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Saturday, January 2, 2016

'They arrived shooting': The search for fugitive Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' Guzmán has intensified

Posted by DD.  Republished from Business Insider

By Christopher Woody
 
REUTERS/Stringer     Mexican marines conducting a search operation to locate drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, at the neighborhood where he was detained in 2014, in Mazatlan, Mexico, south of Culiacan in Sinaloa state, on July 15.
Mexican security forces descended on a region in the country's northwest in October as part of a new phase in the search for fugitive Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

And now there are disturbing new details about that intensifying manhunt.

Guzmán remains free, but a recent report from Vice News details allegations that, in their fierce pursuit of the drug lord, Mexican marines attacked the homes of ranchers in a mountainous and rugged region of Durango state.

"It all happened on October 6," Gonzalo Peña, a farmer in Tamazula in Durango state, told Vice News. "A little before 8 a.m., we heard the choppers … They arrived shooting, I heard the shots from the choppers."

"And suddenly they disappeared, and then a plane showed up before me," Peña told Vice News. "I thought it was going to land, or just circle around. But no. It arrived shooting."
"I worried about getting killed right there," he said.





By now, the details of the effort to recapture Guzmán are almost as lurid as the drug kingpin's actual prison breakout.

After escaping on July 11, he flew northwest to a ranch in the remote, mountainous area of southwestern Durango state, near the border with Sinaloa.

Many, including a top official with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, suspected that Guzmán returned to Sinaloa after his escape. After Mexican authorities detected efforts to return the drug lord's daughters' pet monkey, Boots, to Durango, the manhunt was shifted to the region — a stronghold for the Sinaloa cartel nicknamed the Golden Triangle for its drug production.
 
Christopher Woody/Golden Triangle  Mexico's Golden Triangle, made up of parts of the Chihuahua, Durango, and Sinaloa states, is a stronghold of the Sinaloa cartel and an area of drug cultivation.
By early October, Mexican forces, purportedly with the aid of round-the-clock US intelligence gathering, had reportedly zeroed in on the Sinaloa chief, catching wind of what local news columnist Raúl Rodríguez Cortés described as a gathering of Sinaloa cartel bosses in the Sinaloa-Durango region.

A 'rain of bullets'

On October 6, the day Peña — the farmer in Tamazula — says helicopters attacked his home, officials said Guzmán was spotted in Durango state with his sons, seen both on a motorcycle and in a Ferrari.

The details Peña shared with Vice News are similar to those given in late October by Mexicans fleeing the area in which government forces were searching.

Marta Marbella, 32, told AFP that helicopters had also attacked her home. "I could see the helicopter stop and shoot directly at the house," she said. "I was scared, screamed and cried, although I knew it was useless."

A truck damaged by gunfire pictured at the El Aguila ranch, in the municipality of Tamazula, Durango State, on October 18.
 Francisca Quintero Sanchez told AFP that the "rain of bullets" prompted her to hide under a bed with her three children.

"It was a time of terror, fear that they would kill us," she said. "Their uniforms said 'Marina' (Navy). Some think we're stupid because we are ranchers, but we know how to read and write."

Photos that filtered out after the attack showed homes and cars riddled with bullets. When Peña returned to his property with Vice News in late December, the sheet-metal roof of his home bore numerous bullet holes, and he seemed visibly pained to see his truck, which was shot up and torched.

A burned truck at the Comedero Colorado ranch, in the municipality of Tamazula, Durango State, on October 18. Getty Image
 On October 9, Mexican marines reportedly chased Guzmán after spotting him near the Sinaloa town of Cosalá, which is roughly 75 miles from Tamazula. The fugitive drug lord was able to escape, but he is believed to have injured himself in a fall, breaking his leg and sustaining a facial wound.

In a video posted October 11, a woman told the local news outlet El Debate that whoever attacked the homes "didn't care there were children … when we least expected the helicopter [appeared] … and we told each other that it was just passing by, as always, when [suddenly] it turned back and started to shoot a rain of bullets."

