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

Sunday, December 31, 2017

California goes with legal weed tomorrow but will high tax keep users in the black market?

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat


Recreational weed goes legal tomorrow in California.  What at first seemed like a dream come true for those who imbibe, overtime have been jerked back into reality, which may persuade users to continue getting their supply from a black market source. More on that later.

In 2016 California citizens voted to legalize in 2016.

The objective was wide ranged, lessening the judicial system load and jail space for weed possession crimes. Many felonies will now become misdemeanors. And many of those convicted with marijuana crimes will be released from jail, and have records expunged .

Additionally, regulations could be imposed; weed farmers could emerge from criminality and become businessmen working on the side of the law.  The hope was to diminish the massive black market.

As for the legal aspect, basically, it will be treated similarly to alcohol.  Age requirement is 21,  and if you are 21 or older you can legally grow up to six plants at your very own home or be in possession of 1oz.. Driving under the influence laws are alike, but an alcohol breathalyzer is useless with marijuana which is measured by THC.  A company called “Hound Labs” has developed a new breathalyzer for marijuana and is in field testing. It also tests alcohol consumption.

Drug Cartels Shift Gears in Era of Legal Weed

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: ABQJournal

CBP Agents K-9 Unit Discover 9.5 Pounds of Heroin in the
"HOGSHEAD"
Dec 26, 2017
Thanks to a BB Reader for the heads up.
By: Angela Kocherga / Journal Staff Writer - Las Cruces Bureau

CBP officers discovered 9.5 pounds of heroin in a hidden compartment of a Chevy 2500 pickup truck at the Santa Teresa border crossing October 13th. A drug sniffing dog alerted officers to where the drugs were concealed. Photo Courtesy US Customs and Border Protection.

 As more U.S. states legalize marijuana, Mexican drug trafficking organizations are making up for lost business and profits by shifting their focus to smuggling hard drugs like heroin and methamphetamine across the border.

“We’re becoming more and more self-sufficient for marijuana,” said David Shirk, director of the Justice in Mexico project at the University of San Diego, in a phone interview. “The decriminalizing is reducing the profitably of illicit marijuana from Mexico.”

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Guerrero: U.S. citizen shot and killed in Ixtapa

By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat
A "Surfers surfer"
An American shot to death on Thursday while on vacation in the Mexican city of Zihuatanejo, in the Pacific, was identified as an official in a southern California city.

Imperial Beach City Hall said in a statement, that the victim was Doug Bradley, its director of administrative services.

Bradley grew up in Surf City USA, Huntington Beach California, where his love of surfing was cultivated.  For him the love of surfing never dissipated which led to his choosing Zihuatanejo, Guerrero to surf and celebrate his 50th birthday.  His birthday was to be the day following his murder.  His dead body was not discovered for hours.  His body was discovered at 8 am.

Friday, December 29, 2017

The 'Trump of Oaxaca' cracks down on Central American migrants

Posted by DD Republished from Public Radio International

 
Railroad tracks in Chahuites. Some migrants spend weeks walking along train tracks in southern Mexico where they face high risks of robbery, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Credit:Levi Bridges
The town of Chahuites, Oaxaca, is a sleepy little village surrounded by mango farms. A line of train tracks cuts through the southern edge of town.

 Chahuites is in an isolated part of southern Oaxaca, about 170 miles north of the Guatemalan border. Migrants from Central America used to just pass through town riding on top of La Bestia, the train migrants traditionally traveled on across Mexico. But now immigration agents patrol the train, forcing migrants to walk northward along the railroad tracks. 

“People wait by the railroad with machetes and guns to rob migrants,” said Juan Vicente, a migrant from El Salvador who works at a construction site in Chahuites, “then they steal whatever you got.”

Thursday, December 28, 2017

El Chapo: Attorney files for a continuance needing additional time for trial prep

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat
Outside prison on December 23
El Chapo shared a Christmas visit with his twin six year old twin daughters.  His daughters were born in California in 2011, thereby are American citizens, as is their mother Emma Coronel Aispuro.  The visit marks the fourth time Chapo has been allowed to see his twins.

Despite erroneous reports in the news, Emma did not visit Chapo on the 23rd with the twins, and has never been allowed a visit with her husband since extradited.

