"El Lic" for Borderland Beat
The following is a translation of an article published by Milenio newspaper
A workshop in Sonoyta, Sonora, that was used to armor “monstruo” type vehicles was raided by security forces.
Sonora’s state Security Bureau reported they had raided and seized a warehouse in the municipality of Sonoyta, Sonora. It was being used as a welding workshop which focused on the repair and assembly of armored vehicles for cartel groups.
"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
A strong armed confrontation has been reported at kilometer 28 of the highway that connects Ocozocoautla with Arriaga and an assault on an OCC unit
A passenger bus from the OCC company that was traveling from Tuxtla Gutiérrez to the city of Tapachula was the victim of an assault at kilometer meter 28 of the toll road that connects Ocozocoautla with Arriaga. After this event, a confrontation occurred between armed civilians and elements of the Secretariat of National Defense, so the road had to be closed.
The assault had occurred around midnight this Saturday, in which it is known that the transport unit marked with the number 2021 had been approached by armed individuals, who took the bus towards the detour of the Tierra y Libertad community. It was in this municipality, where they stripped the passengers of their belongings, in addition to causing injuries to two people.
Those affected were helped by paramedical personnel from the Mexican Red Cross, they were taken to the Cintalapa hospital, where they were under observation by medical specialists.
For its part, already during the early hours of this Saturday it emerged that the elements of the federal forces were carrying out an operation on the toll route of the Coita-Arriaga road when they came across a truck with armed civilians, which caused an exchange of gunfire.
It is known that a passenger bus on the ADO line was caught in the middle of the fire, the passengers managed to get off and take shelter, while the armed civilians used this unit as a barrier, which was positioned in the middle of the road, to attack. to federal agents.
It is necessary to mention that the transport unit ended up with several firearm detonations on the bodywork, in an action in which the authorities and those responsible for the highway decided to close the booths as a precaution, in order to avoid risk among travelers.
Regarding the confrontation, it is not yet known if there were more people injured and if the federal forces managed to arrest some of the armed civilians, it is expected that the Attorney General's Office or SEDENA will be able to issue a statement related to these facts.
For her part, a social media user published that she was traveling around 11:00 at night towards Mapastepec and that they managed to notice armed individuals who were on the road and who tried to assault the unit in which she was traveling. But thanks to the driver's expertise he avoided the robbery.
Therefore, with this version, it is known that the armed civilians were already there from that time with the intention of carrying out any robbery on the transport units that travel along this stretch of road.
Around 03:00 in the morning, the transport unit of the ADO line that had served as a crossfire barricade was lifted by the corresponding authorities, while the highway reopened once the unit was removed.
"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas
Twelve drug traffickers tied to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel have been sentenced to between four and a half and 40 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.
Francisco Javier Rodriguez Arreola, a top source of supply charged in the case, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Mr. Rodriguez Arreola, a 45-year-old Mexican citizen born in Michoacan, was arrested in 2021 in Del Rio, Texas while illegally reentering the United States from Mexico after having been previously deported.
In plea papers, the defendant admitted that he helped coordinate the shipment of a load of 199.97 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine – with a street value of up to $9.9 million – from Mexico to Dallas concealed inside the diesel tank of a red semi-truck.
During the course of the investigation, court-authorized wiretaps caught Mr. Rodriguez Arreola, who went by the street names “Taquito” and “Viejo” (“Old”), communicating with codefendants in code about the movement and sale of controlled substances.
Courtroom testimony revealed that Mr. Rodriguez Arreola had previously served time in federal prison and that he was deported to Mexico in April of 2020. Less than a month after being deported, he was back in the drug trade when, in May of 2020, he and a codefendant discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic was slowing down the movement and sale of controlled substances. The defendant stated the pandemic was causing the price of methamphetamine to increase and he was heard saying he hoped the price of a kilogram of methamphetamine would go up, as it had once sold for $14,000.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced evidence that showed that Mr. Rodriguez Arreola coordinated multiple deliveries of methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States on behalf of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most violent and powerful drug cartels. During the hearing, Mr. Rodriguez Arreola was identified as a person who had access to the higher echelons of the CJNG because he associated with individuals who reported directly to the cartel’s leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. El Mencho
Agent testimony revealed that the defendant served the CJNG as a broker of methamphetamine and that he had significant ties to Plaza Bosses who had access to cartel leadership. Mr. Rodriguez-Arreola’s role included finding drivers and people who could transport and distribute methamphetamine, planning routes, confirming delivery, loss prevention, and finding locations to receive, store, and transfer methamphetamine shipments.
