Information Warfare Conducted By Armed Groups In Mexico

 "Enojon", "Pernicious Propaganda" and "Char" for Borderland Beat 

Photograph By VendettaTamaul1 on Twitter (Banner placed by 'Los Chapitos' of the Sinaloa Cartel Threatening National Guard personnel)

Read More

Live Thread: José Ángel Canobbio Inzunza 'El Güerito' Captured in Culiacan, Sinaloa

 Borderland Beat Contributors 

Photograph By Omar Hamid García Harfuch on X (Post capture photograph of Inzunza)

Read More

'La Mayiza' Alleges Government Corruption Ring Through Flyers in Culiacán, Sinaloa

  "Enojon" and "Pernicious Propaganda" for Borderland Beat 

On December 23rd of 2024, flyers would warn Omar Hamid García Harfuch, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, of an alleged corruption ring within the State Government of Sinaloa. The flyers were thrown out of a plane that flew over various points of Culiacán, Sinaloa. 

Watermarked with the logo of Ismael Zambada Sicairos 'El Mayito Flaco,' leader of the 'La Mayiza' faction of the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS), the message identified Government officials, and their family members that were allegedly involved in the corruption ring. The flyers urged Secretary Harfuch to launch an operation over the claims. The criminal organization would threaten to go after those they deem to be 'guilty' such as: 

- Enrique Díaz Vega, Secretary of Administration and Finances. 

- José Paz López Elenes, Mayor of Badiraguato. 

- Enrique Inzunza Cázarez, a member of the Senate of the Republic of Mexico. 

- Jose Rocha Ruiz, the youngest Son of Governor Rocha. 

- Alejandra Sofía Valadés Pelayo, the Wife of Ruiz. 

- Rubén Rocha Moya, the Governor of Sinaloa. 

- Eneyda Rocha Ruiz, the Daughter of Governor Moya, and the Director of the System for Integral Family Development of the State of Sinaloa. 

- Rubén Rocha Ruiz, the oldest Son of Governor Moya.

Photograph By Los Revoltosos Mazatlán (Flyer alleging a corruption ring within the Government of Sinaloa)

Read More

SUV With Anti-Drone Armor Seized After Shootout in Costa Rica Town of Culiacan, Sinaloa

 "Enojon" and "Char" for Borderland Beat 

Photograph By Link Sinaloa TV (A modified white Chevrolet Suburban) 

Read More

The Symbology Used By Criminal Organizations In Mexico

  "Enojon" and "Char" for Borderland Beat 

(Alleged 'Los Chapitos' gunmen burning a MZ embossed hat)

Read More

Sinaloa Government Websites Hacked and Defaced With Threats Against Governor

 "Enojon" for Borderland Beat 

Image By: Batt1eborn on Twitter (Screenshot of COBAES website)

The website's for the Tax Administration Service of Sinaloa (SATES) and the Bachelor's College of the State of Sinaloa (COBAES) faced an attack on September 15th where hackers defaced the sites with threats against Ruben Rocha Moya, the Governor of Sinaloa, claiming more deaths will occur if he returns to the State. 

Read More

Los Chapitos Threaten FESC Officials Through Handwritten Banner In Mexicali, Baja California

 "Enojon" For Borderland Beat

Image By: Villalugo Informa (Image of banner hanging from pedestrian bridge)

Read More

Exposing the Carrasco Narco Family of 'Los Chapitos'

 "Enojon", "Char", "HEARST", "Crux1469" For Borderland Beat

Early Sunday morning, June 23, 2024, Los Noticieristas, Luz Noticias, and Ríodoce news sites based out of Sinaloa reported a heavy armed confrontation in the small community of Sanchez Celis syndicate of El Dorado, Sinaloa. The armed clashes started at about 5am on various videos published heavy caliber gun sounds could be heard and as more news reports came in, it was confirmed that Mexican Military Special Forces were conducting a raid against an organized crime leader. That crime figure was ‘El Chore,’ a criminal leader and member of 'Los Chapitos' or 'Los Menores' faction of Sinaloa Cartel. 

Initial reports alleged the deaths of Raul Carrasco Lechuga Aka “El Chore” along with six to seven gunmen, but information could not be verified as bodies needed to be identified. On Monday June 24, 2024, Los Noticieristas confirmed the death of El Chore along six others so a total of seven deaths. 

