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

Showing posts with label juarez cartel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label juarez cartel. Show all posts

Monday, February 24, 2025

Barrio Azteca Gang Leader "Tablas" Extradited to US, Linked to Killing of US Consulate Employee Families

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat


Authorities in Mexico extradited a man who had been one of the key leaders of the Barrio Azteca gang and was on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list. Another BA gang member, Enrique Guajardo Lopez, also known as Kiki, was extradited as well.

Ravelo is accused of being responsible for the planning and killing of three U.S. citizens in 2010. Killed were pregnant US consular employee Lesley A. Enriquez Redelfs, 35, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, 34. Their baby daughter was in the back seat and was unharmed. Also killed was the husband of another consulate employee in a separate targeted shooting.

Thursday, February 16, 2023

From the Archives - House of Death

From within the deep pages of Borderland Beat 

By Buggs for Borderland Beat



A Mexican attorney by the name of Fernando Reyes was looking for a way to cross a load of weed across the border. He wanted to make some real money for himself, he had already set up a buyer on the other side of the border. A man that went by "Lalo" could make it happen for him, Lalo knew all the right contacts. 

But Lalo was living a double life. Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, otherwise known as "Lalo," was a paid informant for not only the US Customs, but also had been briefed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco, and the FBI. Lalo had lured Fernando to the "House of Death." Lalo was the gate keeper of the "House of Death," a safe house in Ciudad Juarez used to torture and execute people working against the Juarez cartel

The House of Death - Ciudad Juarez

Lalo had brought Fernando to this little house in the city of Juarez to go over the deal. Except, Fernando did not know it yet, but he was walking in to a trap. Hiding in one of the rooms were also two Chihuahua state police officers that were on the payroll of the Juarez cartel. 

Fernando was unaware, but they were there to kill him. 

As Fernando was talking to Lalo, one of the police officers came out of one of the rooms and put the barrel of a gun to his face. Fernando pleaded for his life, he knew he was in trouble. He had known all along that his attempt to smuggle dope into the US from Juarez was a huge safety risk, and the outcome was never pretty. The Juarez cartel did not tolerate anyone setting up shop in their plaza. They decide not to use the gun, it was too loud. They could not take any chances.

 This house was located in a middle-class neighborhood and people will call the police if they heard gunshots. 

Fernando started to scream in panic. 

"Lalo"
They taped his mouth shut in attempts to stifle the loud screams. Fernando fought back, kicking and swinging his arm, so they took him down to the ground. But it was not easy, Fernando was fighting for his life. Lalo had to step in to help restrain Fernando while one of the officers wrapped an extension chord around his neck. Fernando knew his death was imminent but he continued to fight. He did not want to die like this, but it was futile. He finally laid there motionless, his life had been snuffed from him. Lalo had tape-recorded the execution and later, had handed over the recording to US agents of US Customs along with a debriefing. 

The Mexican Chihuahua state police officers split $2,000 US dollars for killing an inspiring drug trafficker known as Fernando.

Fernando was out of the way and now they had his dope. Heriberto Santillan-Tabares (a top lieutenant for the powerful Juarez cartel organization) congratulated Lalo. He had done good. Santillan told Lalo that Vicente Carrillo Fuentes will be very happy.

Buggs Interviewed Lalo


Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels behind the attack at the cock fighting ring

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

Subject Matter: Sinaloa Cartel, Juarez Cartel
Recommendation: See link to article on the shootings

In the aggression at the cock fighting club Santa Maria, members of La Linea were after the two principal drug distributors in the State, according to the Attorney General of Chihuahua



Tuesday, April 27, 2010

5 Sicarios Arrested in Police Slayings

Mexican police arrested five suspects in the killings of seven police officers and a bystander in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua - Mexican police arrested five suspects in the killings of seven police officers and a bystander in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

The sicarios arrested were identified as: Antonio Espinoza Reveles, Germán Isau Ozorno Manuel, Daniel Escobar Bonilla, Gerardo Torres Estrada and José Luis Hernández Montañéz.

The suspects are members of La Linea gang, the enforcement arm of the Juarez drug cartel, according to a statement from a joint anti-crime task force in Chihuahua state.