Tuesday’s sentencing hearing further revealed the defendant had access to counterintelligence information provided by the CJNG because, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Rodriguez Arreola told a codefendant that they needed drivers that were United States residents to transport methamphetamine [loads], because no drivers with visas could make it through [the border crossings with their loads of methamphetamine].
Other defendants sentenced include:
* Ricardo Hernandez Zarate, sentenced to 480 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and 240 months in prison for money laundering (concurrent sentences)
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* Pedro Hernandez Zarate, sentenced to 360 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance
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* Uriel Marin Gaona, sentenced to 120 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance
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* Benito Diaz Hernandez, sentenced to 210 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance
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* Marcos Garcia Reyes, sentenced to 87 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled
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* Heleodoro Rosales Ramirez, sentenced to 168 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance
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* Rafael Diaz, sentenced to 60 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance
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* Jose Alberto Plascencia Torres, sentenced to 292 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance
* Elmer Gardea Tello, sentenced to 55 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled (cocaine)
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* Walter Daniel Chapa Marty, sentenced to 121 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance
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* Salvador Antonio Martinez, sentenced to 151 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance
Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement seized approximately 650 kilograms of methamphetamine drugs, 17 guns, $220,922 in U.S. currency, and $12,200 in real and personal property.
The investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office, with special assistance provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Gainesville Police Department, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, the Dallas Police Department, the Fort Worth Police Department, the Williamson County, Texas Sheriff’s Department, the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Department in Tennessee, the FBI’s Knoxville Field Office (Tennessee Resident Agency Office), and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Dallas Strike Force 1. Assistant U.S. Attorney George Leal prosecuted the case.
The case is an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) case. The OCDETF program was established in 1982 in order to attack and reduce the supply of illegal drugs entering the United States and to diminish violence and other criminal activity associated with the drug trade. The OCDETF program leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the highest-level drug traffickers and drug trafficking networks using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/ocdetf.
"El Lic" for Borderland Beat
The following is a direct translation of an article written by Informador
Members of the CJNG ambushed Mexican Army personnel, in the town of La Higuerilla, in the municipality of Santa María del Oro.
A new shootout between members of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and the Mexican Army occurred in the southeastern region of Jalisco. No lives were lost but some soldiers were injured.
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"El Lic" and "HEARST" for Borderland Beat
El Topo, from the cartel group “La Barredora”, was killed in a gunfight with police in Tabasco after a fellow cartel member turned him in. El Topo was known to sexually assault minors, kidnap, murder, and charge extortion fees from priests in Chontalpa.
Topo’s cartel group burned vehicles on the highway after hearing of his death. They trapped a mother and her son inside a burning bus, leading the mother to die from the flames after bravely tossing her child to safety.
"El Lic" for Borderland Beat
The following is a direct translation of a Zeta Tijuana article written by Carlos Álvarez Acevedo
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded on April 25, 2024, the US Department of State retract its ‘National Report on Human Rights Practices 2023: Mexico ’ - which was published on April 22- because, according to him, it was obsolete and it violated the sovereignty of the people of Mexico.
“It is very unfortunate that the [US] State Department relies on purely false information from our adversaries and that they lie. But there is no need to worry […] The only thing is to ask the State Department to review its recommendations, because they violate the sovereignty of [Mexico's] people. They should not be the one extending letters of good conduct to countries and to the independent and sovereign people.”
“They say that we have been doing them [human rights violations] since 1977, but we have already ended those violations, so it is obsolete. And then, they say, it is that we violate human rights by informing the Senate of who behaves well and who misbehaves, and that we give help just to those who behave well. That is false.”
“Do you know how long the governments of the United States have not helped Latin America and the Caribbean? Not since the alliance plan for progress that President Kennedy began, from 1960 to 70, a decade. From that date on they have given no aid or the aid is only military aid.”
On April 24, 2024, for the second consecutive day, in his morning press conference, the Mexican president attacked the United States Government, which he accused of being a liar, irresponsible, not serious, stagnant and even declining.
“But they are like this and we should not be surprised. We should not be surprised. This has been the case historically and that also, with all due respect, indicates that they are stagnant - stagnant- in decline, because they need to refresh [their info].”
“No, no, the truth is that it [the accusation] is very superficial. It has no evidence. How are we going to listen to them if they say that we promoted the dissemination of 20,000 accusations against the president of the Supreme Court? Where is the proof? It is very irresponsible. It is a joke. They are not serious. They are liars.”
