area, however, he had to deal with the entrenched and often corrupt power centers in the 'old guard' in the PRI. He had to maintain the Presidential office structure and staff (EMP), and he appointed Fernando Gutierrez Barrios to Gobernacion and named Enrique Alvarez-Castillo to head the Attorney General's Office (PGR). Such key first appointments facilitated continued to flourish despite his attempts at change.

Salinas appointed five different Attorneys General during his term, and only one, Jorge Carpizo McGregor, had any impact on narco-penetration and corruption. According to El Financiero, Carpizo controlled by the large drug trafficking organizations. Under other Attorneys General, as much as 95 percent of the PGR was under narco-control. Thus, Mexico's justice agency was in reality an arm of drug trafficking, and organized crime's government intermediary.

This lack of vigilance not only led to the death of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, it resulted in the assassination of Salinas de Gortari's political son and heir, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio. For both fell victim of the complacency and/or complicity of politicians corrupted by drug trafficking, or were overwhelmed and intimidated by narco-power. Lorenzo Meyer, Colegio de Mexico historian and international relations specialist, has noted that Mexico has contributed very little to political theory.

For the reality that applies to actual power in Mexico is: 'caudillo, power, cacique power, authoritarianism, patrimonialism or patronage.' Thus, Mexico's contribution to political theory, he says, 'is but a footnote and nothing to be proud of. The 'morbida', [bribe]; the 'tapado', [the as yet unrevealed official candidate], and the 'dedazo' [hand picking of political candidates].' To this list he might have added 'palanca' [influence], pezgordo [influential], who is often 'intocable' [untouchable], and the 'madrinos' [godmothers'], Federal and State Judicial Police (PJF & PJE) and commissioned agent-informers, who frequently work for both the drug trafficking organizations and the state.

All of the above work to assist and support the infrastructure of narco corruption and narcopower in Mexico. According to Meyer, Mexico's key theoretical contributions to our political future will be the post-modern 'indigenous' guerrilla force, and the post-modern party of the state born in the Presidential election of August 21, 1994. As volcanic tremors continue, Meyer may be proven correct, and in ways that even he did not dare contemplate.

A Brief History of Recent Drug Trafficking in Mexico

The U.S. government estimates that 50 percent of the cocaine shipped by Colombian organized crime groups towards the United States transits through Mexico. This reflects the fact that since the 1970s Colombian drug trafficking groups have been developing working relationships with their Mexican counterparts.

Honduran, Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros connected Alberto Sicilia Falcon to Colombian, Benjamin Herrera Zuelta known in Colombia as 'the Black Pope of Cocaine', is intellectual father of the current Cali cartel leaders, and paternal father of Helmer 'Pacho' Herrera Buitrago of that group. After Sicilia Falcon's arrest, Matta Ballesteros became the contact to Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who via Matta's Colombian connections became 'El Padrino', the cocaine czar of Mexico, and premier leader of the Guadalajara Cartel of the 1980s.

The other leaders if the group, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, and their associates, never possessed the high level contacts of Felix Gallardo. Only Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno ('El Azul') is now free and a very important 'statesman' in Colombian/Mexican drug trafficking circles.

This cartel controlled high-level Mexican cocaine and marijuana trafficking until 1985, when the murders of DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar and his Mexican pilot brought international attention and pressure to the cartel and the eventual arrests of the leadership.

Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was only arrested in 1989. And even after his imprisonment, he remained one of Mexico's major traffickers, maintaining his organization via cellular phone. It was only when prison authorities finally cracked down in the 1990s with a new maximum security prison--known as Almoloya de Juarez--for major narcotics offenders that his old organization broke up into two factions.

One known as the 'Tijuana Cartel' is led by his nephews, the Arellano-Felix brothers, who are accused of the murder of Cardinal Juan Jose Posadas Ocampo. The other, led by his old lieutenants, Hector Palma Salazar and Joaquin Guzman Loera, is commonly called the 'Sinaloa Cartel.'

Max Mermelstein, a key manager of the Medellin cartel in the United States, once said that he and Fabio Ochoa were searching out landing sites in northeastern Mexico in January of 1982. Their negative experiences with corrupt and brutal Mexican federal Judicial Police were, however, off-putting. They, like Cali's transport representatives, quickly learned that if they were going to work in Mexico, they needed connections with Mexican traffickers as middlemen and intermediaries to the Mexican PJF and PGR, if they were to be successful.

In the late 1980s, into the vacuum caused by the arrest of the Guadalajara cartel leadership, stepped men like Rafael Aguilar and Rafael Munoz Talavera, who formed the Juarez Carel and moved some 77 metric tons of cocaine across the border to El Paso and Sylmar California.

On Mexico's eastern border (Matamoros-Brownville) border, Juan N. Guerra, initially battled with Olivero Chavez Araujo for control. He won, but was eclipsed by his nephew Juan Garcia Abrego, who changed the equation and raised Mexican drug trafficking to new heights.

Juan Garcia Abrego offered the Colombians, who were suffering interdiction losses to US law enforcement in Florida and the Middle Atlantic states, a deal they could not refuse. He would guarantee delivery anywhere in the United States for 50 percent of the load. He would assume all risks. to do this meant he had to stockpile and stash loads in Mexico to replace shipments that might be interdicted by US law enforcement.

As a result, as much as 100 tons of cocaine would be stockpiled south of the border. Stockpiling, however, necessitated higher and broader levels of corruption to minimize risks, and protect warehouse and transit methods. According to reports of the Mexican Attorney General's office, 'Juan Garcia Abrego is bringing between 150 and 200 metric tons of cocaine a year into this country, and is doing so even though he is under pressure now.'

At the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s PGR spokesman claim 'he was smuggling in 300 metric tons.' During this period, a kilo of cocaine sold for between $8,000 and $9,000 at the Matamoros or Reynosa border. In Houston, it could be resold for around $16,000, although Cali operatives sold to their own organization at $12,000 to $13,000 in order to give them a competitive edge over other distribution groups. At border prices--a conservative figure--the Garcia Abrego organization was wholesaling between $1.1 and $1.6 billion a year, of which around $500 to $800 million would be gross profit.

The PGR currently estimates the net worth of Garcia Abrego group's, now called the 'Gulf Cartel', to be $10 billion dollars. The full scope of Garcia Abrego's activities surfaced in February 1993 when officials of the Beverly Hills, California, branch of American Express Bank International, a subsidiary of the American Express Co., were indicted for laundering over $100 million dollars of his money.

The federal government sought some $60 million, but only seized $30 million that moved through McAllen, Texas and New York banks. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve fined American Express Bank International $950,000 for its compromised behavior. This case quietly rocked the U.S. banking and financial communities, for it was the first time the depth of the emerging symbiosis between the legitimate financial sector and international organized crime was officially acknowledged.

Similar tremors occurred in Mexico in 1994 when the PGR froze 200 million in new pesos that Garcio Abrego had laundered through three currency exchange houses and Civilian Association and the Monterrey Chamber of Commerce petitioned the government for release of the money on the grounds that it was adversely affecting local businesses and commerce.

But the fractures in the surface of banking and narco power in Mexico are only beginning to emerge. This can be seen in the flight of Cremi and Union Banking Corporations entrepeneur, Carlos Cabal Peniche, who granted himself a $700 million loan. As Deputy Alejandro Encinas of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies Mixed Commission investigating the assassination of Donaldo Colosio told El Financiero, Cabal Peniche was made rich by the same group of narco-politicians responsible for the presidential candidate's murder.

Also noteworthy, Cabal Peniche is the protege of Mexican Communications and Transportation Cabinet Secretary, Emilio Gamboa Patron who, when he was private secretary to President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, became the young man's patron. Gamboa, or his office, appears to be a key target for corruption in the cali cartel's plan for Mexico. Of course, organized crime corruption of banking systems is not new.

Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo sat on the board of Directors of SOMEX Bank's northern regional center. And, Tijuana and San Diego Italian-American organized crime figure John Alessio had deep connections in both communities' banking sectors when he owned the race and dog track in Tijuana. Today, that track's current owner, Jorge Hank-Rohn, a Mexican elite member, influential and 'intocable', maintains strong connections to Baja California banking, politics, and apparently narco power politics in Mexico.

Amado Carilo Fuentes, who also has a close relationship with Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela of cali, is Juan Garcia Abrego's main competitor. He is referred to in the press as a leader of the 'Pacific' and 'Juarez Cartel.' Operating out of Guadalajara and Sonora, he has taken the place of Rafael Aguilar of Torreon, a leader of the Juarez Cartel who was assassianted in Cancun, Mexico in 1993.

