Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Guerreros Unidos sent heroin aboard buses

Borderland Beat posted by DD, part of which is Republished from Mexico Daily News



In Dec. 2014, Borderland Beat reporter Itzli posted a story about the leaders of a cell of Guerreros United operating out of the Chicago area being arrested in Oklahoma.     Both these individuals, 40 year old Pablo Vega Cuevas and his 37 year old brother-in-law Alexander Figueroa, lived in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, where they oversaw the importation of heroin and cocaine hidden in commercial passenger buses arriving in Chicago from Mexico, which was stored in warehouses in Aurora and Batavia before the drugs were distributed.  


The story posted by Itzli also related that 3 others from the same cell had been arrested the same day and that warrants had been issued for the arrest of 3 more alleged members.  It also said that  since August 2013, when the investigation of this cell began, 68 kilograms of heroin, 9 kilograms of cocaine, and $500,000 has been seized by authorities.

But those facts do not tell the whole story.  

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Much, if not most of the bloodshed and violence in the cartel wars has been battling over the distribution end of trafficking drugs. Think Zetas and the Gulf cartel, think Juarez and Tijuana, Reynosa, Matamores, and Laredo.  All of that violence was fighting over control of the plazas on the US/Mx. border and routes leading to the border.  In Guerrero most of the violence has been over cartels fighting for control of areas of production 

Some cartels, most notably the Sinaloa cartel has been very innovative in coming up with ways to transport their merchandise across the border.  From migrants (mules) with packpacks crossing the desert to submarines, ultra-light aircraft, catapults, and most famously their extensive use of tunnels under the border.


Guerrero United has not been known as a strategic planner, but has followed the old adage "keep it simple stupid" - grow it process it, package it, ship it (by bus) to warehouses in Chicago, and distribute it to their street dealers.

Itzli's story just touched on this in one sentence, but a story in Mexico Daily News this week (translation of original story in Spanish from Milenio) give a more detailed account of transporting heroin and cocaine from Iquala direct to Chicago on Mexican bus lines.  
Twice a week Iguala to Chicago
 (From Daily News)
 From opium poppies in the mountains of Guerrero to heroin in streets of Chicago

With the efficiency of a multinational corporation, the drug gang Guerreros Unidos cultivated, commercialized and killed at large in Mexico and the United States, eventually controlling a lucrative heroin supply chain that extended from the opium fields in the mountains of Guerrero to the shooting galleries in the streets of Chicago.
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There, the cartel distributed tens of thousands of doses, contributing to the worst epidemic of heroin overdoses that region of the U.S. has seen in decades, according to information gathered by U.S. authorities.

Between 2013 and 2014, a single cell of the cartel — previously believed to have limited capacity for planning — moved at least 183 kilograms of high-quality heroin, valued at US $11 million, into the Windy City.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) maintains that the cartel moved the drugs through companies named Autobuses Volcano Travel Agency and Autobuses Monarca Zacatecanos. They transported the heroin in hidden panels on the buses that ran from their territory in Iguala to Aurora, a suburb of Chicago.

The Chicago band funneled millions to fund the gang’s illicit activities in Guerrero, among which was the September 2014 murder of the Ayotzinapa student-teachers.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s first case against the Guerreros, its most successful known cell in the U.S. began in August 2013 under the leadership of Pablo “El Transformer” Vega Cuevas.

The small cell began importing and distributing large quantities of heroin and cocaine, sending the profits back to Iguala. After the DEA got wind of the group through an informant it planted anti-narcotics officers who monitored Vega and his collaborators for over a year, until last December 8, 2014.

Agents identified numerous phone calls made from Chicago and its suburbs to a long-distance area code, 733, that of Iguala. The calls offer a record of the cell’s transactions: Vega once moved $600,000 in a single sale, while one incoming shipment contained 26 kilograms of heroin.

At home, the Guerreros Unidos was fighting the rival gang Los Rojos to gain control of more poppy fields. With a secure source of heroin from fields around Tlapa and Chilpancingo, the cartel expanded just as Illinois began consuming heroin at levels not seen since the 1970s.

There was fighting up north, too. The cell in Chicago began taking on the Sinaloa Cartel for control of the crown jewel: the enormous and growing population of addicts in the Great Lakes region of the U.S.