The Daily Mail, (U.K.Publication) ran the story of Emma visiting Chapo, and several media outlets republished their story.  DM tells Borderland Beat, the story originated from Washington Post and they took the information from that story.  

The judge presiding in Chapo’s case had placed severe restrictions on visits.  Virtually none, except the twins and even his attorney Eduardo Balarezo has no contact and no private visits with his client.

On Christmas Eve Chapo’s attorney filed a request for continuance.

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Griselda Triana, Widow of Journalist Javier Valdez Sends a Message to EPN

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Proceso

Griselda Triana in Madrid Spain

Griselda Triana, Widow of Murdered Journalist Javier Valdez and Co-Founder of Riodoce in Culiacan ; Speaking in Madrid, Spain.

Mexico City:  Griselda Triana, widow of journalist Javier Valdez, reproached President Enrique Peña Nieto for impunity in the case of the murder of her husband, which occurred on May 15 this year.

In a message posted on her Facebook account, Triana said the president has shown that he "can not" solve the case and punish those responsible.

ARRESTED: El Cuini's brother CJNG boss in Brazil

Chivis Martinez republished and translated from Reforma

Arrested is a brother of Abigael González Valencia, known as the "El Cuini”, the brother in law of El Mencho and co-leader of CJNG and Los Cuinis


In the Brazilian city of Fortaleza,  in a luxurious  tourist complex, the Brazilian Federal Police the alleged drug trafficker José González Valencia, designated as one of the leaders of the Cartel of Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

The Mexican capo, 42, was arrested on an arrest warrant issued by the Supreme Federal Court    (STF), Brazil's highest court, in response to an extradition request made by the United States.

"The extradition was requested by the Government of the United States under the accusation of having committed the crime of drug trafficking and money-laundering in that country and in Mexico, and of participating in the Jalisco Cartel New Generation".

The detainee was with his family in a tourist complex in the metropolitan region of Fortaleza (northeastern Brazil), where he occupied a rented residence on the exclusive beach of Taíba.  He did not resist arrest.

Free for $250 USD: "El 300" Leader of "Los Aztecas'' / Juarez Cartel

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: El Heraldo

                                                       "El 300" Rene Gerardo Santana Garza
          Police Killer Freed after He pays 5, 000 Peso  / $250 USD Fine and Charges are Reduced

Dec 23, 2017
By: Ricardo Holguín

The State Attorney General's Office did not charge the offender with criminal charges and Santana Garza was only punished for illegally carrying a firearm and drugs, for which reason he was released and paid a fine, irregardless of the criminal background of the man and his constant attacks on security corporations.

The head of the criminal group called "Los Aztecas", linked to the Juarez Cartel, is considered by the state governor, Javier Corral Jurado, a highly dangerous criminal, after several participations in armed confrontations and he adjudicated the murder of the then head escort  of Mariano Contreras Rivera in Ciudad Juarez.

Santana Garza allegedly was carrying a 40-caliber pistol model JCP S & W, brand Hi-Point Firearms, with the serial number 711881 and a clipwith 10 shots, in addition to 100 packets of cocaine.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Cancun: Abandoned decapitated corpse with message to CJNG

posted by "Anasazi" from Infobae


In the middle of the holiday season, a corpse was left abandoned in front of a public clinic next accompanies by  a threatening message.

He was beheaded, with his head left between his legs, his face was flayed off and his penis was inserted  in his mouth. This is how the authorities found the abandoned body of a man in Cancún, Quintana Roo, one of the most important tourist destinations in the country.

At the stroke of midnight, the authorities received a report regarding the finding at emergency number 911.

The body was abandoned leaning against a fence in front of a public service clinic of the IMSS the message saying: 
Víctor Manuel Olivas Jalisca, you are next! Keep fucking around and supporting the Jaliscos (CJNG) and you'll get fucked together with all those filthy 'putos'! They forget that dogs live here. This goes for all the assholes who continue to support the Jaliscas".

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Messages from BB reporters

Christmas Messages from Borderland Beat Staff.....first, a note from the Boss!

Click on images to enlarge


Little guy in foto is Jaime, at one of our Posada's for Special Kids, he just saw Santa coming on the firetruck in Coahuila Mx. Merry Christmas to all of my favorite people, you know who you are.  Yeah, you.  And you, and even Willitos, Millito, the “Paci Cartel” and Keyboard warriors

A Very Happy Christmas to my fellow reporters at Borderland Beat and for letting me join the crew, and, of course, to all of our readers...every one.