Amado Carillo Fuentes approaches the pivot, Juarez, from the west, while Garcia Abrego operating out of Tamulipas and Nuevo Leon (Monterrey) contests it from the east. This could result in bloody conflict, but if Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, 'El Azul', the remaining free member of the Guadalajara cartel, is able to mediate this and create a 'Paz del Norte' among the major trafficking organizations, then a further symbiosos of narco power into the Mexican economic and political system will likely occur.

In all there are 11-14 major Mexican drug trafficking cartels, and many more minor ones. In other writings I have discussed this; it is simply worth noting that the big four discussed here are the key ones with connections to the top of the Mexican political system and the Colombian and Peruvian cartels.

Mexico: An Emerging Narco-Democracy?

Leaked DEA and PGR reports show phone calls from Garcia Abrego's 'Gulf Cartel' to the Office of President Salinas de Gortari, as well as to key Cabinet Secretaries, such as Emilio Gamboa Patron, Secretary of Communication and Transportation (SCT). This latter office is as critical to the evolution of the Cali cartel's drug transportation system as it is to NAFTA.

Its portfolio includes the administration of airports, seaports, highways, communication lines, and the Federal Highway Police. Data collected by the Mexican Public Opinion Institute shows the 1994 election of PRI candidate Ernesto Zedillo as Mexico's next president in the wake of the assassination of President Salinas de Gortari's handpicked political heir, Donaldo Colosio, cost $1.25 billion (US) or $4.25 billion new pesos.

Of that total, some 3.23 billion new pesos were contributed by the domestic and foreign private sector. The legal ceiling is 992 million. Usually reliable sources say that one of the major contributors from the foreign private sector to this campaign was the Cali drug trafficking cartel.

During the late spring and summer of 1994, they report, Miguel Rodriguez-Orejuela of the Cali group sent $40 million (US) dollars, in two shipments, to Mexico. While this could have been for economic investment, they hypothesize it was for political corruption, to guarantee Cali a superior, favored, and protected position in the new administration.

Alan Riding, a long-term observer of Mexico, wrote corruption is 'both the glue that holds the Mexican system together and the oil that makes it work.' As 'glue' it 'seals political alliances', as 'oil' it 'makes the wheels of bureaucracy turn.' Mexican public life he described as 'the abuse of power to achieve wealth and the abuse of power to achieve power.'

If this analysis of the Mexican political system is accurate, one can readily see why the Cali cartel would want preferred seating at the table. In light of events in Mexico during 1994, Riding's view has been reinforced by numerous high level political figures and elite members within the Mexican system and even the Catholic Church. But perhaps the most vocal and direct confirmation has come from Eduardo Valles Espinoza, a deputy to two Mexican Attorney Generals in the PGR and the man in charge of investigating Juan Garcia Abrego.

In his published letter of resignation from the PGR in May 1994 he wrote: I ask: When will we have the courage and political maturity to tell the Mexican people that we are living in a narco-democracy. Will we have the intellectual capability and ethical strength to say that Amado carrilo, Arellano Felix and Juan Garcia Abrego are, inconcievably and degradingly, the promoters and even the pillars of our socioeconomic growth and development...

Nobody can conceive of a political project in which the narco-trafficking lords and financiers are not included, because if he does so he is dead. Later in Proseco, he commented: 'Narco-power' has deformed the economy; it is a cancer that has generated economic, financial, and political dependence, which instead of producing goods has created serious problems and distortions ultimately affecting honest businessmen.

In the Northeastern Mexico Strata Northeastern Mexico, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Matamoros, and Reynosa have always been important narco gateways to the United States. In recent years, however, Juan Garcia Abrego's Gulf Cartel appears to be playing a more visible role in narco power politics.

His brother, Humberto Garcia Abrego, is said to have helped organize Luis Donaldo Colosio's prime Presidential fund-raiser in Nuevo Leon/Tamaulipas and was invited to sit at the head table. Colosio's route coordinator on the day of his assassination was Federal Highway Police Commander, Jorge Vergara Verdejo, from Monterrey and Tamaulipas.

A second key security official that day was ex-federal Security Directorate (DFS) agent, Fernando de la Soto, who had been fired for alleged narco-corruption by Attorney General Ignacio Morales Lechuga. He had been hired by Colosio's security chief of President Salina's security staff (EMP).

The states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, and individuals connected to Juan Garcia Abrego's organization, also surfaced after the assassination of PRI General Secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. One alleged intellectual author of the crime is Abraham Rubio, the jailed former director of the Acapulco Trusteeship, and the Punta Diamante tourist project, ordered closely by the government.

He is the father-in-law of Raul Vallardes del Angel, a key lieutenant of Juan Garcia Abrego. Abraham Rubio also has ties to the 'old guard' as a godparent, with Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, aka 'La Quina', the infamous oil workers' union leader ousted by Salinas eralier in his administration. The other alleged author of the crime is PRI Congressman Manuel Munoz-Rocha, who is from Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas another Garcia Abrego stronghold.

Published PRG reports indicate that Juan Garcia Abrego's key money laundererd are Carlos Resendez Bertolousi abd Oscar Malherve of Monterrey. They work with and through Marcelino Guerrero and his wife, Marcela Bodenstedt Perlick. Both Marcelino and Marcela are ex-PJF agents, and she was a protege of ex-DFS Commander, Premier Commandante of the PJF, and one time INTERPOL chief, Miguel Aldana. Aldana's connections to drug trafficking were revealed in detail during the Camarena murder investigation and trials.

Depositions from arrested traffickers showed that Miguel Aldana was the key protector of Caro Quintero, Jaime Figueroa Soto and other traffickers. He was present, along with other high level Mexican law enforcement officials, at a meeting with the leadership of the Guadalajara cartel to discuss options for dealing with the DEA. Out of this meeting came the decison to murder DEA agent, Camarena.

Thus, Marcela Bodenstadt received an excellent early education in high level drug corruption and narco power in Mexico. She apparently learned her lessons well. DEA and Mexican drug intelligence CENDRO (Planning Center for Drug Control) reports indicate that she and her husband are 'cut-outs' and 'fronts' for Juan Garcia Abrego and the Cali cartel to high level political figures in Mexico City, including the Mexican Secretary of Communication and Transport, Emilio Gamboa Patron, and his clerk, Arturo Morales Portas. They are alleged to have leased houses in Mexico City for drug trafficker Luis Medrana Garcia, a Garcia Abrego capo, and they were the leaseholders on ahouse in Juarez, where several members of Garcia Abrego's group were later arrested.

In 1993 they helped transfer the body of drug trafficker Rafael Aguilar, after he was assassinated in Cancun. They were also named as 'end recipients' in two large cash transfers $421,950 (US) and $432,509 (US)--Monterrey to Mexico City--according to 'mules' arrested by the PJF. Marcilino Guerrero is also alleged to control 640 hectares in the Cancun-Tulum corridor and is proposing a $160 million dollar resort-casino tourism project linked to Jorge Hank Rohn, son of Mexican elite member Carlos Hank Gonzalez.

Tourism projects have always been a prime venue for money laundering investment by Mexican drug traffickers. Felix Gallardo invested in Hermosillo and Puerto Vallarta, as did Chapo-Guzman in Southern Nayarit and Banderas Bay in Nuevo Vallarta. In time, we may discover that Juan Garcia Abrego has investments in Punta Diamante, as he does in Monterrey and Matamoros, and that the Cancun-Tulum project is another example of money laundering symbiosis between narco-power and elites in Mexico.

The interest of the drug traffickers and their associates in the Cabinet office of the Communications and transport is critical because of the evolution in the transportation patterns and methods of the Cali cartel. In 1991, Cali aircraft transit patterns shifted from northern to southern Mexico. In 1992, Cali increased the shift from small general aviation aircraft and air drops to maritime containerized loads, to commerical air via Panama and San Andres Island, and to low profile vessels (LPV) and semi-submersibles.

Cali's influence over San Andreas Island offers transport opportunities to Nicaragua and Honduras as well as Mexico. Using San Andres, and Panama's Free Trade Zone at Colon, 1,000 to 1,700 kilos could be sent by LPV, while 2 to 10 metric tons could be moved by maritime containers, or by 727 type and larger commerical aircraft filing flight plans to avoid surveillance. This shift in transport modalitites, however, requires large airports such as La Pesca, near Soto La Marina, Tamaulipas which has over 3 kilometers of paved runway.