The men confessed to Friday's ambush of two police patrol trucks as they were flagged down for help by an unidentified man, the federal, state and local task force said. Six federal police officers and one local police woman were killed.

The suspects also confessed to 36 other slayings since 2009 and to extorting money from at least 21 businesses, the task force said.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Cartels Continue to Fight for Control of Juárez Drug Trade

El Paso Times

Ciuadad Juarez, Chihuahua -- The violence sparked by a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels is not nearing its end, U.S. officials in El Paso said.

Countering a recent media report, U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, said Friday that he does not believe the Sinaloa cartel now controls all of Juárez's drug market.

The Associated Press on Friday reported anonymous U.S. intelligence sources saying Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who leads the Sinaloa cartel, is winning Mexico's drug war. The story does not say the Sinaloa cartel is winning over Mexico's federal forces, but over Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' Juárez cartel.

FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said the Sinaloa cartel appears to have control of the drug trade.

"A majority of the drugs that are coming to the United States are from the Sinaloa cartel," she said.

But Simmons said the brutal attacks between the gangs working for the rival cartels continue.

FBI's evaluation of the trafficking routes is based on intelligence gathered in cases worked in the U.S. and testimonials from confidential informants helping to build those cases, Simmons said.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Sinaloa Cartel Takes Ciudad Juarez

The Associated Press
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua — After a two-year battle that has killed more than 5,000 people, Mexico's most powerful kingpin now controls the coveted trafficking routes through Ciudad Juarez. That conclusion by U.S. intelligence adds to evidence that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa cartel is winning Mexico's drug war.

The assessment was made based on information from confidential informants with direct ties to Mexican drug gangs and other intelligence, said a U.S. federal agent who sometimes works undercover, insisting on anonymity because of his role in ongoing drug investigations.

The agent told The Associated Press those sources have led U.S. authorities to believe that the Sinaloa cartel has edged out the rival Juarez gang for control over trafficking routes through Ciudad Juarez, ground zero in the drug war.

Other officials corroborated pieces of the assessment. Andrea Simmons, an FBI spokeswoman in El Paso, confirmed that the majority of drug loads arriving from Juarez now belong to Guzman. And Mexican Federal Police Chief Facundo Rosas told the AP that while authorities are still working to confirm the U.S. assessment, "These are valid theories."

"If you control the city (Ciudad Juarez), you control the drugs," the federal agent said. "And it appears to be Chapo."

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Trapped in a War Between Two Cartels

Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua are trapped in a war between two cartels, the Juarez cartel and the Sinaloa cartel, and the military is searching a way to contain them.

Juarez Cartel Linked to the Murder of a U.S. Official

A U.S. diplomat, her husband and another man married to a Mexican consular official were killed in Ciudad Juarez.

The government of Chihuahua has suggested that the sicarios responsible for the executions belong to the gang of "Los Aztecas."

Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua - The Aztecas gang and La Linea may be involved in the murders Saturday of three people with ties to the U.S. consulate in Juarez, the Chihuahua state attorney general's said.

The lead is based on information exchanged between U.S. and Mexican authorities, according to a statement by the attorney general's office.

La Linea is a drug-trafficking network associated with the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel, and the Aztecas gang, which has counterparts in El Paso's Barrio Azteca gang, consist of drug retailers and enforcers for the cartel.

The victims were identified as Lesley A. Enriquez, an official of the consulate, her husband Arthur Haycock Redelfs (both pictured), both Americans, and Mexican Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, married to another consular employer.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Brother of El Tigre Falls

Roberto Sánchez Arras was arrested in Chihuahua, his brother Pedro was captured in 2008, and is considered the third in command of the Juarez cartel

Villa Ahumada, Chih - The Mexican army arrested Roberto Sanchez Arras, brother of Pedro Sanchez Arras, "El Tigre," considered the third in command of the Juarez cartel or "La Línea," who was captured in 2008.

Authorities of the Coordinated Operation Chihuahua indicated that on February 18, 2010, military personnel of the operation succeeded in arresting Robert Sanchez in the town of Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua.

