Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Friday, February 27, 2015

Drug Trafficking for Dummies


U.S. and Mexican authorities hailed the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in the Pacific coast town of Mazatlan as a major victory in their war on drugs. A year later the power vacuum caused by his absence is fueling chaos on the streets of Chicago and Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso.

As head of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s largest, Guzman was a ruthless enforcer of discipline. He employed violence to protect his distribution routes and intimidate rivals. The kingpin of kingpins, Guzman had the sway to settle disputes with other drug traffickers. In Chicago, his distribution center for the U.S., he cast a long shadow: Few dared cheat the Sinaloa cartel.

The order Guzman imposed is starting to dissolve. At least two of Guzman’s lieutenants are in a struggle to control the Sinaloa organization. The resurgent Juárez cartel is trying to retake the narcotics supply routes that Sinaloa wrested from the Juárez group in a drug war five years ago that cost more than 10,000 lives. 

“The Juárez cartel is taking back Juárez. We’ve seen a recent spike in violence in the last couple of weeks,” says Oscar Hagelsieb, an assistant special agent in charge with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations office. He says Guzman’s capture “demoralized people that were fighting for Chapo outside of the conventional strongholds and rallied rival cartels.”

Guzman secured his near-mythic status by escaping from prison in a laundry cart in 2001 and later unleashing an assassination spree of rival drug lords. Afterward he controlled much of the narcotics entering the U.S. 


His nickname—“Shorty” in English—belied his outsize reputation. A grade-school dropout, he transformed the drug trade by centralizing everything from warehousing and distribution to collection and transport of money back to Mexico. Five months before his arrest, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s top official in Chicago at the time, Jack Riley, called Guzman “a logistical genius.” Guzman instilled such fear that he could enforce his rule in northern U.S. cities far from his heavily guarded compound in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains.
The Sinaloa cartel long provided much of the heroin, cocaine, and meth sold in the Midwest. Chicago, whose crime commission formally labeled Guzman as “Public Enemy Number One” in 2013, now feels the impact of El Chapo in a different way. The decline of the biggest gangs, many of them retailers of Sinaloa drugs, has spurred the city’s 70,000 gang members to form ever-smaller groups—some 625, according to Chicago police—all fighting for their piece of turf. Police sources blame a flood of illegal guns for the 12 percent rise in shooting incidents in the city last year. But an ex-gang leader says it’s because Guzman’s shadow is gone. The low-level gangsters “aren’t fearing anybody,” says Harold “Noonie” Ward, who once ranked high up in Chicago’s Gangster Disciples gang, which peddled Sinaloa drugs. As for Chicago’s 3 percent drop in murders, chalk it up to rookie gangsters with bad aim, Ward says.

Absent Guzman, traffickers from the Sinaloa cartel have had to find creative ways to avoid not only police but also bandits in Mexico and the U.S. who no longer fear retribution for ripping off a load of drugs from Guzman’s former foot soldiers. Traffickers for Sinaloa are using new methods of delivery, even drones. “It’s very tech-savvy,” says Joseph Lopez, a Chicago attorney who represents accused traffickers.

While Guzman would ship drugs hidden in the trunk of a family’s car, his followers have recently ramped up production of harder-to-detect liquid meth at their labs in Mexico. It can be transported in propane tanks, tequila bottles, even by letters soaked in the stuff. On Feb. 8 border authorities in California arrested a man who was hiding more than 15 gallons of it in a special container placed in the fuel tank of a Ford pickup, according to U.S. customs officials. “If you can turn it into a liquid form, you can put it into almost anything,” says Francis Brown, assistant director of field operations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s El Paso office.

 Guzman shunned social media, but the new ranks of traffickers embrace it to boast, recruit, and deal. “Like any of the younger generation, they’re so much more gifted with electronic devices, so they come up with ways to utilize social media to benefit them,” Brown says. “But they also do things that give themselves away.” Last fall the Mexican military captured the son of one of Guzman’s partners after he posted photos on Twitter of his lavish lifestyle, which included guns, cars, and parties. Attorney Lopez says he’s come into court to find prosecutors with elaborate presentations drawn from an accused trafficker’s text messages.

Along the 500-mile stretch of the border that includes El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, authorities seized 247 pounds of heroin from October 2013 to September 2014—almost triple the haul of the year before. New restrictions on prescription drug use are driving more U.S. addicts to heroin. And the fragmentation of drug groups in post-Guzman Mexico may mean more freelancers are trying their hand at producing heroin, says national security analyst Alejandro Hope, who’s based in Mexico City. “There could be more traffickers participating than the Sinaloa cartel, increasing the supply,” says the former Mexican intelligence official.