As the woman told El Debate, the appearance of a military helicopter in the skies above the area was not uncommon, but that it would attack was unexpected. Peña echoed this sentiment when he spoke with Vice News.

"They've come trying to get information, but you don't know anything, and they try to get it out forcefully, and that's normal, but never shooting," he said. "I don't know why they would come this time with such aggression," he added.
AFP photo
 In the days after the attacks, about 600 villagers from the Tamazula municipality had fled to Cosalá, according to the town's mayor, Samuel Lizárraga Valverde, who noted that many of those fleeing were children. Many of them had walked for days to reach the town.
 
"We were walking in the dark because where there was light, they would start shooting. It was firing from all sides," Ines Ayon Mendoza, Gonzalo Peña's wife, told AFP in Cosalá.

'What if they come shooting again?'

The Mexican government has released few comments about the alleged attacks on homes in Tamazula, issuing a statement 10 days after the attack detailing the raid.

While the Mexican secretariat of the navy declined to be interviewed by Vice News on camera, a spokesman cast doubt on the locals' account, saying the damage to the homes was not consistent with a helicopter encounter and suggesting that the people on the ground were involved with the Sinaloa cartel.

AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo.  Guzmán inside a federal police helicopter at a navy hanger in Mexico City on February 22, 2014.
Though the Sinaloa region is home to many people who profess support for Guzmán, Peña insisted that he and those living near him had no dealings with the fugitive cartel boss or his associates; Peña also told Vice News he was not armed the day of the attack.

Peña did, however, acknowledge that he sometimes grew marijuana and poppy crops, a practice that is common in the region. Like farmers in Guerrero state who produce opium, however, farmers in the Golden Triangle are often just suppliers and have little influence over or input into where their products go.

While details of the October encounter between ranchers and Mexican marines remain scarce, the fears of those involved are still strong. Most of them have remained in Cosalá, where they struggle to find work and supplies.

REUTERS/Daniel Becerril   A protester at a march to protest the arrest of Guzmán in Culiacan on February 26, 2014. The sign reads, "Chapo is a defender and protector of the people, we demand his freedom."

For Peña, who has neither the resources of Guzmán nor, apparently, the support of his government, the uncertainty is ever present.

"I'd like to go back to the ranch, but what if they come shooting again?" he told Vice. "You live with the fear that you don't know how things are."

Deadly encounters

The Mexican military has maintained a heavy and active presence in the area since the October incidents.

In mid-December, Mexican marines occupied Guzmán's hometown of La Tuna, located in Sinaloa's Badiraguato municipality, and where Guzmán's mother still lives.

It was not immediately clear what Mexican troops were doing in the town, and Alejandro Hope, the security and justice editor at El Daily Post, suggested they were either acting on a hunch that Guzmán might show up there or hoping that their presence in the town would force the fugitive drug lord into making a mistake.
Christopher Woody/Google Maps Badiraguato, in central Sinaloa, is where Guzmán is from and is still the home of some of his family members.

A few days after the troops moved into the town, the local newspaper Rio Doce reported that eight men, believed to be working for one of Guzmán's brothers, had been killed in a shootout, though the circumstances surrounding their deaths were not reported.

On Saturday, the Mexican navy said a ground patrol and a helicopter had taken fire from criminals in Badiraguato. The helicopter sustained damage, and two of the attackers were killed, but their suspected criminal affiliations were not clear.

