Borderland Beat
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Mexico City (January 14, 2013). - The tentacles of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's network infiltrated deep into to the Armed Forces, the PF, and PGR during the six year administration of Felipe Calderón.
Judicial records to which Reforma had access detailed that the Sinaloa Cartel acquired grenades and training from a marine captain identified as Ramiro Campos Lomelí, currently in prison.
The same Ramiro Campos Lomeli gave up a partner when he was arrested in April 2012 after being appointed by Esteban Luis Amezcua as cartel middleman.
"Amezcua asked me to get about six 40 caliber grenades (and in order to get them) I was looking for a fellow marine with the rank of First Mate,"he testified.
Presumably the captain charged 36,000 pesos in exchange for giving the weapons to "Rosario," who was representing the interests of "El Chapo." In addition the marine also received 5000 cartridges for an AR-15 from the Army, according to a criminal case filed in the Tenth Court in Criminal Matters DF.
Upon being arrested, "Rosario" said that the organization got guns from the PF in February 2012. In addition, the PGR knows that cartel intermediaries agreed to SEIDO investigations against collaborators of "El Chapo."
Chapos' public relations team informed
A PR team from the Sinaloa Cartel managed to buy a ton of cocaine stored in a PGR, holding facility, acquired grenades from the Secretary of Navy, cartridges from the Army and information on investigations from SEIDO.
Judicial records to which REFORMA had access detailed confessions of a military person, a lawyer and two protected witnesses, who claim that this team might have paid $250,000 for the investigation against Juan Carlos Moreno Flores, "El Calentura", alleged operator of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in Guerrero.
Sinaloa Cartel's team of "publicrelationistas" told of having knocked on the doors of Army officials at various levels, even tried in 2012 to meet with General Germán Jiménez, then commander of the Tenth Military Zone in Durango, to stop the persecution of Cabrera Sarabia clan linked to "El Chapo" which controlled the country's northwest, according to the criminal case 57/2012 of the Tenth District Federal Court District of criminal matters in DF.
They only managed to meet a General named Castillo, assigned to the same zone. According to testimony, although they got drunk, they did not reach General Jimenez, who was released on February 1, 2012, amid an escalation of violence in the State.
Nothing had reached the ears of the PGR but for a woman linked to the organization of the Beltran Leyva who suffered the kidnapping of some relatives. First, she spoke with rivals of the Sinaloa Cartel to locate her loved ones and in exchange for favors.
Along the way she recorded telephone conversations then offered these recording later to the PGR to inform on the Cabrera Sarabia. The woman became the protected witness "Libre" when the clan was crumbling.
The search for relatives starts
Andrés Vázquez Vela y Judas Fabián Vázquez Cisneros were last seen on March 11, 2011. Presumably they were kidnapped on la Avenida Felipe Pescador in the capital of Durango. One was uncle and the other a cousin of the woman identified as "Rosario", who since 2008 has been located by the FBI as an operator of the Beltran Leyva cartel in Nogales, Sonora, where she charged fees of 1,500 dollars for each illegal immigrant who crossed the border.
According to her statement to the authorities, "Rosario" mobilized to locate family members, but did not go to the authorities but to the state of Durango, but instead she went to the jail to interview a criminal, who in turn got her the Blackberry PIN of Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, "Don Beto."
Rosario said that in July 2011 she met on a farm with "Don Beto" and she asked for help to locate her relatives.
"Pay attention because the state authorities found a narcofosa in a house in Fraccionamiento Las Fuentes. Tell your family to do a DNA test, possibly your families are among the bodies," said regional chief Sinaloa Cartel.
Cabrera questioned what "Rosario" would be willing to do in exchange and she answered him with what ever was necessary.
At that moment, "Don Beto" told her that there was a shortage of 40 gauge grenades, known as "deodorants." "Get me "deodorants" and let's see how much of a fucker you are because those things you do not get easily," said Don Beto."
