Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Mexico’s Murderous SWAT Teams

DD for Borderland Beat
  
This is republished from The Daily Beast * story on 11/10/14

Three American kids allegedly were slaughtered by the so-called Hercules Group, which claimed to use special weapons and tactics just like many cops north of the border.

MEXICO CITY—Even in Tamaulipas, one of the most violent states in Mexico, there was something cavalier, or worse, about the way the “Hercules Group” operated. Back when its existence was officially still a secret, citizens of Matamoros, a border city about five miles south of Brownsville, Texas, complained to the police about a militarized strike force that took orders from city hall. The complaints reached such a pitch that in July, when Hercules was less than a month old, a city councilman named Ulises Ruiz demanded that Mayor Leticia Salazar say more about the group, which, back then had no name.

Then as now, Mayor Salazar was short on details: The strike force existed, its mission was to fight organized crime, its members drawn from the ranks of ex-marines and ex-army regulars, trained by the Mexican navy, how many there were and how much all of this cost was classified.

The state government in Tamaulipas was hovering in the background, airing its concerns that Mayor Salazar’s strike force was uncertified, unregulated, and without legal standing. The mayor responded defiantly with a kind of military pageant that was truly bizarre for such a secretive organization. 
In September, Matamoros Mayor Lety Salazar announced the formation of the tactical Hercules Unit.
 The public debut of the Hercules Group is a day that not many in Matamoros are likely to forget. A militarized strike force onstage, attired in all black with faces smeared in black as though prepped for a nighttime raid. Behind them, a royal blue backdrop with the city’s logo and its slogan “Land of Progress.” Before them, and a head shorter than the rest, Mayor Salazar at the lectern attired in militant black beret and matching uniform with Hercules Group emblazoned in Spanish above one breast pocket and her last name stitched above the other.

“We are all Hercules,” Mayor Salazar told the assembly of reporters and well wishers that day, “defending our city from the trenches.” 

In her remarks, the Hercules Group was synonymous with peace and safety. But the president of the state chamber of commerce said it was nothing more than a personal security detail for the mayor and her secretary of social welfare, a wealthy and scandal-ridden automobile importer named Luis Biasi. 

The mayor and Biasi are a popular topic of gossip in Matamoros. She somehow retained him despite an
Mayor and Biasi
embarrassing customs raid on a warehouse of his in January that turned up cases of contraband beer, whiskey, and cigarettes. Then in August, the Mexican IRS fined both of them for a scheme to import used cars from the United States and sell them in Mexico as a part of an ill-defined public-welfare program. The worst kept secret in Matamoros is that Biasi and Mayor Salazar are more than colleagues. 

The president of the state chamber of commerce went a step further and accused Biasi of being the real power behind the Hercules Group. “We don’t understand how the secretary of public welfare can go around deputizing police. Are you the secretary of public welfare or the commander of the Hercules Group?” the chamber president intoned in the press.

Maybe none of which would have mattered much outside the neighborhood, but on Oct. 12 members of the Hercules Group showed up at a barbeque restaurant in the jurisdiction of Matamoros and kidnapped four people, including three Americans, all of whom ended up dead and whose charred bodies were found 16 days later in a field 25 miles east of Matamoros. 




Mayor Salazar and her administration have gone into lockdown mode and she was back in civilian clothes to make her only comments on the crime, and those were to disavow any responsibility for the Hercules Group, to deny she used the group as her bodyguards, indeed, to deny she kept bodyguards at all. Her repudiation comes more than two weeks after two vehicles belonging to the Americans then reported as missing were photographed while parked inside a sales lot owned by Luis Biasi.

Biasi has not responded to interview requests and has yet to make any comment on the case. State criminal investigators said that nine of the 40 members of the Hercules Group are under investigation  in relation to the quadruple homicide. 

In a statement, Governor Egidio Torre Cantu said “We will apply the full force of the law and zero tolerance.” Last week, the Mexican Justice Department took charge of  the investigation. When state authorities in Tamaulipas were still in charge, the chief prosecutor said he saw no reason to interview Biasi or Mayor Salazar.

