Posted by 'Le Chef' for Borderland Beat a republished excerpt from "Los Tufos del Narco 1 –Narcos Viejos" author: Jose Luis Garcia Cabrera Edition difficult to find, try for edition 3 which includes the material below and covers years 1920 thru 2000-Interview with Juan N link here
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The two middle-aged men listened with respect to the voice of Don Juan N. Guerra who, by his tone, echoed in the room like sighs of the cold winter.
They were his partners in the planting, harvesting and transfer of marijuana, as well as clandestine laboratories where the milky juice extracted from the fleshy bulbs of the poppy was treated. Because each one knew precisely their respective activities, on rare occasions all three met publicly to discuss issues of "work", like this one.
"I thought it was convenient to talk to you before the matter got out of hand," don Juan said to his two associates.
- Is there something to talk about? The first one asked cautiously.
Upon hearing the question, Don Juan shot him with a dart.
-What do you not read the newspapers, or do not your people inform you? The second man poisonously questioned him, as a way to ingratiate himself with Don Juan and to make him notice that he did know the reason for that meeting.
-I think there's no need to worry. What happens here, in Nuevo Laredo, is nothing, "the first man said morosely.
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| June 2015, street dedication to honor Juan N. Tamps Governor getting hugged, mayor at left |
By mid-1975, Nuevo Laredo was still suffering the ravages of its first great wave of murders caused by drug trafficking. It had begun in 1970, during the second year of the triennium of the administration of Mayor Francisco Garza Gutiérrez, and before he left office, in 1971, thirty-three people had been executed, including drug traffickers, police and innocent neighbors who suddenly they saw in the middle of the armed confrontations.
In 1972, already during the municipal government of the successor of Garza Gutiérrez, the also priísta, Abdón Rodríguez Sánchez, the death toll increased to sixty. By mid-1975, the confrontations had bathed the border city with the blood of more than a hundred federal police, innocents and drug traffickers, among the latter some members of the Reyes Pruneda family.
Actually the violence in Nuevo Laredo broke out on November 2, 1970 when Refugio, Cuco Reyes Pruneda, in the restaurant La Siberia, shot and killed federal agents Rafael Hernández Hernández and Álvaro Díaz de León, who tried to arrest him by refusing to cover the agreed part so that your family could work without being disturbed.
The death of the two federals was the trigger that set off the war between his family and the federals. Six months later, on May 24, 1971, as a result of that battle, two other police officers from the state Judiciary were killed: Juan José Aguinaga Ríos and Bernardino Montemayor.
Simona Reyes Pruneda and her seven children, who one day had earned an honest living, now did so by trafficking drugs in a violent way. Something that the authorities did not tolerate, and for what in the last years they had become a hindrance for the good business of the business in Tamaulipas.
Reyes Pruneda was a ranch family that formerly lived on the shores of Nuevo Laredo. When they decided to enter the business, their income was based on the sowing, harvesting and transfer of marijuana, and the traffic of the poppy gum that was elaborated in underground rock laboratories. Since then, Simona and her offspring were considered a powerful and very dangerous family. Simona, in her fifties, was a brave woman and capable of controlling her violent offspring.
In their region they did not allow the people of Don Juan Nepomuceno or any other competitor to operate, nor did they pay the authorities the obligatory rent, so that they could work without being disturbed.
A commander of the federal commissioner in Matamoros who worked for Don Juan, once tried to force them to pay the permit, and shortly after he was found shot to death. Months later, federal agents Rafael Hernández Hernández and Álvaro Díaz de León arrived in Nuevo Laredo, ready to force them to depose their attitude.
Since they arrived, their steps were observed by Cuco, the eldest of Simona's children, while the agents arrived to eat at the La Siberia restaurant, and while they completely devoured the tacos ordered, they were shot dead.
It was believed that no one could prevent the Reyes Pruneda continue trafficking on their own and murdering the representatives of the law, until one day arrived to Nuevo Laredo the lawyer Salvador del Toro Rosales, Federal Public Prosecutor agent who was known like The iron prosecutor, for his firmness and hardness to persecute the drug traffickers. Everything changed for the Reyes Pruneda family.
The severe federal official brought the order to exterminate it, otherwise his bad example would spread among the rest of the traffickers who did comply and paid permission to operate without setbacks.
He first ordered the Federal Judicial Commander Everardo Perales Cuco's murder, then imprisoned Simona, the clan chief, and issued arrest warrants against anyone suspected of being a member of the gang.
Then Reyes Pruneda got in touch with their legal defender Francisco Javier Bernal, better known as El abogado del diablo, to whom they asked for help. And while he was studying the best way to get Dona Simona out of prison, his children avenged the death of Cuco, executing Comandante Perales, who was rumor of being responsible for the death of other rebel narcos. His assassins killed him in the back and fled in a red car.
The devil's lawyer was foolish enough to try to bribe the lawyer Del Toro Rosales, who immediately ordered his imprisonment, for attempted bribery.
By the end of 1975, half of the members of the Reyes Pruneda family had been killed; the other half, imprisoned. Months later, practically said clan would be exterminated, because little by little other members were falling, along with other traffickers who had followed their example of indiscipline before the authorities.
-I think that what happened in Nuevo Laredo, can happen to every asshole who knows how to make a gift to a policeman, but he has neither the idea, or the güevos to approach a politician. That's why, "don Juan added dryly," I think we have a lot to talk about. So let's see what our situation is and how we are going to improve it.