Mexican government statistics show murders dropped 15 percent last year. But kidnappings rose 30 percent, says Asociación Alto al Secuestro, which offers aid to families of kidnap victims. Guerreros Unidos, a splinter group of a Sinaloa rival, allegedly murdered 43 students in the town of Cocula last September. Authorities say the students were kidnapped by corrupt police on the orders of the gang-connected wife of a politician.

Cocaine seized by U.S. authorities along the border from New Mexico to West Texas (the same stretch that witnessed the rise in heroin shipments) fell to 644 pounds in fiscal 2014 from 817 pounds the previous year. That drop suggests that some longtime cocaine producers from Peru and Colombia have decided to sell more of their drugs in Europe, where prices are higher than in the U.S. The switch reflects a post-Guzman world where some of the most experienced suppliers would rather avoid the increased risk that Mexico’s less seasoned gangs pose. 

Says ex-gangster Ward: “When they got Chapo, that means that everybody’s got a piece of the action now. Everybody wants to be the man.”

45 comments:

  1. Where do you by that book, Tuta must of wrote it, Chapo must of proof read it, , n Barbie must of agreed with it. Viceroy then published it n Beltran-Leyvas along with Treviño, Cardenas, Arellano-Felixs n all that have got busted must have bought it cuz all these clowns are either dead or behind bars

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    1. Greed is what took these guys down, They had enough money to live off but these greedy bastards put them selfs away..

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  2. Honestly im an avid reader of what goes on via mexicos drug cartels and the war in general...and in my honest opinion i really believe that Chapo is a "necessary evil"...
    now a lot of capos claim to be just that... for example La Tuta and his cartel...but facts show that isnt the case...but as for El Chapo its a whole other situation...he does in fact help more than he hurts society in general...thats a Fact! now its true some things that he does do and his cartel does are pretty bad...killing and what not...but i would rather have El Chapo out and about than any other drug kingpin...and i have stated many times on here that i feel Chapo isnt even behind bars at all...he is to well connected and the way mexican capos have been arrested lately it all seems to good to be true...and 100% more so in Chapos case...either way Cartels and their leaders will never stop doing what they do...thats just a fact...so not only is Chapo at Large but its also best for the Mexico in general...Long Live El Chapo Guzman...a True Mans Man...God Bless

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    1. Stupid asses like your self are what's wrong in this world that animal has slaughtered millions with guns and the drugs he sales and you defend him there are no facts that he helped people just those stupid ass corridos that they make for little fan girls like yourself

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    2. Please stop inhaling toxic fumes from your kitchen!!!! How in the hell is Chapo a good person? He was the one that open the domestic consuption of drugs in Mexico!!! Fact!!! You sir are just as ignorant as the other dumbasses that glorify a midget. Fact! Please think of the overall picture- he might help out a couple of hundred hillbillies, but he has destroyed 1,000's and 1,000's of lives GLOBALLY!!! Fact-

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    3. Just because he does less evil than other drug lords, does not mean he does "more good than bad". Him preventing murders by controlling a plaza and then having less murders is not "doing good". Its just less bad

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    4. LoL, you sound like a child who obsesses and looks up to some athlete......

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    5. @ 2:42 PM

      You're an idiot. Chapo caused a lot of violence in Mexico. More than 10,000 deaths in Juarez was because of Chapo trying to take over. Don't forget Tijuana. His drugs are killing people slowly but surely. So just because he helped some people in his strong holds doesn't mean he deserves to be free. All these drug leaders help the people where they stay at so they're not snitched out. Maybe they do genuinely want to help the people in their hometown. But they could care less what their hitmen do in other cities and states. He caused most of the bloodshed in Mexico. All these cartels preach they are for the people, when they're obviously hurting them. Chapo/CDS fooled many brainless people like you via Narco-Corridos or their mantas claiming they only drug traffic and don't kidnap/extort etc. By the way saying "that's a fact" doesn't make anything a fact.

