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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Tijuana drug rivalries turn violent

J for Borderland Beat, republished from San Diego UT

Drug Rivalries Turn Violent in Tijuana

Note:  This is republished from the San Diego Union Tribune, about a week old.  Tijuana is covered sparingly, but this reporter has consistently published quality stories, since the Teo/Inge days.  The Tribune's coverage during that time, along with La Times, Richard Mariosi was worthy of praise.  It's basically a summary of the last several weeks of violence in Tijuana, with a few points I thought were interested, and not reported elsewhere, I list those at the bottom. 

 — Severed heads inside an icebox. Banners with cryptic, threatening messages. The shooting of a state agent at a busy intersection on a weekday afternoon. Grisly, visible crimes have come back to haunt Tijuana in recent weeks, shattering the calm of this city struggling to shed its violent image.
Since April 1, Tijuana has seen more than 100 murders, with the great majority of crimes attributed by authorities to the city’s street drug trade. What has especially raised concern has been the brazen and public nature of some of the killings. Some question the timing of the violence, with Mexico’s federal midterm elections scheduled for June 7.

“There’s much lack of control in the world of small-scale drug traffickers,” said José María González, Baja California’s deputy attorney general for organized crime. “From the information that we have ... the problems are at the lowest levels, among those fighting for street corners in the colonias, not among the midlevel and high-level commanders.”
The battle for control over the lucrative Tijuana drug corridor goes back decades, but in more recent years much of the violence in the city has been attributed to the flourishing domestic market.

Who’s fighting whom? It depends on the day and the neighborhood, according to law enforcement authorities on both sides of the border. Once the uncontested territory of the Arellano Félix Organization, the market today is far more difficult to track, a world of shifting alliances with small, semi-independent cells functioning at the base of an intricate organized crime pyramid.
“The cartels sell them crystal meth so that they can sell them in the colonias,” said Victor Clark, a human-rights activist in Tijuana who has studied the drug trade. “What we have is the corporatization of the Tijuana neighborhood drug trade.”
The Sinaloa drug cartel is now acknowledged as the dominant drug organization in Baja California. “Absolutely, we believe that Sinaloa controls both the plazas in Tijuana and Mexicali,” said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.
The group’s alleged leaders in Baja California are two brothers well-known to U.S. authorities: Alfonso Arzate, known as “El Aquiles,” and René Arzate, or “La Rana.” Both are fugitives under indictment in San Diego federal court on drug trafficking charges.
In a statement this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office described Alfonso Arzate as “the alleged Tijuana plaza boss for the Sinaloa cartel” and René Arzate as “an enforcer for the cartel in Tijuana who is believed responsible for a significant amount of violence in the Tijuana plaza.”
Just as the street-level trade is constantly shifting, so has the bigger picture. Groups from central Mexico, the Nueva Generación from Jalisco and Caballeros Templarios from Michoacan, have been quietly moving loads across the border with permission from Sinaloa, DEA’s Hill said. And remnants of the Arellano Félix Organization are still in town, seeking to reorganize.  
Some of the former Arellano bosses are waiting and watching from Guadalajara after serving federal sentences, said one U.S. official who has long studied the drug trade. “They may not be calling themselves AFO anymore, but to them it’s still their plaza,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not an authorized spokesman for his agency.
Longtime observers of the drug underworld note the cyclical nature of the violence, as truces are brokered then broken. Violence in the city reached record levels from 2008 to 2010, when the Arellano Félix Organization, weakened by arrests and deaths of its top leaders, faced a major challenge from a former lieutenant who had formed an alliance with Sinaloa. Residents woke to headlines of the latest death count: bodies decapitated, dissolved in lye, hung from highway overpasses.