They reported that the capture was achieved based on citizen's tips and intelligence work, which required for the operations to move to the city, where they apprehended Robert Sanchez Arras, who is brother to Pedro Sanchez Arras, "'El Tigre."

Roberto Sanchez was in possession of three long rifles, four handguns, all weapons typically used by the Army, a fragmentation grenade, 22 magazines of different weapons and 992 rounds of different calibers.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Alleged Cartel Ties to Massacre in Juarez

A suspect was arrested who testified before the MP that a man nicknamed "El Diez" ordered the killing of young people for allegedly belonging to a criminal groups of El Chapo, a rival cartel of Carrillo Fuentes.

Ciudad Juarez, Chih - A war between drug gangs was behind this weekend's massacre in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that left 16 dead, including 10 teenagers, an official told CNN Tuesday.

The gunmen who opened fire on a party early Sunday belonged to the Juarez drug cartel, who believed that the partygoers were all members of a gang affiliated with the rival Sinaloa cartel, Enrique Torres, spokesman for the city's federal security operations, told CNN.

Details of the alleged motive came from a police interrogation with a suspect who was arrested Monday.

Military authorities arrested a suspect alleged to have participated in the killing of 16 people, mostly young students, on Sunday in Ciudad Juarez.

José Dolores Arroyo Chavarría, 30, testified that a man nicknamed El Diez "10" and El Doce "12"ordered the murders of the young people because they supposedly were "doblados", that is to say AA (Artistas Asesinos), an alleged rival gang of Los Aztecas.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Kingpin Sentenced to 27 Years


NEW YORK, USNewswire/ -- Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that former Mexico-based drug kingpin Gilberto Salinas Doria “Güero Gil” was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 27 years in prison for importing at least 200 tons of cocaine into the United States for the notorious Mexican Juarez Cartel.

Salinas Doria pleaded guilty in December 2008 to narcotics conspiracy charges after being extradited from Mexico in March 2007.

According to the indictment, other documents filed in the case, and statements made during Salinas Doria's sentencing and guilty plea proceeding:

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Drug-war Brutality Persists Despite Presence of Military

This story originally appeared in the November 15 edition of the El Paso Times.


They came by the thousands to intimidate feuding drug cartels in Juárez and bring them to their knees.

At first, it was an impressive show of force -- soldiers armed with assault rifles and wearing ski masks and flak jackets swarmed the city.

Squads patrolled the streets in trucks and heavily armored military vehicles while other soldiers manned checkpoints.

Their almost two-year presence, however, has had little or no affect on the drug war in Juárez, experts said.

Rival drug gangs, reportedly the Juárez and the Sinaloa cartels, continue their savage and unrelenting war for control of the area's drug trade.


The death toll in Juárez has rapidly risen from 1,600 killings last year to a little more than 2,200 so far this year. Drug-related killings average about 300 a month -- the total of all the killings in Juárez in 2007.

They are brutal, bloody, sudden and many times public.

Paramilitary fighters armed with assault rifles massacre large groups at drug rehab centers and bars. Shooting sprees erupt in mass transit areas. Bullet-riddled bodies are dumped along streets, and dismembered bodies with terroristic messages are left out in the open.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

El Freak and El Salsa


The Italian mafia had such mafiosos as "Lucky” Luciano, "Al" Capone and "Don Carlo" Gambino. The Mexican cartels employs sicarios (hitmen) to do their bad deeds with names such as "El Freak" and "El Salsa." It would be comical if it wasn't so serious.

In Ciudad Juarez the Mexican army captured two men suspected of 45 murders,

The two men were injured on Friday during a shootout at a Social Security clinic where they intended to murder their rivals. The two fled, but were later captured by the military.

The men were identified as Arturo Arellano Corral, 26, aka "El Freak", and Solomon Bolivar Villa, 20, aka "El Salsa".

The statement said the detainees were gunmen from a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel operating in this border city under the command of drug kingpin Gabino Salas Valenciano, to assassinate rival Juarez cartel or "La Línea".

The report said the men admitted having committed at least 45 murders.

Last August, military and federal agents arrested four alleged perpetrators of 211 murders in Ciudad Juárez.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Light at the End of the Tunnel, or is it?


Has Ciudad Juarez become lost to the drug cartels?

