Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
.

Friday, June 30, 2017

US Coast Guard Cutter Brings 18 Tons of Cocaine into Port of San Diego

Republished From San Diego Tribune by Yaqui

Alameda Based Coast Guard Cutter Waesche

Additional Material from: 
USCG, CBS SF, US News

The drugs brought ashore Thursday from the cutter Waesche (WAY-shee) were seized by the crews of eight Coast Guard cutters in the Eastern Pacific from late March through this month.

The Coast Guard says it has been focusing personnel and resources on known drug transit zones in the Pacific during the last two years.

El Beto of the Cartel Arellano Felix arrested in Tijuana

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article

Subject Matter: El Beto, CAF, AFO
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Elements of the Baja California Police detained a person identified as El Beto, alleged leader of a cell of the Cartel Arellano Felix. In a communication, the Secretary of State Public Security announced the effective detention deriving from intelligence work of the referred to Police corporation.

He indicated that the detention was carried out at a traffic circle at Simon Bolivar Avenue and Calle Tecate, in the Alba Roja Colonia, where officials located a Toyota Camry vehicle carrying the detained.

He referred that in the cabin they found a 9mm pistol, a spare magazine and 24 rounds of ammunition, another pistol of .22 calibre, they also found a bag that contained four packets with a weight of 18 kilos of marijuana.

The person arrested responded to the name of Carlos Alberto N, 34 years of age, who carried in the vehicle a sub-machine gun of 5.7 mm calibre two two spare magazines with ten rounds in each. (Otis: probably a FN P90.)


Thursday, June 29, 2017

Report: "Violence and Terror: Findings on Clandestine Graves in Mexico”

 Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from La Jornada 


        More Than 1000 Clandestine Graves Found in Mexico, 
                Report Confirms and NGO's Denounce

BY: Fernando Camacho Silva
June 22, 2012

Extra Material from TeleSurTV

Mexico City. Throughout the country there are more than a thousand clandestine graves, in which 2,114 human skulls have been found, according to the report Violence and Terror: Findings on Clandestine Graves in Mexico , carried out jointly by various academic and human rights organizations.
During the presentation of the study, Jorge Ruiz and Mónica Meltis, two of the authors of the paper, explained that the methodology of the analysis consisted of gathering hemerographic notes on the subject and data sent by the prosecutors of several states of the Republic , via transparency requests.
Ruiz said that only 12 state procuratorial offices provided information on the clandestine graves found in their territories (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Sinaloa, Coahuila, Durango, Sonora, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Campeche and Quintana Roo), meanwhile the others stated that they had no data on them or were not obliged to provide them.

Zeta leader sentenced to 7 life sentences in United States

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: Marciano Milan Vazquez, El Chano, Orejon
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Mauro de la Fuente
Marciano Milan Vazquez alias El  Chano or Orejon, leader of Los Zetas in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, allegedly responsible for the deaths of 300 persons, was sentenced to seven life sentences.

The ruling was announced Wednesday by the Judge of the West District Court in San Antonio, Xavier Rodriguez. Between 2011 and 2012, the Los Zetas cartel ordered the death of 300 people, including women and children, said a witness identified as J. Rodriguez in the Milan Vazquez trial in June of 2016.

The desertion of one of its leaders identified as Mario Alfonso Poncho Cuellar, said, that and internal struggle was unleashed that ended with the elimination of the allies of the latter in the organization.


Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Ensenada Baja California: 4 bodies thrown on the highway

Ensenada: 4 Bodies discovered on the highway


I struggle to write these "headlines" sometimes.  How can I convey what happened, without sensationalism, but without bland casualness, similar to American local news anchors, who discuss atrocities, degradation with the conviction of discussing office gossip?

They are embarrassed, uncomfortable, bothered only by the intrusion into their other stories, who don't involve brutality, wrenching violence.  

So, I go for a balance.  Try to make it up in the article. But, I don't always feel one.  I wonder who cares?  And how do I care?   Do I write that these can break me, and beat me with the relentlessness....the cruel realities of violence?

Autodefensas form in Quintana Roo

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: Autodefensas
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Benito Jimenez
A group of businessmen of Quintana Roo integrated yesterday to auto-defensas to combat the insecurity and corruption in the state. "This venture of auto-defensas is very serious. The violations of the law on the part of the Government are repetitive, we have the proof of the corruption, and the authorities refuse to act."