“The report gets into our internal affairs. Why do they have to get into the matter of the differences we have with the Judiciary? Who are they to intervene? What is their legal basis for it? Who authorizes you to intervene? They are blatantly violating international law, violating the independence and sovereignty of our people.”
“These reports are published. They are handled by the International Right. It is a right-wing international group supported by the United States. We already know that those are the hitters, the hawks ”, added the national president.
However, the Mexican president clarified that Mexico would maintain bilateral cooperation to combat fentanyl trafficking, try to solve the migration problem and promote economic integration. However, he warned that his Government would hold an irreducible position when it came to the sovereignty of the country.
“We need each other. We complement each other, only they have to learn to respect us. Cooperation to combat drug trafficking and that we will help in a humanitarian way so they do not suffer from these pandemics of fentanyl consumption in the United States, yes. Find substantive solutions to the migration problem, yes. But, they must respect our sovereignty.”
US Responds to AMLO
On April 24, 2024, Vedant Patel, spokesman for the United States Department of State, rejected that the Annual Report on Human Rights in the world was a “flagrant violation” of international law. He recalled that the publication had been made since 1977, when the US Capitol ordered the US Executive. review the human rights enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so he defended his legality.
“The publication of the Human Rights Report does not violate International Law […] It is something we have done every year since he has been secretary [Antony Blinken] and every year before him. I can't think of a year in which the State Department has not issued human rights reports.”
The spokesperson for the US Department of State detailed that the report was “ a compilation of entries made from credible information from sources like the news, government agencies, civil rights agencies, embassies and consulates.”
The Actual Report
The US Department of State in its ‘2023 National Report on Human Rights Practices: Mexico’ wrote about the attacks carried out by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador against the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), the press, human rights and civil society defenders.
In the 2023 edition of its annual report, the institution led by Antony Blinken listed some of the various occasions when the Tabasco politician tried to discredit critical positions against his government, including various sentences of members of the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF) and in particular of the SCJN.
“President López Obrador and other government actors verbally attacked the Judiciary, and particularly the Supreme Court, criticizing judges for ruling against their Administration on numerous occasions ”, the 58-page report of the US State Department said.
“In March, during a massive demonstration in Mexico City, supporters of the [ López Obrador government ] burned an effigy of the Supreme Court president, Norma [ Lucia ] Piña [ Hernández ], accusing it of corruption ”, the report states, regarding the demonstration carried out on March 17, 2023, in the Zocalo of the capital of the Republic.
The annual report of the US State Department also highlighted the demonstration held in May 2023, led by the Governor of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García Jiménez, against the highest constitutional court.
“Garcia led a demonstration in Mexico City where his supporters carried coffins with the names of 7 of 11 Supreme Court justices and accused them of siding with opponents conservatives and failing to fulfill the priorities of the Administration [of López Obrador] ”, the report said.
The report also highlighted the attacks by López Obrador, carried out in February 2023, against the participants of the march to defend the National Electoral Institute (INE), of budget cuts and modifications.
“López Obrador criticized the protesters who met peacefully, to protest the cuts in electoral financing. According to newspaper sources, the president called protesters ‘allies of the drug cartels ’ and accused them of stealing wallets in the capital's main square.”
Likewise, with various mentions of López Obrador's morning press conferences, since the beginning of his term in 2018, the report of the US State Department. said the Mexican president's verbal attacks on human rights organizations, as well as journalists.
“López Obrador reprimanded civil rights groups at his daily morning press conferences. Some civil rights organizations allege that he led a campaign to discredit human rights defenders.”
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"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
Three Cartel Del Noreste cocaine smugglers were arrested after authorities set up surveillance at a local Walmart, an arrest affidavit states.
Rebeca Guzman-Rios, Ana Maria Escobar, Francisco Herrera-Moresco were arrested on the charges of possess with intent to distribute cocaine and conspire to possess with intent to distribute the cocaine.
On April 17, the Drug Enforcement Administration received information that Guzman-Rios was coordinating a purchase, sale of approximately 22 pounds of cocaine in Laredo.
Agents set up surveillance. During surveillance, authorities observed Escobar pick up Guzman-Rios in a white Cadillac sport utility vehicle at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge.
Special agents then observed Escobar and Guzman-Rios travel to a local Walmart, where Herrera-Moresco arrived separately in a maroon Yukon. Special agents observed Herrera-Moresco transfer a bag from the Yukon to the Cadillac, states the arrest affidavit.