Read More

In Narco Banners, Los Chapitos Faction of Sinaloa Cartel Announce Ban on Fentanyl in Sinaloa

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

Several plastic narco banners signed by "Los Chapitos" banning the "sale, manufacturing, or transport of fentanyl" were found hanging from public places around Sinaloa this Monday morning. 

Read More

Guadalupe y Calvo Ongoing Battles for Drug Smuggling Routes - 11 Die

Borderland Beat

El Diario and various media outlets reported last summer, during July and August, that the entire police force of Guadalupe y Calvo deserted when gunmen from the Sinaloa cartel  overtook the area. 

"Last night the municipal police ran out, everyone left,  like 40 policemen, including commanders and principals, all surrendered their weapons and left because the gunmen threatened them and right now there is nobody to care for citizens".

"We are very afraid, no police and we are at the mercy of thugs, because there are just a few of the Judicial police who we do not want to leave..."

"Here the army does nothing, there are armed people everywhere, we know that there are many of Sinaloa gunmen but they do not stop them,  "We need help, the authorities know that the citizens of Guadalupe y Calvo are in danger."

Towns people also said that for months the criminal group of Joaquin  El Chapo",Guzman Loera, " was maintaining control of Guadalupe y Calvo, and that between 26 and 29 of July they took up arms to all agents, who charged 10,000 pesos per weapon to recover.

This information was denied by the Attorney General. In a statement, the agency reported that "there is no evidence on that group, no incidents have been reported, while they continued the ordinary coordinating with state forces military personnel stationed in the region of Chihuahua.

Friday and Saturday was the same repeat insecurity scenario in Guadalupe y Calvo

In what's become an all too common turn of events for the community of Guadalupe y Calvo, who once  again submitted to the violent gunmen who blocked streets, killed citizens. They burned two houses and fought in skirmishes until Sat. morning.  Eleven people died in different neighborhoods and there's an unknown number of wounded.

Around 19:00 pm, masked men armed with assault rifles, closed streets around a town plaza, entered two homes and executed two men,  later set fire to two houses that were located in the same area.

Throughout the night, without the support of military, municipal or ministerial police officers, clashes continued at several points in the town, where the dead and wounded were left behind.

In the morning, three more people were killed outside wake visiting facility which already had the bodies of the first victims.

The situation was considered a security emergency.  General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, official Mayor of Sedena from the Office of National Defense ordered troops to the mountainous area

At noon on Saturday Dec. 8th, convoys of soldiers from the 42nd Military Zone based in Parral were moving towards the town of Guadalupe y Calvo.

Sources in the Southern Zone, based in Parral, confirmed the death of eleven people, and noted that it would be from clashes between rival drug groups and claims arising from the breach of agreements at the end of the year.

The village is in an area considered a  'war' zone between drug gangs from the Sierra, which are contesting the routes for the smuggling of drugs.

Due to the number of men,  and the type of weapons used by those who were assaulting the town, the Ministry of Defense ordered to take over the safeguarding operation of the people of Guadalupe y Calvo and the prosecution of the criminals.

The village has endured various similar versions of this same story, as recently as a month ago a commando kidnapped a young man, son of one of the strongest candidates PRI municipal president.

The ten thousand villagers are terrified by the lack of security, and dismayed by the death toll of the clashes. Among the victims of the most recent flare up was a 17 year old.

Universal reports in summary, at least eleven people were shot dead by suspected criminals in the northern Mexican town of Guadalupe y Calvo , located in the Sierra Tarahumara, the state of Chihuahua, northern Mexico, authorities reported today 

Friday night six people were killed in two separate events and five others yesterday, apparently by the presence of a criminal group in the town, home to 10,000 people,

In the first incident occurred on Friday, three men aged 17, 22 and 37 years were killed by gunmen and were attacked hours later two more than 35 years each, and one of 40, told EFE spokesman Prosecution Chihuahua, Carlos Gonzalez. 

Villagers polled by Reuters said the access roads to the town were closed by gunmen who apparently entered several houses to kidnap local people. One of the kidnapped men was later found dead and identified as Rogelio Ponce Rodríguez, 40.

Local residents reported that one of the groups that took over the town fled in the direction of the highest parts of the Sierra...