Drug Use Explodes in Mexico as More Narcotics Stay Home

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: SantaFeNewMx


By: Joshua Partlow for WaPo
Dec 24, 2017 Tijuana BC, Mexico:

In one of her earliest memories, she is crouched under leafy green stalks, hiding from Mexican soldiers. By the time she was in grammar school, she was driving a four-wheeler through those marijuana fields.

By 15, Mildred Barreras Godoy lived along the border, with a boyfriend who each morning disguised himself in an orange construction vest and work boots and drove truckloads of methamphetamine into California, while she waited for his text message: “I scored the goal.”

That was how the habit started for this green-eyed, vivacious daughter of Mexico’s drug-war generation: by proximity. Drugs were always around — someone planting or tending or buying or selling or injecting or inhaling — until she began herself, first snorting lines of crystal meth at parties and then smoking it with such obsession she tore her eyebrows out.
  
"In my world , everyone uses," Mildred says.

The drug abuse that has become a defining feature of American life is increasingly emerging in Mexico as well, posing a daunting challenge for health officials and feeding the country’s soaring violence.

For decades, Mexico regarded addiction as an American problem, even as the flow of drugs through this country sharply escalated — and narcotics began seeping into the domestic market. Police and politicians routinely helped the drug cartels in exchange for bribes.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Assasinated in Sonora: The Assasinator of Journalist Miroslava Breach

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Radio Formula

Miroslava Breach Velducea
Murdered March 23, 2017
Dec 22, 2017
Extra Material from: Proceso
and Knightcenter.utexas

His indiscretion cost him his life, since the same group he worked for, "Los Salazares", of the Sinaloa Cartel, are the ones that allegedly murdered him.

Nearly nine months since the murder of Miroslava Breach, a correspondent for La Jornada and Norte de Juarez, on December 19 "Los Salazares" murdered the alleged material killer of that crime, in Alamos, Sonora, according to people from the same community and confirmed by personnel of the Prosecutor's Office of that state. 

According to people from the region (Álamos is near Chínipas, Chihuahua), where the criminal group allegedly executed the crime against Breach, Ramón Andrés Zavala Rodríguez, 25 years old, boasted that he killed a very important journalist on March 23, 2017. 

Friday, December 22, 2017

Cartel Hunts Cops Accused of a ‘Massacre’ in Mexico

Posted by DD Republished from the Daily Beast

Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast

Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation Cartel put a price on the heads of police officers accused of killing women and children and allegedly attempting to cover up the crime.

By Jeremy Kryt

In the central Mexican state of Morelos on Thursday, Nov. 30, a raid by state police left four women, an infant, and a teenage boy dead. And since then Mexico’s fastest growing drug cartel has been out for blood.

The officers involved claim the deceased were “caught in a crossfire” during a shootout at their residence in the town of Temixco, about three miles south of Cuernavaca, a popular tourist destination.

But the crossfire theory has been contradicted by eyewitness testimony and and by forensic evidence. The half-dozen victims were found huddled on the bathroom floor and appear to have been killed execution style. At least three bodies were found with a single 9mm bullet to the head, according to the family lawyer. Investigators also charge that the police officers falsified evidence in the case, such as planting bogus firearms near the bodies.

DEA Operation Played Hidden Role in the Disappearance of Five Innocent Mexicans

Reposted by El Profe for Borderland Beat from ProPublica          
             

The agency knew why the victims were kidnapped in 2010 by the Zetas drug cartel from a Holiday Inn in Mexico, but it did nothing to investigate or help. The victims’ friends and relatives now wonder why.


By Ginger Thompson

At about 2 a.m. on April 21, 2010, a convoy of gunmen working for the Zetas drug cartel, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in the world, rolled into Monterrey, Mexico, a wealthy, bustling city considered that country’s commercial capital. With brazen efficiency, they set up roadblocks at all major thoroughfares, then sent a convoy of sport utility vehicles downtown, encircling a Holiday Inn.

The heavily armed men, some wearing ski masks, swarmed into the hotel’s lobby and rushed directly to the fifth floor, bursting into every room and rousting the guests from their beds. The gunmen questioned the guests, then separated four of them from the rest: a marketing executive at an eyewear company, a chemical engineer for a cosmetics manufacturer, a shoe salesman expecting his first child, and a college professor who was the mother of two.