Escobar then got into the driver seat and Herrera-Moresco into the front passenger seat of the Cadillac before departing Walmart. Shortly after, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper tried to pull over the Cadillac for a traffic violation.
Escobar refused to stop and tossed a bag containing 10 bundles of cocaine out the window as she continued to evade. The Cadillac stopped a few blocks later. Escobar and Herrera-Moresco were arrested after a foot pursuit.
Meanwhile, Guzman-Rios was apprehended at the Walmart. All were taken to the DEA Laredo District Office. In a post-arrest interview, Escobar and Herrera-Moresco acknowledged coordinating the drug transaction with Guzman-Rios.
Escobar and Herrera-Moresco also acknowledge their participation in evading authorities and tossing the cocaine out the vehicle. Guzman admitted her participation in coordinating the drug transaction with Escobar and Herrera-Moresco.
“All three arrestees acknowledged that the drug transaction conducted was on behalf of Cartel Del Noreste (CDN),” states the affidavit.
Authorities said the 10 bundles of cocaine seized weighed 26.45 pounds. The contraband had an estimated street value of $360,000.
"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
Perspective will always lie in the eye of the beholder. From a military point of view we can easily claim that the Cartel del Noreste (CDN) hitmen inside the white pickup have decided to pull a tactical retreat. In the heat of the battle they quickly concluded that it was best to create distance between themselves and their aggressors in order to save their lives.
Whereas someone else can easily counter that argument by saying that the CDN assassin’s, having realized that contact was just made with Mexican armed forces and their superior fighting ways, opted to speed away like fucking cowards in total desperation. Because this is what gutless criminals tend to do whenever they’re about to get their asses handed to them by trained men.
In the end it doesn’t really matter how we choose to see shit or what version of events we narrate for our listeners. On this particular day the Mexican soldiers sent their gunfire down range. And managed to successfully take their intended targets the fuck out.
* The following events recently took place in the state of Tamaulipas
"Char" for Borderland Beat
My name is Carlos Enrique Sanchez Martinez AKA El Cholo. I am originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco. I’m here because I’m an enemy of CJNG. I met with Omar García Harfuch in the Federal District so that he could give me his backing. This is due to us both being after the CJNG.
And he did give me his full support. But he told me that he needed something relevant in return. So that I could operate with his support and his people among this city. And so I kicked everything off. All the crimes that took place in Tonalá, Tlaquepaque, and Tlajomulco I am personally responsible for.
And I myself called the authorities so that they would turn everything into a heightened police matter. The individuals who sponsor support here in the city are Mario Alberto AKA El 0-3, and Sambrano AKA El 0-2.
Anyways, I’m the person responsible for that grenade thrown some time ago at the American consulate. This was done to generate panic within the city. I also gave El Marino the orders to kill the 11 masons in Tonalá, in the La Jauja neighborhood. All the chaotic crimes that took place were done so on my orders. But I did this on the condition that Omar García Harfuch would support me in everything.
He is a criminalistic individual. You guys, the few or many that are still left supporting me. It’s best for your own good to just start taking care of your family. So, that you don't end up like me.
EL CHOLO'S BRUTAL DEATH
The torture-death video of Carlos Enrique Sanchez Martinez aka El Cholo or El 20 was never officially released to the public by Jalisco Cartel - New Generation. However, we can all imagine the horrific pain that was inflicted by the hands of the criminal group El Cholo used to work for. El Cholo or El 20 was believed to be a compadre of CJNG founder Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka Mencho. El Cholo killed a financial chief of CJNG without the approval of Mencho and other CJNG leaders, and this caused an all-out war in the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara. El Cholo's base of operation was Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, from 2017-2021 Jalisco suffered unthinkable violence, and countless mass graves were found.
El Cholo created the Nueva Plaza Jalisco Cartel which is an offshoot of Jalisco Cartel-New Generation.
Organizational chart of CJNG in the Guadalajara metropolitan area in 2018.
THE DOWNFALL OF EL CHOLO
The downfall ultimately of El Cholo was ordering the death of 11 innocent bricklayers in the La Jauja neighborhood, in Tonalá, Jalisco, the motive behind it was so Jalisco would be flooded by the military.
There is no real answer as to how CJNG Cartel was able to capture El Cholo. Whether El Cholo was turned in by someone close to him, or if CJNG paid huge money to law enforcement authorities to hand him over after the La Jauja massacre perhaps we might never know.
Below are images of El Cholo interrogation and probable injuries by (CHAR):
"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
A chicken was sacrificed, on April 24, 2024, in the facilities of the Senate of the Republic, during a ritual ceremony carried out within the framework of Rain Day, which was promoted by Adolfo Gómez Hernández, legislator from the Morena parliamentary group.