Mexican forces recovered six weapons that "by their ballistic characteristics are of the exclusive use of the Armed Forces," the government said in a release, adding that 4 1/2 tons of marijuana, packaged for transport, was recovered and destroyed

Christopher Woody/Google Maps  Mexican marines were attacked while on patrol in Angostura, a town in western Sinaloa. Two marines and the attacker were killed.
 On Monday, a marine patrol was attacked again, this time in the streets of Angostura, a town near the Sinaloa coast north of Culiacán, the state capital. Two marines were killed, as was the attacker, a man who Sinaloa prosecutors said had a criminal record, according to El País.







































68 comments:

  1. Thats why chapo gave the order to shoot at the marines because if theres something he loves is his family and his people of the towns where he operates, i can tell you all chapo is sad and mad to see innocent people get shot by marines because they are chasing him , why because he wants to feed his family ? Its that a crime ? Then we all should be in jail, lot of chapo haters and other cartel ass lickers will say other wise
    -Chapo Chief Of Security-

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    1. If he is so darn sad to see innocent dying, then he should turn himself in. There is no justification for crime to feed your family. No everyone should not be in jail. People are working real jobs to feed their families. Living non-criminal lifestyles to do it. I don't care what sick mind frame you are in. Chapo is a criminal, murderer, extortionist, kidnapper and everything else. That is not the resume of a hard working man that wishes to feed his family honestly. As for myself, no I do not hate him because he wants to feed his family. I hate him for killing folks that may wish to feed theirs. Just because he does not pull the trigger or yield the machete, does not mean he is not responsible. His money pay the scum that do it. Caring about only his community and killing up the ones that aren't his is no good deed. You need to get your head examined if you cannot determine right from wrong. Murder is wrong. Only one powerful source that folks should praise and that day will come when they realize that should have.

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    2. With the technology that the US CIA has its a safe bet they already know where he is, the only thing is the mexican government refuses US help at this point. If the US really wanted el chapo dead they will find him. The hard part for el chapo is that he will never know who is a spy for the CIA and who is not but the CIA knows who he is so they are bound to kill him eventually. Bin laden took a years to find but once the U.S. found him they just shot him.

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    3. He's gotten his family killed son,brother.if he really cared he would give up but he doesn't.he can care less about anybody but him self get him out ur mouth n think of all the innocent ppl he's killed

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    4. To be honest the excuse that he just wants to feed his family was invalid years ago. He's got enough money for him and his family forever. But he can't quit mentally. Yes he has looked after people in the mountains. He does give them protection and buy their crops. However I wouldn't say that he is that 'sad and mad' for innocent people dying. BTW your not his chief of security. That title was made up by the mexican government so that they can say they are arresting important people even when they are not. Every year they say they arrested Chapo's 'chief of security'.

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    5. STFU Chapo already has the money to "feed" his family. If he was gone or out of the business his family and all his descendents would have enough money to eat for generations. Everything he did since starting the wars with all other cartels is greed only not necessity. Dont try and bullshit that Chapo still needs more than what he already has!

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    6. Whats surprising is that even with all this show of force not even Zambada has been captured much less Chapo. But of course this is only a show. Chapo is well protected by the American DEA and maybe even the CIA.

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    7. I agree... Forget all these hatin comments... People has perfected hate nowadays... Smdh

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    8. Has anybody asked themselves why a name like the antrax vrus was chosen for an armed wing of that cartel????

      Is 6:22 a webbot or what

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    9. it's not hating, it's reality. pendejo!

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    10. The CIA and DEA are afraid of El Chapo. They can't seem to make a dent. Furthermore, he has a BIG family when you include the many people in the Golden Triangle who feel he has their backs, so yes he needs the $$ to support that family. At least he doesn't boil people in acid like the defunct Knights Templar.

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    11. To all the chapo cheering fans chapo he's no good man you don't clime to being the head of the most powerful cartel by beaing humanly good he's a pyscopath manipulating lier deceiver greedy leprechaun hrs the reason mexico is at war he started this war with the govs help remember the media gave him this false image thanks to the gov .it's another cia PSYOPS operation and his there pupet just as freeway ross was back then ... just look at the farmers who live in his birth place you see no money trace his a greedy leprechaun. ...what do you think happens to the ppl.who make the tunels you think they get to go home he takes advantage of ppl and his fake image to lure ppl to get relax that everything will b OK at the end the only payment they will recive it's lead my friend!!!! HE'S EVIL HE'S LEARN ARTS OF WAR AT BEST EVIL BASTARDO THE FUCK ED UP THING ABT ALL THIS IS THAT THE MASTER PUPPET IS THE GOV

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  2. El infierno espera a Chapo.