In recent years, the high-profile violence has largely subsided, the result of an accord between the remnants of the Arellano Félix Organization and Sinaloa, law enforcement authorities say. While the homicide count in Tijuana has remained high, with 493 killings reported in 2014 and 539 in 2013, most crimes have taken place out of the limelight in impoverished sections of the city and have been attributed largely to violence among street dealers.
“The problem in Mexico is that peace reigns under two circumstances, when there is a strong police presence or when one cartel has overwhelming dominance and nobody can challenge it,” said one U.S. official.
Now the return since April of high-profile crimes, such as beheadings and daytime shootings, has sounded the alarms.
“We feel the same as in 2007, when it was just starting,” said Gustavo Fernández de León, president of the business group Coparmex. “Here the alert is to deter the violence so that it doesn’t keep growing.”
But authorities stress that the current violence remains a far cry from peak years, when corrupt police officers collaborated with criminal gangs and shootings took place in restaurants and other places where members of the public might get caught in the crossfire, said González of the Baja California Attorney
General’s Office.
“The targets have been very clear. They’re not going after citizens,” he said.

Many of the recent victims share a similar profile, Alejandro Lares Valladares, Tijuana’s secretary of public safety, said in an interview at his office in the city’s Rio Zone.
“They’re freelancers, fighting over who’s going to take control of the narcomenudeo, the selling of drugs,” Lares said. “It’s block by block.”
Lares said he is using technology and intelligence to identify and track potential suspects: One of the problems, he said, is that judges are too quick to release suspects caught by Tijuana police. He held up a notebook filled with booking photographs of recent victims, alongside pictures taken after they were killed.
Fernández, the president of Coparmex, said 
“We think that the agencies are coordinating better, but the problem is the legal system,” he said. “We want judges, magistrates, legislators to sit down together, to see what’s going on. ... To ask, why are we releasing criminals, and fix the laws.”
Some of the most grisly discoveries of recent weeks have been five severed heads in three locations. Two that were found inside an abandoned ice chest on May 13 near the Macroplaza shopping center in eastern Tijuana that belonged to men who had been involved in the local drug trade, said González, the deputy attorney general
But the violence has also claimed some innocent lives: On April 11, a 4-year-old girl was killed by gunmen targeting her mother, a drug vendor, authorities said. On May 5, a 14-year-old girl was comatose after being shot in the head when gunmen attacked a drug dealer in her neighborhood, they said. On May 12, 4-year-old Jonathan Valdéz died and his mother was injured when gunmen shot up the house where the boy lived with his mother and her boyfriend, described as a neighborhood drug dealer.
In the latest incident, one of the accused killers was a 17-year-old boy named José Omar Macías Colmenero, known as “El Perrito.” He had previously been arrested.
Authorities link the renewed spike in violence to the April 9 killing of Luis Manuel Toscano, also known as “El Mono,” a drug trafficker who authorities said ran the drug trade in Tijuana’s Zona Norte and the adjacent Tijuana River channel, for years home to an entrenched population of homeless people and drug addicts.
Toscano was a longtime member of the Arellano Félix Organization, authorities said. He had been arrested in July 2012 by the Mexican military, but was out on bond when he was shot to death along with his bodyguard at a taco stand shortly after checking in at the state court near the city’s La Mesa Penintentiary.
Source: sandra.dibble@utsandiego.com Twitter: @sandradibble
*AFO bosses waiting in Guadeljera after serving federal sentences, who would these be?
* Sinaloa controls Tijuana and Mexicali 100%,  I don't know if I agree with Tijuana.  

66 comments:

  1. AFO bosses waiting in Guadalajara after serving federal sentences?? C'mon that Cartel's management panel has been wiped out since Benjamin got nabbed But back in the 90s it was a different story. El Consejo de Jefes. Benjamin ,Ramoncito, Chuyito Labra , El Kitty Paez , El Caballo , El Mayel Higuera Amado Cruz , and waiting outside the meeting room were Los Fabianes and Lino Quintana , with more Narco Juniors patrolling the area. Cosa Nostra Mexicana.Cartel de Tijuana.

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    1. El consejo de senores ahi Esta. Claro con nuevas carras.

