Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Friday, October 21, 2016

A Short History of Mexican Drug Cartels

Posted by Chuck B Almada, Republished from a San Diego Union-Tribune article
Written by Kristina Davis October 21, 2016
A gun decorated with gold belonging to Mexican drug lord of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, is displayed in the Drugs Museum at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Mexico City.
 Contraband has been flowing across the Mexico border into the U.S. for the past century, beginning with alcohol during Prohibition and moving onto drugs, namely marijuana and later cocaine.

The birth of Mexico’s major cartel can be traced to Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, nicknamed “The Godfather,” who in the 1980s became the country’s liaison with Colombian cocaine trafficker Pablo Escobar of the infamous Medellín cartel.

Gallardo went increasingly underground after the arrest of his cartel’s co-founder, Rafael Caro Quintero, for the murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique Camarena in 1985, and the drug lord later held a summit among Mexico’s larger drug traffickers. The meeting divided up Mexico into “plazas” — or regions — to be controlled by various drug-trafficking organizations.

The agreement solidified major players in the trade, including the Sinaloa Federation and the Arellano Félix brothers of Tijuana.
Since then, drug lords have come and gone — and new groups have risen to power as loyalties fade, political protection changes, and killings and arrests leave vacuums in leadership to be filled.

In Tijuana, law enforcement’s takedown of the Arellano Félix Organization led to a split in the group and a bloody war for control of the drug corridor. The Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, has dominated for the past several years, although the group has been the subject of a piece-by-piece takedown by U.S. authorities nationwide, including in San Diego.

The Sinaloa are also facing a new threat by the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, a newer player from central Mexico that has quickly expanded its influence. The cartel, often called CJNG, has been recruiting former members of the Arellano Félix Organization and urging Sinaloa traffickers to flip.

The war on drugs has been costly, in both lives and resources.

Mexico has felt the brunt of the violence, with assassinations of drug gang affiliates, law enforcement officers, crooked officials, snitches, journalists and civilians.

Former Mexican President Felipe Calderón in 2006 waged a fierce battle against the cartels, deploying the military to the streets and the countryside to wipe out the drug trade. Violence escalated as a result.

Mexican media and researchers who have closely tracked drug violence estimate 45,000 to 55,000 organized crime-style killings in Mexico from 2007 to 2012 during Calderón’s administration.

Some of the bloodshed has spilled into the U.S.

In 2002, an enforcement crew that used to do work for the Arellano Félix Organization, called Los Palillos, moved from Tijuana to San Diego for safety. They brought with them cartel-style violence that resulted in kidnappings, killings and bodies dissolved in vats of acid in a San Ysidro horse corral. Seventeen people were indicted in San Diego; others remain at large.

Putting a figure on the economic impact of violence in Mexico and the war on drugs in general is not easy.

In 2015, the economic impact of violence in Mexico — with much of that violence believed to be drug related — was pegged at $134 billion, according to the London-based Institute for Economics and Peace.

In the U.S., untold billions have been spent combating traffickers.

The U.S. has worked to tighten security at the border, an effort that has included a massive hiring push by the Border Patrol and deployments of National Guard troops to the border.

In 2007, a formalized partnership was developed between the U.S., Mexico and Central America to go after the drug trade. From 2008 to 2015, the U.S. set aside $2.3 billion for Mexico under the agreement.

Would legalizing marijuana in California have a visible effect on law enforcement, on the courts, on government coffers, on taxpayers?

No one knows the answer for certain. It could be one question voters consider as they head to the polls Nov. 8.

75 comments:

  1. YOUR DOING A STERLING JOB CHUCKY B

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  2. I know there are going to be complaints from plenty of folks about this article's lack of important characters, so I guess I'll chime in as well.

    Obviously, omitting the Gulf Cartel, Mexico's oldest continuously operating mafia group leaves a reader without a key factor.