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    6. I agree they run Mexico better than Nieto

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    7. I agree his greed got people killed but nobody puts a weapon against a user and tells him to buy drugs, if some idiot OD and dies that's too bad. Drugs were legal before, you could get morphine and cocaine over the counter back in the victorian age, even queen victoria was a junkie for using heroin and morphine to treat menstrual cramps according to reaganomic tards. At the end of the day the 10000+dead in juarez are just a consequence of prohibition, so it doesnt matter if is chapo or some random druglord, they will continue to kill to control the black market.

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    8. If Chapo is already free, he will be shortly. Anyone who believes differently is a fool. Both governments know organized crime is easier to control than unorganized little groups. Chapo has a long history of working hand in hand with the US government. There is way to much money involved in this game. Everyone from the lawyers to the prisons to the cops on the street have everything to loose if it ever stopped. They like a controlled organized operation. The only way this will stop is if the United States ever looses it's need and desire for illegal drugs.

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    9. @6:35...
      you seem angry and upset...is that the case??? dont hate chapo guzman...hate officer wilson! jajajajaja
      chapo does more good than he does bad...thats a fact...drug dealing isnt bad in my opinion...if nobody did drugs bosses like chapo would be out of business...and as far as the prison conditions i stand by what i said before...prisoners doing time need to be treated as human beings...3 meals a day...at least 2 hours of recreation time...and sports programs,art programs ect...all of which is only available with good behavior of course...
      fair is fair...they are doing the time...and they should get perks for good behavoir...*god bless to all doing time* *stay strong*

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    10. El Chapo is nobody's fool. Nobody's. Especially because he is smarter than everyone he is up against in the fake drug war. A man with a 4th grade education outsmarting the DEA and FBI. That's embarrassing for the USA. No wonder they go to such great ends to make him look like a brutal dictator.

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    11. 6:39 What world do you live in fool?

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    12. @7:73 spot on. prohibition is why all this mess is here. still, 99% of junkies are complete scum, would de-criminalizing narcotics turn them into decent people?

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    13. @7:53 pm
      RIGHT ON THE MONEY MY BROTHER! Prohibition! Many people die over here for crossing marihuana sad to say but what our "GOOD FOREFATHERS" created was nothing but an act of greed, so forth you have cartels, drug trafficking networks, gangs.. Etc

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    14. There's over 10,000 dead in Juarez and Nuevo Laredo that would disagree with the whole Chapo does more good than bad argument. Just to name two cities...

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    15. 6:32 Sintetic, Semi Sintetic drugs are not like alcohol. You got it all wrong there. If they let all the hard drugs there is go free and wild in the USA or any other place in the world... Well most of you chimps can not imagine all the hell it would bring down on everybody! More junkies? More psychopats? More criminals? More corruption? Just like some of those big pharmacy corps do sometimes with their 'lobbying money'.

      One good thing to probably do.. is to find out by conducting an study on some small island for a couple of years, with a population of at least 100 thousand persons, & let all those illegal drugs run free see what happens after a couple of months...(how many new monsters??) but then again not everybody is the same, not every place is the same, not all the persons have the same morals/ethics, etc. etc. etc. blah. blah. BLAH!! it would never end us humans are full of erros period!! ... I would rather go to the DOC get me some meds! or smoke some of that good sativa or indica (depending on what you like) aka Cannabis Flower.. Ahi se ven bola de mandriles droggos! Ajajajajajjajajajajajaja!!

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    16. You have the right to your opinion feb 27, 2015 @2:42p but he did a lot of bad outside of his home state of Sinaloa. My wife's bloodline is from Chihuahua and Chapo turned that entire state upside down when he started his push to take over. He was the main reason why the Zetas became more than Osiel's bodyguards. His push eastward helped shape the Zetas into the most brutal hitmen. A lot of readers will disagree with me but I have been paying attention to the drug war since the Pablo Acosta (El Zorro de Ojinaga) days in the 90's. Many of my wife's older cousins worked for Pablo so I know how things have changed for the worse since Chapo escaped from prison. I remember when the violence in Chihuahua dramatically increased in 2004 and that was the last year we went to Mexico as a family. Things are better in Chihuahua and in Ojinaga especially now that CF has taken back control but it still isn't what it use to be.

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    17. J. Cricket what makes you think that Chapo out smarted the the FBI and DEA? Those agencies knew where he was for a long time and but it took the least corrupt Mexican Navy to finally get him. Chapo was caught when his snitching was no longer necessary to help the US. It was a well known fact in the US law enforcement community that Chapo was in bed with the DEA. The US can find and kill anybody at any time just ask Bin Laden's family. If we really want you best believe we will eventually get you. But you keep believing in Chapo's mystic status while he rots in prison complaining about his human rights being violated. Pobre Shorty!!