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  2. even if this is not related... authorities just found out the reason why javier rosas was gunned down

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    1. What was the reason and who was behind it

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  3.  we believe that Sinaloa controls both the plazas in Tijuana and Mexicali,” said Gary Hill, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

    Groups from central Mexico, the Nueva Generación from Jalisco and Caballeros Templarios from Michoacan, have been quietly moving loads across the border with permission from Sinaloa, DEA’s Hill said.

    This is what a expert is saying and i belive this then most of the comments who said sinaloa pays plaza to Arellano no hijo Sinaloa es papa de jalisco,michocan,i tijuana mijo ellos piden permiso se los dice un experto de la DEA mensos

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    1. They said they think aprende a leer, they didnt say it was for certain, de que van a ser papa si nadie los respeta por soplones cobardes

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    2. 12:17 excatly its what he thinks but this is a DEA agent who surely knows more that most of the people who comment here ardido no sea menso ya que uno de sinaloa le bajo la vieja wey

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  4. ...and who was that "former lieutenant" allied with the sinaloa cartel in tijuana against the arellanos?
    One thing is for sure, calderon was president, and he was calling the shots regarding police and military jobs as commander in chief, and they all failed to deliver, while el pri finds no fault on any of them...

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  5. DEA agent is liar, it's not 100%. only 99.9% the rest of .1% is CAF, CJNG and CT ^^

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  6. AFO is history like Van Halen or Run DMC. They are PIPP. People In Past Positions of relevance and importance. im glad with their cheesy 80s haircuts. Got blasted in Maza by Mayos police, busted off Cabo coked up and of course El Ing should have been called El Id - f'n idiot! LOL. CDS has made zetatitas, golfonsos, LFMonkeys into irrelevant tiendita dealers like the brothers in my city killing for the 5 and 10 bags they sell during their short lives. LOL. Viva CDS!

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    1. Cds snitched on each other thats why its become into like 3 dofferent fractions

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    2. Cds did do anything, if you lool at all of the wars they actually started, nome of them were every finished, they resorted to snitching so if that makes you look at them aighty then that says alot about you goofball

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    3. @5:55 make sure you attend summer school. You need it my ignorant brotha. Y viva Dragon ball z wey!!!

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  7. So would those bosses be waiting in Guadalajara??

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  8. 100 murders in 2 months! Tijuana has got out of control again. And now they're all on meth which could make it worse. I still don't understand why they are fighting over turf for retail sales when they could get it across the border and sell it for much more. Does anybody no why or have any ideas?

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    1. Not to say it hasn't heated up, but putting it in perspective it is far from what it was when it was truly out of control. 3-400 in 2 months it was then, and comparing it to Juarez at its peak of violence, 5-600 per two mos.

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    2. Money and pride blind you. Thats why.

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    3. It's not easy crossing shit across the border....you got to have power and money to weight to the U.S. Therefore, as the product moves to the U.S it may be delayed or never moved across. So why not sell it to the locals. You avoid the trial of getting pinch at the border. Low risk - high reward.

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    4. because it all adds to the daily man. $10 here and there adds up brother. think of penny machines in casinos.

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    5. Frankly, as someone said, what's cents? I'm about a dollah...
      Risking family, friends, life and limb to make a living from dealing drugs by the penny is the most fucked up nightmare I could ever imagine, then the police kidnap you, for ransom...

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    6. Americans cross the border everyday especially durring the summer so theres always a market plus like the guy said up there, you need real power, momey and commections, most of these guys dont have that so why risk their money crossing blindly when they can make money in TJ

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    7. May 31, 2015 at 9:51 AM
      Not everybody gets to be on the 'team' that moves loads. Thees guys, who are at the bottom, get to sell single doses- mostly paid with a dose or other pittance. When you are high the other block always looks busier and attractive. P.S. you owe piso too, so don't just smoke it all or you will just be part of a fosa, not even worth the effort to steal a cooler.