Then the four were loaded, along with the hotel’s receptionist, into the gunmen’s vehicles and driven away. None of the hostages has been seen since. All are presumed dead.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Drug-trafficking, Money Laundering, Chemical sales to Syria, Obama turned a blind eye to Hezbollah to procure the Iran Deal

posted by Chivis Martinez republished from Politico by Josh Meyer
click on to enlarge

The Secret Backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook

A GLOBAL THREAT EMERGES

How Hezbollah turned to trafficking cocaine and laundering money through used cars to finance its expansion.

In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.

The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities.

Over the next eight years, agents working out of a top-secret DEA facility in Chantilly, Virginia, used wiretaps, undercover operations and informants to map Hezbollah’s illicit networks, with the help of 30 U.S. and foreign security agencies.

They followed cocaine shipments, some from Latin America to West Africa and on to Europe and the Middle East, and others through Venezuela and Mexico to the United States. They tracked the river of dirty cash as it was laundered by, among other tactics, buying American used cars and shipping them to Africa. And with the help of some key cooperating witnesses, the agents traced the conspiracy, they believed, to the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

They followed cocaine shipments, tracked a river of dirty cash, and traced what they believed to be the innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.

20 year anniversary of the tragedy of Acteal

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from Reforma and La Journada articles

Subject Matter: Massacre of 45 men women and children by Government agencies
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The poster reads, welcome to the sacred land of the Martyrs of Acteal. A site of conscience, house of memory and of hope. 20 years of impunity, 25 years of organization


Reporter: Edgar Hernandez
Today, activities began to commemorate the Acteal massage that occurred 20 years ago in the municipality of Chenalho, Chiapas, in which 45 indigenous people died. Survivors, relatives of the victims and organizations headed by "Las Abejas", to which the victims belonged, today began a day of activities that will last three days to remember the tragedy.

At noon they started with a prayer in Tsotsil, but the activities included religious ceremonies, cultural events, artistic presentations, documentaries, pilgrimages, pronouncements and a popular dance.

It is expected that Jan Jarab, Representative in Mexico of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, will participate during the meetings; as well as the Bishop of the Diocese of Saltillo, Coahuila, Raul Vera.


Terror at Dawn in BCS: 6 Bodies Hanging from 3 Bridges in La Paz and Los Cabos

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: BCS Noticias


Dec 20, 2017
La Paz, Baja California Sur (BCS)
Extra Material from El Sudcaliforniano and Colective Pericue (RIP: Maz Rodriguez)
El Mundo Digital, Debate, Proceso, Milenio

Security elements belonging to the Mixed Command, as well as the members of the fire brigade,  have lowered the bodies that were accompanied by Narco Mantas. 

At dawn, today, Dec 20, 2017 Six bodies were discovered  hanging from bridges near both International Airports in the Municipalities of La Paz and Los Cabos,  in La Paz and in cabos airport corridor, see map below.
Click on image to enlarge
Two unidentified men were discovered at the stroke of 6 am after security forces received notice that their bodies were hanging from the bridge at the exit to the La Paz International Airport, ie: Bridge Manuel Márquez de León en La Paz.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Feminicides in Veracruz advance with more brutality, also in municipalities not under Gender Alert

Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from SinEmbargo, originally published in BlogExpediente

                   
  
[Translator Note: Diana E. H. Russell, the feminist writer and activist who coined the term ''Femicide'' defines the word as, ''the killing of women because they are females."

see Russell's discussion on the use of these terms here

The term ''feminicide" has become more commonly used in Latin American countries and is defined by the Guatamalan Human Rights Commission as "...a political term. It encompasses more than femicide because it holds responsible not only the male perpetrators but also the state and judicial structures that normalize misogyny. Feminicide connotes not only the murder of women by men because they are women but also indicates state responsibility for these murders whether through the commission of the actual killing, toleration of the perpetrators’ acts of violence, or omission of state responsibility to ensure the safety of its female citizens."

In this article, the writer's use of the word ''feminicidio", or "feminicide'', is kept.]

Contains graphic descriptions of violence towards women.