Raquel Alvarado is the mother of the three young Americans killed. Raquel lives in a modest brick house in Progreso, Texas, a border town less than 40 miles from Matamoros. She said she still doesn’t know what to say when her four grandchildren—ages 3, 4, 5, and 9—ask her where their mother is. She said her children had no criminal charges against them, no prior warrants. Fighting through sobs, she says she hasn’t received any condolences from Mayor Salazar nor gotten any explanation for why this happened. 
“She has caused me so much pain, she left my grandchildren without a mother, she took my children away from me. There is no doubt in my mind that she is responsible.”
 
Raquel Alvarado is the mother of the three young Americans killed. Joel Martinez/The Monitor, via AP Photo
Raquel’s ex-husband, Pedro, the father of her children, lives just over the border in Mexico in a town called El Control. Pedro has not had a day’s rest since the search for his children began. In an area of Mexico like Tamaulipas, which is dominated by criminal gangs, the murders of children tend to turn grieving parents into investigators, and Pedro is no exception.

It was Pedro who drove to La Curva Texas, the barbeque restaurant on Highway 2, and interviewed the witnesses to his children’s kidnapping. He says the owner of La Curva and members of his staff witnessed the Hercules Group abduct Pedro’s daughter Erica, 26, and her Mexican boyfriend Jose Guadalupe Castañeda Benitez, 32, while they were having lunch. He said he learned that his two sons Alex, 22, and José Angel, 21, arrived in time to try to rescue their sister, but that the men in black military-style uniforms ended up abducting them as well, beating them, putting hoods over their heads and forcing them into armored trucks that bore the insignia of the Matamoros city government.

Those witnesses have not granted interviews to the media, but Pedro says that at least three of them have made statements to criminal investigators. The men from the Hercules Group identified themselves by name, he said, photographed the witnesses at the scene of the crime, confiscated their photo IDs, and threatened to retaliate if they spoke to anyone about what they had seen.

Pedro Alvarado searched for his children for 16 days and it was he and his son Pedro, Jr., who saw the siblings’ missing vehicles, a Jeep Cherokee and Chevy Tahoe, locked inside the gates of a car dealership whose owner is Luis Biasi, the secretary of social welfare in the Matamoros city government. The license plates had been removed and the stereo was stolen from the Tahoe, but Erica Alvarado’s personal belongings were still inside the Cherokee.

“We searched all the impound lots in the city, and there they were,” Alvarado said.
Things got very heated between Pedro Jr. and the manager of the lot, with Pedro demanding to know how the vehicles ended up there and asserting that they belonged to his siblings. He took photographs of the vehicles and vowed to send them to the FBI. The manager made a phone call and eventually relented. He had the vehicles moved to the curb outside the dealership. Pedro Sr. suspects the manager of telephoning the Hercules Group, because two armored trucks arrived and he said that members of the group began to inform him in a threatening manner that he had no business taking photos on private property. The dealership called the Hercules team “right then and there,” Pedro Sr. said. “Because the people in that agency are in charge of that group. Luis Biasi is the one in command of the Hercules.”

The manager of the car dealership declined to comment to the AP about the presence of the murder victims’ vehicles. He said he feared that including his name in an article would endanger his life.

Pedro Sr., said that the men from the Hercules Group ordered him to drive his son’s Tahoe away from the lot and arranged to have Erica’s Cherokee towed to Pedro’s driveway in El Control. “Two pickup trucks full of Hercules escorted the vehicles to my house. They weren’t normal police. They didn’t want to give me their badge numbers or anything. They followed us back to the house and left the vehicles there,” he said.
The Tahoe remains in El Control and the Jeep Cherokee is now parked in the driveway of Raquel Alvarado’s house in Progreso, Texas.

“How can Biasi not be considered a suspect?” Raquel Alvarado asked during a telephone interview. “If the vehicles were found in a business that belongs to him, then he has to explain what they were doing there and who brought them. They haven’t given any explanation. But they did take the plates off the vehicles and why would they do that if they had nothing to do with it?”