In Juarez you don't have to wait long for the next casualty, just sit long enough on a taco stand and violence will creep up so fast, you will not have time to order another round. Last week the city had a day without any executions and everyone was confused, wondering what was wrong.

Beheadings and amputations. Iraqi-style brutality, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, and murder. Shoot-outs between federales and often against better armed and trained drug cartels. This is modern Mexico, whose president, Felipe Calderón, has been struggling since 2006 to release his country from the grip of four powerful cartels and their estimated 100,000 foot soldiers.


New figures released by Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz indicate the death toll for this year has already surpassed 2,000 homicides, over 450 more than the total count for 2008. Nowhere has the bloodshed been worse than in Ciudad Juarez with 2065 homicides reported just this year. No other city has suffered so much, has witnessed misery so much, has been battered so much as has Ciudad Juarez.


The Stats:
303 homicides in October as repoerted by El Diario.
307 homicides in September.
315 homicides in August.
2,094 homicides in 2009 so far and as of Ocober 31, 2009.
1,607 homicides in 2008.

The gangland-style violence has left no corner of Ciudad Juarez untouched. Drug-related slayings take place in houses, restaurants and bars, at playgrounds and children's parties, and in car-to-car ambushes. It's nerve wrecking.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Mexican Drug Cartel Founders


Beltrán-Leyva Cartel Founders: Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva • Alfredo Beltrán Leyva • Mario Alberto Beltrán Leyva • Carlos Beltrán Leyva • Héctor Beltrán Leyva •

La Familia Cartel Founders: Nazario Moreno González • Carlos Rosales Mendoza • José de Jesús Méndez Vargas • Julio César Godoy Toscano • Enrique Plancarte • Arnoldo Rueda Medina • Servando Gómez Martínez • Dionicio Loya Plancarte • Rafael Cedeño Hernández •

Gulf Cartel Founders: Juan Nepomuceno Guerra • Juan García Abrego •
Current leaders: Osiel Cárdenas Guillen • Antonio Ezequiel Cárdenas Guillen • Jorge Eduardo Costilla •

Juárez Cartel Founders: Pablo Acosta Villarreal • Amado Carrillo Fuentes • Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo • Rafael Caro Quintero • Miguel Caro Quintero • Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo •
Current leaders: Vicente Carrillo Fuentes • Juan Pablo Ledesma •

Sinaloa Cartel
(Armed wing: Los Negros) Founders: Pedro Avilés Pérez • Héctor Luis Palma Salazar • Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo •
Current leaders: Joaquín Guzmán Loera • Ismael Zambada García • Ignacio Coronel Villarreal • Édgar Valdéz Villarreal (Los Negros) • Teodoro García Simental • Juan José Esparragoza Moreno •

Tijuana Cartel Founders: Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo •
Current leaders: Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano • Ramón Arellano Félix • Eduardo Arellano Félix • Francisco Javier Arellano Félix • Edgardo Leyva Escandon •

Los Zetas Founders: Arturo Guzmán Decena • Jesús Enrique Rejón Águila • Jaime González Durán • Heriberto Lazcano • Miguel Treviño Morales
Current leaders: Heriberto Lazcano • Miguel Treviño Morales •

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Mexican Investigators Are Fearful

New York Times



The hit men moved in on their target, shot him dead and then disappeared in a matter of seconds. It would have been a perfect case for José Ibarra Limón, one of this violent border city’s most dogged crime investigators — had he not been the victim.

Mexico has never been particularly adept at bringing criminals to justice, and the drug war has made things worse. Investigators are now swamped with homicides and other drug crimes, most of which they will never crack. On top of the standard obstacles — too little expertise, too much corruption — is one that seems to grow by the day: outright fear of becoming the next body in the street.

Mr. Ibarra was killed on July 27 in what his bosses at the federal attorney general’s office consider an assassination related to a case he was investigating. As if to prove the point, less than a month later, one of the lawyers who had worked for Mr. Ibarra also turned up dead. Two days afterward, an investigator named to replace Mr. Ibarra insisted on being transferred out of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico’s murder capital.