On a terrace on the second floor of the headquarters of the Upper House of the Congress of the Union, dancers with incense burners surrounded the two people who sacrificed the chicken. The first held the bird while a woman cut the animal's neck with a knife, whose blood fell into a vessel.
“These events were carried out under the strict individual responsibility of Senator Adolfo Gómez Hernández, who justified the action under the protection of the uses and customs of an indigenous group or community to which he expressed his self-assignment,” reported Ana Lilia Rivera Rivera, president of the Senate Board of Directors, in a statement.
“The Presidency of the Board of Directors had previously communicated to the aforementioned senator the express refusal to authorize the entry of any type of animal into the building, in accordance with the current security and civil protection protocols,” insisted the Morena legislator, who also announced that “Pertinent disciplinary measures will be taken with the responsible senator.”
Interviewed by representatives of various media outlets, the senator from Oaxaca justified his decision to sacrifice the bird, arguing that the second constitutional article indicated that the practices of the native peoples should be respected.
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"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a veteran U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent to four years in prison for leaking agency intelligence to defense attorneys in a $100,000 bribery scheme that, According to prosecutors, he put drug cases and the lives of confidential informants at risk.
John Costanzo Jr. was found guilty last year of bribery and honest services wire fraud, joining a growing list of DEA agents who have been convicted of federal crimes.
Another former DEA supervisor, Manny Recio, is scheduled for his sentencing hearing next month as part of the same case.
Federal Judge Paul Oetken noted when he handed down the sentence that Costanzo, 49, was “particularly culpable” as a supervisor because he “knew what he was doing was wrong.”
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Costanzo to at least seven years in prison, noting that he had abused the professional techniques he honed as a narcotics investigator immersed in the world of money laundering. He held supervisory positions in Miami and later at DEA headquarters outside Washington, D.C.
“Costanzo acted purely out of greed,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
He “used his network, connections and expertise to place himself above the law and obtain money by leaking security forces secrets, undermining everything he purported to stand for.”
Much of the case was based on text messages and wiretapped phone calls between Costanzo and Recio, with whom he remained close after Recio retired from the DEA in 2018 and began working as a private investigator for defense attorneys in Miami.
Prosecutors contend that attorneys David Macey and Luis Guerra financed the bribery scheme and used the leaked information to approach new clients facing federal drug trafficking charges.
Macey and Guerra have not been charged, but prosecutors in January asked the court for permission to access normally privileged communications between Recio and the attorneys as part of what they described as an “ongoing” investigation.
The DEA did not respond to a request for comment. Costanzo's sentencing came less than two weeks after a federal jury in Buffalo, New York, found another veteran DEA agent guilty of obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents in a sprawling corruption case.
Over the course of a year, Recio repeatedly asked Costanzo to check names in a confidential DEA database to stay abreast of federal investigations that might interest his new employers.
The two also discussed the timing of high-profile arrests and the exact date in 2019 when prosecutors planned to file charges against businessman Alex Saab, a major criminal target in Venezuela and alleged tax collector for the South American country's president, Nicolás. Ripe.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Recio secretly sent bribes to Costanzo, including airline tickets and a $50,000 down payment on a condo in suburban Coral Gables.
The conspiracy relied on middlemen, including Costanzo's father, Costanzo himself and a retired, decorated DEA agent who prosecutors said had lied to the FBI.
Prosecutors said Costanzo and Recio also used fake invoices and a company whose address was a UPS warehouse to disguise bribe payments, while deleting hundreds of messages and calls to a burner phone.
In his request for a probation sentence, Costanzo obtained letters of support from several former colleagues, including three DEA agents and supervisors who described him as a dedicated public servant, a generous friend and an expert in illicit finances.
Costanzo's lawyer said his client's only ambition was to follow in the footsteps of his father, John Costanzo Sr., a retired DEA agent who worked for years in Italy and now suffers from pancreatic cancer.
“Not being present for his hero's final days and months would break John forever,” defense attorney Marc Mukasey said in a pre-sentencing memo. “It is a punishment that he does not deserve.”
However, prosecutors portrayed a less benevolent father-son relationship, pointing to Costanzo Sr.'s role as a conduit for a $50,000 bribe payment that was used to purchase a residence in Miami.
“The measure of Costanzo's devotion to his family must include the fact that he exposed both his father and his friend to criminal liability and imprisonment,” prosecutors wrote in a court document.