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  3. Love him or hate me. Shorty was all business nothing personal.

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    1. The war with the AFO was 100 percent personal. There are a number of corridos that mention this incident. You got your info all wrong.

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    2. Shorty and the AFO brothers were supposed to be a unit when guardalada cartel was taking its big hit with caro Quintero heading towards prison if I'm not mistaken, thus that made the "TIJUANA WAR VERY PERSONAL"

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    3. True. In a dirty business in this case of drug traficking, extorting, kidnapping, murdering, it is always personal. NOT MATTER what other idiots say.

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    4. Many things added to the problems between them chapo trying to invade Tijuana ,AFO killing chapos compadre and I'm pretty sure that scar on Benjamin head was the start of the beef

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  4. Why are there lies in this article.? Colombia and Peru wants there money now. They get paid no matter what happens to this shipment. Also Chapo has a big presence in Peru. He started coca fields a couple of years ago. If anything, they are trying to cut the Colombians out of the loop.

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  5. All the Chapo horn tooting is so old. Sinaloa has been on the decline for 3 years and has fallen to it's knees over the last 15 months. Chapo was the worst thing for Mexico ever. He was no saint. He declared wars in all the border plazas. So many innocent people were killed, run out of business, kidnapped, raped, extorted all by Sinaloa or the local cartels to support the war. Worse, he never fought the wars, as Sinaloa was never strong enough to take a plaza on their own. They had Calderon's military fight their battles. Sinaloans weren't badasses. They were hit and run artists that ran fast and let the military fight. Chapo and Sinaloa were the absolute worst at snitching too. All of them. And Sinaloa has been out of Juarez for more than 3 years. This article isn't valid. CDJ ran Chapo and the military out 3 years ago. they are out of Chihuahua state now and losing ground in the territory to the true coalition. They are not heros they are rats. Research what the governor of Chihuahua said in the El Paso Times about the CDJ and what he said about CDS. CDJ are the quiet for real cartel. They don't snitch and they back up their action.

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    1. Lmao. Pinche tecato, ya deja las drogas culero. Sounds like sour grapes, u Internet lame.

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    2. By doing what, having alot of inexperienced kids extorting and killing because viceroy never paid them right, CDJ another sinaloense cartel that didn't like chapo and lost RIP Beltran Leyva and Juarez cartel

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    3. CDS are businessmen. Not like zetas or golfos or linieros. They move tons of weight all thru up and around ciudad Juarez so you can say they got kicked out all you want and blah blah blah but at the end of the day they're making money and not waiting around like linieros or zetas looking for the next guy with something of value so they can try and hit a lick on em. Very rarely you hear of CDS extorting poor innocent people. I live in sonora half the year and the other in Arizona and Sonora is one of the calmest places in Mexico due to the fact that all the locals love the way the cartel operates. You see all kinds of local street vendors around sonoyta that can actually make a living due to the fact there isn't people like zetas and linea who would rob their own mothers in a heartbeat.

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    4. CDS are definitely businessmen but businessmen who need to stay out the fighting. That's why the military fought their battles for them. The Zetas kicked the shit out of CDS no matter what the corridos say. La Linea/Aztecas have pushed CDS out of Chihuahua point blank anyone who says different are blind. All good things come to an end so just deal with it Chapo lovers.

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  6. Get it over it New way of life in Mexico

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  7. If Ivan killed bravo, what makes you think he wont in still discipline, like father like son, the hustle continues

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  8. Ya les dije cabrones, que si me caga el palo la prensa mundial o los politicos del mundo los voy a enserrar, ustedes creen que la feriesita que me dan todavia me conviene? Si Pemex me esta dando el triple
    -EPN

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    1. No haces mamon Peña y dame mi pinche flat screen Tv que dijiste que me vas a reglar..

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  9. The only real Cartel slash Mexican cosa nostra were los Aretes , Cartel de Tijuana, CAF. The first Cartel in MX history to hace an organized elite squad of trained hitmen. Cant forget what happened to Rigoberto Campos for trying to bite two bones in Tijuana back in the early 90s. R. A. was in that hit squad. There is paperwork on Chapo crying to the DEA about the Arellano brothers while he was in Puente Grande. If Benjamin and Ramón were still active beat believe that there would be more order in Baja.