    However, this article focuses on the splinter of the Sinaloans who founded the Guadalajara Cartel, so omitting Amado Carrillo Fuentes and his days as the lord of the skies, running the Juarez Cartel, is an important omission, considering that el Mayo Zambada and el Chapo Guzman both worked for or with his organization, not to mention many other important narcos, such as the Beltran Leyva brothers.

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    1. Gulf cartel has played a minimal role in drug trafficking when you are talking volumes ... They're biggest contribution was the creation of the Zs

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    2. The article is from the San Diego, CA major newspaper. Their focus is on what has happened on their border. To Oct 21 10:27 pm: LMFAO, stop snorting so much bad stuff, Carrillo organization had more money because their major product was coke; AFO only moved small amounts of coke. So STFU because you have no idea what you are saying. AFO's best times were when they crossed big rigs with weed.

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    3. Your wrong the gulf cartel has been around way longer than Guadalajara cartel

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    4. You probably never heard of Juan Garcia Abrego. Who was the real founder of the gulf cartel had FBI agents on his payroll was the first Mexican drug lord to be in the most wanted list. Yea minimal

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    5. The Gulf needs to be mentioned because they fought off Juarez, CAF and CDS/BLO. The I-35 corridor down to Matamoras werr extremely sought after plazas. Osiel changed the game with the Zetas and El Verdugo took the violence to a whole new level.

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    6. Exactly. The first really big Jefe de jefes was Nepomuceno Guero back in the thirties. His organization sort of evolved into the Gulf Cartel, although he never called it that at the time.

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    7. 10:27 no no no Gulf cartel played a big role in the drug trafficking business just because Chapo & El Señor De Los Cielos & Pablo are Hollywood names it doesn't mean CDG is a no body. CDG shape the drug trafficking game in a major way.

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    8. @5:15...I-10 has always been known as the "cocaine pipeline".. Como decia mi abuelo..
      "Platicale a mis huevos que no tienen ojos"..

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    9. Cdg is been in the shadows of the other cartels until oziel took it over. The only autonomous cartel. Free of foreign influences. Working in the shadows until it's founder got locked up and the younger generation took over.

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    10. Never had that much power or influence cuss they were always messing up. In wars and such. You want to know a true cartel not a little mafia that calls itself a cartel. Google cartel del dorado. When that cartel went down the prize of cocaine went up globally from its sources. That's why in New York you pay 35 for 88% pure now and days. Imagine the quantity of coke this cartel use to churn out. If you don't believe it read on it.

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    11. The Guadalajara cartel paved the way for all the cartels like caf cdj cds. Sooo....

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    12. the first one to go into drug trafficking were sinaloenses way back before anyone. as for el golfo.. according to my friend his uncle was the first boss and created what later becomed CDG and he was from sinaloa and were compadre to napomuceno..then napomuceno took over. then CDG is abrego a men of word this is an example to to those narcos this senor have never put anyone of his people he kept quiet like a man. as for CDJUAREZ it was someguy from las nieves durango.

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    13. @5:10 and 8:10- 1) I-35 doesn't go to Matamoros, it goes to Laredo which is the biggest land port in USA. I-35 connects to I10 in San Antonio heading to Houston and I35 north to Austin, Dallas and then anywhere and everywhere. 2) Golfo and 100s of independents have used Laredo for generations but Golfo has had longest running use of this important plaza that is much, much bigger than Reynosa, Matamoros amd the many frontera towns south of Nuevo Laredo. 3) La Barbie worked Nuevo Laredo for years and wasn't with Golfo and Nuevo Laredo is more similar to Juarez, Mexicali, Tijuana where there have and will continue to be independents that use these routes. There are thousands of families all over Mexico with no affiliation to anyone but their family and money that use all the mega-ports and don't pay a dime to cartels for rights. Culiacan, Durango, Gomes Polacio, Mazatlan, all full of independents that mitigate risk using the big frontera crossings. _/^^\

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    14. To the guy the said some bullshit about cdg being formed by a sinaloan. Bullshit. Your friend don't know shit and he taking you for a ride. Cdg was formed by Juan Garcia abrego with the financial backing of Juan N Guerra. Who was not a drug trafficker, also he was a advisor to his nephew. Virgilio Davila el all capone de tamaulipas was the first drug smuggler in tamaulipas. Then there were many families operations. By the late 70s el Cacho Espinosa was the most notorious drug boss in matamoros. Juan Garcia Abrego had to kill him using el comando de la muerte "a zetas forerunner" in order to build what Wld become the gulf cartel. This is the short version of the CD sorry. Before any one says any shit about my comment Google the names up. Read it then if u disagree say something.

