Translated by O. B. F-W for Borderland Beat from a Sinembargo article
Special shout out to BB Lucio R for getting noticed by Sinembargo
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The dismembered corpse of a young woman named Joselyn Alejandra Nino was found a few days ago close to the border with the United States, very close to the International Bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros.
The fact was ignored by Mexican media, who yesterday gave coverage to other fronts of the war following clashes in Sinaloa and Sonora that left dead and wounded in the various warring factions.
One body more, that of Jocelyn, in a zone marked by the death and destruction for many years and until today, where cartels dispute city for city, hand to hand, every centimetre in resistance.
Joselyn, without doubt was not lost on the United States media, especially in Texas. The web site the Daily Beast resumed publication of a blog Valor por Tamaulipas, in which the fate of the last of three members of a group of female Sicarios called " El Cartel de las Flacas".
The three represented, until their deaths, a new model of Sicaria in Mexico. they are thin women, with model figures, kitted out with bullet proof jackets, and gold chains around their necks. In their hands, delicate although simple, modified M4 assault rifles. Hair combed back with glasses on the head, another characteristic is the tattoos on the arms. They are not your typical narco women, they are skinny and young, not necessarily ugly, but they take up arms.
"La Flaca" sometimes written "El Flaka", they are a growing phenomenon in Mexico, according to Andrew Chestnut, Professor of Religious Studies at the Commonwealth University of Virginia, author of a book about the Santa Muerte Cult and its links with the drug cartels.
"The nickname could be the envy of women of high society or those belonging to the world of modelling. However being nicknamed "La Flaca" is a curse for women killers working for the drug cartels in Mexico reports the Daily Beast.
"Since 2007 , when the ex President Felipe Calderon intensified the war on drugs, there has been a growing phenomenon of female assassins or Sicarias, "they can often operate more quietly than their male counter parts", he said in an interview with IB Times another American media outlet who saw Joselyn as a story.
"Many, like Jocelyn, they are recruited by the cartels because of their appearance as pretty women. The idea is that their rival cartels and the Police cannot imagine that a skinny woman could be a paid assassin", he added.
The arms and the Sicarias
The fact that "La Flaca" has been found on the border between Mexico and the United States is not fortuitous.
The United States is the principle source of illegal firearms in Mexico, according to data provided by the Agency for Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and explosives (ATF).
The data shows that of the 15,397 firearms seized by Mexican Authorities and submitted to the ATF to track in 2014, 11,061 i.e. 71.9 per cent were of United States origin.
The ATF report states that the validity of the remaining 4336 weapons was unclear. Some of them may have gone directly to Mexico from the third country, or may have passed by the United States to another country before arriving in Mexico.
To perform a check of the firearms, the ATF said they require the name of the manufacturer, model, calibre, and serial number. However Mexico did not provide this information for all of the weapons that were seized, partly because criminals can file off the serial numbers and otherwise alter or modify the weapon.
For Clay Boggs, Program Official for the Mexican think tank WOLA, " they are firearms that are feeding the violence in Mexico and in other countries".
"The data show that the Government of the United States has made no advances in stemming the flow of illegal arms south across the border", said Boggs according to a press conference given by WOLA.
Figures release by the Bureau ATF also cover checks in several Carribean and Central American countries. The figures show that in these countries the numbers are significantly less than Mexico, except for the Bahamas (97.9 %) and the small island of St Kitts and Nevis (82.6 %).
All Central American countries reported a follow up rate for the United States of less than 50 %, except Costa Rica, where only 63 guns at 53.9 % were from the United States.
In respect, WOLA refer that the trafficking of illegal firearms is a grave international problem.
Much of the most significant and necessary reforms for the US Government to address this problem, including universal background checks for gun buyers, a new assault weapon ban, and a Federal law on arms trafficking, require action from Congress, but Congress has not acted says the think tank.