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    1. Lol but who made it ? Not them obviously so get your head out your nalgas compa

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  10. @6;39 Ha Ha love the sarcasm.

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  11. Chapo and his cartel have fallen that's a Fact !!! They are weak ...zetas and Beltrans are all in sinaloa ... cds is not in tamps. The cdg barley exist knights templer are falling too all the cds allies are falling not even the gov. Has their back anymore by this time next year they would have lost more territory than they have in the past years mark my words they re in decline ... you can listen to the stupid corridos or all this bullshit propaganda that they put up on bb or elblogdelnarco ... I'm not saying they going to fully disappear I'm just saying they going down and thats a Fact!!!!

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    1. Sure.. going down south probably evading the snatching, just because some of them fled to other places don't mean shit! they could be restructuring their organization in some other state/s where the FEDS aren't looking for them yet.. your an IDIOT, you let appearences fool you easily, they are good at it (making you believe they have fallen) plus el chaparro was not the only one there running things!

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    2. Feb 28 1:44pm that's not CDS's style to operate in the shadows. They are flamboyant putos who want everyone and their momma to see them. So there has to be a reason and I believe it's because they have to in order to survive. They are no longer this larger than life criminal organization who are "untouchable". And unfortunately for them they will get it from all sides. BLO, Zetas, Guerroro Unidios, CJNG, CAF, and Juarez will start chomping on that ass. It will be a game of Pacman but there will be multiple Pacmans in this game. CDS might need to start looking for several allies ASAP. No matter what CDS use to be they will not be able handle the onslaught coming their way.

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  12. rom what I remember, all drugs west of the Mississippi (except weed, of course and nasty crystal, I guess) absolutely sucked. Is there anyone who knows why the biggest collection of people trying to get down (California!) has the worst, badly made BS for drugs? Has anyone figured why the cartels do that? Did they stop liking money? I mean, BTH alone kills people faster than it hooks them...just because it's made badly. It would save so many people and make the cartels more money if they would just do it correctly instead of marketing sludge. What gives?

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  13. rom what I remember, all drugs west of the Mississippi (except weed, of course and nasty crystal, I guess) absolutely sucked. Is there anyone who knows why the biggest collection of people trying to get down (California!) has the worst, badly made BS for drugs? Has anyone figured why the cartels do that? Did they stop liking money? I mean, BTH alone kills people faster than it hooks them...just because it's made badly. It would save so many people and make the cartels more money if they would just do it correctly instead of marketing sludge. What gives?

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  14. None of these cartels are shit. They control for a while but then they get killed or jailled. Zetas are the ones that have more power these days. They are silently taking control of other terretories while they let sinaloas sing about how they have the greatest, smartest, bravest most Powerfull and influential people in their cartel, While at the same time they are getting arrested or killed. Not on any side, just stating the facts. Real spit

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  15. 4:19 "el gobernador de chihuahua" es un puto culero y corrupto, wo cares what he says? He is too busy covering his ass regarding his corruption as a public officer...
    --Let us not forget that the DFS coming ot party in MEXICO 68, they have been the puppets of the CIA, under different names and bosses, including presidents of the reputa, i mean republica, that is why all of the biggest mafiosos have been caught with DFS charolas, or other official positions, since amado got rid of pablo acosta and his next-in-charge, DFS agent Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, that left $100 000 000.00 USD to the mexican ''authorities'', and the juarez cartel to amado...
    --You can always find chilangos, chilango influence, chilangopolis police, politicians, and "businessmen" like the worst of the worst, Atracomulco Gorupo, of pena nieto and his motherfucking parentela at the top and behind ALL the corruption and crime in mexico, the narcs are just a distraction...
    --last but not least, since carlos salinas de gortari stole the sedena budget, 2 billion dollars, he allowed the militay to mess around all over mexico to make ends meet by trafficking on their own, to mexicans on the street, socializing drug trafficking addiction for the proles and much of the crime all over mexico, with poor broke-back grameros in charge, working for free, and paying quota and piso to whoever'' owns the plaza"...
    Lowly narcs are not the real problem, general cienfuegos(aka mil masacres) said himself, "capturing el chapo is a priority, not an obsession"...
    --general cienfuegos, graduated from the militay college in 1964, just on time to prepare for mexico68, tlaltelolco, halconazo, kidnappings, tortures, murdering and disappearances of victims, at sea...
    ...50 years of heroic criminality of general cienfuegos, that is how mexican generals get made...

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