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  3. Mexican mayor shot witin hours of taking office.

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    1. @6:41. Be patient amigo. that story will up shortly.

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    2. You guys at BB are great, wasn't trying to be pushy. Just thought it might go under the radar.

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    3. @11:31. I didn't think you were being pushy, we appreciate news tips from readers.

      Valor has had that story up in draft form since it happened. I suspect he has held off publishing while he is trying to get more details.

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  4. We had this story now how many times!!! damn bb administrators get off chapos nuts!!!what about all the recent dismemberments going on in tamaulipas and michoacan sh!t is getting crazy and all you want to talk about is chapo this chapo that!!

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    1. #7:59. I think you might have missed a few stories lately. Just scanning those in Dec. I found 4 related to chapo in some way. There were 9 related to Tamaulipas, NL, Coah., Veracruz, 12 related to Mich.and Guerrero, and a scattering of others around the country.
      Like him or not, Chapo makes news.

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    2. Yes, this site is going to hell, if they're not going to take this serious...

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    3. DD is right. Chapo is a key person in the mexican drug war, maybe the most important. The legitimacy and professionality of the so called manhunt for him tells us so much about the rest of the mexican drug war and the government.

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    4. Boots the monkey's story was proven to be bull a long time ago, around the time the article first appeared.

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    5. @7:59 you can't talk or think about narco news without CHAPO it's not nut hugging its reality all news on bb should be about chapo it never gets old that's what people want to read about

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    6. Los enemigos del chapo are LUCKY HE ESCAPED...
      --wounded on the face and on the head, with a broken leg and the other missing, el chapo left his broke ass truck behind and escaped by sliding downhill like shit from the mexican governing narco-mierdocracia...if he had slid down the himalayas, he could be living now in the white house, singing to Obama's big ears "yo tengo talento, muncho talento"...

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    7. No chapo is the lucky one that's if the incident actually happened wich I doubt how do they know he's hurt in the face he's not the only criminal in that area you know OH GRINGOS GRINGOS STEP OUTSIDE THE BOX FOR A LITTLE BIT

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    8. 12:57 needs his coke bottle bottom glasses to recognize "sarcasm", I forget to label sech as such...

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  5. Algo paso en culiacan anda la raza muy brava nadie los puede parar es pura raza pesada ajuaaaa atte: el pollo loco de choix

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    1. Pero unas viejas bien buenas si los puede "parar".

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    2. Yo creo k ni unas viejas en tanga los puede parar.

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    3. Solo el de abajo se para.

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    4. 3:26 y la de atras tamién se para

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    5. 2:41 a chinga como esta eso no entiendo?

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  6. They caught the white milk guy !

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    1. 8:42pm Who is that?

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    2. El Guero Leches is a nobody, the news make him seem bigger than what he really was.

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  7. The navy know the people of that region knew where chapo was around that time, everybody that lives on the golden triangle has something to do with drug production, smuggling or selling drugs to cds. Even the guy they interviewed said so himself and said it was normal for people on that region to do that and now they claim they are victims? Why not grow beans, corn, vegetables or wheat? Because they are greety, that's why. I have no sympathy for those people because I come from a place in Mexico where people choose to grow what they will, drugs or to feed family. The greedy ones want fast money so they grow drugs. THEY ARE NOT VICTIMS. Go cry to your moma!

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    1. 9:28 nafta left no options but grow drugs for the US business, now the US business wants that too, but nexican narco has gone to the US and shoot government officers families houses a lo pendejo just because they KNOW where their debtors lie and hide away...
      --if they know where el chapo is, why do they have to shoot up other people's houses and families or murder family members before waterboarding toake them "tell" all they know?
      --could it be that terrorizing everybody is what it is all about?