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    8. Why are they fighting?Take a wild guess,selling bags all day every day makes serious money.They got a huge market of their own,someone is gonna go after the money..

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  9. Ha ha ha. Sinaloa controls Tijuana 100%. Thats funny. El mono's situation was to get incarcerrated ir death He turned m4 to keep the plaza thats the reason he got locked up before but he got out. M4 is a señor with lots of respect. So do the math.

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  10. ... OG Arellano's Were Originally From Sinaloa ... So Technically, It Rings True ... They Pay The Federation $$$ As Does A&R, Mayo And Every Cartel That Holds Down Plazas Or Uses Them ... "All" Have To "Pay" Tribute Or Be Made An Example Of ...

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  11. Just for the sake of clarity, here are the translations of the two mantas photographed in the story:

    Manta No. 1: "We are the operations group of the CAF. We are going to destroy head to head all of those who are not with us. Anyone who does not belong to the Arellano flag will be "pozoleado" (dissolved in a vat of lye). We already gave you proof with actions, not 'mantas' in Baja. The order has begun against all outsiders."

    Manta No. 2: "We are fed up with the kidnapping and extortion that were supposed to have ended but are still being allowed. The cleanup begins with the people of the Aquilez ----(text blocked)-- and allies, not against the public or the government."

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    1. The blocked text reads "Rana" thanx for the translation

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    2. I thought pozoleado is in a drum of acid i think sulfuric acid not lye right or i could be wrong anybody?

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    3. Thanks for the translation bro, appreciate it...

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  12. High level mex govt official admits they never came close to Mencho in any of the raids and shootouts during the past 30 days....they say he's been in guadalajara the whole time

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  13. Que no es el checo quien maneja la plaza de Mexicali para MZ?

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  14. "The flourishing domestic drug market" um I thought only Americans consumed drugs from Mexico.

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    1. No,surely not.Domestic market?
      Everyone knows the US is to blame?Dont they ?

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    2. Only the US "rogue agents" that use the government powers to enrich themselves by being some of the world's worst criminals, with impunity assured by their US government peers

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    3. Americans consume 90% of drugs from mexico so yea the us still is to blame what else would mexico do with tons of meth they cant smoke all that shit themselves

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    4. Estados Unidos haters are all of sudden quiet. No sabes

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    5. It is not estados unidos haters estupido, reality is as the alcohol industry does not make most of its money from run down homeless winos drinking on street corners or parks, same way drug trafficking makes most of its money from rich moneyed well paid people, and they happen to be american citizens...
      --also in exchange for supplying, the real owners of the business get to launder and keep the billions of dollars generated, and the majority of them are NOT mexican, have never been mexican, never will be mexican...
      --some very rich mexicans can flaunt their wealth, but all the best known mexican narcs live, like rats, hiding while free, or in their prison cells, while their sicarios murder each other on the street...what is there to brag about?
      --Do not spread the blame around, not every estadounidense is guilty of the drug trafficking or the money laundering in private while fighting it like the hypocrites they are in public...

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    6. They love it,the lame blame game,and guess who crawls out?The US do indeed consume most of the product,,and what..

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    7. The Lame will take their part of the blame, and deny and deny and deny that they have any blame, until they get the cattle probe themselves, queen of the nile...

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  15. I wonder what Benjamin Arellano would have to say today about all that's going on in Tijuana??

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    1. Orgulloso pienso yo. La plaza la mantienen y controlan sus alumnos.

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  16. Even though I believe it might be a fake and just a way of their enemies to get there names out, a manta was left out about a month ago with the names of who were leading this "CTNG" .....

    "Already we are sick of kidnappings and extortions that supposedly were going to cease and they continue, the cleaning begins with the people of Alquilez and La Rana and their allies, not against the public or the Government ate: CTNG and CJNG, El Lentes, lideres asociado "Chencho Beltran", El Quieto Lico/ el Atigrado, el Koby, el Gordo Di, El Viejon, El Mono, El Chacal, R4, Trapero, El Trib".