"Not only are they not acting, they are attacking, intimidating and using death threats and executing people to stop the voices of Quintana Roo", businessman Carlos Mimenza, who heads the group said to Reforma.

Mimenza launched a video in which he figures with another 5 persons, all in black, to advertise that the auto-defensas will watch the functionaries of the state.

The initiative started with the participation of about 20 businessmen who said they felt betrayed by the new Governor, Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez, for new acts of corruption like those registered b in the last sexenio by Roberto Borge, detained in Panama.


Lucero Sánchez Arrested at Otay Mesa Border Crossing

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Debate


                  Lucero Sánchez arrested in California

The former legislator, who is linked to "El Chapo" Guzman, was arrested by the US Border Patrol and is accused of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Additional information from UPI
By: Ed Adamczyk June 23, 2017

Baja California.- Around 10:00 am today, June 16, 2017 Lucero Sánchez Lopez, former deputy for the 16th district of Cosalá,  Sinaloa, was arrested by elements of the border patrol  when she tried to cross with a Tijuana visa to San Diego, California from Mexico through the Otay Mesa Border Crossing in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

Francisco Verdugo, a lawyer for the former local deputy, announced that Sánchez López was charged Thursday June 22 with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

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"She was detained by the US government apparently accused of conspiracy, the reason for her presence is that she feels threatened in Mexico," said her  lawyer.

Rafael "Borrego" Chavez, brother of Julio Cesar Chavez, executed in Culiacan

Original article available at SinEmbargo
Translated by El Wachito

Rafael "El Borrego" Chavez, brother of Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, was executed by gunpoint in his house by a man. According to Omar Chavez Carrasco, his nephew, the execution occured around 22:00 on Sunday, when several armed man ilfiltrated his residency located in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Omar Chavez claimed that "He cant believe it, and that he is seeking justice from the government".

Borrego Chavez in the middle

The authorities informed that he was 53 years old at the moment of his execution. ACcording to the authorities, the execution happened around 23:20, in Rafael's house, which is located in Sexta street and Hilario Medica, south of Culiacan.

It was indicated that a man tried to robbed the brother by threatening the victim with a gun.

Rafael didn't turn in his belongings to the robber, and he shot him several times. The robber ran away from the scene.

US offers FBI help to train Mexican police

Posted by DD from Mexico News Daily



FBI training could 'change history,' says US embassy official


The United States has offered to provide training to 350,000 state and municipal police officers at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, in an effort to better prepare security forces to combat organized crime.

The Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Mexico, William Duncan, said the offer was made in recognition of the wave of violence in Mexico caused by the demand for drugs in the U.S. market and because police forces in Mexico are facing the “most ruthless” criminal organizations.

“The U.S. government understands that the security of both countries is directly related, what happens in Mexico affects us and vice versa. Our future prosperity depends on the collective prosperity of the North American region.”

Guerrero lives through 5 days of gun battles

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from Reforma article

Subject Matter: Los Jefes, Los Rojos, Cartel de la Sierra
Recommendation: See link to article on current groups disputing Guerrero


Reporter: Jesus Guerrero
For five consecutive days criminal groups of antagonistic sicarios carried out gun battle in the streets of Chipancingo. Some of these events have happened during the day, and the Police corporations have not detained the alleged criminals.

According to the authorities, the plaza of Chilpancingo is heating up, because of a dispute between the criminal groups of "Los Jefes", against "Los Rojos" and the Cartel de la Sierra.

On Sunday night a gun battle was registered in the 20 of November Colonia, the Guerrero 200 Colonia, and the La Adolfo Viguri Colonia in the south of the City.


Tuesday, June 27, 2017

"I quit!" says former governor Javier Duarte at his extradition hearing

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat with material from Reforma and Mileno

The ex-governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, appeared at his second hearing before the Third Court of Guatemala.

In the appearance that took place in the Tower of Courts, Javier Duarte accepted the extradition to Mexico, to face charges of the crimes that are imputed to him, as they are, abuse of power, diversion of resources, money laundering, organized crime  among others.

"I have determined to try to face justice in my country. I accept the extradition that the failed government is imposing on  me," he said during the second hearing held in Guatemala.

Los Cabos: Two tons cocaine tossed into the sea



On Monday Elements of the Marina navy secured almost two tons of cocaine that was thrown off a boat into the sea.  This after the suspicions boat was spotted off Los Cabos, in Baja California Sur (BCS).