The murders in Matamoros mark the third time since June that Mexican state security forces are suspected
Friends in high places. Mayor with Osario Chong
of extrajudicial executions. In September, 43 students from a rural teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero disappeared and six persons were executed by municipal police officers suspected of acting in consort with a drug cartel. In June, the Mexican army executed 22 suspected gang members in Mexico state and the National Commission on Human Rights reports that the army tampered with evidence, manipulated the crime scene, and pressured witnesses to cover up the fact that most of the executions took place after the victims had surrendered. 

The Mexican human-rights commission is also investigating the murders in Matamoros

DD * The title of this website sounds like some sensationalist blog, but has quite a respectful history and was formerly affiliated with Newsweek.
It is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and formerly published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine.  On 12 November 2010, The Daily Beast and Newsweek announced a merger deal, creating a combined company, The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. On 3 Aug 2013 IAC, owner of The Daily Beast, sold Newsweek to IBT Media, owner of the International Business Times.



79 comments:

  1. Sounds like the car dealer needed some new inventory, and his thugs carjack what they want.

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    1. I think you got it on the mark. Who's going to look for dead peoples cars right? Some time would go by... No heat. Bam! 2 new cars for sale. Luckily there was a parents determination. Hercules sounds like this group they formed in 2000's to fight organized crime. Hmmm, what was their name?

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  2. they were probably into drug business

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  3. Is really easy to kill unarmed Americans. But again they should have known better than to visit mexico. If it was up to judicial system here in America send in the FBI and do some investigation. But again mexico is a shit hole , so to any sane Americans stay away from it.....let truth be known Mexican Government cannot guarantee your safety, "don't risk it"

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  4. When the 'rock throwers' are excused and defended, the entire society is on a 'slippery slope'.

    Where "Rule of Law" only pertains to the other guys, but not YOUR champions, the entire society is on a slippery slope.

    Slip sliding away ....

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  5. I'll bet ex-mayor Abarca of Iguala, and probably his wife (Lady Iguala) in their glory days would have loved to have had a uniform like Mayor Salazar's.

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  6. A white American hasn't been murdered in 25 years in nuevo Laredo.that's sounds safe to me.

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    1. I bet there has been many murders of white USA citizens in NL. The law are in the cartel's pocket. I bet there's hundreds of white Americans "missing"

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    2. Anna Golden Gonzalez 18 yrs. old from United High School was killed in Nuevo Laredo Nov. 9, 2013.

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    3. I said white Americans. Anna was Hispanic. So if your white your safe.

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    4. In 2011,113 Americans where murdered in Mexico. That's most in one year ever.only one was white.white people don't go to mexico near as much as Mexican Americans but when they do go there safe.

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    5. Dont sound white to me...AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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    6. I remember that murder. She was killed by Kiko Treviño, z40's nephew and his friends.

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    7. @640am Gonzalez isn't a white name, retard.

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    8. 9:46 am She was a US citizen ignorant.
      The Gonzalez name is found 226 times in Confederate records, and 87 times in Rebel récords during the Civil War.All from American Citizens.

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    9. Opps! 226 times in Union récords and 87 times in Confederate and Rebel records.

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    10. 9:46 am you are the reatard ignorant fool.

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    11. @ 9:46 I can tell you are uneducated because you are quick to insult without knowing what you are talking about. For your information last names do not have colors. Last names have ethnic origins. If you do not understand what I am talking about go back to high school and pay attention this time around. That is, if you even went to high school.

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  7. Mayor Salazer tales her special forces security force so seriously, that she feels like one of them by dressing like them. This is just another group of criminals dressed as SWAT police but with the law enforcement authority of the municipality of Matamoros. Zetas 2 if you will. They probably have CDG Ciclones faction members driving around dressed as Hercules carrying out cartel hits. Either that or they are actually members of the group. They question I have is did they not know they where picking-up American citizens? Mayor Lety Salazer is really rocking that SWAT uniform. Can't help but think that she ended speech with "Yo Quiero Taco Bell!"

