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

Saturday, November 6, 2010

More than 600 Soldiers Surrounded the Cartel Boss "Tony Tormenta"


A total of 660 members of the Navy of Mexico participated in the operation yesterday which resulted in the death of Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, alias "Tony Tormenta", a high ranking kingpin of the Gulf Drug Cartel.

The Secretary of the Navy said in a statement that a total of 660 military marines were deployed in the operation, and of these, 150 were in the first circle of action, supported by three helicopters and 17 armored vehicles.

In the gunfight four gunmen were killed that allegedly belonged to the inner circle of protection to "Tony Tormenta." Also killed were three marines while four others were wounded, said the Navy said in a statement.

A source explained that Mexican authorities had been following the trail of "Tony Tormenta" for the last six months and on Friday they received his location in a downtown neighborhood of Matamoros, a city bordering the United States, but when the first group of marines arrived, they were met with automatic gunfire and grenades.

This conflict unleashed a fierce gun battle which lasted for more than two hours, until the capo "Tony Tormenta", a native of Matamoros and at the age 48, finally fell.

Friday's daylong gunfights throughout Matamoros between cartel hit men and Mexican soldiers and marines plunged the city into chaos and panic, witnesses said, as armed men plowed through streets on the backs of pickup trucks.

Residents rushed in helter-skelter traffic to get home; many remained trapped in their offices. Cellphone service went down, further stoking fears as bursts of high-caliber weaponry could be heard for hours. International bridges into Texas were closed for a time.

Most of the fighting barely made a ripple in national news here in Mexico because local reporters in Tamaulipas, out of fear or corruption, have been trained to ignore cartel activities. Only when a journalist for a Matamoros newspaper was killed in the gun battle did the news begin to trickle out.

A source said that "Tony Tormenta" was one of the leaders to take control of the Gulf cartel in 2003, which has its influence on the east coast of Mexico, after his brother, Osiel Cardenas Guillen was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the United States.

The Mexican government considers the death of the Gulf cartel kingpin as a "significant" step in dismantling organized criminal groups "that have caused a lot of suffering to the people of our country," said the national security spokesman, Alejandro Poire.

In a press release read to the media, Poire congratulated the members of the Armed Forces who participated in the operation and expressed his deep condolences over the death of the soldiers "killed in the line of duty."

The Gulf cartel and the Zetas, once allies, have been disputing for the last couple of years in a bloody war for control of drug trafficking turf, which has left a bloodbath in its aftermath.

So far this year more than 10,000 people have been killed related to organized crime.

Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana Under the Law of the Narco

The massacres in rehabilitation centers in the cities of Tijuana and Juarez reveal corruption and inefficiency of the authorities and the similarity between victims and perpetrators: young people without hope or future.

Milenio Semanal

San Rafael cemetery workers, on the border of Ciudad Juarez, prepare graves for the bodies of 21 men and four women killed.

A commando raided a private party with gunfire at close range. 14 people were killed and others were wounded in the house where they were celebrating the birthday of a boy in colonial Horizontes del Sur in Ciudad Juárez. All the victims were young, four of them minors. Two children of ages 7 and 11, were injured in the attack.

Melquiades Hernandez Esparza, head of the rehabilitation center for drug addicts "El Camino a la Recuperación," this time in Tijuana, also heard gunshots in her center. From where she stood in the bedroom she managed to see four men wearing ski masks and assault rifles leaving the center.

The killers had left behind 13 dead bodies lying at the foot of a fence. The center is one of many that operate illegally in Tijuana. According to the State Health Department, there are at least 50 such places in the city, and the people know these centers see them growing in large numbers in neighborhoods where addicts proliferate.

Beyond the narco war and the conflict between competing drug organizations you find that impunity and violence is always behind these crimes, and they all have the same modus operandi that have become ingrained in the structures of the economic and political power in both cities: organized crime always operates in the shadows of corruption.

In the economic crisis plaguing Ciudad Juarez, the only business that has thrived over the past two years is drug trafficking.

The availability of drugs in the barrios is far from diminishing, on the contrary, it is thriving and growing, all despite the heavy presence of the military and federal police. The same happens in Tijuana, where it is estimated that small street drug dealers spreads over 5000 “tienditas” scattered throughout the city, a business that is estimated at 35 million dollars a month.

Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana have suffered the most in comparison to other cities, where the effects of social degradation caused by the drug trafficking business is a daily occurrence. This activity is operated by multinational cartels for profit who in attempt to destroy potential competitors, they generate many sadistic forms of violence that get more and more extreme and brutal.