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  8. This whole Mexican dope deal is getting to be like the Twlight Zone. It is simple crazy--mental hospital crazy!If Mexico can't get it together. UN should just pass a resolution calling Mexico a protected criminal state. Countries should restrict travel and squeeze Mexico politically. Send the UN hired killers to wiped out--the "vertical leadership." Spread some more big reward $$ around, drop leaflets and use Germany style propaganda.

    If politicians don't respond with action then the people will have to rise civilly and hunt them all down. Starting with all their neighborhood thugs and up to meth labs.

    Mexico brick is a joke. Let that go--heroin will slowly diminish as cannabis is legalized in US. Meth is the big issue and those Chinese--still shipping their chemicals to Mexico. Chinese are a greedy bunch and their own people are poor much like Mexico. In fact, China may be poorer.

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    1. "heroin will slowly diminish as cannabis is legalized in US"

      -- eh?

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    2. Have read those addicted to pain pills are getting over the hump with pot. Wonder if there will be a correlation between decreased heroin use and pot legalization.

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    3. pot has been far less a crime than heroin here in texas for many decades . In the 90's kids in the plano area were falling over like poisoned rats from heroin od . If its available they will get on it . I cant imagine a heroin addict waking up one day and just changing to pot while he in defecating and regurgitating liquid until it is dry heaves at each end top and bottom from the middle outward. His head bones and whole body aches , his asshole is RAW . Really don't think my description can explain the reality . He will take anything including weed hoping for relief but will throw everything away for more heroin.
      That's why I have no sympathy for the "honest hard working" opium cultivator that gets shot at by the cops .
      Treat the fuckers like the criminals they are.

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    4. The UN has sold out to the worst of the worst political manipulators, amerikkkan foreign and domestic vulture capitalistas and their voodoo economics, that helps the world being as facked up as it is, and facking up the world is Ford's formula for success, JOB #1 Since Henry Ford was born, and let's remember he was one of the main Nazi Collaborator and user of mob enforcers on the US...
      --forget about the UN enforcing anything like decency anywhere in the world.

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  9. Do they really think he will come out ?hes done never again will they know of his where abouts why do you think there is no order with in the Sinaloa cartel he can't trust no one the gov will lie and say he was murdered in a few years maybe even a couple months he will never come to control what was his for fear of being taken to the U.S att el padre del pendejo de navolato

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  10. I saw a mexican crime statistics map that showed the murder rate around the country and the most violent place of the past 6 months was by far the 'golden triangle, sinaloa and other areas of Sinaloa cartel turf. It makes me question how much power El Chapo has and how strong CDS really is. By DEA accounts it's very strong but everything points to dismay within the cartel. Stratfor, who do intelligence, say that the cartel is nothing like it used to be and that Chapo is nowhere near has powerful as he was years ago. On the other hand he was able to escape so he must still be a powerful guy. Thoughts anyone? (Please no bias towards one cartel).

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    1. ... Personally, Stratfor Has Some Intelligence On Track ... But Some Information Is Like They Are Just Posting Up Info, Just To Post ... Not All 100% Facts, Which Makes You Think If Some Other Agency Has "Influence" As To What Is Or Can Be Published By Them ... The Federation Is Powerful, Contains Many Important Figures , Structure Is In Place And All Members Are Skilled At Playing Chess ... Think Of Them As A Powerful Secret Society ...

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    2. If data mining is taking place here how easy is it 4 analysts 2 gauge the people's opinion? Regardless of who you favor many things can be learned and assimilated 4 a PURPOSE. It behoves everyone here 2 leave your electronics at home when engaging your enemy in the field. - El Soldado Perdido

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  11. Mr guzman has nothing to worry about, everything is under control. He has too much power.. they won't catch him slipping again. By the way mencho will be caught in early 2016. I say around april.. atte el morroñis de la palma navolato, sinaloa ajuuaa.