Cali's new transportation methodology also requires commerical airports, business frinst, use of ports, free trade zones, container facilities, trailer trucking firms, and railroads. In short, it requires acess, information, official forms, and seals taht only an Office of Communication and Transport can provide. One direct impact of this shift in Cali transportation patterns can be seen in the economic decline of border areas like Nuevas Casas Grandes, the Juarez valley, and Ojinaga where, a few years ago, narco-dollars drove the economy.

Today as the town hall secretary of Guadalupe, once a key landing site for drug planes, Eduardo Ramos put it, 'It so peaceful here that we don't even know the federal police.' While Nuevas Casas Grandes, Ascension, Janos, and parts of Juarez, Federsal Jurisdiction Police (PJF) Commander Javier Norona Guerrero declared, 'People are complaining there is no money because traffickers have stopped circulating their cash through various establishments.

Drug dealing has been reduced and, in some towns, businesses are operating with very little money too, because of the lack of drug trafficking.' Reports from other areas of Chihuahua and eastern Sonora reinforce this, indicating jewelry stores, discos, bars and restaurants are suffering from a decline in narco-dollars. All of this is an outgrowth of Cali's transportation shift to containers and commercial air, as well as shifting narco power relations in Mexico. It also illustrates the effects of narco power on local economies. A new level or stage of narco relations and symbiosis in drug trafficking in Mexico is currently underway. As I have writen elsewhere, in the early years it was control of a local area, 'La Plaza', that mattered. Then, it was key towns, cities, governors and states.

For a while in the mid and late 1980s trafficking could be tracked by simply watching where various corrupt PJF officials were transferred. Key traffickers and trafficking nodes in a centralized authoritarian system like Mexico always needed the 'con permiso' of those within the Federal District.

But today, rather than protection percolating up through the PJF, PGR, or military to the party and the private secretaries and bag men around 'Los Pinos', it now appears transnational organized crime and narco power are attempting to operate directly in public and private sector board rooms, with Cabinet level staff and secretaries to plan and coordinate activities for mutual benefits, development, and free trade. Should legitimate and honest elite sector private capitalists object to these new players and arrangements, then a wave of kidnappings can occur to intimidate them back into silence.

There is another reason why cali cartel planners need the high level penetration of the Mexican government at this time. With demand decline and cocaine market saturation in the U.S., Cali has had to find new production efficiencies, as well as product diversification (heroin and marijuana oil) to maintain profits. With high level internal Mexican government support, however, Cali would be in a position to lean on certain Mexican trafficking groups to lower their per kilo share to a more reasonable level.

The Ground is Shaking: US Policy

Calculated Avoidance Mexico is the key geopolitical funnel for the United States economic well being in the hemisphere in the 21st Century. It is also a key partner in emerging trade developments, as well as a vital market and labor pool for the United States. Yet, the Clinton administration foreign policy and national security eyes appear to focus more on Haiti, rather than Mexico.

The tremors that rocked the Mexican political system in 1994, which have deep roots in the political structure and strata of Mexico's authoritarian democracy, had little visible reverberation in Washington, until the collapse of the peso in early 1995 compelled US aid.

In the fall of 1994 Secretary of the Treasury, Lloyd Bensten, led delegations to Mexico where both trade and Mexico's faltering 'War on drugs' were discussed, and incoming President Zedillo was given a personal invitation from President Clinton to visit the White House. After the assassination of Donaldo Colosio the United States offered, and private sector banking and financial community acted, to shore up and support Mexican financial markets.

After the assassination of PRI General Secretary Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, US National Security Advisor Anthony Lake offered condolences, and noted, [it] appears to be part of a continuing pattern of violence in Mexico. US Ambassador James Jones described it as 'a senseless act of violence.' The Ambassador's reaction recalled that of his predecessor, John Negroponte, who after cold blooded murders of seven Mexican drug agents were gunned down in ambush by 100 members of the Mexican army; employed by drug traffickers and called the event 'a regrettable accident.'

For recent Washington administrations, whether they be President Bush's or President Clinton's, free trade, investment, development and other economic issues are paramount. Drug trafficking, immigration, environmental concerns, unrest in Chiapas, or the volcanic power struggle currently occurring in Mexico are all issues to be swept under the rug and ignored, so long as they do not affect domestic politics and the US elections.

One can, of course, argue that these avoidant behaviors, and reserved postures by Washington are but good neighbor politics, especially given Mexican sensitivities and historic poor relations between the US and Mexico. That may be. But such mannered myopia and reserve jeopardizes the long run national interests of both nations.

A knowledgeable Mexican official, Eduardo Valles Espinosa, before fleeing into exile, cried out that Mexico had become a 'narco-democracy.' In Washington, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, such chilling words appear to fall on deaf ears and are subject to be discussed only in 'executive session.'

For the Clinton Administration, drugs, organized crime and drug trafficking are but minor priorities in the long term game of global trade, economics, and power politics. The drug policies of the Clinton Administration appear to be little more than 'Vietnamization', a turning over of the 'War on Drugs' to the Andean nations and a pulling back of US forces and resources within the borders of the United States. What is happening in Mexico should show us such a neo-isolationism on these issues is neither in the national interest of the United States nor those of our trading partners. Drug trafficking today is a lot more than treatment of what is happening on the streets of Detroit. It is transnational organized crime, narco-corruption, and destabilization, that confront the US and the world's democracies.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/readings/lupsha.html

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New Generation's "CEO" Apprehended

August 13, 2012, 10:16 am

≫ Next: Zeta Mantas in Nuevo Laredo-Says Police Are Staging Events

≪ Previous: The Rise of Mexico's Narco State

Borderland Bea

The apprehended man is the prime suspect in the killing of journalists

The Navy of Mexico arrested Juan Carlos Hernandez Pulido, La Bertha , chief operating officer and alleged cartel hitman New Generation Jalisco and who is suspected of being responsible for the murder of three journalists in May.

The Secretary of the Marina (Semar) indicated that the alleged drug kingpin was arrested in a raid last Friday in response to a telephone call that warned of the presence of an armed person inside a vehicle in which allegedly distributed drugs.

The staff of the Marina trapped the gunman when he tried to escape after he noticed the presence of the Marines.

Several IDs were discovered in the vehicle of La Bertha. The IDs are in the name of Ana Irasema Becerra Jimenez, an associate of a Veracruz l newspaper. Irasema Becerra was found dead on May 3 along with journalists Gabriel HugeCórdoba, Guillermo Varela and Stephen Luna Rodriguez.

Authorities have initiated investigations to determine the relationship of La Bertha with the murders of these four people, Semar spokesman said.

Reliance said during a review of the vehicle they found two grenades, 68 bags of a substance suspected cocaine powder, another 62 bags of crack cocaine and 52 bags again with another substance, apparently marijuana. Officers also seized SEMAR agency communications equipment.

The Semar said the detained man confessed that he engaged in drug distribution, which we were provided by Isaiah Flores Pineda, the Kronos, who was arrested on August 8.

The suspect, drugs, vehicle and weapons were handed over to the PGR in the Port of Veracruz.

Source: Excelsior

Note: This story is ridiculous of so many levels. This man has been described as a Leader, Financial Officer, Sicarios chief etc. It would appear that authorities in Mexico feel they can say something "is", therefore it is. They wanted to tidy up the murders of the journalists. I ask what value do IDs of the dead have? and why would one be driving around with them in their vehicle? Or a top level person selling or delivering drugs out of his vehicle? It makes no sense. After reading the comments I felt compelled to state that I in no way buy this story. Paz, Chivis

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Zeta Mantas in Nuevo Laredo-Says Police Are Staging Events

August 13, 2012, 6:31 pm

≫ Next: El Padrino speaks from prison

≪ Previous: New Generation's "CEO" Apprehended

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Sunday morning narco banners began appearing in several sections of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. They continued to appear until this morning around 9AM. Authorities removed the banners almost as quickly as they appeared.

Text in Spanish:

El decomiso de marihuana y los muertos que encontró la Policía Federal con el letrero que eso les iva a pasar a todos Golfos que entraran a la Plaza de Nuevo Laredo es un Teatro mal montado por el Encargado de la Policía Federal de Nuevo Laredo.

Esto es un teatro montado por el encargado de la Policía Federal que trabaja con el GRINGO ellos mismos metieron la droga e hicieron este teatro eso es mentira si nosotros los hubieramos ayado los hubieramos colgado de un puente o los hubieramos Guisado y mucho menos los hubieramos dejado tirado con marihuana mejor la hubieramos vendido esto es un teatro mal armado por el jefe de la Policía Federal en Nuevo Laredo y su patrón el "Mike" el gringo.