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  8. When are you guys going to report on EPN's 7 million mansion?

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    1. lol is that true? talk about a red flag. faces in photo ops of crooked murderous politicians and a 7 million (is that dollar?) home. Nice christmas bonus from the zetas. smdh....

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    2. Yeah and about what's happening at the Mexican palace are ya not allowed

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    3. 8:33 They are scared of Pena Nieto and his company of goons. Ahahhaa

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  9. I don't see a difference between the crimes committed by this Matamoros mayor and her "boyfriend" and Abarca of Iguala and his wife. Their goons both killed people. Perhaps the parents should sue the city of Matamoros and it's mayor for their actions. A good lawsuit would freeze/seize any properties or accounts they have in the USA. Has all the makings of a murder conspiracy.
    Only reason she hasn't been arrested is because there hasn't been and uproar like the one in Iguala.

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    1. 8:35, the reason is evident to those who want to see it. Ask yourself why is the father in Mexico? Innocent bystanders,yea right!

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  10. Ppl think just Being Américan and Being in México your getting kidnapped

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  11. hercules son jotos como todo mexico culos

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  12. Texas have many gangs like Mexican mafia and this gangs are connected with Mexican cartels

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    1. Yeah those gangs always kill each other no "innocents" are targeted by these gangs. Thats the difference. Killing those who are not connected to gang life is extremely bad for business.

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  13. Chivis the people of mexico are sick and tired of this pri corrupt gov. I seen #FueraPenaNieto hashtag on social media and i think this is the way to go before mexico erupts into huge violence and a new revolucion.

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  14. They look super - cool
    on the 1st photo from the top !!!

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  15. Salazar. She in that uniform reminds me of J Edgar Hoover. Hoover's FBI had a very illegal and shady beginning. They used automatic weapons when they weren't legally allowed to. They painted John Dillinger as a killer when Dillinger was not. Murdered him in cold blood over some bank robberies.

    Goes to show money rules the world, so get religious on it.

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    1. Callate pendejo you don't know sht about J. Edgar Hoover nor the FBI. & less about that John Dillinger criminal he was disturbing the peace terrorising they had to take him out stupid. saying sht like if you had lived back then... btch lol

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  16. You know Jorge is really dumb

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  17. Shit rolls downhill...the more Americans are targeted expect swift retaliation with or without Mexico's approval. USA goes where they want and when they want and expect US special forces in the near future to go into Mexico to extract justice. Never, ever count out America's new breed of Rangers. They are the elite of the elite and these cartel j-holes would never know what hit them so fast and so sudden. The 75th Ranger Reg. Special Forces Group you do not want to get into an engagement with. They are deadly and strike fast without warning and any viable target that moves is eliminated. These uneducated drunk and drug addicted cartel punks would never be a match for these boys!

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    1. 7:17 Now that's what im talking about partner!! IM WITH YOU ON THAT ONE! 100%!!

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    2. Stfu u wach to much soldier movies.. americans have been killed in mexico for years the only way u.s.a would do somtin only if they kill a dea .cia any gov. Agency

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    3. no us stay out of Mx its their problem

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    4. When I go into El Paso I see what looks like pro athletes, and huge and extremely fit big men. Even some of the women are more fit than a lot of men. You realize these men are US soldiers. When you look at Mexican soldiers that are short and look very young and not nearly as fit. The difference is astounding. I would not want to mess with these American soldiers at all. You are right. They would not know what hit themm and on top of the physical condition and overall size, they also have great technology on their side. It really would not be a fair fight and these macho thinking cartel members with the big mouths would realize just how little they are. The American soldiers would not wait outside of a city that had been shot up before entering. It happens quite often here in Mexico.