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    15. I Agree
      Tamaulipas has always been the main gateway.
      CDG cartel needs to be mentioned.
      They were an established entity .
      Zetas followed.

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    16. @1:18 read my comment again. "The I-35 corridor down to Matamoras". I never said I-35 went to Matamoras. What I meant was from the I-35 corridor down to the Matamoras area were extremely sought after plazas. I know my Texas interstates so you don't have to explain them to me I have traveled them for more than 40 years.

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    17. TJ and Juarez have always been more lucrative for narcotrafficking... Tamaulipas doesn't even compare to Sonora when it comes to moving large weight ... Tamaulipas has always had the reputation of being a "pollero" state ... Many mojados cross through there ...
      - Real Talk

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    18. Lol drug trafficking started in the late 40's in sinaloa when the Chinese showed them how to plant opium and poppy plants all being used to treat the soldiers fighting the world war because the US government didn't want to travel to Asia to get it when they could just head south to the Sierra
      Madre before that sinaloenses had been planting Mota there for years. Gulf used to traffic booze during prohibition never drugs. The Sinaloa with the help of the US and Chinese were the first drug smugglers. The US basically created drug trafficking in Mexico but it all started in Sinaloa

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    19. @6:38 you prolly never been to Tamaulipas much less to Nuevo Laredo where thousands of commercial trucks cross daily to U.S that's something TJ doesn't have.The commercial trucks use Mexicali to cross. What you thought chapo tried and big time failed to invade Nuevo Laredo Tamps to sell dimes in the streets??? It's highly lucrative to whoever owns it. Yes Juan N Guerra used to traffic booze back in the day then Juan Abrego changed to game completely he had warehouses full of cocaine by the 70s guy had FBI agents on payroll as well as the National Guard that aloud him to transport his stuff in barcos camaroneros from matamoros to U.S. Juan Abrego had a empire worth billions. I'm not saying Sinaloa traffickers aren't big they've always have been, but when it comes to Juan Abrego he didn't need no Felix gallardo or anyone to appoint him his plaza because Juan Guerra was around before all the mentioned traffickers on this article.

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    20. 1:46 - Its spelled Matamoros Mr "Travelled them for more than 40 years", and everything south of Laredo / Nuevo Laredo is a drop in the bucket - and not an "extremely sought after plaza" compared to Nuevo Laredo which is the largest land port in US.

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    21. Thank you all for your feedback. I acknowledge that this article is missing tons of history and tons of players. I'm currently working on my own paper that will cover most of the history and key players. The paper will probably have to be broken down into a few parts, but it's coming pretty soon. Thank you all for being loyal BB followers! Your feedback is much appreciated.

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    22. @6:38; Real Talk, Hank Rhon worth well over $2 billion USD, and who admitted funding millions to former President Salinas brother's numbered accounts in Switzerland has been creatively cleaning money for decades using his political connections, businesses, banks and more recently Grupo Caliente. Why would a man worth billions, living in Tijuana, and in the business of cleaning money acquire and then hide his ownership in the Laredo National Bank (discovered in 2001) if both Tamaulipas and Nuevo León were not the home of very large narco investors? He wouldn't Real Talk.