Tambien tenemos conocimiento que metieron otro coche bomba que lo tienen ya adentro de Nuevo Laredo y que la flamante POLICIA FEDERAL agarraran al mas pendejo ya sea un halcón o una gente inocente y le van a poner que traía el carro y que es z.

Se andan poniendo coches bomba solos y se andan calentando la plaza solos a las autoridades federales que esta pasando con sus elementos? Que estan al servicio del que les pague más? Para hacer pendejadas Ojo para que sepan la siguiente que se quieren aventar

El pendejo de la Policia Federal asi como el show montado y mal armado que se acaban de aventar

En que cabeza cabe que le vamos a poner muertos con letreros donde tenemos marihuana

Eso se le ocurre solo al pendejo de EL GRINGO y al COMANDANTE DE LA POLICIA FEDERALagan las cosas creibles...

English Translation:

“The confiscation of marijuana and the dead bodies that Federal Police found with the message saying that this will happen to all the Gulfos that enter the plaza of Nuevo Laredo, is a poorly performed act of the person in charge of the Federal Police of Nuevo Laredo.

This is an act mounted by the person in charge of the Federal Police that works with "el Gringo". They planted the drugs and conducted the act, it is a lie, if we had found them, we would’ve hanged them in a bridge or we would’ve cooked them. Much less, we would’ve not left them lying there with marijuana. We would have sold it instead. This a bad act mounted by the chief of the Federal Police in Nuevo Laredo and his boss “The Mike” "el Gringo".

We also have knowledge that another car bomb was brought to Nuevo Laredo and that the brilliant Federal Police will catch the worst dumbasses, either a hawk, or an innocent person, and say that he was the one that brought the car and that he was a "Z".

They are the ones placing car bomb by themselves and are the one heating up the ground (plaza). I ask the federal authorities what is happening with your officers(?). Are they working for the person that pays more? Just to do shitty stuff. This is so you know the next thing the dumbass of the Federal Police is planning to do, just like the bad acts that they have mounted.

Who would believe that we are going to leave dead people with messages in the place where we have marijuana?

Only a dumbass like El Gringo and the Commander in chief of the Federal Police can come up with that.

Make the things look more believable…

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El Padrino speaks from prison

August 13, 2012, 6:41 pm

≫ Next: Mexican drug war's innocent victims: 'They tried to kill me with my kids'

≪ Previous: Zeta Mantas in Nuevo Laredo-Says Police Are Staging Events

Rio Doce. Borderland Beat

by Judith Ortiz
Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

So long as the United States consumes drugs, there will be people who take it to them, says Miguel Felix Gallardo from the Altiplano prison. Also, he states that wars are won by those who use weapons better.

8-13-2012. From the grey walled fortress of the Almoloya prison, 12 miles from Toluca, Mexico State, Miguel Felix Gallardo, the "Padrino", (the "Godfather"), talks with Riodoce. He declares that the current war against drug trafficking that is being fought all over the country "cannot be won," first, because the sale of drugs and weapons is a multimillion dollar business for the United States, and, second, because of the corruption and impunity that exists in Mexico.

"While there are consumers, there will be people who sell drugs," points out Felix Gallardo, considered by Mexican authorities the greatest drug trafficker of the 1980's (a charge of which he was acquitted after a long judicial process), who is serving a 40-year prison sentence, of which he has served 23 in the maximum security Altiplano prison, in Almoloya de Juarez. The man once known as "Jefe de Jefes" ("Boss of Bosses") says that "Mexico has never stopped being a drug corridor for the United States and Canada (drug) consumer market. And, for the most part, dangerous drugs such as crystal and crack "are produced in countries with first world technology and out of substances created in research laboratories."

Regarding the situation in Sinaloa, where people living in mountain areas have been displaced by violence among rival (drug) cartels and by violence between cartels and security forces, he explains that people in the highlands have been for many years victims of anti-drug policies. Since the 1960's, he says, federal police and soldiers who were going there to fight drugs would come to the mountain communities and strip people of (everything) even their farm animals; today, they are joined by armed groups who are still doing the same thing.

--It's said that in the 1970's, a cartel federation led by people from Sinaloa was formed, by which territories were assigned and business was apparently conducted peacefully. Today, the groups have branched out, resulting in violent confrontations. To what do you attribute this split among cartels?

--After I was arrested on April 8, 1989, by the mid 1990's the Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) (Mexican Office of Attorney General) had begun to use the term "cartels"; there are some disorganized groups, each group works on its own, they've never been united.

--When did Mexico stop being a drug corridor and drug producing country to the United States to become a consumer (of drugs)? Why did this situation arise?
--Mexico is not a drug producer, it only (produces) peyote and marijuana, and the violence is the result of unemployment, a lack of job creation, of dropping out of schools, of corruption. Mexico is a corridor country for the United States and Canada consumer markets. The Chinese brought opium, or amapola, their had a culture of smoking opium, there was an opium war with China that England won, and also Hong Kong. With the arrival of great numbers of Chinese to the northern part of Mexico and southern part of the United States to work as laborers or peons in the construction of the railroads, as miners, restaurant owners, businessmen or shop keepers...the United States asked Mexico to allow the cultivation of amapola (opium poppy) for its soldiers (during World War II), and also marijuana. No soldier goes to war without narcotics, and Mexico planted them. Mexico cannot stop being a corridor for the United States. Narcotics are produced by countries with first world technology and substances created in research laboratories. We don't have that technology and those laboratories in Mexico. Consumption of any drug is the responsibility of the person who uses it. I've never heard of anybody being forced to take drugs. If drug consumption in Mexico has increased, you could say that the population has also increased.

--Are there differences in the ways in which the PRI and the PAN governments have fought drug trafficking?
--There's a difference. The difference is that today the Mexican government receives more dollars to fight drug trafficking, it also gets weapons, aircraft, helicopters and DEA agents.

--What role has the United States government played in the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico? What do you think about the fact that that country is the biggest supplier of weapons for the cartels so they can fight each other and (fight) police and military forces? Do you believe their apparent support is a pretext to intervene in the politics of our country?
--The interest of the United States government is that its citizens will not lack drugs and that the sale of weapons will not stop. The United States has intervened in everything Mexico since the time of Benito Juarez: politics, the economy, through commerce, industry, agriculture...they (the government) has allowed them to intervene in everything.

--While in the United States there are businesses that sell marijuana "for medical purposes" (a California university teaches cultivation, harvest and preparation, as well as administering (marijuana) to others), in Mexico 60,000 people have died for this same reason, since President Calderon began his war against drug trafficking in 2006. Do you think it's fair that, in this war, Mexico is the one that supplies the bodies?
--The (Mexican) government has made it so the war against drug trafficking cannot be won, because the United States has an interest in selling drugs, its a multimillion dollar business every year, and not all the dead are drug traffickers, most are innocent victims.

--Do you think it's a lost war to which the government arrived too late, as Ismael "Mayo" Zambada said in an interview with Proceso?
--So long as there are consumers there will be those who sell them drugs. I don't know what Mr. Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada said, I don't know him, I've been in jail more than 20 years. Wars are won and lost, the one who uses bullets better wins, but you defeat delinquency (crime) with work, with education, with sports, with agricultural development, industry and commerce.

--Do you agree with the current policies in the war against drug trafficking in Mexico? Who do the (policies) benefit and who do they harm?
--The policy that the government should use is to fight corruption among its employees and fight impunity, apply the law evenhandedly. Five or ten thousand police officers are inadequate to do this work well.

--Are you in favor of legalizing some types of drugs like marijuana in Mexico? Do you think legalization will decrease the violence we're witnessing?
--I don't know whether it would help to legalize some drugs. I will tell you that Holland legalized drugs and violence decreased. Some intellectuals, among them Gabriel Garcia Marquez, have come out in favor of (legalization). My opinion is not worth much on that issue. I will only say that the dangerous drugs (synthetic drugs) like crystal and crack are produced in industrialized countries and they are more harmful than natural drugs.

--In the mountain municipalities of Sinaloa, Badiraguato, Choix, San Ignacio, Cosala, Concordia, Rosario and Elota, armed groups have sown violence and expelled hundreds of families from their communities. What's your opinion about what's happening?
--In the 60's and 70's, federal police and soldiers who went there to fight drugs would arrive at the mountain communities and take food and farm animals from the people, and they (the residents) would have to go to the cities to find food. These days, those armed groups you mention have joined them.