They also state that some State Governments have taken matters into their own hands, approving major reforms to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
Without doubt, Boggs argument that "the government of Obama also must do whatever is possible to stem the flow of illegal weapons across the border south. He said that these actions include the expansion and requisition of notification of sale of large weapons like rifles, currently only in effect for the border states, and full implementation of the import ban on assault rifles.
The Cartel Models
The other two "Flacas" were found dead also had a relation with the Northern Border.
The Daily Beast gave an account of what happened: the first one, named Veronica Mireya Moreno Carreon, originally from San Nicholas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon, began as a Police Officer and was even awarded by the Authorities after she was injured during a firefight with a band of possible hijackers that were trying to kidnap a car salesman.
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After, Moreno Carreon joined Los Zetas Cartel. In the year 2011, the first of "Las Flacas" was arrested by the Marines, while carrying out a car theft, carrying a pistol and six cell phones. She was accused of complicity in multiple assassinations and for trafficking of drugs. (Otis: see Ovemex account of this arrest, the first ever of a female Jefe de Plaza of Los Zetas see link)
The same year, the Authorities announced the detention of another Sicaria, of the same nickname processed as Nancy Manriquez Quintanar, originally of Ecatepec, state of Mexico. The second of "Las Flacas" participated in no less than a dozen assassinations against members of another cartel, "those of the competition", said the Daily Beast.(Otis: see Buggs article on her see link )
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Now, says the American Website, both Sicarias are behind bars, the last one, who also operated with the nickname of "La Flaca", but in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. They say she gained notoriety in the month of January when someone posted a photo of the Sicaria on social networks and Twitter.
"aka La Flaka" was the person that published the photo, with a variation in habitual spelling. Daily Beast describes a young woman of university appearance, with a smile that does not appear false, they include some of the comments left about the photo:
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Our youngster of the University, said one of the comments, "sell your gun", "buy another television" said another reference to the apparatus that appears in the image.
"The unique thing about being "La Flaca" (skinny), is that your body can fit inside a beer cooler said the American Website.
The Zone where the Sicaria operated is in the middle of a continual battle between two hyper violent factions of the Cartel del Golfo says the portal. She was with Los Ciclones faction, known previously as "Los Escorpiones", their enemies "Los Metros".
The American website cites published information in the site Borderland Beat and the blog Valor por Tamaulipas, of a truck found abandoned in a parking lot of the city of Matamoros the weekend before last. (Otis: see the article of Lucio's mentioned see link)
In the rear part of the vehicle were three beer coolers. One of those, blue and white, was opened only to reveal a right foot naked and a right arm, skinny, with distinct tattoo saying "Nino".
The hand found in the white and blue beer cooler had the same delicate fingers, that had been supporting the assault rifle, said the American portal. With surety the body parts found were those of the last of "Las Flacas".
The other two coolers contained parts of two bodies, belonging to a second woman and man, who also may have been Sicarios for Los Ciclones.
So that there is no doubt, the rival faction, Los Metros, published a picture on Twitter of the three dead bodies, two women and one man. One of the dead women was clearly the last of the "Flacas" before being dismembered. The Nino tattoo confirmed her identity.
The image shows a woman larger than "La Flaca", nevertheless Joselyn Alejandra Nino did not seem any better than the others, points out the Daily Beast. "A violent death, does not reflect an ideal of what they were in life".
Next to the photo, Los Metros wrote two messages of contempt, filled with obscenities, with a warning that " this will be the destiny that waits for all the members of Los Ciclones".
"This is going to happen to all the Mugrozas (filthy) that support Los Ciclones of shit, they send patrols, fucking assholes, don't send old women here, we carry on cleaning the plaza atte: 65".
Here the bad luck of La Flaca makes us reflect on that, those who live by the sword die by the sword, and that which is sown, so you shall harvest. The United States also plays a role in this story: buying the drugs and selling weapons. It will remain this way, so that even another woman becoming a Sicaria with the nickname La Flaca will finish the last of the messages.