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    5. You are dreaming

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    6. You ain't lyin' my friend. I was on the ground in South America early 90's, US Rangers (won't say what company, cuz we weren't there hahaha). Went in as advisors and training (yea right). We were combat teams hitting the coca and processing huts and farms. Sanctioned to stop engaged targets. I agree 100%, shit rolls downhill and the Rangers you don't fuck with. If Obama had balls instead of wearing a tampon, I am sure they would be in and out of Mexico a dozen or so times already and the wannabe gangsters would be a bit tamer knowing "The Shadow" is lurking nearby.

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    7. 7:17 am. The 75th Ranger Regiment are Rangers NOT Special Forces, I served with the 2nd Bn 75th Rangers. I served in active duty for 22 long years, from 1968 until 1990. Please if you don't know or didn't serve don't comment, you only look ignorant and get people confused. Thanks. Former Airborne Ranger! US Army Veteran, I retired with the rank of First Sergeant E-8 RLTW! (Rangers Lead The Way)

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    8. The 1st, the 5th, the 7th and the 20th Special Forces Groups just to name a few, the 20th is a Reserve SF Group. I'm posting this just fyi.

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    9. exactly what needs to be done. military Ops in Mexico. go in and hit fast and strike hard and get out. go back and repeat on a consistent basis striking each time in different spots to keep the druggies confused.

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    10. 4:21 am, that's the way it's done! Never follow a striking pattern and look for target rich environments.

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    11. Now that is what im talking about! help the legit mexican gov get rid of the trash! tony montana wantta bs!

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    12. Everyone needs to get involved its just not Mexico's problem its the worlds problem. I favor US military teams going in and out at will.

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  18. The smiles on these creatures faces makes me want to throw up. If the US can invade Panama and Iraq and remove their "DICTATORS", why can't they go after these two comedic demons, wanta-be criminals???

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  19. "The strike force existed, its mission was to fight organized crime" Are you kidding? the mayor and her so-called "Swat" team ARE the organized crime. Let's kill the kids to get their cars so that we can sell them on our car lot sounds like the plan they were on. Oh yeah and have the sister call her brothers so they can bring over another vehicle.

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    1. You sound so stupid calling those animals kids.

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    2. 7:17 maybe they can go to Syria.

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  20. Matamoros, Tamps., is not five miles south of Brownsville, Texas. It's next to Brownsville, TX just separated by the Rio Grande River (Rio Bravo).

    Brownsville resident.

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  21. those 3 "americans" were actually members of the gulf cartel that operated out of texas. they would steal vehicles and drive them to matamoros or reynosa.. i guess miss letty wanted a a piece of that pie or mr biasi. its such a cluster fuck in tamaulipas.

    in matamoros you have letty and her hercules group trying to control the remnants of the gulf cartel in matamoros.

    in ciudad victoria egidio is trying to form a new cartel which is gonna take orders from him and letty presents a obstacle.

    in nuevo laredo the zetas have the mayor under their payroll but ciudad victoria zetas dont wanna take orders from nuevo laredo hence the capture of ferrari which the ciudad victoria zetas gave up in turn for protection from egidio

    dont even get me started on the cluster fuck of reynosa and tampico

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  22. "Three American kids allegedly were slaughtered by the so-called Hercules Group"
    They were all adults maybe innocent but we will never know that now

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  23. I'm amazed the father and son were able to get the vehicles back. They were very brave for doing what they did. Glad no harm came to them.

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  24. ey sabian que los hercules les gustan el arroz con popotes

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  25. People forget that American police regularly execute unarmed citizens. What I like about mexican cops is that 50 bucks usually takes care of a ticket on the spot! Compared to a $500 dollar ticket in the US.

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    1. You wish the US was like mx idiota...

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  26. This just goes to show how much power these local politicians have in their own cities. That fat pig must be indeed pulling the strings behind the corrupt mayor with her own personal army (SS, Hitler style).

    I find it hard to believe that no shady business was going on with those who were tragically killed. In Mexico for the most part you don't get capped if you aren't doing anything wrong. They could be indeed innocent of any wrong doing. Either way, something stinks in that city. These personal armies should be banned from the country.