The latter might also have had supply problems to reckon with. The Mexican government has razed a far larger number of poppy fields in Sinaloa — 78,703 hectares — than it has in the state of Guerrero, where only 30,649 hectares have been burned.

The Guerreros Unidos’ Chicago cell fell in December. Vega and his accomplices are accused of importing prohibited substances and face prison sentences of 10 to 40 years. Autobuses Volcano Travel Agency is still offering non-stop Chicago service every Wednesday and Friday, but it is not known if they continue to carry a secret cargo in hidden panels.

DD:
Why the Department of Justice has not seized any of the buses and applied the sanctions allowed under the King Pin Act, which would prohibit any US citizen from doing business with the bus company which  would include passengers buying tickets or riding the buses is beyond me.  

To learn more about Guerreros United, see two stories posted by our BB in-house expert Itzli; 
From opium poppies in the mountains of Guerrero to heroin in streets of Chicago - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/guerreros-unidos-sent-heroin-aboard-buses/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=ebf9d8bbb9-Apr.+21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-ebf9d8bbb9-349444589#sthash.H6N9IbaE.dpuf
From opium poppies in the mountains of Guerrero to heroin in streets of Chicago - See more at: http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/guerreros-unidos-sent-heroin-aboard-buses/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=ebf9d8bbb9-Apr.+21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-ebf9d8bbb9-349444589#sthash.H6N9IbaE.dpuf

46 comments:

  1. we need to prohibit ANYTHING from Mexico coming into the U.S., that would solve soooo many of our problems!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're an asshole making that statement. The problem we do need to solve is our demand for illegal drugs.

      Delete
    2. It never fails to amaze me all the stupid shit I read on BB. Mexico is the US BIGGEST trade partner you idiot.

      Delete
    3. Bye Bye NAFTA?!? Doubt it.

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    4. Idiot - nobody wants to stop this stuff. It was Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and now Mexico... do you see the pattern? Suppliers are dynamic and consumers stay the same...

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    5. I guess you don't plan on eating any fresh vegetables between November and April as well as drive a car, since Ford, Kia, Nissan, BMW and Mercedes as well as others already in place are all expanding manufacturing operations in Mexico as noted in the LA Times today. Not a very informed comment.

      Delete
    6. Well this idiot thinks with his asshole I believe he is informed by the info wars idiots. Lmao yeah buddy keep believing your white conspiracy drugy buddy's.

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    7. Yes we do need to trade with Mexico, we just don't need trade from tio poncho's tamale factory from Nogales (or any other BS company)

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    8. "I guess you don't plan on eating any fresh vegetables..." blah blah blah. Thats such a LAME argument. We dont need Mexico for sqat. We know how to grow food and build cars just fine. Everything Mex knows about it they learned from US. But not very well. So keep that in mind next time you offer that tired argument. We dont need anything you've got. You are lucky we let you play in our sandpit. Especially since now we are always cleaning up the shite!

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    9. That was the most idiotic thing I have heard in this forum in a long time. You do realize that the root of the problem is the increasing demand for the drug in the U.S.? Keep believing whatever the media and the government say. SMH

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    10. Some people are waaay overly influenced by the media

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    11. 5:49 over-educated gringo alert!!! Everyone stand down, he knows more than the economists working in both Mexican and US governments.....idiot, go spread your corny propaganda else where in Alex Jones corny youtube channel


      -Monteroca

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    12. "Mexican economists" you must be joking...
      --The problem is US banks need more and more money to launder
      --american businessmen need more and more laundered money, because that is where the money is
      --the US government is sick and tired of giving corporate welfare scam victims more and more billions of dollars to lose just like that...
      --they are the big whigs of drug trafficking in the world, and if you saw the English side of drug trafficking, you would shit your panties...

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    13. u r right US Banks they make a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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    14. the American Big Dogs make a lot Money

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    15. Yeah, say goodbye to nearly 400 billion in annual trade, and watch the South turn into an economic wasteland, all to stop a few trucks. The drugs would get in anyway.