The proliferation of crimes that organized crime is involved in includes extortion, kidnapping, auto theft, human trafficking, and the manufacturing and sales of piracy goods. According to recent statements made by the Secretary of the Interior Francisco Blake, the cartels have been substituting the economy for decades and to date organized crime controls at least 400 municipalities in the country.

On October 22 an armed commando stormed a party at Ciudad Juarez, leaving a toll of 14 dead and nine wounded.

The gains in funerals
In the cemetery of Juarez mass graves accumulate with bodies that no one can identify or claim, in fact just last year there were more than 800 such graves.

Laurencio Barraza talks about how every morning when he leaves his home to got to work at the "Organización Popular Independiente" he makes the cross across his face with his hand, because his office is located in the corner next to one of many of the "tienditas" belonging to the narcos who are found in every street in the center of the city.

In other words he makes the blessing because if he hopes to return home alive, it will only be by the grace of a higher power and certainly not as a result of the presence of the military, police or even the will of the narcos.

Gustavo Muñoz Hepo, former City Councilman, has real fear when he hears his cell phone ring. Anything can happen in a city where anyone can call (for example) the Latinoamericana funeral home at any moment to demand a percentage of the profits generated by the dead that a massacre has provided. Like other business owners who refused to pay, they set fire to their businesses.

Casa Amiga, founded by Esther Chávez Cano, the first person to denounce the atrocity of the so-called femicides, she is involved in the care of victims of domestic violence. Part of that care is to provide all the necessary therapies where patients not only talk about what ails them physically, but also of their problems and fears.

Irma Guadalupe Casas Franco, who is responsible for the operation of the center, said that the issues brought up during therapy has changed: women are no longer talking about the assaults, but of those killed in neighborhoods and also talk about acquaintances, friends and relatives that have been executed.

When I ask Elizabeth Flores, a member of the "Pastoral Obrera de la Diócesis de Ciudad Juárez" and someone who has lived in the city all her life, on what she thinks might be the worst of what has happened to Juarez in the last few years, she remains silent for a few moments, and looks out the window at the lonely street lit by the dull autumn sun and says with pain in her heart: "The people are running out of hope."

Funeral of one of the youth killed in Ciudad Juárez.

Geography of crime
Closed businesses abound both in downtown and the neighborhoods that surround it, as well as in the modern avenues where luxury hotels are located, a place where at one time, it saw a fleeting prosperity. At night the city's centro (plaza) is in a sordid state. The same place where a taxi driver dares to drive around during just in time to survey the sad scenes of this strange war. The taxi follows the same route marked by the geography of the crime in which Muñoz Hepo spoke of.

There have been complete neighborhoods that have been lost to the "picaderos" (houses and businesses where users buy and administer quick hits of illegal drugs).

The most representative case is La Bellavista, west of the city. This was a typical neighborhood where people worked in El Paso and managed to live here with a good standard of living. Due to the proximity of the international bridge, many people cross it every day to work on the other side. Today, that neighborhood is completely lost and is full of "picaderos."

There are also new neighborhoods, such as Guadalajara, located southeast of the city attempting to give life to a dying city. We must take into account that growth has overwhelmed the city that has generated neighborhoods without any service. That, in relation to drug use and drug trafficking, but there is also a place where the kidnappings and extortions proliferate: Paseo Triunfo de la República, the avenues Gomez Morin and Tomás Fernández, traditionally areas that are more developed commercially and economically, where you find offices, restaurants and more.

Many of these businesses have suffered a terrible onslaught by the crime, which has burned restaurants, hardware stores and even the Latinoamericana funeral home.

From the days of Prohibition in the United States, Juárez began a path that reaches New York and expands to different cities across the border. From a logistical standpoint, the city is a key point in drug trafficking operations.

In addition to its geographical location, it is connected by better roads: a long route north that crosses the U.S. and reaches Canada, two different train networks that extend to El Paso, and it also has five international border crossings: all this makes the crossing of goods across the border, legal and illegal, a lot easier.

Chasing the Drug Traffickers: Vanguard Sneak Peek


In this exclusive clip from the upcoming three-part Vanguard special, "War On the Border," correspondent Christof Putzel visits a Tucson morgue and sees firsthand the danger migrants face to cross from Mexico into the U.S.

In the first part of "War On the Border," Putzel travels to the U.S./Mexico border to investigate one of the most contentious issues in America today: immigration. Meeting with "coyotes," the hired smugglers who offer to take illegals across the border for a fee, Putzel learns the methods immigrants use to evade border patrol and the dangers they face on the journey.