Jornada, El Diario, Universal, El Tiempo, elmonitorparral.com,Objectivoradio, Lainfo 

Read More

Narcomanta Indicates El Mayo Betrayed M1

Borderland Beat

First version of manta I couldn't read that well

 Clear "narconotas" "fingering" Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada appeared early this morning in different parts of the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa.   The messages accuse "el Mayo" one of the leaders of Cartel de Sinaloa, of betraying his alleged right hand man cell leader Manuel Torres Felix as well as Mario Aguirre and Lamberto Verdurgo. 

"Mayo me dejaste sola ya traias el plan de chingarme a igual que a Mario Aguirre y Lamberto Verdurgo y asi presentar trabajo a no los chinguen a UDS pero ya luego te espero  en el infierno.  Attn Manuel Torres"

"Mayo you left me alone you already had the plan to fuck me, Mario Aguirre y Lamberto Verdugo, and present work-meet a deadline- so you won't get fucked Then I'll wait for you or expect you in hell Attn: Manuel Torres"

Ironically the banners are signed by Manuel Torres Felix better known as "el Ondeado" or "M1."  Manuel Torres Felix was killed in an alleged confrontation with military personnel last Saturday, October 13. There have been reports that Torres Felix had been killed and delivered to the military.

M1 coverage

The Narcomantas were found on footbridges on Emiliano Zapata in the vicinity of Lomas Boulevard more at the foot of of "La Lomita" Catholic Church and another by  the Military College on Calzada Heroico. (PME) made quick work of removing the narcomantas from their locations.

 Additional info. and a clearer photo visit 777 out back in the Forum

Blue Nopal

Read More

El Chapo's 31 yr. Old Daughter Held in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — U.S. officials say the daughter of one of the world’s most sought-after drug lords has been arrested on suspicion of trying to enter the United States on someone else’s passport.

Medical Registration with (SEP) for Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salaza

Documentation

Partial Update

Chicago Tribune (Reuters) - The daughter of Mexico's most notorious drug kingpin was being held in the United States after her arrest at the border last week, a U.S. official said on Wednesday, while the woman's lawyer declined to confirm her parentage and said she was not cooperating with authorities. 

According to the DEA ,the daughter of 'El Chapo' confessed her real name, inputted into the U.S. government database verified the relationship to the most wanted drug traffickers in Mexico and the United States.

                                                                      Univision

DD's Who is
Alejandrina Giselle Guzmán is the daughter of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, as confirmed by the  Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA, for its acronym in English) according to  biometric data such as fingerprints, reported Proceso magazine. 

In a testimony before the court, Alex Vanegas, the agent who arrested the alleged drug dealer's daughter, said the woman was identified with an electronic system used after she attempted to enter the United States through San Diego, California, reported DNA website Politico. 

For identification system was used "Ident" comparing the iris and fingerprint data from the Department of State when providing visas, national bank antidelictivo FBI and HSD.
This statement was filed Monday as evidence in federal court in San Diego, when Guzman was presented. There were no reports of this hearing to the press.
the official surmised that she probably thought that the authorities would be reluctant to hold someone with special medical needs. A fingerprint examination indicated that she was in a database of the U.S. government on immigration violators, but gave no details. 

However, Alejandrina Giselle Guzman Salazar has no criminal record in the country or charged with any crime, except a violation of immigration laws by attempting to enter the United States with false documents.

Alejandrina Giselle was arrested last Friday 12 October at the checkpoint in San Ysidro, south of San Diego and the border city of Tijuana.
An immigration judge set for October 25 as the date to review her case. The woman, seven months pregnant, will be deported as soon as possible to avoid having a child in the American union, the arrested confessed the plan. She is being retained in immigration until that date arrives and the judge will review her legal status.
SAN DIEGO –  The arrested daughter of one of the world's most sought-after drug lords, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, is not offering authorities any clues and has been "a dead end" in the search for her elusive father.

Alejandrina Gisselle Guzmán Salazar, 31, was charged Monday with fraud and misuse of visas, three days after authorities arrested her at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry, the nation's busiest border crossing.

The official said Guzmán Salazar has been "a dead end" in the search for the leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation that has not been made public.