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    23. @8:48 you answered your own question brother he's hiding money. Why would you shit where you eat... Money laundering and drug trafficking are two separate though connected activities... I guarantee you Mr.Rhon is laundering money where ever he can ... BB had an article here about laundering activities in New York City which believe me more money is laundered at Wall Street than in rinky dink Laredo... However we are talking about drug trafficking the act of shipping and receiving narcotics and tho I don't doubt that Tamaulipas is very active (I live in Houston by the way), Juarez and Tijuana are plazas known for clandestine tunnels and thus offer an constant 24/7 flow of drugs until they get discovered.. It is impossible to build a tunnel under any Tamaulipas border due to the Rio grande caving in on you, therefore Nuevo Laredo relies solely on sheer luck of trucking a load across the border which is becoming harder and harder to do successfully.
      - Real Talk

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    24. @8:48 You bring up valid point about the inablility to tunnel but keep in mind two things; 1) only the most well funded cartels are tunneling and the thousands of independents do not take part in this unless they are family connected well enough to pay for tunnel crossing, 2) of the thousands of trucks that go through Port Laredo only a small fraction of trucks get x-ray or pulled over for more thorough inspection.
      I appreciate your response that was well presented and dignified as an opposing opinion should be. I hope to see more informed and courteous commentary like yours. Gracias y Saludos Real Talk

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  3. Great article.Very informative for those who are not too up to speed on things down south. Keep up the good work BB.

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  4. What about Pedro aviles perez, clave 7? Didnt miguel a. flex gallardo kill him to take over????

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    1. 8:36 miguel angel felix gallardo did not just inherit the top dog position from pedro avilés, MAFG got PEDRO murdered,

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  5. Charles Bowden said " the drugs go north, the money and weapons go south" . in between that negocio is a system of corruption that involves law enforcement ,Dea,Ice,regular moms and pops ,gangs,business men, property investors,musicians,drug addicts, manipulators of drug addicts, teenagers expirementing and people who listen to narco corridos and the radio staions that allow that .

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    1. Good point there - many people are involved on the periphery of narco-trafficking, probably far more than we would imagine by just counting the users, addicts, street-criminals, drugs gangs, growers and producers? I'm suspect there are huge parts of the global financial system that are propped up by narco cash, along with the so-called "military-industrial complex".

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    2. when multi- million dollar shipments make their way across the united states every day, you best belive dirty money makes a percentage of our economy. border patrol has alot to do with this.

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    3. Charles Bowden es un pendejo, mexico has no real billionaire capitalistas other than carlos slim helu, but he made his coin from robbing mexicans, after trafficking drugs and peddling influence for more than 30 years, unlike the mineras canadienses and the Arcelor-Mittal and others, that come to mexico to steal.
      All the biggest offshorers have invested their moneys in china or other slave labor paradises, and none of them is mexican, no mexican drug lord has invested in off shoring industries, production and jobs like the american vulture capitalistas and they still need more just to get by, Charles Bowden needs to go back to school.

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    4. you may feel like the pendejo to learn it is impossible for one of my all time favorite authors to go back to school....The late great Charles Bowden is dead.

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    5. @11:49
      México has no real billionaire capitalistas? Most of the heavy hitters lay in the shadows. Open your eyes and look around, all those puppets, there has to be puppeteers. That's the way this world works. El Nemesis-

      P.s. Good job Chivis, let this vato have it.

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    6. 11:49 - thee americanos sopilot
      es have easy pickins down south , its here in my country that i am concerned.

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    7. 11:49 Mexico has more billionaires not just Slim.

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    8. 12:16 The author didn't know then what we know now, chivis, his entertaining but not excitingly exacting wisdom loads all his crap on the cartels, and we know better now, there are pupets, puppeteers and middlemen...
      I remember the days I was incensed with the mighty furies because the american leftistas forced president nixxon to resign his presidency because of some "goddamened plumbers" thad had been working with him and a few zetas since before they killed Kennedy, JFK...
      --another bad precedent is that George Washington, jefferson, max Engels and BB king are dead but their ideas still are discussed by pro and con detractors, there is that hitler too...
      --my respects chivis...

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    9. Remember he researched and wrote about geographical narrow scope of organized crime, it isn't that he did not know more, he chose to write about Juarez/Chih. and that is not all he wrote about. I loved his writing style, old school keeping one on the edge of his/hers seat.