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    1. Our people is fucked up stop chearleading for any organized crime it's just sad how our people turn into pongase las pilas morronis pendejo sinajotos

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    2. Yea yea. U also said the sambada kids were getting out last year.

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    3. I'll hold you to that. Please tell me how you know all this stuff?

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    4. 7:01 your just a chapo cheer leader and don't know shit! I don't know why they keep putting your stupid comments here lol

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    5. You guys are just hating on me.. remember freedom of speech? Atte el morroñis de la palma navolato, sinaloa ajuuaa.

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    6. Chapo wont bee seen for a while, and i too was told , mencho was history soon.but know this sinaloa cartel has a lot families under the radar so if chapo gets caught or killed that wont matter you all know that.anything can happen. This is a feud between brothers, i doubt chapo or guano would lay a hand to each other they would go at it with their peiple and alot will fall down. ATTE CHAPODAMASORDEN

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    7. dios aluminalo peri no lo encandiles! pobre morronis esta todo tonto

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    8. 5:00PM

      I remember freedom of speach and it's completely irrelevant in your case. Do you even know what it really means?

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    9. Hey, el morroñis is just enjoying his trip, while it lasts, now that el Señor de Sinaloa has been cogido, the spin will be about when he will escape again, and that is better than positive propaganda about anything "peña nieto" and his murdering regime that is just going all claws for the CDS business, they need the money, they sold pemex and need to replace the income, aye? Aaight???
      --Same thing happened to arturo beltran leyva and la barbie or los setas, or cartel de guadalajara...

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  12. Guilty by association: just like if you live next to a crack house you are guilty too!

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  13. Can Mexico risk killing Chapo ? If Chapo is killed will Sinaloa cartel breakup into many small gangs ? This so called war on drugs is a messy and complicated affair.

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  14. Chapo will be left in place to maintain harmony on the northern border. Chapo is a plant and should be able to continue his business as long as the violence does not escalate. If violence increases Chapo will be no more.

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    1. why do people think chapo creates harmony? they clearly don't know shit lol

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    2. 40 years on the business speak for ELCHAPO...
      80 YEARS ON THE BUSINESS speak for CDS...
      3 YEARS OF MURDERS AND KIDNAPPINGS SPEAK FOR PEÑA NIETO,
      30 THOUSAND DISAPPEARANCES and 60 thousand murders

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  15. Opinions vary . Thought this was what it was all about. Mine get edited . Or some don't get on here anyway . Just putting into question how innocent the "innocent" are sometimes .

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    1. BB HAS BEEN INVADED BY BLACKWATER AND OTHER US, UK AND MEXICAN DESINFORMERS, BUT LET'S WORK AROUND THAT...
      --see, 12:24, your comment has been posted, and that is very good, just keep trying

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    2. @12:24. You are correct - opinions vary. We encourage and welcome differing opinions that foster civil discussion and debate.
      I have no way of knowing which comments you are referring to, but you are mistaken when you say your comments get edited. I don't have the power to edit a comment, only the option to delete or publish it. I wish that I could edit comments because sometimes there is a good comment except the author cannot refrain from not only expressing his opinion, he/she feels he has to bash the person he is disagreeing with or call him/her names. You can say another persons comment is stupid or ill informed, but you can's call the other person stupid or ignorant. If a comment is only about bashing, whether it is another commentator, a country or a state, a religion, or for that matter Borderland Beat, or if you can't construct a sentence without using a lot of profanity, it will likely not see the light of day.

      As I said, I have no way of knowing what comments that didn't get published that you are complaining about, but if you have a complaint about my moderating please feel free to email me.

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    3. I guess I mispoke when I said editing . Delete must be the wright phrase . Just questioning many people claiming to be victims in the high drug production areas

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  16. The sinaloa cartel won't break up if chapo is caught/killed chapo is leader of his group the sinaloa cartel is a federation there is no main boss just partners that's my understanding

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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