--From the start, drug trafficking has relied on official complicity and protection, by civil as well as military authorities. Do you think that the current war against drug trafficking by President Felipe Calderon is really intended to attack corruption among these officers?
--I don't know what President Felipe Calderon's intentions are in combating drug trafficking. There's always been talk about complicity and protection by civil and military authorities, but is has seldom been proven, many were accused as "scapegoats" without proof they did anything.

--A week ago, high ranking military commanders were arrested (on charges) they provided protection to drug trafficking cartels. Is the military as corruptible as federal or state police agencies?
--Here (in the Altiplano prison) there are and have been division, brigade and brigadier generals, colonels, lieutenants, majors, and down from there, federal, state, and municipal police commanders and officers, same as governors, mayors, secretaries of state and other government officials, (convicted) of all sorts of crime, not just because some drug trafficking cartel corrupted them; whoever wants to be corrupt will be corrupt.

Once ordered (into prison), it does no good to defend myself

According to Froylan Enciso, author of the chapter on drug trafficking A Contemporary history of Mexico (Oceano, 2009), "at the end of the 1980s, Carlos Salinas de Gortari knew that the shadow of electoral fraud would force him to earn the legitimacy he needed to govern. During the first years of his administration, he struck some spectacular blows against union leaders and corrupt policemen, as well as against the biggest drug trafficker from the De la Madrid era, the one who controlled the flow of cocaine, who had earned the respect of his colleagues, who even officers of the DEA called "elegant": Miguel Felix Gallardo."

A little over three years ago, in a letter delivered to the newspaper La Jornada, Felix Gallardo accused Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni (the commander of the extinct Federal Judicial Police, the one who gave him up) and his immediate superiors of assigning plazas (cities) to the narcos towards the end of the 1980's decade. Felix Gallardo himself writes in his letters from prison that in 1987, "while living in Guadalajara, I was looking for a way to introduce myself to the authorities, (and) a lawyer Licenciado Fernando Martinez Inclan, was advising me. He would tell me, 'Wait a little longer until the government changes, we will introduce you (already protected by) with an amparo (protective order), your case is one of political pressure, wait.'"

But (Felix Gallardo) was arrested before that time came. "If you had called me, I would have shown up," he told them. In his statement at the public ministry, Felix Gallardo asserts that he was the victim of torture and threats made against him, the same for the people who incriminated him. "I was taken to the high security module and placed in a cell in the Southern Prison (Reclusorio Sur), and I was not allowed to leave that cell for three months, only to (go to) the courtroom and to sick bay; they let me see my family for an hour after that time, only my lawyer visited me."

He recalls that when his prosecution started, "federal agents kidnapped and murdered my lawyers, my brothers, my nephews,even the house caretaker." When his family was on the verge of filing a complaint against the arresting officers, "they were threatened and they moved me from the Southern prison to Almoloya, and a person from the Public Ministry came and hinted that I should shut up or my sons would be in danger."

The finances of the Jefe de Jefes suffered. "All my properties were kept by the people put in place by Javier Coello Trejo (then deputy prosecutor in the PGR); they took ranches, homes, vehicles, cars, jewelry, and money in bank accounts from my wife, my mother, my brothers, nephews and friends; Coello distributed everything and gave it to people he trusted.

"After my imprisonment, Coello and his gang manipulated the public's and even the President's opinion, saying terrible things against me, mainly that I had a fortune worth billions of dollars, although he never proved I had any money, because I wasn't even able to hire good lawyers. He took everything from me; I had to rent a house south of the city for my family, and he was always bothering them and everybody who got close to me."

Known as the "Iron Prosecutor," Javier Coello Trejo, who led the fight against drug trafficking in the first phase of Carlos Salinas de Gortari's administration, faced accusations and the arrest of his bodyguards, who were accused of a series of rapes of women in the southern part of the Distrito Federal (D.F.), in addition to the murder of Sinaloa social activist, Norma Corona Sapien, plus a series of abuses and human rights violations committed by police personnel under his command.

Over the years, Felix Gallardo prevailed conclusively in a lawsuit against the PGR, which allowed him to recover several properties and a building with at least 40 apartments in a Culiacan housing development. A unitary tribunal in the Federal District (D.F.) ruled to compel the Specialized Unit for the Investigation of Organized Crime (SIEDO: Subprocuraduria de Investigacion Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada) to return assets seized years ago. According to criminal file number 124/2007, Felix Gallardo, his wife and three of his sons were able to prove they were the rightful owners of the properties and the building.

At 66 years of age, the person formerly considered the "capo de capos" talks about his trial: "To bring me to Almoloya (now Altiplano), (the government) violated a protective order I obtained to prevent them from transferring me from the Southern Prison to any other place. All proceedings were now held far from (where I was), and I would be notified of everything by court orders; I didn't have a lawyer for some years, my finances were not good, I could not defend myself and the proceedings were exhausted when I still had evidence to develop. The person who was the prosecutor in my case became a judge and gave me the maximum sentence, he did not provide me with a hearing in person and confiscated everything. Now at Almoloya, it is all court orders, all my proceedings are court orders, it doesn't do any good to defend myself."

Dispersion after the fall.

Miguel Felix Gallardo was born on January 8, 1946, in Bellavista, Culiacan municipality, a small town now a suburb of the capital of Sinaloa. At 18 years old, he was already an officer in the Federal Judicial Police, now extinct, assigned as a bodyguard for then-governor Leopoldo Sanchez Celis, who was best man at his wedding and was his political protector.

His rise and fall coincide with one of the most complex periods in the history of drug trafficking: the start of the U.S. war against drugs and the consolidation of Mexico as a drug corridor for cocaine (smuggling). At age 30, in the midst of an intense social life, the man from Sinaloa known as the Godfather was a successful businessman. He was a shareholder and distinguished client of Banca Somex, where the general manager was noted PRI politician Mario Ramon Beteta.

In the 1970's decade and for most of the 80s, he became the cocaine czar in Mexico. After Operation Condor, he founded the so-called Guadalajara Cartel, from which he was able to control all the illegal drug transport to the United States in partnership with Pablo Escobar Gaviria, the biggest drug trafficker for the Medellin, Colombia, cartel.

On April 8, 1989, Felix Gallardo was betrayed and arrested in Guadalajara by Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, a commander with the Federal Judicial Police with whom he had had dealings. He was accused of drug trafficking and of the kidnapping and murders of U.S. DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar and captain Alfredo Zavala, a pilot with the Secretariat of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources, in 1985.

The man also known as the Jefe de Jefes was sentenced to 40 years in prison, of which he has served 23 in the maximum security Altiplano prison, located in Almoloya de Juarez.

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Mexican drug war's innocent victims: 'They tried to kill me with my kids'

August 13, 2012, 6:46 pm

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Borderland Beat

Claims that 90% of Mexican drug war victims are criminals is a statistic far removed from Cristina Roman's experience in a country where police and military have fallen into corruption.

Daniel Hernandez
The Guardian

Cristina Roman is a member of Mexicans In Exile, a network of activists and ordinary working-class citizens, who arrived in the US seeking asylum. Photograph: Daniel Hernandez.

Missing persons posters in Juarez. Photograph: Daniel Hernandez

Cristina Roman didn't know where to begin. When asked how the epic violence and criminal impunity in her native Ciudad Juarez invaded her own life, she paused, then asked: "How far should I go back?"

She decided to begin from May 2010. It was then at the height of the bloodletting there in Mexico's deadliest city when, one night at 4am, she, her husband and three sons awoke to a terrible pounding at their front door. "My husband went to see who they were. Then he said: 'Go hide with the kids. They have guns,'" she recalled.

"By the time I had my baby in my arms, the gunmen were already in the house."

Roman, 28, is a member of Mexicanos En Exilio – or "Mexicans In Exile" – a network of Mexican activists, journalists, politicos and ordinary working-class families like hers, who arrived in the United States seeking asylum from criminal assassins in Mexico.

These are innocent victims of the Mexican drug war. In the words of their immigration lawyer, Carlos Spector, an immigration lawyer in El Paso, Texas, where most of these exiles end up, they "risked their lives for truth and justice in Mexico" and were "forced to leave because of the Mexican government's failure or unwillingness to protect them".