Original article in Spanish at Sinembargo
Special shout out to BB Lucio R for getting noticed by Sinembargo
The dismembered corpse of a young woman named Joselyn Alejandra Nino was found a few days ago close to the border with the United States, very close to the International Bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros.
The fact was ignored by Mexican media, who yesterday gave coverage to other fronts of the war following clashes in Sinaloa and Sonora that left dead and wounded in the various warring factions.
One body more, that of Jocelyn, in a zone marked by the death and destruction for many years and until today, where cartels dispute city for city, hand to hand, every centimetre in resistance.
Joselyn, without doubt was not lost on the United States media, especially in Texas. The web site the Daily Beast resumed publication of a blog Valor por Tamaulipas, in which the fate of the last of three members of a group of female Sicarios called " El Cartel de las Flacas".
The three represented, until their deaths, a new model of Sicaria in Mexico. they are thin women, with model figures, kitted out with bullet proof jackets, and gold chains around their necks. In their hands, delicate although simple, modified M4 assault rifles. Hair combed back with glasses on the head, another characteristic is the tattoos on the arms. They are not your typical narco women, they are skinny and young, not necessarily ugly, but they take up arms.
"La Flaca" sometimes written "El Flaka", they are a growing phenomenon in Mexico, according to Andrew Chestnut, Professor of Religious Studies at the Commonwealth University of Virginia, author of a book about the Santa Muerte Cult and its links with the drug cartels.
"The nickname could be the envy of women of high society or those belonging to the world of modelling. However being nicknamed "La Flaca" is a curse for women killers working for the drug cartels in Mexico reports the Daily Beast.
"Since 2007 , when the ex President Felipe Calderon intensified the war on drugs, there has been a growing phenomenon of female assassins or Sicarias, "they can often operate more quietly than their male counter parts", he said in an interview with IB Times another American media outlet who saw Joselyn as a story.
"Many, like Jocelyn, they are recruited by the cartels because of their appearance as pretty women. The idea is that their rival cartels and the Police cannot imagine that a skinny woman could be a paid assassin", he added.
The arms and the Sicarias
The fact that "La Flaca" has been found on the border between Mexico and the United States is not fortuitous.
The United States is the principle source of illegal firearms in Mexico, according to data provided by the Agency for Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and explosives (ATF).
The data shows that of the 15,397 firearms seized by Mexican Authorities and submitted to the ATF to track in 2014, 11,061 i.e. 71.9 per cent were of United States origin.
The ATF report states that the validity of the remaining 4336 weapons was unclear. Some of them may have gone directly to Mexico from the third country, or may have passed by the United States to another country before arriving in Mexico.
To perform a check of the firearms, the ATF said they require the name of the manufacturer, model, calibre, and serial number. However Mexico did not provide this information for all of the weapons that were seized, partly because criminals can file off the serial numbers and otherwise alter or modify the weapon.
For Clay Boggs, Program Official for the Mexican think tank WOLA, " they are firearms that are feeding the violence in Mexico and in other countries".
"The data show that the Government of the United States has made no advances in stemming the flow of illegal arms south across the border", said Boggs according to a press conference given by WOLA.
Figures release by the Bureau ATF also cover checks in several Carribean and Central American countries. The figures show that in these countries the numbers are significantly less than Mexico, except for the Bahamas (97.9 %) and the small island of St Kitts and Nevis (82.6 %).
All Central American countries reported a follow up rate for the United States of less than 50 %, except Costa Rica, where only 63 guns at 53.9 % were from the United States.
In respect, WOLA refer that the trafficking of illegal firearms is a grave international problem.
Much of the most significant and necessary reforms for the US Government to address this problem, including universal background checks for gun buyers, a new assault weapon ban, and a Federal law on arms trafficking, require action from Congress, but Congress has not acted says the think tank.