Initial reports from the Fourth Naval Region reported that 76 packages with a gross weight out of approximately 1,800 kilograms.  The interior of the packages contained cocaine in brick formations. 

PGJE Confirms the Death of Michoacan Journalist Salvador Adame


Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Proceso

Michoacan Journalist Salvador Adame Pardo
Missing for over a month

By: Francisco Castellanos J.
June 26, 2017

MORELIA, Mich. (Apro) .- The Attorney General of the State (PGJE) confirmed the death of journalist Salvador Adame Pardo, whose remains were found on Friday 14 in the Barranca del Diablo, municipality of Gabriel Zamora.
The head of the PGJE, Martin Godoy Castro, confirmed the location of the corpse of the jounalist, who was allegedly killed by drug trafficker Feliciano L. " El Chano" Ledezma. The body was found calcinated (burned), but it will be the PGJE that determines the cause of his death, after performing the necropsy of law.

Monday, June 26, 2017

15 Kidnapped from Culiacán Restaurant

From El Debate Posted by Guasa

Culiacan, Sinaloa.- An armed group stormed the Mar and Sea restaurant and deprived about 15 people of their freedom, including a pair of musicians.

The restaurant located at the convergence of the boulevards Sánchez Alonso and Diego Valadez.

It was at 00:30 hours, when several vehicles, including carrying a large group of men with high-powered weapons,  who exited  stormed the premises of a restaurant.

When the evening was abruptly interrupted, the guests tried to flee, but all exits had been blocked by gunmen.

Local employees were forced to the floor and stripped of their cell phones and wallets, while the male clients were taken from the premises.   The ladies present were not bothered, according to a witness's version.

The restaurant was about to close, in fact some customers were already saying leaving in anticipation of its closing,  when the gunmen arrived," said one eyewitness.

Tamaulipas State Police Commanders receive training from the United States

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Reforma article

Subject Matter: Tamaulipas State Police
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Benito Lopez
With resources from the Merida Initiative, 63 Commanders of the Tamaulipas State Police received training from certified instructors sent by the United States.

The training focused on front line leadership to deal with better strategies for organized crime. The head of Political and Economic Affairs of the United States Consulate in Matamoros, Jose Gutierrez, said that this was the first of its kind since the creation of the bi-national security support program.

"The project seeks to provide training to the front line supervisors, and is a joint effort between the United States and Mexico to strengthen security and support the development of Police in Tamaulipas", he said.


Sunday, June 25, 2017

The Colombian War Fed by Mexican Cartels

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Proceso



By Rafael Croda

Tumaco is a municipality of Colombia with the largest amount of coca leaf crops: 28 thousand hectares that can produce 190 tons of cocaine a year. Its port is currently the main Colombian drug outlet to the United States, Europe and Asia, and is at the same time the largest drug supply center for Mexican cartels. After the withdrawal of the FARC from this territory, different criminal gangs wage a war for their own control, a struggle that Mexican drug trafficking organizations feed with money and arms.

TUMACO, Colombia (Proceso) .- The information that a criminal delinquent gave to the police was precise: on a bank of the Mira River, only 12 kilometers southwest of the urban center of the port of Tumaco, five Mexicans had stored a large amount of cocaine to be sent to the coast of the Mexican state of Colima.


Port City of Tumaco, Colombia
"They are from Sinaloa (allegedly from the Sinaloa Cartel) and gathered two tons,  they moved it near a creek to a hiding place under the ground,"  said the informant, who had attended a meeting in which Mexicans, who were moving into the Tumaco region discretely, to close a deal with their Colombian partners.
According to an intelligence report of the National Police of Colombia (PNC), to which this weekly (Proceso) had access, the Mexicans negotiated the drug price at $1,800 per kilo, which means that the total transaction was for $3.4 million dollars to be paid in cash to its suppliers, half to be received  with the first delivery at a house near the bank of the Mira River and the rest to be paid at the completion of the delivery of  the two tons of cocaine.
The money came to them by  a boat which had picked up two sacks thrown over board    from a  fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean, not far from the Tumaco coast, and transported the bundles down the Mira River to the Mexicans in a mangrove swamp.

Typical Cocaine "Processing Facility" in the Colombian Jungle 
The five "Sinaloa" envoys were led by a tall, white man with a thick mustache and long hair called Puma. The other four were of brown complexion; two of them were called Polo and Flaco.

