Borderland Beat: Republished from RioDoce posted on forum by Siskiyou_Kid
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A gray Black Hawk helicopter rose from the grass at the Ángel Flores baseball park, while on the ground Marine Corps commands roamed the streets of this city in vehicles, armored and with mounted artillery, as well as in civilian patrols.
Tens of kilometers from here, in the audit office of Bamoa [in Guasave Municipality], infantry units "combed" the area and set up checkpoints and searched vehicles.
In the opposite direction, in the baseball stadium of Estacion Naranjo, MI-27 rescue and assault helicopter remained on the ground. The troop, anxious, but friendly.
Marines faced reporters, and although they asked for identifications, they did not prevent their work. It was only recommended that they don't take pictures and keep an eye on their identification. It was rather interesting to know their opinion and were asked what the [civilian] population thinks about their operations. They smile, address their units and continue in their work.
They let reporters stay in the theater of operations. It is the heart of the search for members of the cartel of Guasave. There they are hunting for Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, El Chapito Isidro, leader of the group and two of his top lieutenants known to be still alive, Jesus González Peñuelas, Chuy González, and Conrad "n", El Conrado, who operate in the northern part of the state.
A marina infantryman says: "[they are] not very brave, because we are everywhere, we can go everywhere, why so concerned with us?, why did they run?" Why did they not come [to us]?"
And he says: "Wherever have they been (hidding) we are going to get them". He says no more,. "Nothing more until then, thank you".
Another marina infantryman comments that almost none of those in his command know each other. This is because they were stationed in various commands in the country, distributed in ports and coastal cities. That were all brought together because of their specialties. There are gunners, artillerymen, pilots and intelligence personnel, intelligence analysts... All have something in common: experience in ground operations, skilled with weapons, short or long, and all are on a target: the Guasave Cartel.
No one knows how long they will stay in this region, they didn’t know they were coming, either. One day they were called up, without instruction. They were mounted in trucks or helicopters and transported to an unknown region. They knew it was dangerous, that there would be shooting and certainly some dead. So they arrived, with adrenaline flowing to the one hundred [to the extreme].
They drove armored patrol units, a double cab with mounted artillery and 4 door civilian vehicles.
Thus, a section of the command arrived at a house in Estacion Naranjo, in Sinaloa municipality. Few in the group knew it, but it was the beginning of the extermination of the top representatives of Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, El Chapo Isidro.
Estacion Naranjo: The first confrontation
In accordance with the Ministerial inquiries, told by officials of the Office of the Attorney General and the Attorney General of Justice of the State, the skirmishes began at 1:00 PM on Thursday, July 10. A pickup truck was stationed outside of a house in Estacion Naranjo, a white Ford with racks and a grey Chrisler 300. The only inhabitant of the house ran out, shooting, when he saw the military. Marines responded to the fire. The civilian died inside. He had two guns:A .9 mm and a 22 caliber. It was José Martín Apodaca Guzmán, known as El 32. Ministerial intelligence reports placed him as part of the armed wing close to Meza Flores and head of sicarios for the Guasave Cartel.
The Marines searched the house and found a bag with guarumo (leftovers from leaves, stems and ground seeds of marijuana), seeds for poppy and [marijuana] joints.
The search revealed that the house actually contained an arsenal. 12 bullet-proof vests with steel plate, three hand grenades, five Motorola radios, 92 magazines for pistols, including .25 caliber, 9mm, .45, and 5.56mm. They also found magazines for rifles, like the G-3, AK-47 cuerno de chivo, and Barret BMG .50 caliber. They also found 3,580 cartridges, from.22 up to 50 caliber.
In the bed of the double cab pickup they found a 9mm rifle an AK-47, cuerno de chivo, a Barrett and a.22 rifle.
Four and a half hours after that shooting, at 5:30 PM and six kilometres from El Naranjo, in the town of El Aguajito, Sinaloa, another command located at a group of armed persons, starting the second shootout. There were two dead, and the most substantial group escaped. They were, according to the process of identification, Isidro Gastélum Luque,”El Dos Letras”, el Chilo or el 02, and Jesus Miguel Pacheco Samaniego, known as “Pecas”, Joes, Medio Kilo, Miguelito Manchas or “El Junior”.
The first ministerial intelligence reports considered him much more dangerous and bloody, he was the security chief for Meza Flores and responsible for decapitating their enemies, including police officers, while the second was considered chief of plaza in Los Mochis and executor of free wrongfully or competition, and murderer of partners who wanted to get out of the clan.
In the area of the shooting, the Marines found 160 bags with marijuana, 32 doses of cocaine, two.38 super pistols and a .45, 137 bullets for both guns, three AK-47 cuerno de chivo rifles, 12 magazines supplied with 538 cartridges, and a bulletproof vest.
Though it darkened, the Marines did not stop the hunt for those who evaded the military siege. And after touring the mount for seven hours they found the lair. They were hidden among shrubs. They were eight. All wearing camouflage clothing. The shootout left eight dead. They would be identified as Jesus Othoniel Rivera Cárdenas (27 years), José Antonio Ayala (46), José Rodrigo Gámez Arce (29), all of the Lomas de los Gámez; Felipe Sánchez López (42), Arturo Galaviz González (22), Misael Quintero Fuentes (30), Diego Leal Machaco and Jorge Luis Castro Medina (36), the last resident of the colonia Alamos Country in Los Mochis.
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Searches in Guasave for 'El Chapo Isidro'
At the hideout they collected 9 AK-47 cuerno de chivo rifles, 40 magazines for those rifles stocked with 1,242 bullets, an AR-15 rifle with eight magazines containing 290 shots and two pistols, a.9 mm loaded with four bullets and a.38 super, empty, six bullet proof vests and eight tactical vests, as well as a bag of marijuana.
That night, operations against the Guasave Cartel ended with the death of 12 civilians.
However, at dawn on Friday, the Marine command established bases in two baseball stadiums. One in Guasave and one in Sinaloa municipality. Both, headquarters of the Guasave Cartel.
During the week hunting operations for Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, El Chapo Isidro, were less showy but endless, to which were added the Ministry and the army.
The preventive police of both municipalities were excluded.
Amarillas Gerardo Beltrán, Ahome municipal police chief and coordinator of the State Ministerial police in the North, was the only official who spoke of combat with the Guasave Cartel.
"Marines eliminated the security arm of Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, El Chapo Isidro. He is not completely finished, but is very diminished and alone. He cannot operate freely without fearing a betrayal or that we locate him. "There is time, but only time for his fall, and hopefully, together with him, the corporations that protected him".
Political officials of Sinaloa and Guasave did not appear to express opinions about the location of the Guasave Cartel. All, as the Secretary of the municipality of Guasave, Noel Molina, fell silent as they retreated to their offices and making comments of much work.
Seized:
5,787 ammunition cartridges
3 grenades
1 Barret .50 caliber rifle
13 AK-47 rifles
1 AR-15 rifle
5 pistols
1 .22 rifle
5 vehicles
2 armored vehicles