Border inspectors interviewed Guzmán Salazar for about a half-hour, during which time she volunteered that Guzmán was her father and that she was six months pregnant, the official said. She didn't say why she offered the information but the official speculated that she may have bet been betting authorities would be reluctant to bear the additional costs of holding someone with special medical needs.

Guzmán Salazar's mother is Maria Alejandrina Hernandez Salazar, the official said

Maria Alejandrina Hernandez Salazar

The U.S. Treasury Department described Hernández Salazar as Joaquín Guzmán's wife when it imposed financial sanctions on her in June.

The Complaint against Guzmán Salazar

The complaint said Guzmán Salazar attempted to enter the country on foot Friday, impersonating someone with a non-immigrant visa contained in a Mexican passport. It said a fingerprint scan indicated she is in a U.S. government database of previous immigration violators but was not more specific.

Guzmán Salazar told authorities intended to go to Los Angeles to give birth to her child, according to the complaint.

A typical sentence for such a violation is two to six months in custody, Guadalupe Valencia, one of her attorneys, said Tuesday. He said his client is a medical doctor from Guadalajara and is seven months pregnant.

Guzmán Salazar hired Valencia and Jan Ronis, attorneys with histories of representing clients accused of links to organized crime. A bail hearing is scheduled Oct. 25.

The Sinaloa cartel, named after the Pacific coast state of the same name, controls trafficking along much of the U.S. border with Mexico, particularly in Western states.

Authorities in the U.S. and Mexico have said they believe Guzmán has children with several partners, though it's not clear how many. The U.S. Treasury Department has put sanctions on sons Ivan Archivaldo "El Chapito" Guzmán Salazar, 31, and Ovidio Guzmán Lopez, 22.

Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 26, was indicted with his father on multiple drug trafficking charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 2009.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was placing financial sanctions on Guzmán's wife, Griselda López Pérez. The department said at the time that she "plays a key role" in the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman Family Tree

López Pérez was the second wife of Guzmán designated under the U.S. Kingpin Act, which bars U.S. citizens from making business transactions with that person and allows authorities to freeze their assets in the United States.

The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Guzmán's wife — former beauty queen Emma Coronel — traveled to Southern California and gave birth to twin girls at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. The newspaper said Coronel, then 22, holds U.S. citizenship, which entitles her to travel freely to the U.S. and to use its hospitals.

Yesterday's take


SAN DIEGO.- The daughter of Guzmán, Alejandrina Giselle Guzmán Salazar, was presented this Tuesday amidst a highly secure operation before the Federal Court in San Diego, U.S.  

During the presentation, the customs agent that stopped her, Alex Vanegas, gave his testimony to the court. He said that an electronic identification system was the one that revealed the true identity of the daughter of the leader of the Cartel of Sinaloa, fugitive since 2001.  

Vanegas detailed that Guzmán Salazar presented a Mexican passport with a visitor's permit that he immediately noted was false, which he subsequently escorted her to a more detailed inspection.  

The woman was submitted to an electronic identification system that compares the iris of the eyes and the fingerprints with a national database of the Department of Homeland Security (HSD).  

The system "linked the defendant with antecedents in the immigration service", revealed the agent in his testimony.  

Moments later she confessed to customs inspectors that she was the daughter of el Chaparro, that had altered the name in the Mexican passport, and that had obtained a fake visa to travel to L.A.  

She indicated that once in the city she planned to give birth and meet with the father of their son. The identity of the person with whom Guzmán Salazar planned to hook up with in L.A. has not been revealed.  

Vanegas' testimony was presented in the court by another agent representative, Elizabeth Rangel, of CBP.  

The system 'Ident' utilized in the identification automatically compares the iris of the eyes and fingerprints with State Department data upon providing visas as well as that of the FBI's database and the Homeland Security Department.  

The only charges against the daughter of the Sinaloa cartel ringleader are that she tried to enter the United States with a fake visa.  

Guzmán Salazar will have its next court hearing in two weeks October 25, according to San Diego federal court schedule.  

Younger Step-Sister Griselda Guadalupe-Joaquin Guzman Loera and Griselda Lopez Perez, the second wife of 'Chapo' and who also fathered Joaquin, Ovidio, and Griselda Guadalupe.
   

Alejandrina Gisselle Guzmán Salazar, 31, was arrested Friday at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry.