El Rana, of the Sinaloa Cartel arrested in Baja California

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Milenio article

Subject Matter: Francisco Javier Peralta Reyes, El Rana, Sinaloa cartel
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Bernardo Cisneros
Elements of the Ministerial Police of Baja California detained Francisco Javier Peralta Reyes, El Rana, alleged sicario from a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, El Teo.

El Rana is accused of having participated in the assassination of three agents of the Municipal Police in Tijuana in 2009, said Jorge Alberto Alvarez Mendoza, Sub Attorney General of the State.

He explained that the detention of Peralta Reyes, 29 years of age, derived from an operation from an arrest warrant that he had against him for the homicides of the Municipal Police officers Arturo Flores Espinoza, Marcos Samuel Kuk Sierra and Napoleon Garcia Perez.

Alvarez Mendoza detailed that the three uniformed officers were shot to death on the 18th of September of 2009, were found in the parking lot of a convenience store located on Paseo Ensenada Avenue in the Playas de Tijuana fraccionamiento, where minutes earlier that had been speaking with fellow workers aboard their respective patrol cars.


Friday, June 23, 2017

'You can’t trust anybody. We're on our own'

Posted by DD Republished from the Guardian

Cartel violence in Tamaulipas state has claimed 254 lives in the first three months of this year, but has largely gone unreported in the press

in Mexico City

 When Carlos Ulivarri heard that a body had been dumped by the side of a road just outside his hometown of Rio Bravo, a few miles south of McAllen, Texas, he knew he had to act fast.

But he did not even consider contacting the authorities.

Hours earlier, Ulivarri’s son, Luís Carlos, 23, had been shot in a bar, and then dragged into the night after an altercation with a group of men presumed to be members of a local drug cartel.

Argentina Police Arrest Sinaloa Cartel Members and Seize 2 Tons of Cocaine

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Zeta


Cocaine Packaged Ready for Shipment from Argentina
By: Carlos Alvarez
June 20, 2017
Additional Material: Global Incidents Map
Mirror UK

The Superintendent of Dangerous Drugs of the Federal Police of Argentina detained 17 alleged narcotics traffickers, four of them of Mexican nationality, and seized some two tons of cocaine that were to be sent to Spain, specifically Barcelona and Canadian cities, drugs that are valued by the authorities at some 60 million dollars.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

MAY 2017 : The Most Violent Month in 20 Years

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Zeta

The Baja California Peninsula / West Coast of Sinaloa and Sonora
The Gulf of California
June 21, 2017

According to data released Wednesday by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) of the Ministry of the Interior, in May of this year there were 2 thousand 186 intentional homicide cases, which surpassed the record figure  of this crime in the last two  decades, since the compilation of data is made monthly from 1997 to date.


The level of intentional homicide in May 2017 is greater than the maximum recorded, which was the number of 2,112 intentional killings in May 2011 during the last leg of the government of Felipe de Jesus Calderón Hinojosa.

Using Texts as Lures, Government Spyware Targets Mexican Journalists and Their Families

Posted by Yaqui and DD Republished from the New York Times


Leer en español

President Enrique Peña Nieto, center, vowed last month to take concrete steps to ensure the safety of journalists in Mexico. Since 2011, the Mexican government has bought around $80 million worth of spyware for the stated purpose of combating crime. Credit Alfredo Estrella/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s most prominent human rights lawyers, journalists and anti-corruption activists have been targeted by advanced spyware sold to the Mexican government on the condition that it be used only to investigate criminals and terrorists.
The targets include lawyers looking into the mass disappearance of 43 students, a highly respected academic who helped write anti-corruption legislation, two of Mexico’s most influential journalists and an American representing victims of sexual abuse by the police. The spying even swept up family members, including a teenage boy.
Since 2011, at least three Mexican federal agencies have purchased about $80 million worth of spyware created by an Israeli cyberarms manufacturer. The software, known as Pegasus, infiltrates smartphones to monitor every detail of a person’s cellular life — calls, texts, email, contacts and calendars. It can even use the microphone and camera on phones for surveillance, turning a target’s smartphone into a personal bug.
The company that makes the software, the NSO Group, says it sells the tool exclusively to governments, with an explicit agreement that it be used only to battle terrorists or the drug cartels and criminal groups that have long kidnapped and killed Mexicans.
But according to dozens of messages examined by The New York Times and independent forensic analysts, the software has been used against some of the government’s most outspoken critics and their families, in what many view as an unprecedented effort to thwart the fight against the corruption infecting every limb of Mexican society.