Arrest and deportation are inherent risks, but the lack of water and scorching temperatures of the desert crossing are far more deadly. Those who do make it safely across the border face tightening immigration laws and an increasingly hostile public. Putzel ultimately crosses the border with a migrant and coyote.

"War On the Border" premieres on Current TV on Monday, November 15 at 9/8c.

"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Mondays at 9/8c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance.

Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.

For more, go to Vanguard.

Friday, November 5, 2010

CDG Crippled and Bleeding

Today the CDG was dealt a crippling blow.

It was inevitable considering all the heat that Matamoros had attracted over this past year. The Zetas finally achieved their goal, "calentar la plaza" so much that the government was eventually forced to deploy military units to police the failed state of Tamaulipas.

Over the past 2 months Tormenta was pushing his luck too much still roaming border town Matamoros despite all the attention that was brought on him by the governments. The moment that the US posted up bulletin boards in Brownsville asking for his head, he should of known better.

The Mexican government was under too much pressure as it was, and we all know that the Cartel wars only happen because the US government allows them to happen.

The moment the US puts its foot down, shit will cool off, but it hasn't because there is interest in the trade. What happened with RJR Nabisco? And who owned Nabisco? Nabisco was shut down because of so much shit, one of them being ties to Latin American cartels and money laundry.

Some of you guys laugh at the "fictional" idea of the US government being involved in the Cartel Wars in any way, but for all the skeptics out there, read up on RJR Nabisco and the US history. Because after all, History does repeat itself, doesn't it?

Today the CDG lost not only Tormenta, but also Metro 3, two very important figures in this war. I've been informed on other important figures but nothing concrete yet. I only hope that Cos has some good replacements to fill up those very big shoes, otherwise he's gona be in trouble. As I've always stated, Tormenta was never head of the Cartel.

Costilla was left in charge since all this started, the only thing bonding Tony to Costilla was mutual respect, Tony was given special privileges and powers because of who he was and the knowledge he had acquired over the years.

The CDG must mobilize if they don't want Matamoros overrun by Zetas again, as it is they already occupy Matamoros, hiding like roaches. I hope they know the game they're playing is Chess, not checkers, at this point it's either go all in and try to protect Matamoros or accept it's been lost.

If they do manage to lose Matamoros, it will be the second nail in their coffin. I fear for the people I know who roam that beautiful place. The way it was, you had to worry about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but speaking from experience and knowledge, the ones who where kidnapping people and hijacking cars where the few Zetas that would once in a while stir shit up.

I prey for my people, this has got to stop, something needs to be done. What? I don't know, but it preys on my heart that so many people are caught in the crossfire. I understand that this trade will never stop and that the government is behind a lot of it, but why can't they respect the innocent people, or get rid of them once and for all..

Stop playing games Calderon, throw some of your own dogs on the fire and calm shit down already, that's all it's going to take. Stop being greedy and let people do what they gota do, just implement a code of ethic, and don't try to soften the blow by covering it up with "war against drugs".. If people haven't figured it out right now, this isn't a war against drugs, and if you keep believing in that fucking fairy tale, then there's no hope for you.

I'm sorry I didn't have time to post up some pictures and try to make it attractive, that wasn't my goal. For those of you who managed to get through all my uneducated poor grammar, I will try to maintain a steady flow of postings again.

God bless you all..

-Maka

"Tony Tormenta's" death confirmed


Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen "Tony Tormenta"

The Naval Ministry has confirmed that Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillén, alias “Tony Tormenta”, one of the top capos of the Gulf cartel, shot and killed along with four of his henchmen in a battle in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

Cardenas had escaped capture this past September when a raid by Marines on a safehouse in Matamoros where he was staying was repulsed by his bodyguards, "Los Escorpiones".

Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the agency, declared that Cardena’s death has dealt a major blow to the structure and organization of the Gulf Cartel organization.

Ezequiel Cardenas was the brother of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the former head of the Gulf cartel and founder of “Los Zetas”, who is now imprisoned in the United States.

Since August the Army and Marines have intensified the search for the leaders of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Los Zetas are lead by Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano “El Verdugo” “El Lazca” and Miguel Angel Trevino Morales “Z-40” who is in charge of the Nuevo Laredo trafficking corridor. The Gulf Cartel is lead by Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez “El Coss”.

Other details will be posted as they become available




Akejandro Poire, National Security Council spokesman, announces the death of "Tony Tormenta"