    And it wouldn't be so shocking to see this Biasi character, or this Mayor Salazar, dead, arrested, soon. Every dog has it's, so will these scumbags.

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  27. This whole story qualifies for the WTF file. The black and beige face paint mght as well be in the shape of a target. The laughable mayor wears her beret like a pizza man. The other dudes dip their finger tips in something black and drag them across their faces like in a 'b' movie. Hercules would not approve of them using his good name. I almost expect them to travel in a black van and make a cantalope bazooka like The A Team did. My sypathies for the victims, their families and all of society.

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  28. Well, boys and girls, the bad news is the hercules group are SSPTAM, under ordersmof narco-governor egidio torre cantu and his priista maffiosi with long criminal records, they have killed two generals who came to stick their noses where they shouldn't have, in the case of general nino, sent a woman not his wife to lead him to the trap, after three monts, he was dead...
    @MennyValdz keeps up with governor egidio torre cantu, and his new cartelito at mennytimes, as chivis said, it is a lot of info about tamaulipas there...
    --The PRI just doing a hatchet job on lety salazar who is panista to get her out of the way,
    --THINK!!! She did not need any heating up ofher plaza...
    --the city of matamoros does not have a municipal police, the state police is in charge of police duties, under the orders and supervision of the motherfucking governor egidiot torre cantu, his propaganda machine is getting the best of us, and we are getting bamboozled by the governor and his maffia...SMH uhh?
    --the US needs no amerikkkans in mexico, the have more than enough henchmen there doing their dirt job for them there, and none of them is entitled to pstd or post-engagement benefits, blackwater/academi, uses only enough people for the job at hand to collect 10 000 USD pre man per hour whenever there is a chance, but do not expect any benefits either, private enterprise is all that matters, to privatize government money by any means necessary...
    --the rabble can always try the us/irani sargent way, and deal on contraband weapons or drugs or sompin' to make ends meet...

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  29. Nov 12 2014 @6:40am, congratulations, you are always so exacting...
    BUT, BUT Blackeyes jackass jay, you will never learn, will you?
    mexican rock throwers, like palestinian rock throwers, are not as dangerous as those that use them as the God given excuse to occupy other people's countries, and kill'em all in their own house, and burn their motherfuckinghouse to make their day complete, you really can't help it, can you???
    --it should be a crime to spend money on educating people like you blackeyes jay, you need a lot of help, i hope your bullshit does you good somehow...

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    1. "BUT, BUT Blackeyes jackass jay, you will never learn, will you?"

      Says the most hateful racist moron ever seen at BB.
      "Never learn"that could apply to you and your outdated thoughts on race?Could it not millie?

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  30. Chivis remains found don't belong to ayotzinapa students

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  31. Im going to hitchhike all through Mexico, because im bored. Wish me luck..

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  32. Hercules? Lol what a joke.. They dont know combat. I'll have that mayor give me head

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  33. Fuckin fools standing to attention in front and behind"little Letty"
    You know man,all around the world it is an illusion of democracy,look at this idiocy here?Hercules Group,why not Achilles group or Chimera Grupo,Sweaty Letty Grupo?Sweaty Letty Group runnin round doin whatever they want,these people are making decisions on city's and states and they are fuckin Idiots?

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  34. The FORUM is at top right just above Blog Archive,its not that hard to find surely?

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  35. The world would be so much better without drugs

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  36. Dude,be real,its plain for all to see your inherent racism.
    How can you stand living in the US?All the time whining about how much you hate the US?The epitome of falsehood and hypocrisy is what you are

    Peace

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  37. I know this is off topic but what is the info on this kiko trevino

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  38. Uno, dos, tres, muchos, american war criminals are not a race and are not the US at all, according to all written laws of the US...
    --America war criminals can not get away with murder forever honey, and while they may be 100% americans, not all of the US service member are like them or are suppossed to support or defend them or any american war criminal, nor are they entitled to the unwavering support of the american people...we are not a street gang, honey...

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