In Veracruz, 175 women were raped and dismembered in the last two years in seven violent municipalities outside of the Gender Violence Alert area.

 

The municipalities of Coatzacoalcos, Xalapa, Poza Rica and Córdoba have hot spots, but in the larger part of Veracruz, the cases do not stop and the women disappear.


By Arantxa Arcos

Xalapa, Veracruz, December 16 (BlogExpediente / SinEmbargo) .- From the crime committed against the Salvadoran who decided to live in Veracruz, Adela Isabel Romero Guevara, 42, to the murders of Abigail Roxana Sagrero Wilson, 31, and Dana Paula Sánchez Sagrero, 16; all are counted on the Feminicides in Mexico Map, created by María Salguero, geophysical engineer of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN).

The crime of Adela Romero is marked with a red cross, like 1 thousand 844 more cases located in the Google Maps application. She left the house, in Nautla, to celebrate the New Year.

She considered seeing her boyfriend, Juan Reyes Moctezuma. An argument went off track and hours later, on January 1, 2016, she was found without clothes and with several stab wounds to her body. The crime scene was discovered by her daughter.

Mexican Journalist Shot Dead at Sons Elementary School Christmas Party

Posted by Yaqui from: Houston Chronicle

Gumaro Perez 10th Mexican Journalist to Murdered in 2017 

Dec 20, 2017
Lev Garcia Flores for AP Xalapa , Veracruz

Attackers burst into an elementary school where a Christmas party was taking place and shot reporter Gumaro Perez to death Tuesday, making him at least the 10th journalist slain in Mexico this year in what observers have called a crisis of freedom of expression.

The Veracruz state security coordinator said in a statement that dozens of parents and children were present when the unidentified attackers shot Perez, whose own child attends the school in the city of Acayucan.

Perez, 34, covered crime for a number of local outlets, had founded the online news site La Voz del Sur and also worked for the local government in some capacity.

Mario Armando Ramirez Trevino, El Pelon, X-20 extradited to the United States

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

Subject Matter: Mario Ramirez Trevino, El X-20, Victor Manuel Felix Felix
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: EFE
Mexico extradited to the USA, the narco traffickers Mario Ramirez Trevino, ex leader of the Cartel del Golfo, and Victor Manuel Felix Felix, brother in law of Jaoquin El Chapo Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel, informed the Department of Justice today.

Ramirez Trevino, 55 years old, was detained in August of 2013 in Tamaulipas after leading the Cartel del Golfo for 11 months; he had been required by the USA for almost a decade. The criminal leader known as El X-20 or El Pelon, will appear today in Washington before Judge Deborah A Robinson where he will face charges of cocaine and marijuana trafficking to the United States.

The authorities are accusing him of being behind two shipments of 10 and 2.4 tonnes of cocaine that were intercepted in Mexico and Panama in October and November of 2007.


Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Who was "‘El Pirata de Culiacán'" and why was he murdered?

By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat


Much interest surrounds the death of 17 year old Juan Luis Laguna Rosale, better known as ‘El Pirata de Culiacán', who he was, and why he was killed. And for an English language narco blog, many of you may be wondering, who is this guy, and why the interest?

For starters last month, in a 10 second video he had challenged Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka El Mencho leader of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.

Today his death is not yet confirmed, although photos of his dead body had circulated on social media and mainstream media alike.

"No relative has come to claim the body or identify it", details FGE
.
However, Pirata posted hours before his death from his personal Facebook page a video inside an apartment, confirming he was in Guadalajara. In the video he is seen spending the night with friends.
Among his friends who was with him, with whom he was seen repeatedly, is the singer Beto Sierra, who shared on his Facebook account with a video confirming the murder of "El Pirata”.

Pirata de Culiacan reported shot dead in a bar in Jalisco

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

Subject Matter: El Pirata de Culiacan
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required



Reporter: Riodoce Redaction
On Monday night, several media outlets reported the murder of Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales, know in social networks as "El Pirata de Culiacan".

The even took place in the municipality of Tlajomulco in Jalisco, in a bar where the young man from Villa Juarez, Navolato, visited.

Reports indicate that he was shot dead inside the place located on Calle Colon close to the junction with Las Torres Street in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zuniga, near Guadalajara.

The preliminary report states that there were several bullet wounds, and it was a direct attack on Lagunas Rosales, who was popularized for appearing in narco related videos, finishing off his lyrics with the phrase " that's how it was".