“We are the new enemies of the state,” said Juan E. Pardinas, the general director of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, who has pushed anti-corruption legislation. His iPhone, along with his wife’s, was targeted by the software, according to an independent analysis. “Ours is a society where democracy has been eroded,” he said.

The deployment of sophisticated cyberweaponry against citizens is a snapshot of the struggle for Mexico itself, raising profound legal and ethical questions for a government already facing severe criticism for its human rights record. Under Mexican law, only a federal judge can authorize the surveillance of private communications, and only when officials can demonstrate a sound basis for the request.

It is highly unlikely that the government received judicial approval to hack the phones, according to several former Mexican intelligence officials. Instead, they said, illegal surveillance is standard practice.

“Mexican security agencies wouldn’t ask for a court order, because they know they wouldn’t get one,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a former analyst at the Center for Investigation and National Security, Mexico’s intelligence agency and one of the government agencies that use the Pegasus spyware. “I mean, how could a judge authorize surveillance of someone dedicated to the protection of human rights?”

“There, of course, is no basis for that intervention, but that is besides the point,” he added. “No one in Mexico ever asks for permission to do so.”

The hacking attempts were highly personalized, striking critics with messages designed to inspire fear — and get them to click on a link that would provide unfettered access to their cellphones.

Carmen Aristegui, a Mexican journalist, has been targeted by spyware, as has her teenage son. Credit Edgard Garrido/Reuters
Carmen Aristegui, one of Mexico’s most famous journalists, was targeted by a spyware operator posing as the United States Embassy in Mexico, instructing her to click on a link to resolve an issue with her visa. The wife of Mr. Pardinas, the anti-corruption activist, was targeted with a message claiming to offer proof that he was having an extramarital affair.

" El Cenizo " Arrested in Michoacán, Leader of the Caballeros Templarios


Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Debate


WANTED : "El Cenizo"
Michoacán.- On Wednesday morning, June 21, the arrest of Ignacio Andrade Rentería, alias El Cenizo, in Parácuaro, was confirmed. The action was coordinated between the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) and the Attorney General's Office (PGR).


CAPTURED: "El Cenizo"
The information on the capture of one of the most powerful criminal of Michoacán, after the fall of Servando Gómez Martínez alias "La Tuta", former leader of the organization Knights Templar  (Caballeros Templarios) in 2015, was confirmed by the PGR.
WOUNDED: " El Cenizo"
Shoot Out
Authorities moved into the community on September 1, where they had intelligence information about the presence of the criminal cell that supposedly was in charge "El Cenizo" aka "Nacho" Rentería.
The locality deployed the troops that at one point were attacked by gunfire and immediately repelled bullets detonated by the gunmen.
In the fray two soldiers were injured and were carried off for medical attention. The officers managed to retract several gunmen and in the end as a result of the operation  "El Cenizo" was apprehended.
This was the plaza chief of the municipality of Múgica, and also the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación.

Andrade Renteria was injured and was treated at the Regional Hospital of Apatzingán. Both were transferred to Morelia by air for presentation to the Attorney General's Office.
A security operation was implemented in the state against possible actions (disturbances) on the part of the criminals by the capture.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Narco-millienials: the sons of the Mexican Capos take control

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Noreste article

Subject Matter: Sons of Mexican Capos
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The new generation of narcos are unpredictable and volatile



The detention or assassination of the big Mexican capos has obligated the next generation. Now their sons are fighting for control of the organizations.

More than the sons of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, there are a series of narco junior millenials, some in prison and others at liberty, that maintain the leadership and conserve the relation of power, that for their fathers would not be so easy.

The behaviors of this new generation will be unpredictable and volatile, affirms Carlos Flores, expert in criminal organizations and an academic of the Centre for Investigations and Social Anthropology.

They are unpredictable because they don't know who really has the power among their fathers. They don't know properly about leadership and agreements.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

San Jose del Cabo: Body Count Rises to 18 in Clandestine Grave


Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from El Debate



NOTE by Yaqui:  There have been plenty of more murders in CSL, SJ del C and La Paz and in other communities in Baja California Sur since these events although I have not read of more graves or seen a report from the Investigation.