Guzmán Salazar appeared Monday morning at the downtown federal courthouse in a hearing held under heightened security. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that Guzmán Salazar's attorneys are Jan Ronis and Guadalupe Valencia, both known for representing high-profile drug trafficking figures. According to the report, the lawyers said that Guzmán Salazar is a medical doctor from Guadalajara who is seven months pregnant.
The significance of the arrest will depend on what Guzmán Salazar can tell authorities about her father, such as whether she can provide phone numbers, said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute.

"We don't know exactly what she knows," said Shirk. "It may just be an interesting factoid in the war on drugs or it could be a vital clue for law enforcement."
Shirk noted that Benjamin Arellano Felix, who led what was then Mexico's most powerful drug cartel, was captured in Mexico in 2002 after authorities tracked his daughter to find him.
Guzmán Salazar was charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. The complaint said she attempted to enter the country on foot, presenting a non-immigrant visa contained in a Mexican passport. She told authorities she was pregnant and intended to go to Los Angeles to give birth to her child.

The Los Angeles Times reported last year that Guzmán's wife - former beauty queen Emma Coronel - traveled to Southern California and gave birth to twin girls at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles. The newspaper said Coronel, then 22, holds U.S. citizenship, which entitles her to travel freely to the U.S. and to use its hospitals.
"You kind of surmise that there's some family connection back to Southern California," Eric Olson, associate director of the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute said of the daughter's arrest.

The Sinaloa cartel, named after the Pacific coast state of the same name, controls trafficking along much of the U.S. border with Mexico, particularly in Western states.
Authorities in the U.S. and Mexico have said they believe Guzmán has children with several partners, though it's not clear how many. The U.S. Treasury Department has put sanctions on sons Iván Archivaldo "El Chapito" Guzmán Salazar, 31, and Ovidio Guzmán López, 22.
Jesus Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, 26, was indicted with his father on multiple drug trafficking charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 2009.
Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department said it was placing financial sanctions on Guzmán's wife, Griselda Lopez Perez. The department said at the time that she "plays a key role" in the Sinaloa cartel.

Lopez Perez was the second wife of Guzmán designated under the U.S. Kingpin Act, which bars U.S. citizens from making business transactions with that person and allows authorities to freeze their assets in the United States.

In June, the department imposed sanctions on Maria Alejandrina Hernández Salazar, who it also described as a wife of Guzmán.

The arrest and investigation of Guzmán Salazar was handled by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the nation's largest border crossing in San Diego.

El Double J -Current Picture of Alejandrina Gisselle
Latin News
Thanks to Siskiyou Kid 
Jason 5683 next door in the forum
Terra
Washington Post
DD
Univision

Read More

Secrets of the 42: #10. OUTLAWS' ROOST AT SÁRIC

by Inside the Border/Gary Moore

The tiny municipio of Sáric, with its 27 miles of desert frontage opposite the Arizona border, is a case study in Mexico-The-Invisible. Sáric brims with secrets, but few observers stumble in to view its exotic mazes.

Like Sáric, some border municipios are tiny. Others are wide, but have few people.

And some are urban giants. More than 1.5 million people crowd into the municipio of Juárez, facing El Paso, Texas. And, hemmed in by California and the Pacific, the municipio of Tijuana has more than two million. So municipio police work both city beats and rural patrols like deputy sheriffs–amid many pressures.

For one thing, municipios also form building blocks of a non-governmental kind. Their boundaries trace out “plazas,” turf areas for organized crime. Many of the 42 border municipios–perhaps all–hide an unlisted celebrity somewhere in the shadows. A plaza boss supervises smuggling–and more violent crimes–for a large trafficking cartel. When two or more warring cartels overlap their plazas in a single municipio, the plaza bosses can get a little testy.

On July 1, 2010, such tensions at Sáric wiped out at least 21 cartel gunmen in a single Wild-West-style ambush. This was big enough to make nationwide news in the United States. But only for a moment, and with almost no details. The dangers of Sáric’s lonely backroads kept U.S. media from venturing near–or even finding out what the battle was really fought over. Unreported in the background was a classic outlaws’ roost.