      He left this world penniless and homeless. Few writers get ultra rich, it is the love of the craft that keeps a writer going...............thanks for weighing in.

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    10. Bowden: It's not a war on drugs, it's a war for drugs.

      Bowden: In the end, it's a war on poor people.

      Bowden: Mexicans trust their army more than any other institution but it's corrupt.

      I believe Charles Bowden did his best, which was pretty damned good, to discover and tell truth about what US drug policy has accomplished in Mexico.

      Perfect? No.

      A voice worth hearing? Yes, down the ages.

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    11. Ok you win, by the way, Breitbart is dead too, but keeps causing problems, I may have read a little of Bowden, i'll try and find some more quotes.

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    12. Compared to carlos slim helu and his 72 billion dollars, all the other mexican billionaires look like owners of bags of poppycock without peanuts. Not for nothing Widow Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan is trying to get her calzones close to slim's calzones, it helped that carlos slim helu's brother Julian was in charge of the mexican airports for so many years and now he can try and be the queen's sugar daddy, but who will be the pimp?

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  6. Jesus Blancornelas mentioned it best. Los Arellano Felix: La Mafia mas poderosa en la historia de América Latina. Maybe Mexico but not America Latina. The most powerful political influential mafias in the history books to export the most product were Medellin and Cali. CAF in its heyday was a Narco titan not to be reckon with and in my opinion paved the way for the organizations that are operating today.

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    1. Pretty much, organization, corruption repercussions for bad behavior, trained hit men, every thing was CAF at one point till they spread to thin and got snitched on.
      But remember that was a different time. There was a sense of truce back them from other groups.

      Then CDG came and really changed the M.O. up


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  7. Good article from my info baltranes was a big part after the god father appointed plazas and Arturo after a while controlled most of them y cuz he made alince not snitched on his comrades!

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    1. Very true. Thats who really made cds big and el chapo ruined it.

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    2. does el borrado mp sound familiar to you.? they snitched on vicentillo and villareal on el rey zambada. WTF?? what do you call that.? in china and in any place thats a snitch..

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    3. El pinchi borrado was not in pachuca Hidalgo dealing with El Rey Zambada, MAO 'osario' CHÓN WAS...

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  8. Pablo Acosta Villareal, aka Lobo de Ojinaga

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    1. Pablo Acosta Villareal , EL ZORRO DE OJINAGA! imbecil. Mucha gente comenta a lo puro pendejo nomas por hablar sin saber que pedo
      El FM

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  9. Drugs are dangerous and can harm the user and are therefore illegal.
    Guns are dangerous and harm OTHERS than the user but arw legal! WTF?!

    Either both drugs and guns are to be illegal or both should be legal.

    Everything else is hypocrisy and leads to a disaster!

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  10. 134 billion in economic impact due to drug violence. Dang, some people are getting rich off death.

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    1. 6:51 ...and the mexican drug traffickers had to sell their earnings 'in species' in mexico to their sicarios.
      --they don't make enough money to pay them sicarios, because the big owners of the business get to keep most of the profits, estimated at about 90% by the wise arses that know them.
      --Mexican narcos get paid in polvo and weapons, and they eat it or sell it, in mexico or wherever they can, if they steal or deal on the side, they are on their own like durazo or noriega.
      --By the way, the cuban Castro brothers, friends of mexican DFS chief fernando gutierrez barrios, have never been persecuted for their drug trafficking by the US, owner of the mexican DFS.

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  11. Nice work fella 👌🏼

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  12. i seen el chapo in juarez the other day with the military jajajaja!
    he isnt in jail! why hasnt BB reported anything on that? if i have seen him then i know a whole lot of other ppl have seen him as well

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. Milk on a hot day?... Yeaaahhhhh buddy!!!
    The sky is blue, the sun is hot, we breathe oxygen. 123, ABC, etc., etc..