They also state that some State Governments have taken matters into their own hands, approving major reforms to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
Without doubt, Boggs argument that "the government of Obama also must do whatever is possible to stem the flow of illegal weapons across the border south. He said that these actions include the expansion and requisition of notification of sale of large weapons like rifles, currently only in effect for the border states, and full implementation of the import ban on assault rifles.
The Cartel Models
The other two "Flacas" were found dead also had a relation with the Northern Border.
The Daily Beast gave an account of what happened: the first one, named Veronica Mireya Moreno Carreon, originally from San Nicholas de los Garza, Nuevo Leon, began as a Police Officer and was even awarded by the Authorities after she was injured during a firefight with a band of possible hijackers that were trying to kidnap a car salesman.
After, Moreno Carreon joined Los Zetas Cartel. In the year 2011, the first of "Las Flacas" was arrested by the Marines, while carrying out a car theft, carrying a pistol and six cell phones. She was accused of complicity in multiple assassinations and for trafficking of drugs. (Otis: see Ovemex account of this arrest, the first ever of a female Jefe de Plaza of Los Zetas see link)
The same year, the Authorities announced the detention of another Sicaria, of the same nickname processed as Nancy Manriquez Quintanar, originally of Ecatepec, state of Mexico. The second of "Las Flacas" participated in no less than a dozen assassinations against members of another cartel, "those of the competition", said the Daily Beast.(Otis: see Buggs article on her see link )
Now, says the American Website, both Sicarias are behind bars, the last one, who also operated with the nickname of "La Flaca", but in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. They say she gained notoriety in the month of January when someone posted a photo of the Sicaria on social networks and Twitter.
"aka La Flaka" was the person that published the photo, with a variation in habitual spelling. Daily Beast describes a young woman of university appearance, with a smile that does not appear false, they include some of the comments left about the photo:
Our youngster of the University, said one of the comments, "sell your gun", "buy another television" said another reference to the apparatus that appears in the image.
"The unique thing about being "La Flaca" (skinny), is that your body can fit inside a beer cooler said the American Website.
The Zone where the Sicaria operated is in the middle of a continual battle between two hyper violent factions of the Cartel del Golfo says the portal. She was with Los Ciclones faction, known previously as "Los Escorpiones", their enemies "Los Metros".
The American website cites published information in the site Borderland Beat and the blog Valor por Tamaulipas, of a truck found abandoned in a parking lot of the city of Matamoros the weekend before last. (Otis: see the article of Lucio's mentioned see link)
In the rear part of the vehicle were three beer coolers. One of those, blue and white, was opened only to reveal a right foot naked and a right arm, skinny, with distinct tattoo saying "Nino".
The hand found in the white and blue beer cooler had the same delicate fingers, that had been supporting the assault rifle, said the American portal. With surety the body parts found were those of the last of "Las Flacas".
The other two coolers contained parts of two bodies, belonging to a second woman and man, who also may have been Sicarios for Los Ciclones.
So that there is no doubt, the rival faction, Los Metros, published a picture on Twitter of the three dead bodies, two women and one man. One of the dead women was clearly the last of the "Flacas" before being dismembered. The Nino tattoo confirmed her identity.
The image shows a woman larger than "La Flaca", nevertheless Joselyn Alejandra Nino did not seem any better than the others, points out the Daily Beast. "A violent death, does not reflect an ideal of what they were in life".
Next to the photo, Los Metros wrote two messages of contempt, filled with obscenities, with a warning that " this will be the destiny that waits for all the members of Los Ciclones".
"This is going to happen to all the Mugrozas (filthy) that support Los Ciclones of shit, they send patrols, fucking assholes, don't send old women here, we carry on cleaning the plaza atte: 65".
Here the bad luck of La Flaca makes us reflect on that, those who live by the sword die by the sword, and that which is sown, so you shall harvest. The United States also plays a role in this story: buying the drugs and selling weapons. It will remain this way, so that even another woman becoming a Sicaria with the nickname La Flaca will finish the last of the messages.
Original article in Spanish at Sinembargo