The hideout village of Cerro Prieto nestles in a natural stronghold of majestic desert upland. Secluded at the southern edge of Sáric municipio, it is less than 30 miles south of Arizona. The name “Cerro Prieto” translates as “Dark Hill,” like a page out of Tombstone and Zane Grey, or Butch and Sundance with the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. The “hill” is a high, gaunt butte with a flat top and steep sides of dark stone, hugging the back of the village. Off a narrow paved road (blocked at times by rockslides in the gulches), an entry lane trickles toward the brooding butte, crossing the dry riverbed of the Rio Planchas. A derelict rope bridge sags overhead, strung for the occasional weather shift and desert flashflood. The rope skeleton frames a smear of rooftops and yard shrubs farther on. Banana leaves and scrawny fan palms mark a sudden oasis. The Mexican census managed to find this place in 2010, though some maps can’t: official population 353.

By early 2010, Cerro Prieto/Dark Hill formed the violent nucleus of a fifty-mile north-south splinter of no-man’s land leading up to the U.S. border: a “plaza” covering two tormented municipios, Sáric at the border and, just behind it, slightly more populous Tubutama. A renegade trafficking organization had carved out this turf between main pathways controlled by the most powerful of Mexico’s crime syndicates, the Sinaloa Cartel. Rejected, the Sinaloa Cartel was not happy.

Dark Hill was said to have a small army in its craggy hideaway, captained by a mysterious local, Arnaldo Del Cid, known as “El Gilo.” To defy the big guns of Sinaloa and pull in drug loads from farther south, Gilo’s band made a counter-alliance. They joined a new national cartel run by three violent brothers, the Beltran Leyvas. The tent had many actors, but one main show: The fabulous profits of drug smuggling led to epidemics of backstabbing, and grabs for the spoils.



In 2010, just after the big battle at Cerro Prieto/Dark Hill, I went chasing its riddles. Desert residents warned that if I dared approach the village, cartel sentries would come out for a little greeting. And sure enough, right at the dry riverbed guarding the entry lane, a gray double-cab pickup roared up, decked out with a rollbar and smoked windows. The driver’s window slid down, like a dark stage curtain unveiling the holder of my fate: lean face, neatly clipped string goatee–and a baseball cap. The voice demanded: “What is your business in Cerro Prieto?”

The subtext was sadly standard for cartel lookouts. On the pickup’s dashboard flashed an angry bubble light: red-blue-red-blue. “We are municipales,” announced the questioner, meaning Sáric municipio police, on rural patrol. “We” referred to shadowy silhouettes, secreted behind tinted glass on the back seat.

According to an area military source, a particular Sáric municipio police officer was moonlighting as chief halcon, or lookout, for cartel interests at Dark Hill–an officer known tartly as El Zorro. The pickup driver fit the description, and I didn’t ask. He studied my press card intently–then suddenly relaxed: “Well, welcome,” he said at last, apparently satisfied. “Feel free to look around.”

This, too, is oddly standard. Even in an atmosphere of casual murder–including the murders of many Mexican journalists–a U.S. press card, at least at certain times, can exempt an intruder, under the label: “Not a Threat–And Not Worth the Trouble His Disappearance Might Bring”–which is a fragile cocoon, ready to dissolve in a heartbeat. Later I caught glimpses of the truck preceding me to village houses, as if making sure nobody got so carried away with the welcome as to actually say anything.

They needn’t have bothered. The place was ghostly quiet, like a discarded movie set. Many natives were said to have fled. The few who came to their doors smiled wanly, repeating the script: We know nothing. A youth strolled out of desert glare in dusty heat, wearing a military-style beret, shirttail out–and he gave a little wave. After the big battle, most of Gilo’s boys were said to be laying low in the hills.

El Gilo had consolidated his hold here months earlier. The stories about his ravages were seldom verifiable or definitively traceable to him, but they set a tone: The wife and daughter said to have been raped in front of husband and father because the gang wanted their ranch; the horses stolen from an impoverished ranching commune to carry bales of pot; the killings for unknown reasons; the houses burned as intimidation, revenge or turf marking; the flood of carjackings; the demands for protection money.