Monday, December 18, 2017

Tepito, Los Camarillo and their criminal lineage

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

Subject Matter: Los Camarillo
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Since the start of the new millennium, the organized criminality has been linked to the history of one family: Los Camarillo. This is a chronological report of the the brothers, associates, treachery and killings.



Mario and Fidel Camarillo started as managers of a wine and bathroom furniture warehouse, but later converted into drug Zsars in Tepito. Fidel was imprisoned in 1998 and his brother, nicknamed "El Loco", remained in charge. However, since 2001 commenced a fight between Los Camarillo and political members of his family that culminated in 2003, when Mario was assassinated by sicarios, headed by former federal judicial policeman Alfredo Martinez, El Golda.

El Tanque

The history of  Los Camarillo, and its criminal roots continue today by the groups that control drug trafficking. One of the old Lieutenants of Fidel converted to an enemy of the family: Jorge Ortiz Reyes, El Tanque, who was accused to be the intellectual author, together with El Golda, of the killing of El Loco.


Saturday, December 16, 2017

Government Alleges Attorney is passing messages on El Chapo's behalf

 By Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

T
he government filed a motion seeking to delay production of discovery that would identify government witnesses because of unspecified “security concerns.”  Eduardo Balarezo, attorney for Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, responded saying that delaying production would violate his client’s right to due process,  and the ability to defend himself. The government in turn replied with an incredible accusation, saying that Balarezo had contacted potential witnesses and that he had passed on messages from his client, and that one of the people spoken with took the message as a threat. The letter below denies unequivocally the government’s “baseless allegations”.

It is permissible for defense attorney’s to contact possible witnesses.  Balarezo did reach out to persons that are possible witnesses, all agreed to meeting him…except one. One wonders how it is possible El Chapo could even give a threatening message to pass on to anyone, since he does not have the privilege of speaking to his attorney in private or contact visits.

Alleged Mistress of El Chapo Back in Court in D.C.

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Debate

"La Chapa Diputada "/ "El Chapo" Guzman Loera
Dec 13, 2017

Judge Rudolph Contreras of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia in the US capital postponed for the second time the judicial hearing of Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez López, former congresswoman from Sinaloa who has been imprisoned in the United States since the end of August on charges of drug trafficking .
As in the judicial hearing last October, Sánchez López appeared in the courtroom in the orange prison suit, her hair was pulled back on the  right side and the  twitch in her eyes was very visible. As on previous occasions, she did not speak during the five minutes that the audience lasted, and she followed through a simultaneous translation device.
Her attorney, Heather Shaner, did not object to the prosecution's request to postpone the court hearing for another 60 days until February 13, 2018 given the "complexity" of the case.

Friday, December 15, 2017

San Diego: The fentanyl gateway

San Diego: Fentanyl Gateway

Tijuana is quietly the entry point for most of the fentanyl in the county, as the heroin crisis rages from the Bronx to quiet midwestern towns, and across San Diego, relapsed addicts found nonresponsive in their childhood bedrooms.  It's a deeply personal story for some, the children or parents of addicts, for whom the news of major arrests and seizures don't matter as much as the less than a tenth of a gram that their loved one ingested.

Last summer, a DEA operation resulted in the arrest of a Lemon Grove woman, the daughter of the former mayor (Of Lemon Grove, Marry Sessom Baker) one Anna Baker, 31 years old.  She was in possession of 44 kilos of fentanyl, trafficked from Tijuana, and assumedly awaiting transshipment to Los Angeles, and further points east.  

At that time, it was the largest seizure of fentanyl in San Diego county, and likely the country, as San Diego has been the premier corridor of fentanyl trafficking. It is up almost 900% percent from 2015, which resulted in a handful of seizures, to a more routine standard of dozens of kilos.  Authorities have seized over 540 kilos in 2017.

Mexico's most sinister serial killers + Otis list of the worst cartel killers

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

Subject Matter: Mexico's most notorious serial killers and Cartel killers
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

A record of the history of impulsive men and women with a cruel impulsion of death ( Otis: plus a selection of the worst killers from Cartels, who for some reason don't make this articles list, despite killing sometimes for pleasure, when it was not required ).