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  14. Blah blah blah. And what about the BIG BALLS MARINA? Where is Guano, Chapos kids or even Zambada??? Army gets ambushed by these fuckers and yet they still roam free!!!
    Goes to show that the Mexican government and even U.S. DEA and CIA is in favor of these fuckers. No significant capture of any of their kingpins since Chapos last arrest in January and even then no extradition of his ass!
    Goes to show CDS cannot have all it has alone for all them nutthuggers!
    Solos no pueden los de CDS solo con la ayuda de Mexico y E.U.

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    1. You my friend are jelous of the sinaloa cartel🌏

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    2. @7:17 CDS kills people left and right with their drugs and weapons. What is their to be jealous of?

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    3. Hater much?

      What state are you from?

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    4. Carnal, whichever the state, it has nothing to do with it. The truth is the truth. But if it's tickling your ass to know de Michoacan vengo y cantoneo en Playa Larga....one more thing my bro, don't get me wrong I do not cheer for any fucking group because none of them fuckers pay my bills. Todos son iguales just diffrent accents. Si andas entre la Bola tarde o temprano rebotas. Childhood friend, pariente don't matter. La ambicion para unos es peligrosa cuando son gentes muerta de hambre hija de puta.....cyber narco 007 out!!!

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    5. 8:15 R.- 10:19 is from "tanga in knots up his/her cerebro"
      I've been telling you, the biiig baaad narcos are not the worst people in the world.
      There are always other aspirinos.

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    6. It's not the narcos you have to fear it's the Republicans you need to fear. "If it ain't white it ain't right". Not my words but I have heard it being said plenty of times. You've heard what Trump has to say about Mexicans. You've heard what middle class white Americans have said about Mexicans. Youve seen what the Arizona Militia has done to migrant workers crossing the border. You've seen what happened in the Middle East when Republicans deem a group of people as threats.

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  15. Chuck B. thanks man for the consistent flow of posts.

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  16. Mexico was right for the taking due to:
    corrupt politicians and law enforcement,
    the public not allowed to own fire arms for self defense,
    no fear of death penalty because it doesn't exist,
    thousands of Mexican citizens with little to no education,
    To put it bluntly, in Mexico money talks and bullshit walks. As the saying goes "En mexico la vida no vale nada."

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    1. 9:30 according to the parents, family, compas and friends of 43 disappeared mexicans, their lives are worth more than las putas nalgas de peña nieto y compañia...

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  17. Reporter Chuck, I also want to thank you for the work at BB. I know some may say "it is copy and paste, that's all" those people are fools. I know Blogger and it ain't that easy, not to mention time researching for the best articles, and many of yours are translated. So to the haters I say fuck yourself. We have a good team. Go elsewhere if you dare.

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  18. El Kevin could put many at risk if interrogated hence, the decision to shoot and burn soldiers.

    How did the CDS sicarios know on which car not to fire upon?

    Soldiers making the transport not smart enough to have other 3 trucks with soldiers waiting for them for support?

    This happened in Jerez, Zac when police and soldiers were transporting a HVT to zona militar 11.

    Many of them shotto death.

    No learnings taken from that exercise I guess

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  19. Es muy posible que el cartel mexicano mas antiguo sea el de Enrique Fernandez en los 1920's. Mas antiguo que el del Golfo.

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    1. Also la familia Herrera

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    2. La Nacha in Cd. Juaareeez, she knew her business, and was so well connected that she got Tin-Tan made, a legacy that lives on in televisa through don Ramon, el Loco Valdez and Christian Castro and his mom, whose brother el güero Castro fed EPN his 2nd hand 1st Lady, La Gaviota...Tin-Tan had a long career after appearing on the movie "Un Pachuco en La Habana" dancing and singing Piel Canela" with the girlfriend of Sam Giancanna.
      --chente fox only had Martitha Sahagún, the niece of former policia judicial federal Commander Francisco Sahagun Baca, fired por culero, torture, corruption and drug trafficking, his tomb may still be empty in Michoacán where he disappeared many years ago to his ranchos.

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