    So if you can identify those people, you know who claims to be these OG CAF members that are fighting at the moment against la rana anda akiles.

    It pretty obvious how Tijuana media is corrupted, they constantly throw out ludicrous theories and constantly make mistakes in identifying people (like who this supposed 28 person is who is wreaking havoc in BCS) which I believe they deliberately do to confuse people even more. On top of that they do nothing to retract statements or or correct them (ZETA I'm looking at you!).

    THey have spent so much time trying to identify these people in BCS stirring up problems and have not focused once on who la rana, akiles, checo, or any CDS members really are for other than just saying things that don't add up and are OBVIOUS lies, for example that this checo figure is somehow related to the Campos Salcido family.

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    1. It's a cowardly strategy. By putting the name's of your enemies out there and making the look like the aggressors and your the victim. Who do you think the gov is gonna go after first?

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    2. the art of war is not to fight fair....its to win whether you have to create confusion or retreat to come back later. everyone in life who almost conquered the world retreated at least once and created confusion to throw the heat off themselves many times

      you think like a nino cagado selling nickels and trying to prove how bad he is

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    3. The author of the art of war never found a way to defeat the english, even today, the chinese do as told by its brutish employers, the brittish owners of all that is good private property...

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    4. Take your idiotic shit elsewhere,you can by your rhetoric that you are an insular clown.Every post you do is full of hate and negativity,yet everyone else is to blame..What a hater

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    5. I can't blame me, because I myself do not deal drugs, or launder the money nor own any of the banks...
      --The positive needs no fixing, so you are stuck honey, very stuck with negative comments about all the negative situations that sites like BB bring out daily...
      --i wonder if you think jesus whipping the money changers out of His Father's Temple would be indignant to you...

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    6. Sign your crap with your name, I am always anonymous, you hide behind anonymous because of some strange name shame...

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  17. People never know what really goes on in tijuana. Allies are never known, don't know what cartels are fighting who and don't know who controls the plaza. People are allways taking wild guesses even when mantas are so clear. It's cjng clicked up with arellanos and they are against sinaloa cartel. pendejos

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    1. exactly, so if they are at war why would they pay taxes to cds? That's most likely why they are at war, they want to take the plaza.

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    2. 3:21 true, looking at all these comments and this one is the most logical and makes sense. All the others don't want to accept that cjng and arellanos are making a killing in Tj against cds. I see mostly people from tijuana and sinaloa that dont want to accept that lol

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  18. El cartel de sinaloa controla tijuna mijos jalisco i michocan pagan plaza a su papi

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    1. Ya mejor Ponte de rodillas alos de sinaloa wey

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    2. 7:14 tell that to the guy from te DEA primo he said that

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    3. El CDS nacio del CARTEL DE GUADALAJARA

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  19. AFO still there just lacking a coordinated leadership! All fractured and doing there on things.

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  20. Run this article BB http://www.businessinsider.com/enrique-pena-nieto-property-ownership-scandal-2015-5

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    1. I second that, how can BB doesn't post something about EPN. That isn't the first time something like that happens

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    2. Epn must have paid BB one million to be left alone for one minute...

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    3. BB ran the story when it broke in Mexico, which was in November, and in fact ran too much about it since it does not relate to what the title above says this site is for. Corruption does not always walk hand and hand with organized crime, and in this case it does not it is kick back and pay off. Give it a rest.

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  21. Just do the math....all the people jailed in the nineties with 20 yr sentences or less are coming out of jail. Even guero palma from Sinaloa is scheduled to be out soon...

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    1. I thought Guero Palma was going to be jailed for life?

      Perhaps I'm Wrong.

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  22. For those who find themselves struggling with addiction due to the constant flow of drugs into the country, it is important to know that there is hope for recovery, even for those who would be considered high-functioning addicts.

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