Reporters: Infobae and Otis B Fly-Wheel
He was called El Chalequero. He killed 20 women in eight years. All prostitutes that he beat, strangled and decapitated in the central zones of Mexico City. He was compared with "Jack the Ripper", because they were contemporaneous and he was the first serial killer registered in this country.

His history is contained in the first of four volumes of the "Red Book", edited by the Foundation for Economic Culture (FCE), that is a compilation of the crimes and criminals in Mexico's history, but it is not unique.

There was before, another Red book, published in 1870 by liberal writers such as Vincente Riva Palacio, Manuel Payno and presumably even Manuel Zarco, who made a compilation of the most famous crimes of his times.

Since then, the Red Book has been a strong element in the information on offer from Mexico, of the serial killers and the main protagonists. Through the recounting of crimes and murders, both of the individuals, and the collective ones that shake us by waves, it is possible to narrate a chronicle of the country, wrote the journalist and playwright Vincente Lenero in the prologue of the first volume of the Red Book in 2008.


The second series of "El Chapo" on Netflix

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso report

Subject Matter: Second series of "El Chapo" on Netflix
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Columba Vertiz De La Fuente
This 15th of December, Netflix will launch a second fictional series of El Chapo, created by Silvana Aguirre Zegarra and Carlos Contreras, and produced by Daniel Posada.

It will see Joaquin El Chapo Guzman represented by the Mexican actor Marco de la O in his first escape from prison, and will reveal the key role played by "the corrupt government" to help him rise above the heads of the opposing cartels, according to a statement from the American platform.

The chapters will show the consequences of their search for the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, as well as the impact that these organizations have on the lives of their closest neighbors, such as their families.



Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Ioan Grillo: Mexico's New, Deadlier Crime Warlords

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: US News and World Report

Photo By: Alejandro Cegarra for  USN&WR
A community police officer watches a family run for cover during a shootout between security forces and drug cartel suspects in Buenavista, Guerrero state. 

By: Ioan Grillo, Contributor
Dec. 8, 2017 Chilpancingo, Guerrero Mexico

In this tepid capital of the Mexican state of Guerrero, government security spokesman Roberto Alvarez describes the complexity of the local crime map, from its Sierra Madre mountains to its Pacific coast.

Going north to the mineral-rich city of Iguala, he says, the area is dominated by gangsters who call themselves the "Guerreros Unidos," or Warriors United, a fragment of the older Beltran Leyva cartel, which is a break-off from the more notorious Sinaloa cartel. Turning west from Iguala, the highway then crosses into the territory of the so-called La Familia cartel, led by a local mobster nicknamed "El Guero" or Whitey, who is reported to be barely in his 20s.

This cell of La Familia is also battling a splinter group known as the "Tequileros" (the Tequila drinkers), which dominates a mountainous area above the highway that is known for heroin production. Fighting between these two groups as well as government forces has caused many residents to abandon their homes, leaving phantom villages.

Following the highway south, the road then twists into the domain of the "Caballeros Templarios," or Knights Templar, a once-mighty cartel that has been largely destroyed but has a few surviving outposts. Alvarez rattles off these groups before even beginning to describe the half dozen groups fighting over the state capital Chilpancingo and the sprawling seaside resort city of Acapulco.

"It's a very complicated crime environment, and this makes it difficult to keep order," says Alvarez, who sits at meetings every few days with regional commanders of the army, marines and police forces combating the cartels. "We have to track multiple organizations fighting each other all over the state. The many frontlines lead to a very high number of homicides."

Battles among this plethora of crime groups has made Guerrero one of the most violent states in Mexico this year, with more than 1,900 murders from January to the end of October in a population of 3.3 million. Guerrero boasts a murder rate that is six times higher than that of Louisiana, the U.S. state with the highest rate of murder in 2016.

Similar frontlines between splintered cartels cut through large swaths of Mexico, from the 2,000-mile border with the U.S. to the Caribbean coast. Mexico's so-called drug war now involves dozens of crime groups fighting each other in multiple battles crisscrossing the country.

This cartel fragmentation is one of the key reasons that Mexico is suffering a new high in overall violence. The nation's total body count has topped 20,800 in the first 10 months of 2017, the highest number this century.