The current prosecutor investigating Mr. Ibarra’s cases is working anonymously, his or her name kept secret by the government.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Finishing Off a Rival Gang, Juarez Style


The massacre of 18 people at a drug rehabilitation center near the Texas border is part of a final push by one drug cartel to finish off another some say.

The killings – the largest mass slaying in recent memory in the country's most violent city – raised a three-day death toll in Juárez to nearly 40, despite the presence of 10,000 federal troops and police.

"We're witnessing the extermination of the Juárez cartel," said Alfredo Quijano, editor of Norte a Juárez newspaper. It is a war between the entrenched Juárez cartel and the rival Sinaloa cartel. "The Linea, or Juárez cartel, is down to its last line of defense."

Sinaloa hit men are "killing people at will, hitting them like sitting ducks."


Last August set a record for killings in Juárez, across the border from El Paso, with more than 300 deaths, raising the city's total for the year to about 1,500, and it has surpassed 1,900.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Truth Behind the Drug War in Juarez


Reputed Sinaloa drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, accompanied by an army of sicarios (hit men), strolled into Juárez one day claiming the city’s lucrative smuggling corridor as his own, so the rumor goes.

Whether true or not, Juárez and other parts of the state of Chihuahua have become ground zero in a battle over drug-trafficking routes that have been under the control of the Carrillo Fuentes drug organization for more than a decade.


The violence, which has included kidnappings, car-to-car shootings on boulevards and victims pelted by machine guns in broad daylight, has left hundreds dead and has Juarenses looking over their shoulders as they try to go about their daily lives.

What sparked the bloodshed in Juárez is unclear, but somehow agreements between the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels apparently crumbled, leading to fighting among smaller organizations.

It is difficult to gauge the size of each of the drug-trafficking organizations, although it is clear that the estimated $10 billion in drug money and weapons that flows into Mexico from the United States each year supplies traffickers with enough money to corrupt authorities and to buy weapons, equipment and technology.

The animosity between Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel and “La Linea,” as the Juárez cartel is also known, is evident as the death toll mounts, including several corpses recently found with threatening notes aimed at Guzman’s associates.

“This will happen to those who keep supporting El Chapo. From La Linea and those who follow it,” stated a note found next to two men slain in the Loma Blanca area outside of Juárez.

The suspected head of the Juárez drug cartel is Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who is believed to have taken control of the organization after the 1997 death of his brother, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was nicknamed the “Lord of the Skies” because of his use of airplanes to smuggle cocaine.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, 45, was indicted in 2000 by a U.S. federal grand jury on a long list of charges, including 10 counts of murder and the distribution of tons of cocaine and marijuana bound for New York, Chicago and other markets throughout the nation.

A Mexican federal police, or PGR, commander identification card bearing a photo of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes was recovered by the FBI from a West El Paso home in 2000, El Paso Times archives showed.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Three Sicarios are Forgiven for 211 Executions

Four men of the group "La Línea" who were arrested in August, and who authorities from the task force Operativo Conjunto Chihuahua say confessed to at least 211 executions in Chihuahua, were order held only for the crimes of paticipating in organized crime and possession of firearm restricted exclusively to the Army. The federal court did not formally charged them for the actual murders.















The federal judge had been appointed to hear the order of apprehension for murder against these sicarios (assassins for hire) but declined due to jurisdictional powers.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Los Linces


Los Linces (The Bobcats) are former soldiers of the Army's special forces and are now the main group of assassins (sicarios) of the Juarez cartel or the branch cell known as La Línea which are headed by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes. Just like Los Zetas of the Gulf Cartel, Los Linces operate with military tactics, they move in cells of no more than five to avoid being detected and are usually armed with sophisticated first class combat weaponry and equipment.

Highly trained by the Mexican Armed Forces, Los Linces sole role is to execute targeted victims. They speak with no one within the criminal organization except for the kingpins of the Juarez cartel. Very few people within the Juarez Cartel know of their whereabouts or know anything about their identity, but inside La Línea they are feared.


This group of assassins consists of up to 80 active members. They are recruited from different parts of the country such as Sinaloa, Veracruz and other parts south. The federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) has not officially confirmed their existence but testimony from suspects that have been arrested and witnesses under the protection of the government have provided information of their presence.