Cristina's case is different, however. She didn't protest against corruption or document violence, but fell victim for a rather banal reason: being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The incident that put her in a drug cartel's crosshairs was a mass shooting she escaped as one of few surviving witnesses. From a small home in New Mexico, where she now lives in hiding, Cristina reflected on that event, but noted it wasn't her first brush with violence in Juarez. That's how she began describing the night three gunmen broke through her front door.

Personal accounts like hers, while isolated, provide shocking glimpses of the trauma and tragedy that exist for people living amidst Mexico's brutal drug war. These stories also reveal a state of lawlessness that experts say is unlikely to stop any time soon.
As gunman entered her home, Cristina told her sons, aged eight and six, to stay calm.

The men soon called for her to come out. She did, and was immediately grabbed and thrown to the floor. The men then pistol-whipped her husband, who collapsed next to her. "They asked for money, jewelry, car keys, everything they wanted," she recalled. "I said: 'I don't know what you're looking for, but you can take whatever you want. I only want my children.'"

One man – "El Vato" – hovered over her saying he would execute them all. Another gunman then said: "What are you doing? We came for him. Don't get out of control."
He said: "Go to your kids' room, close the door, and no matter what you hear, don't leave, don't speak." Cristina did as told. And for the next half hour heard them beating her husband. He groaned and wept through the assault as she huddled with their sons in silence.

After 30 minutes, when the noise finally ceased, Cristina came out to the awful realization that her husband had been kidnapped. Two hours later, her brother-in-law received a phone call with ransom instructions.

Cristina's husband owned a small used-car dealership, and over the next two days, she and her brother-in-law hustled to sell his lot, liquidate assets, raise funds, withdraw savings. "We did everything we could to get all the money together and paid half the ransom the first day, the other half the second day," she said, her voice quivering. "The third day they were supposed to return him and they didn't. The fourth day they threw his dead body in the street."

Mexican president Felipe Calderon often claims that 90% of the drug war victims are criminals. That vague sentencing of 60,000 people naturally enrages victims' families.
Nik Steinberg, a Mexico researcher for Human Rights Watch, also disputes its validity. "The government has not produced empirical evidence to back up this claim," he said. "Instead what we have found in the overwhelming majority of killings in Mexico is that the government has not even opened a criminal investigation, let alone charged or sentenced someone."

The men who killed Cristina's husband were never brought to justice. There is no way to know whether they worked for the Zetas or Sinoloa cartels, which are active in Juarez Valley. That is a strong possibility, however. According to Ben West, an analyst for geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor, the cartels have increasingly diversified their criminal activity to include extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking, in response to losses incurred in the drug trade.

Ironically, this means that Mexican civilians are becoming victims of their government's success.

West added: "You have criminal groups taking advantage of the overall security situation and basically pulling people at gunpoint and saying give me your money. With the police all caught up in this, there is no rule of law."

Cristina took a job at a Juarez nightclub after her husband's murder. She went from stay-at-home mother to single breadwinner for three overnight, and moved in with her parents so they could help.

And for almost a year, they managed. Then the cartel violence found her again.
On 31 March, 2011, at about 8.30pm, a group of federal police officers entered the bar telling everyone to line up against the wall. Searching for weapons, they padded men between the legs, looked up women's skirts, emptied handbags and checked bathroom stalls. That level of scrutiny was unprecedented, Cristina said. At one point an officer even began groping a colleague of hers. She intervened, saying: "Hey – we respect you and your work, you should respect us. You can't treat us like that." The man backed off, but not before delivering an ominous message. "You haven't seen anything yet," he said. "The worst is yet to come."

And truly, it was.

A few minutes after the police left, two men entered the bar carrying automatic weapons. A man near entrance lunged for the doorway and they shot him. "That was the first person to go down," Cristina recalled. "I dropped to the floor. Everyone was screaming with fear."

With ruthless abandon, the assassins opened fire in every direction, killing all they could, shooting everyone in sight. "I could see people around me in pain, some people dead," Cristina recalled. At some point the men lit the bar on fire. A waitress next to Cristina ran as soon as they left, saying: "I'd rather be shot to death than burn."
"When it sounded like all the shooting had stopped, and you could smell the place was starting to burn, I had to go too," Cristina said. She ran outside, where several cars were on fire.

She ran to the parking lot and suddenly froze when four pairs of headlights turned on. They were four federal police trucks. They had never left. "The only thing I thought at that moment was: Sin Madre," she said – a phrase that literally means "motherless" but is also slang for "goddammit."

Feliz Viaje sign entering Mexico

A sign wishing travellers a good trip, between Ciudad Juarez and the United States. Photograph: Daniel Hernandez

Incredibly, municipal police pulled up just then. They jumped from their cars, hurling curses at their rivals. "They turned their attention to them," Cristina said, referring to the federal police, who refused to let the responding officers through. "That's the only reason I got away."

Despite serious efforts to purge corruption from their ranks, reports of Mexican law enforcement engaged in criminal activity are rampant. "What mostly happens is police officers work by day for the city, then as a side job also do security for the cartels," said West, of Strator. "And that obviously creates all sorts of conflicts of interest."
"All levels of police are implicated," he added. "But what is probably most alarming is that the military is also falling into corruption. The government is running out of tools to fight this problem."

Cristina showed great poise escaping the El Castillo bar massacre; she fell into a daze, however, immediately afterward. "I was just wandering," she said, "lost, till 4am when I finally got back to the house."

The following day, three survivors gave statements to police about the event. Too intimidated, Cristina refused. She had no plans to talk, but that wouldn't make a difference, unfortunately. About a week later, a friend from the bar – another survivor – called Cristina to warn her that "sicarios" – assassins – were asking for them at nightclubs downtown.

Cristina had no intention of going to work at a nightclub again. "I just couldn't," she said. Nevertheless, they found her one afternoon driving on a highway. They drove a Dodge Ram, and tried to bully her toward the shoulder. They wore masks, her son said, and tried to run her off the road but somehow she pulled away.

"I'm still not sure how I managed to keep control of the car," she said. "They tried to kill me with my kids."

She stayed up that night thinking about what to do. "It had gotten to the point where I was very scared, always worried that people were looking for me," she said. "I was terrified for my children."

"I talked to my oldest son Raul about the possibility of coming to the US," she recalled. "I thought about it all night, and then on the 13 April I took my boys and what I could pack and went to the bridge."

According to the department of homeland security, 4,400 Mexican nationals have applied for US asylum in 2012. That number already exceeds the 4,000 requests filed in 2011, and is more than three times the 1,200 made in 2005, before the drug war began.
These people represent a fraction of the displaced, of course. And only a fraction of them will see their requests granted. Over the past six years, only 11% of asylum cases from Mexican nationals were granted. And that average is trending downward. As Crystal Massey, an activist in Spector's office, explained: "Unless you can show that you belong to a particular social group that is not the whole country right now, you don't qualify for asylum."

Cristina's first hearing is this fall. With federal police implicated in the massacre she witnessed, she hopes a immigration judge will find her government complicit in her persecution.

Her mother, sister, brother-in-law and nephews will go through asylum hearings too. They followed Cristina across the border after their own tragic run in with "sicarios". Gunman showed up at their door recently demanding to know Cristina's US address. Her father refused to reveal it, and for his loyalty he was taken with the promise that the rest of the family was next.

Her father was never seen again and is assumed killed. When asked for her full name and age – "Cristina Roman Dozal, 28" – Cristina offered his name too: "Manuel Roman."

And it's deaths like his, and her husband's, and the ruthless killings of innocents at the El Castillo bar that cause Cristina to grow upset when confronted by the claim that 90% of Mexican drug war victims are criminals.

"In their crossfire they're getting innocent people. In the bar where I worked, maybe they were going after one bad person, but they killed innocent people too. And then there is more bloodshed when they pursue the witnesses," she said, her voice quivering. "They go for a person, kill their mother, kill their brother. They kill lots of innocent people. They killed my father. It just keeps spreading out and it's mostly innocent people."

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Police Battle Zetas Cartel

August 13, 2012, 9:31 pm

≫ Next: Veracruz: Family of 7 Decapitated Including 4 Young Children

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Borderland Beat

AlJazeera English

One major challenge for Mexico's police when fighting drug violence is corruption - drug gangs infiltrate the very agencies that are supposed to be fighting crime.

As part of our series on Monterrey, Rachel Levin travelled to the outskirts of the city, where one police force has managed to push out the cartels.