Tepic, Nayarit: 3 Bodies Hanging from Bridge w Narco Manta

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Debate


Dec13, 2017

Tepic, Nayarit: Three dead bodies were found early this morning suspended off a bridge over the roadway near the route to Mazatlan, Sinaloa. Accompanying the bodies and also hanging from the bridge was a narco manta signed by "Los Mazatlecos"; a cartel cell affiliated with the Beltran Leyvas.

The cadavers were semi nude and hanging by their necks. The local authorities reacted quickly after recieving a 911 call alerting them to the sighting at approximately 6 am. Municipal and State Police went to the scene, which was causing much commotion, then Firemen and Civil protection units responded to remove the corpses while the area was cordoned off.

El F-1, alleged CdG plaza boss of Zacatecas arrested

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

Subject Matter: Francisco Noe Gonzalez Ramirez, El F-1
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Proceso Redaction
The National Commission for Security informed that Federal Forces detained on Tuesday, Francisco Noe Gonzalez Ramirez, El F-1, alleged plaza boss for CdG in Zacatecas.

In a communication, the organization detailed that the narco trafficker was apprehended in a house localized in the town of Bahia de Banderas, Nayarit.

The alleged capo was detained after intense intelligence work that managed to get his precise location and identity, and establish a mobilization zone to carry out the operation.

The CNS detailed that with the information compiled and analyzed they notified the Federal Ministerial Authorities, who issued an arrest warrant from a judge specializing in searches, arraignments and intervention communications.


Tuesday, December 12, 2017

7 die and transport stopped in Guerrero due to threats from La Familia Michoacana

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

Subject Matter: La Familia Michoacana
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Jesus Guerrero
Chipancingo: No less that seven people, among them a Municipal Commander and a Ministerial Agent, were assassinated today in the state of Guerrero. Also before the threats of the criminal group of La Familia Michoacan, public service transport was suspended in the towns of Acapetlahuaya and Teloloapan.

A spokesman for the Coordination Group of Guerrero, Roberto Alvarez, said the service had been discontinued since Monday. During Saturday and Sunday, several public transport buses that cover this area had been assaulted.

This Sunday, a threat was announced in social networks warning bus drivers to stop working. The population has also been asked to refrain from moving to or from the towns of Acapetlahuaya, Teloloapan and Buena Vista del Aire.


Attorney General of Tamaulipas offers reward for the capture of three organized crime capos

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

Subject Matter: Capos of CdG, Tamaulipas Government
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Reporter: Proceso Redaction
The Attorney General of Justice of Tamaulipas has offered up to 2 million pesos reward to whomever gives information leading to the capture of three alleged bosses of criminal groups, for their alleged responsibility in the crimes of extortion and criminal association.

They are: Luis Alberto Blanco Flores, El Pelochas or El M 28, Humberto or Steven Loiza Mendez Betillo, Betito, and Petronilo Moreno Flores, El Panilo.

In a communication: the Attorney General informed that in the towns of Reynosa and Rio Bravo there have been wanted posters put up with the faces of the alleged criminals. All three have attributed the responsibility for acts of violence in towns of Reynosa and Rio Bravo for the control of criminal activities.

Image from Epoca Violenta

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Monday, December 11, 2017

Aguila 7 of Los Zetas Old School, captured in Ciudad Victoria

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Tamaulipas Government press release

Subject Matter: Jorge Luis Torres Barron, Zeta Aguila 7
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required


Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas:
In an action carried out by elements of the Marines, Jorge Luis Torres Barron, alias Zeta Aguila 7, signalled as a member of a criminal group has been operating in Ciudad Victoria carrying out extortion of truck drivers and drug dealers, informed the coordination group for Tamaulipas.

During his arrest, authorities confiscated a van, 2 packets and 162 doses of a herb with the characteristics of marijuana, as well as 46 doses of white powder and 13 doses of rock, as well as an AK47 assault rifle, a pistol, spare magazines and ammunition, which were put at the disposition of the PGR.

The detained, signalled as a member of a criminal organization, was also being sought by the PGJ of Tamaulipas, who had arrest warrants against him for the crimes of extortion and criminal association, regarding his dedication in Ciudad Victoria to extorting drivers on transport routes.

With actions such as this, the Group for Coordination in Tamaulipas reaffirm their commitment to the recuperation of law and order and peace in the state of Tamaulipas, with the support of the armed forces and in collaboration with state and municipal authorities.