      Delete
  2. Dd seizing the buses and imposing sanctions is common sense, as every bb reader knows common sense and logic have no place in the so called war on drugs. Also major kudos to all the bb team, your hard work churning out the articles is most appreciated.
    Berty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Figures - since 2008 those greedy nose vacuum gringos have been selling their guns to our criminals while making them rich buying their coke - dope fiend gringos. I don't know anyone in my buying dope, selling dope, or selling guns to people - and especially people that only hurt other people. USA is a toilet bowl at a gas station full of brain washed shit!

      Delete
  3. We need to legalize drugs. That is the only way to end all of this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Drugs would need to be FREE for legalizarion to have the SLIGHTEST impact on crime. Got it? You like millions of others are living in a dope fog that smothers reality. Carteleros can transport and sell dope for a fifth of the price that is the going rate. Straight from the lips of a Michoacan Marijuano.

      Ya think Mendocino growers are going to compete? Ya think gringo cristaleros are going to slash their prices.

      Avoid the bong for a few days and study the economics. It'll be one rude awakening...

      Delete
    2. Wow what an uninformed comment...you think legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington hasn't hurt the cartels?....seems like you might want to hit the bong cause obviously sobriety is t helping your thinking.,..you may want to study prohibition and rethink your flawed theory

      Delete
  4. It's time to legalize or decriminalize off the board and try to stop telling folks what to put in their body rather good or bad.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is the best of times for Police, Judges, Lawyers, Court workers, Prison staff, Private Prison shareholders!
    What could go wrong?...Legalization!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. First thing the US should do is stop giving everything for free like food stamps and help for any other expense that way the children's are going to need a work to pay for those things and stop using their money for drugs... it's a US problem Not A mexican.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you for reals with the new laws on goverment assistance it's harder to get food stamps and with drug testing that is not the problem and you can still work and buy drugs.

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    2. Legalization would put government jobs out of business

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  7. 11,000,000 divided by 183KG = $60,100.00/kg of Chivo [wholesale]

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  8. See the show the wire and u will see if they should legalize drugs!

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  9. The buses still run twice a week, but it's not known if they still run smack? Haha. Yeah right.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nothing new here. The Arellanos and Carrillos smuggled 10 times or more as much product in the 90s. Pure quality too not this garbage that they move now a days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On CIA/AIR AMERICA PLANES!!!!Thank you...

      Delete
  11. ... Off Topic, But Please Be On Alert In Tamaulipas Tonight As C.D.G. Might Be Knocking On A Few Doors Looking For Fleas, I Meant Z's ...

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  12. El chive has been caught in tamps

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  13. Those bus companies are up to no good. Someone better do something about it. I saw some very suspicious activity by them in Portland OR. too. Portland is also flooded with Mexican heroin.

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  14. Legalize heroin? Thats insane. Do you have any clue what that drug does to people? Legalize shooting the scumbags that offer this shit to our kids. I tired of seeing my world fcked up by lowlife scumbags.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you have any clue what the Drug War has done to people???...far worse than the drugs....and remember Heroin used to be legal...and not a problem...

      Delete
  15. Bullshit where the propaganda slips it in, that chicagoland drug dealers financed the disappearance of the ayotzinapos...
    --Why would anybody in the drug world need to attack the ayotzinapos?
    -- were they asking for money on the streets in gold cans or sompim'?
    --and who is trafficking all the opiates harvested in afghanistan?
    I won't waste your time on anything else for today, answers some questions if you can...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They were probably doing a paid job for the Mexican government called murder for hire.

      Delete
  16. Remember the Arizona lady who was arrested because the heroin on her bus? I think the driver headed for the hills when it went down.

    http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20704682,00.html

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  17. sinaloa controls the market, they have more brains

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  18. I smell trickery!

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  19. Isn't Joan Sebastian last name Figueroa? ..this guy arrested is Figueroa and Figueroa are guerrero unidos. There's a link right there.

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  20. Geez, I don't think I've heard such ignorant comments such as 5:49 unless I click on the Fox Network by accident. BTW - the USA does grow vegetables and fruits, however, there is an important little item you might not understand, and it might be a waste of time and space here to attempt to educate you, but its called "seasons." Vegetables and fruits don't grow in the USA certain times of the year, get it? That is why USA growers maintain partnerships with Mexican farmers in the off-season. My suggestion would be less BB for you and more library, read a book or two, fool!

    ReplyDelete
  21. On the road again I can't wait to get on the road again - Willie Nelson

    ReplyDelete

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