On August 6, 2011, the Attorney General of Durango reported finding a clandestine grave in Durango, where they found the family of "Rosario."
They offer support and weapons
"Rosario", known as the Beltran Leyva operator, traveled to Mexico City in search of contacts that would help her get 40 caliber grenades.
According to her statement to the authorities, at a party held in Colonia Nápoles, (where soccer player Cuauhtemoc Blanco was), and there she met Ana Bertha Trujillo, a publicist of artists who in the past represented Ninel Conde.
Rosario Said that Trujillo presented her to Luis Esteban Amezcua Bernal a lawyer and owner of an advertising company and a recording studio, but also claimed to be an official of Cisen and used a "badge" from the Secretariat Marina.
According to Rosario's declaration Amezcua said, in the criminal case 57/2012 of the Tenth District Court in criminal matters DF that July night, Trujillo said to Amezcua, "I'm going to introduce you to someone who knows very heavy people" and presented him with "Rosario".
Amezcua was in need of money for a transplant and Rosario sought grenades. Their needs were mutual.
From his experience as a lawyer, Amezcua had defended before a military trial, marine Captain Ramiro Campos Lomelí with whom earlier he had made deals to get weapons.
When last April 28 he was arrested, Campos did not dispute the allegations. Even told that he charged 36,000 pesos for six grenades and accompanied Amezcua to give them to "Rosario." Seeing their efficiency, she invited them Durango for a visit to Cabrera Sarabia.
"Rosario presented Campos to Cabrera Sarabia. At that time, he stood offering his services as well as the service to train their people in weapons and explosives because he (Campos) was a Marine Captain," said Amezcua.
The record refers that Campos also managed to get 5000 rounds for an AR-15 rifle from the Army, that which he sold (to drug traffickers) for $ 3,000, and an AK-47 rifle of polycarbonate for which they gave him 28,000 pesos.
"My girlfriend and I went to pick up the 5000 cartridges at the Military Camp and apparently there was a lieutenant who gave him (Campos Lomelí) the cartridges," said a broker or intermediary of drug traffickers, who is a now protected witness with identified only as "X".
Back then "Rosario" had a boyfriend named Victor Omar Martinez Farrera, who worked for a law firm as tax lawyer who accordingly told authorities he helped her buy weapons, because he had a friend named Alexander with contacts in the Federal Police, who provided him with a stock of weapons for which they paid a million pesos.
They set eyes on the confiscated drugs
The protected witness identified as "X", who accompanied the Beltran Lleyva operator "Rosario" in various transactions told authorities that after observing the ease with which they procured government weapons they decided to buy drugs seized by the PGR.
"My girlfriend, Esteban Amezcua I went to collect $ 350,000 from North Central, as this money was sent by Felipe Cabrera in order to buy what Amezcua had offered the organization and consisted of buying from PGR warehouse a ton of cocaine, 20 drums of 'monkeys' and 60 buckets of ephedrine, without Amezcua mentioning who would be the PGR contact in that operation," related the witness according to the criminal case 57/2012 of the Tenth District Court in criminal matters in the Federal District.
However, the activity of the operators took a turn on September 18, 2011 , when the army detained in DF, José Carlos Moreno Flores, "El Calentura", representing "El Chapo" in Guerrero, which intensified military operations in Durango and Sinaloa.
At that time,"Rosario" told to the authorities, Cabrera Sarabia asked for the research information obtained against "La Calentura" and to contact the General Germán Jiménez, commander of the Tenth Military Zone in Durango, in order to offer him money to cancel operations against the organization.
Rosario recalls that through a woman named Marisol Herrera they managed to get an appointment with a General named Castillo, assigned to the same military zone, who thought would lead to General Jiménez. "occurred between 15 and 16 of October 2011 in one of the battalions of the Military Zone of Cinco de Mayo in Durango. "Including that meeting lasted until the wee hours of the morning because we begin to drink alcoholic beverages," says "Rosario", despite the meeting she could not meet the area commander.