Extra Material from BCS Noticias
Los Cabos, Baja California Sur 



     
Beloved Veteran Journalist Max
Colectivo Pericue
War Correspondent in the 1980's
 Central America
73 Years Young
The discovery of these clandestine graves or "narcofasas", as they are known, came about due to the ongoing investigation into the murder of Journalist Maximino Rodriguez Palacios, locally known as Max, who was lost his life in April.


The Governor of Baja California Sur, Carlos Mendoza Davis, thinks the discovery of the graves could be related to the territory dispute of rival cells within the Cartel de Pacifico. He added " that few clandestine graves are usually found in BCS, it is rare, but sadly, with intelligence and a good investigation we are coming upon them".
BCS Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis
It was around 15:00 hours on Tuesday, when the institution's staff located the clandestine burial site at kilometer 4.5 of the San José del Cabo-Cabo Pulmo road, where they found human remains of four males and two females.


No Caption Needed
The search continued on Wednesday and the unit reported seven more men and one woman were found buried for a total of 14 corpses located in one place, bringing the number up to 11 men and 3 women.
The recovery work was interrupted by the lack of natural light, but tomorrow (Thursday), the search will continue.
According to the information, the bodies are in an advanced state of decomposition, so forensic  experts from the Department of Experiential Services will be in charge of taking DNA samples to be able to identify them.
Likewise, the PGJE invites relatives of disappeared persons to come to its facilities to obtain a genetic profile and thus help them to be able to identify the bodies that have been found.


On Saturday, June10, minutes before 11am Security Agencies received a call to alert them that a cooler with human body parts and heads had been discovered. The finding was reportedly at Kilometer 17.5 under the El Tule Bridge near Cabo San Lucas.



Authorities were immediately deployed to the area and corroborated the report and found the cooler with body parts and more partially buried very near by, all appearing to be that of two males.


Puente El Tule / Coolers
The area was cordoned off for forensic specialists to begin their investigation and hopefully, identify the 
bodies. This latest finding brings the total of badly decomposed corpses to more than 18 individuals found in "Narco Fosas" (clandestine graves) near the center of the Municipality of Cabo San Lucas.     

"El BaBay" Jefe de Plaza of Cabo San Lucas Arrested

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Debate

Arrest of "El BaBay" and Search of his Vehicle in CSL 

June 19, 2017
Additional Info from Colectivo Pericue,
BCS Noticias, Zeta

Captured: "El Babay", Abraham Cervantes Escareaga. He is  identified as the alleged leader of a cell of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion / CTNG in Tijuana  and as one of the main generators of violence in the Los Cabos, BCS area. "El BaBay" is also the alleged successor of "El Javier" who controlled the plaza of San Jose del Cabo.

He was detained in a joint operation of the Navy Secretariat (Semar), the National Defense (Sedena), the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Federal Police in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.


He was detained in a joint operation of the Navy Secretariat (Semar), the National Defense (Sedena), the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Federal Police in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur.

After several days of intelligence work, monitoring and surveillance, elements of the Security Cabinet detected "El Babay" and a companion on board a vehicle and the joint security forces initiated a stop and then a search. There were many rumors during the morning hours later confirmed by authorities.

"In the interior of the vehicle were two long arms and a short gun, armaments for the exclusive use of the Armed Forces, as well as several doses presumably of drugs, cash and communication equipment, which led to the arrest of the two people, a man and a woman," the federal government said in a joint statement.

"El Babay" is identified as alleged leader of a cell of the Tijuana Cartel that operates in that entity and as one of the main generators of violence in that municipality.

Unofficial information sources speculate that he could possibly be tied to the wave of violence in San Jose del Cabo in confrontations with rival cells.

"Seeding the Terror"
The name ''El BaBay" has been seen on various "narco mantas" over the last few years which have been hung on bridges and fences.

Threats Against Journalists in General and Colectivo Pericue in Particular
( Please Don't Forget Max ! )
The detainees and secured evidence / objects were placed at the disposal of the Sub-Delegation of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, where they are awaiting SEIDO
personnel (Deputy Attorney General's Specialized in the Investigation of Organized Crime)

The crimes charged against Abraham Cervantes Escareaga could include drug trafficking, money laundering, and possession of arms and explosives for the exclusive use of the armed forces.