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Veracruz: Family of 7 Decapitated Including 4 Young Children

August 13, 2012, 11:56 pm

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Borderland Beat

Veracruz: Seven members of a family, including 4 young children and their grandfather, were beheaded and their bodies left inside their home in the town of Manlio Fabio Altamirano, Veracruz, reports authorities.

."The Attorney General of the State of Veracruz is investigating the death of seven members of a family were found inside his home in the colonia Mata Loma," explained a government spokesman.

Neighbors were concerned after not seeing any of the family since Friday evening. On Friday evening the family had dinner with some of the neighbors and that was the last time they were seen by anyone. Neighbors decided to check on the family, and as they approached the home detected a foul odor. They peered into a window and made the gruesome discovery.

The authorities were notified by neighbors, the bodies already showed signs of decomposition, it is presumed that death would have been at least 72 hours prior to the discovery.

The Prosecutor's Office of the PGJ, revealed the identification of the victims as; Isidoro Reyes 65 years old, Manuel Reyes Ramirez 38, Ines Diaz 30, Manuel Reyes Diaz 12, Aleyda Reyes Díaz de 9, Esmeralda Reyes Diaz for 3 years and a girl estimated to be 4 years old, her full name is unknown but known as "Coquita”.

Sources used for this post: Notiver-Veracruz Informa

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Shootouts and Narcoblockades in Reynosa: Reports "El Gringo" is Dead

August 14, 2012, 8:21 pm

≫ Next: "El Taliban" Challenges Z40, Z-40 Responds with 14 Executions

≪ Previous: Veracruz: Family of 7 Decapitated Including 4 Young Children

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

A confrontation between narocs and the military, has allegedly resulted in the death of "El Gringo". El Gringo is the chief of the Plaza for the Gulf Cartel. This event sparked a series of "narco blockades and shootouts at different points in the city of Reynosa.

The Prosecutor's Office of Tamaulipas sources confirmed that at 12: 30 p.m. a clash between soldiers and armed men in nearby streets to Las Bugambilias colony.

(El Gringo)

Subsequently, around 13: 30 hours armed men began to steal cars and trucks to block important avenues such as Hidalgo, one Street East, the Beltway to Matamoros, even near thehighway by th headquarters of the eighth military zone, which lies at the eastern part of the city.

Criminals were also fired in the air and at various streets they threw, the so-called "ponchallantas", a set of entangled nails that disable tires on military vehicles allowing criminal to escape. Reports of shootings were also reported through social networks like Twitter.

The United States Consulate in Monterrey, which controls the border of Tamaulipas area, reported that so far they have not felt it necessary to issue an alert to its citizens about the situation in Reynosa.

A spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office of Tamaulipas said that a statement will be issued in the next few hours to inform about the violent events of Reynosa and they will also confirm if "El Gringo" was shot down by theArmy.

El Gringo was mentioned in the text of the Los Zetas Narco Mantas that appeared throughout the city of Nuevo Laredo on Sunday and Monday.

8.15.12 UPDATE: Tamps atuhorties confirm the deaths of 4 in yesterdays violence, they also confirmed a shortage of eggs (I kid you not) but did not confirm Gringo's death....

Sources: Twitter

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"El Taliban" Challenges Z40, Z-40 Responds with 14 Executions

August 14, 2012, 8:38 pm

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Borderland Beat

A new twist in drug violence has been seen in Mexico after a recent surge in fighting and executions that has reached the state of San Luis Potosi, a Mexican state that in the past has not seen such a high percentage of drug crime in comparison to other states, but is a place that is known to be dominated by a group of Los Zetas that conducts drug trafficking and other crimes.

On August 9 authorities made the discovery of 14 bodies that had been tortured and eventually executed were found in a van in the town of San Luis Potosi. The same day in the afternoon an intense shootout was reported in the same municipality, near the Monterrey Technological School, that left three suspected sicarios dead and sent chaos among the panicked community.

But more important is what the narco bloody conflict would reveal; a man who had been abducted to be executed along with the 14 bodies found inside of the van with plates from the state of Coahuila, but who was found alive by soldiers in a state of shock, gagged, hands tied behind his back and with visible signs of having been beaten, this according to a report sent by Notinfomex.

The man who was later interrogated in a hospital in the city of Potosi, said that he managed to escaped during the slaughter of the victims who had all been traveling in the van, managed to survive by pretending to be dead and seized the right moment to flee when the murderers were carrying fuel to go hide in the mountains.

As expected, the man would be questioned by members of the military, same military group that days later would reveal that the man and the group of men with him that were killed belonged to Los Zetas, and that his executors were also Zetas.

The man also revealed that Z50 or "Taliban", a top leader of the criminal group Los Zetas had challenged the second in command of Los Zetas, Miguel Treviño Morales, "Z40", and this was the reason the war started in order to take control of the Plaza of San Luis Potosi, resulting in the execution of 14 people by order of the command of Miguel Trevino against the personnel of the Taliban.

Presumably, previous intelligence reports had indicated that the trend of Trevino is of opportunistic and capable of betraying anyone, it was the reason after alleged abuse on his part, "Z50" dared to challenge him, even spoke of a bad relationship between Trevino and the top capo Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, alias "El Lazca" or "El Verdugo."

In regards to Lazcano, it is not yet known exactly where he stands in these circumstances, however reports indicate that he has broken within the organization, and if this is eventually confirmed, it would be a huge blow to the criminal organization that has been considered one of the bloodiest in world, as his separation from the organization makes Los Zetas vulnerable to their enemies and also against the Mexican law enforcement and military.

Thus, a new rift between the organization often called "La Compania", arises from differences between organization leaders, the same as it happened in February 2010 when rift between leaders caused a war between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, who initially were allies and were part of the same organization, but the breakup unleashed a bloody war mainly in the state of Tamaulipas, that resulted in converting many border towns into "ghost towns."

The federal government turned on all alerts
Given the recent events and the new information from the surviving sicario, the federal government sent its highest alert on the bloody war that is likely to break loose between the two leaders of the criminal organization (Los Zetas), an organization that has its roots in high-ranking elements of the military.

Knowing that "Taliban" is boss of the organization in Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi and part of Guanajuato, it is expected that a war struggle for control of drug trafficking turf will unleash as it already has in San Luis Potosi.

The federal government reported today that it will deploy 15,000 troops and Federal Police to in San Luis Potosi, Nuevo Leon, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Michoacan, Coahuila and Tamaulipas, this in response to the surge of violence that has been taking place for about six years that is hitting Mexico very hard.

Knowing that Ivan Velazquez Caballero, or "Taliban" is as vicious as Treviño Morales, it is expected that Velazquez will try to avenge the death of his 14 sicarios unleashing a bloody war.

Source: Notinfomex

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San Diego murder suspect with cartel ties detained

August 15, 2012, 8:27 pm

≫ Next: Federal government conceals the number of executions

≪ Previous: "El Taliban" Challenges Z40, Z-40 Responds with 14 Executions

San Diego murder suspect arrested in Tijuana

On July 24, the freeway traffic throughout downtown San Diego was at a standstill, sweaty and tired commuters wiped the sweat from their brows, as they inched forward, virtually gridlocked. There was always a little bit of a struggle for those who worked Downtown, but this wasn't normal. Unknown to the frustrated drivers, the reason for the snarled traffic was a homicide, which took place in the afternoon hours on First and Fir. Officers responding to the shooting quickly closed the freeway entrance to Interstate 5 north, with one of the main exit points blocked, things backed up quickly.

The shooting took place at a a Residential, Transitional living facility, for homeless teens, in the Bankers Hill area, an upscale neighborhood, adjacent to Balboa Park. However, the lower areas of the neighborhood are more mixed, with sober livings and by the week motels, next to low income health facilities. If you know what you are looking for, one can see the recently released convicts on their exercise time in the lower areas of Park West, wearing older clothes, and using cd players, to listen to R&B.

The victim was 27 year old Luis Espinoza, of Chula Vista, shot several times at the scene, he died at the hospital the following day. Another 21 year old man was also shot, but is recovering, police declined to release the victims's name. Two of the suspects, based on information gathered at the scene by responding officers were detained in El Cajon City, hours after the shooting, after a traffic stop. They were Ruben and Rodney Acosta, a father and son, aged 40, and 18. The Acostas were said to have been visiting someone at the facility, and alleged to have gotten into an argument with the visitors of another resident. The argument was heard throughout the afternoon by witnesses.