A thousand miles south, the rise of El Gilo was being watched by an irritated presence. “Shorty” (“El Chapo”) Guzmán, the myth-enfolded top boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, was reportedly barricaded in much higher outlaw mountains, down in Durango. With a billion-dollar revenue stream and outlaw armies of his own, El Chapo surveyed a chessboard the size of Mexico. As 2010 deepened, he had brushfire wars going against varying cartel rivals all along the border’s 2,000-mile length. The simple story of Dark Hill–as simple as backstabbing for the Treasure of the Sierra Madre–was being endlessly warmed over, in an alphabet soup of new names, dates, ever-new faces.


But for Dark Hill, a breakpoint was nearing–in the summer of 2010–with a twist. Finally fed up with the Dark Hill competition, Chapo, along with his contractors in the smuggling corridors on either side of Dark Hill, took action. They launched a Convoy of Death–sometimes known in those days as an X-Command. When the Sinaloa Cartel sent a parade of stolen SUV’s and quad-cab pickups to clean out a rival stronghold, the vehicles might be ceremonially marked, by painting large X-marks on the windows with a handy medium, white shoe polish.

As Mexico’s largest, most-business-like cartel, El Chapo’s Sinaloa syndicate could publicize itself as being the least violent–the “protector of the people” against massacre-mad loose cannons (while ignoring its own massacres). In February 2010, X-convoys had crossed the whole of Mexico to the Gulf coast, smashing at the Zetas Cartel.

On the night of June 30, a convoy of perhaps 50 or more vehicles moved toward the municipio of Sáric. At the Tubutama crossroads, only ten miles short of the den at the butte, a Mexican Army checkpoint was conveniently discontinued, just in time for the Sinaloa convoy to pour through.

Assault rifles bounced in the darkness against cup-holders and upholstery, as a blitzkrieg army prepared to clean El Gilo’s clock. They seemed not to notice that the desert road was rising into narrow gulches with no road shoulder, between overhanging cliffs: no room to maneuver or even turn around, and perfect lines of fire from the clifftops. They were apparently counting on complete surprise–a stunningly naive hope.

Somebody had talked, and the clifftops were crowded. When automatic weapons fire began pouring down from vantage points over the road, ranchers across the flats thought it sounded like a war movie. Before ever reaching Dark Hill, the convoy was cut to pieces. The authorities, military and police, arrived after the rather customary delay, once there was daylight. They found a ghastly graveyard of bullet-riddled X-vehicles abandoned along a long stretch of road, in the vicinity of a settlement called La Reforma. Bodies were strewn about. Sinaloa Cartel gunmen had sought to dive out and take cover under the vehicles, to no effect.

Dark Hill had beaten off what had seemed a certain Sinaloa victory. In a Mexican crime war without coherent annals, almost without a public history, it was not publicly noted that this desert showdown seemed to mark the end of an icon. There would no more X-convoys–at least not with the ostentatious white markings. Apparently never again would Mexico’s largest cartel daub its attack vehicles with convenient bullseyes.

The 21 dead acknowledged by Mexican authorities did not include any bodies carted off by retreating survivors. At dawn the confusion was great enough to let a sprinkle of local reporters get in, from Mexican media in towns nearby, though picture-taking was soon stopped. Customary government secrecy closed in: another milestone in the dark.


Soldiers and state police surged to the area–after the fact, establishing a massive government presence once the shooting was done. The victorious occupants of Dark Hill melted away to outlying ranches. Then all was quiet.

A month later, on July 29, the Sinaloa Cartel would strike again, this time more judiciously, burning some Dark Hill vans and smuggling camps on the Planchas riverbed, and killing a few Gilo gunmen (or many, said the rumors).

So then the question: Who, at last, had become the enduring ruler of Dark Hill? Three more bodies would turn up, arranged symbolically at the three different roads leading into Tubutama, the gateway to Dark Hill. Was this a message from El Gilo, saying he was still running things? Or was it the reverse, a little something from the Sinaloa Cartel, saying they had sent Gilo packing? Nobody seemed able to say.

El Gilo, the Khan of high-desert house burnings, was never reported arrested or killed–or even seen or photographed. Under the brow of a dark-rocked butte, at a ragged suspension bridge hanging uselessly above dry sand, the questions go unanswered–and the world seldom asks.

The municipio of Sáric is only one small, beautiful, tormented sister, in the border’s great family of 42 municipios, large and small. Their history is often a wan smile.


______________________________________________

Read More