At some point, shots were fired, and the Acostas fled in a Ford Expedition, which was described to police. Three men were said to have fled the scene, but after police tracked the vehicle to El Cajon, only two were arrested. The third man, likely the shooter, was dropped off. Ruben Acosta Jr, , another son, 21 years old was named as the third suspect. Weeks after the shooting, he was arrested yesterday in Tijuana, in Colonia Libertad. Acosta was arrested by Tijuana PEP, and U.S Marshals, using information gathered in the weeks after the killing. Acosta's tattoos were apparently used to positively ID him in the Tijuana neighborhood where he was hiding out.

According to the Marshals, and the Tijuana authorities, Acosta, is linked to a cell in the service of the Sinaloa Cartel, and is known to participate in a variety of crimes, on both sides of the border, at the command of the cell leader. Acosta is wanted for murder, assault, drug trafficking, and robbery, in San Diego. The Acosta's are being held in seperate country jails, South Bay, George Bailey, and Central, with no bail for the senior Acosta, and 1,000,000 for the youngest. The shooting is being described as gang related, but no motive has been presented, at this point. It is likely all three of the Acosta's are involved in gang, and possibly drug trafficking activities.

It is very common for street level enforcers, with dual citizenship to flee to Tijuana, and the United States to escape arrest and prosecution. This arrest comes much sooner then the last high profile San Diego murder case, with ties to Tijuana and transnational crime organizations. Earlier this year, after more then a year on the run, Armando Perez, 37, was arrested in Tijuana, on the tourist strip, Revolucion. Perez, linked to the cell of Arellano Felix, through Melvin Quiterrez, allegedly murdered his wife, brutalizing her, and leaving her body in the bathroom of the Community College she attended.

Sources, AFN Tijuana, 10news San Diego, UT San Diego.

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Federal government conceals the number of executions

August 16, 2012, 11:38 am

≫ Next: Knights Templar: Narco Banners Declare "Z40" Most Wanted

≪ Previous: San Diego murder suspect with cartel ties detained

El Diario

Written by H. Prado and R. Herrera, with information from Diego Osorno

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

Agencia Reforma. Distrito Federal. The (Mexican) federal government confirmed for REFORMA that there will be no updated official number of murders or deaths related with organized crime until the end of (Calderon's) six-year term (sexenio). The last official statistics to the so-called Database of Deaths Caused by Presumed Criminal Rivalry closed on September 30, 2011, with 47,515 deaths.

Jaime Lopez Aranda, head of the Information Center for the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, stated that, although the databases were unpublished and an example of transparency, they were never more than an "experiment" that in addition gave rise to uncertainty in the Security Cabinet, and that's why it was decided not to continue maintaining them.

Lopez Aranda explained that, "in my personal opinion, not as a government official, this database was a very good experiment in transparency, but it was a failed experiment. In other words, I believe the Mexican government should not be doing the classification of deaths due to organized crime because this greatly distorts the criminal proceedings."

President Felipe Calderon's administration will provide only information on "intentional homicides" (homicidios dolosos) committed in the nation, that amounted to 94,357 deaths up to June of this year, but it will not break out the ones related to organized crime.

"There will be no follow-up (to the homicide database). The references that were used came from federal agencies; Cisen (Centro de Investigacion y Seguridad Nacional, a law enforcement intelligence agency), PGR (Attorney General), Marina, Sedena (National Defense Secretariat; Mexican Army); a "lock box" group would collect it and that was the number given (to the media.)

"But I did not have a criminal investigation to back up every one of those cases because, in addition, there cannot be a criminal investigation for organized crime homicides. So, then, (the number) was not legally supported,." he stated.

The government official continued, "They set the criteria and said: 'Let's see, if they used large caliber (high power) firearms, if they moved the body, if they tied it up, if there's signs of torture, if two or more of these (criteria) are present, it could be like organized crime.' the (numbers) published were supported by methodology, but they were only an approximation, like saying, 'my gut tells me that it is (an organized crime homicide,)'" he explained.

Lopez Aranda argued that the database currently developed by the PGR only includes details about intentional homicides, because the (legal) classifications "execution," "homicides related with organized crime," or "deaths from presumed criminal rivalries" simple cannot be used because they are not defined in any penal code.

Complaints about the numbers

The federal government's decision to bury the (statistics on the) number of persons executed during the six-year term was criticized by experts and by Javier Sicilia, leader of the Movimiento por la Paz (Movement For Peace). The poet declared that the Felipe Calderon administration wants to bury the historical memory of the persons who died in the war against drug trafficking in a "clandestine grave."

"What is behind this is the same logic used by the Nazis: the human beings who died in the war against the narco are (just) a number, they're cockroaches. They're not even worth counting. This is the start of a type of Nazism," says Sicilia.

"The truth is that the (number of deaths) was never known. They invented the number! They did this after we demanded it at the (meeting held) at the Castle (Chapultepec Castle on June 23, 2011). They gave out a number, and after that number we know that they are dying and they keep on dying, but the Pentagon, I don't know how they did it, was talking about 150,000 (deaths). And, there are mayors who say the number is 250,000, and we have yet to determine the number of clandestine graves out there. And we will know, some day we will know."

Eduardo Gallo, the former president of Mexicans United Against Crime (Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia), believes that the federal government wants to leave the (actual) number up in the air so that at the end of the six-year term, this number won't be associated with the final count (attributed to) the Calderon administration.

Ana Laura Magaloni, researcher with the Center for Economic Research and Education (CIDE: Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas) says that if the database that the Federal Administration itself developed is wrong, then what needs to be done is to develop another one that does meet standards for validity.

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Knights Templar: Narco Banners Declare "Z40" Most Wanted

August 17, 2012, 7:37 pm

≫ Next: NARCO HOMICIDES: "The Real" Number 100-200+ Thousand

≪ Previous: Federal government conceals the number of executions

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

The Knights Templar Cartel has declared war against Miguel Angel Trevino aka “Z40” by displaying narcomantas (banners) in eight cities; Jiquilpan, Zamora, Sahuayo, Tocumbo, Tinguindin, Cuitzao, Lazaro Cardenas, and Zinapecuaro. All of the cities are in the southern region of Michoacan or border the state.

In several of these cities there have been acts of damage to vehicles, and gas creating damage to gas station. These acts are attributed to retaliation against federal operations being conducted in Michoacan.

KTs declare they are on the hunt for Trevino and have deemed him guilty of being responsible for terrorists acts committed in Mexico.

Also accuse him responsible for the killing of economic migrants as they travel through Mexico on the route to the United States.

They are asking for a coalition and support from the citizens in their search for Trevino, and claim to be working with “brothers” in the northern states.

Text in Spanish, click to enlarge:

Translated into English:

"We The Knights Templar, in defense of our Michoacan territory and in conjunction with our brothers in the northern states of, Coahuila and Nuevo Leon, declare war against Miguel Angel Trevino 'Zeta 40, a Persona Non Grata (undesirable/unacceptable) person to society, so at this time we have chosen to make him a target for our military group The Knights Templar Brotherhood, since he is the maximum orchestrator of terrorism in our country, We must draw a line and put a stop to his terrorist acts and their car bombs that have exploded without respect for innocent lives, he is even committing murders in casinos"

He is the greatest murderer of migrants, Mexicans and South Americans, he has earned the hatred and repudiation of all of us, for each and every one of his acts have affected thousands of people in Mexico and Central America, this is why we are inviting armed groups and civilians to create a union and fight until we finish them.

We are urging men and women in all states to give us information of their whereabouts.

Please send any information by any known means, we will take care of the rest.

ATTE: The Guard Michoacana"

Knights Templar, known in Spanish as Caballeros Templarios, is a splinter group of LFM, La Familia Michoacana . KTs are somewhat like a secret society, with initiation rituals which includes dressing in the type of clothing that represents the middle ages and blood pact rituals.

Their mission is based on a strong religious component with a code of conduct that forbids the use of drugs. Yet they somehow reconcile that with the fact they operate are one of the largest meth trafficking routes into the United States.

Their mission claims to be in a fight against such struggles as injustice, crimes against honest citizens, and poverty. Incredible, since they are perpetrators of crimes that include those against honest, hardworking members of society.

This year authorities seized a bizarre assortment items used for rites of passage of members and other ceremonies that included the plastic helmets depicted in the photo below.

In June of last year a video was released that began with footage of a night market areas with stalls open and customers walking about, when an extraordinarily large convoy appeared. In an apparent show of force,50 trucks passed by the stunned people, it was members of the KT wearing masks and openly displaying their weapons. The video is below:

Sources used to write this post: Proceso-Grados-Notimex

Thank you to Milo of BB forum for the video find of the mantas story

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