Acapulco Anguish 9 State Police Dead in Ambush

Borderland Beat

Still reeling from the barrage of negative press following the recent violent robbery and rape of six Spanish tourists staying at the Babaji Bungalows (Borderland Beat), Acapulco residents have now heard even more bad news. Early Wednesday, the wave of violence plaguing Guerrero left nine policemen from the State Public Safety Secretariat dead after they were ambushed in the town of Aplaxtla de Castrejon.

According to an official report, the officers were conducting a surveillance, a double patrol operation in the area Tepoztepec when they were attacked by a group of heavily armed gunmen.

In addition to the slain officers, one other fellow officer was seriously injured.

The slain state officers were identified as:

 

Adrián García Mosso, Mario Ramírez Villasana, José Alfredo Navarrete Marín, Gilberto Ortiz Sánchez, José Castro Morales, Nicolás de Loya Urrutia, Modesto Muñoz Galicia, Juan Aguilar Santana y Mario Osvaldo Arellano Olea.

 

Before the ambush, a suspect allegedly linked to organized crime was killed during a clash between gunmen and federal agents in the nearby town of Teloloapan.

 

The fact was reported in the morning, in the community of El Pochote, adjoining Apaxtla, where authorities also reported the seizure of weapons and two vehicles reported as stolen.

On Monday, the political head of Acapulco, Mayor Walton Aburto, offered at a press conference about the rapes of the 6 Spanish tourists,  "it is very unfortunate what has happened, but hey, that happens anywhere in the world, "according to the newspaper Reforma.

On the verge of breaking into tears, the mayor of Acapulco, Luis Walton Aburto on Wednesday, asked the federal government to help with security problems and violence affecting the state's main tourist destination.

In his message, Luis Walton Aburto criticized the lack of support from the federal government in helping reverse the negative image of the port, although President Enrique Peña Nieto had committed to this endeavor during a visit in December.

"We're doing what's right and this misfortune affects all Acapulqueños. We will work to get beyond. Here I stress, publicly to President Enrique Peña Nieto, that he came to Acapulco and offered that he would give support."

Then he added: "Today we have not seen the support of President of the Republic and we are demanding that you return to see Acapulco, which is also part of the Republic. We support all Acapulqueños," he told residents of Barra Vieja. 

Therefore, the mayor asked residents of Barra Vieja to denounce the alleged perpetrators of the attack on the Spanish tourists, to resolve the case and get out of this crisis that impacts the image of this resort.

Officials Interrogated suspects

The Director of the State Ministerial Police (PME), Marcos Juarez Escalera, reported that so far eight people have been questioned about the case of the six raped Spanish tourists. However, the state official did not specify the status of the subjects interviewed.

There was a meeting in San Andrres near Barra Viejo between officials of the federal government and local officials to discuss aspects of the investigation.

The meeting was led by the local prosecutor, Elba Marta Bernal Garzón, who withdrew from the area without giving statements.

Enrique Peña Nieto president on Thursday urged the Interior Ministry and the Attorney General to support the government of Guerrero to clarify what happened this week in Acapulco, where six Spanish tourists were raped.

Peña Nieto said that all governments are working together since they met. He condemned the aggression.

"It is unacceptable what happened recently in Acapulco where six women of our sister nation of Spain were raped, cases like these, must occupy the authorities of the three levels of government to take full responsibility and take actions to prevent these events from happening, the public safety agencies must work effectively,"said Peña Nieto, as published by Excelsior .

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CAF Rises Once More

Borderland Beat

Editor: Submitted and translated by "Tijuano" reader via Email.

“Nides”, “Melvin” and “Mesien” identified as leaders of
local criminal cells.

Using old-style strategies and still led by Fernando Sanchez Arellano aka “El Ingeniero”, the Tijuana Cartel tries to restablish it´s criminal prescence in Baja California. Beginning in Tijuana and again using hitmen from Barrio Logan in San Diego they are kidnapping those who left the cartel and asking for ranmsoms ranging from 30k to 300k USD and in some cases even killing them after the ransom is paid.

This reorganization has started to créate friction with the Sinaloa Cartel.

There´s a tense calm between cartels, That´s the reality in Baja California since October of last year, specially in Tijuana where operative cell of the AFO(Arellano Felix Organization) are trying to revigorate the criminal organization.

The official speech, at least the one by Governor Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan and the Military commander in the región Gilberto Hernandez Abreu that in Baja California peace prevails is being surpassed by the criminal acts.

The intelligence áreas of the operative forces in the State Council of Security, particullarly those in the State Secretariat of Public Safety have identified leaders and members of the Sinaloa and Arellano criminal cell that are killing and kidnapping in total impunity. Nor the PGJE, nor the PGR are investigating these crimes, therefore no arrest warrants are being issued, this in turn is contributing to the impunity in Baja.

Elements of the Tijuana pólice detained the second week of January 2013, and the 22nd of the same month two groups of criminals.

The first group reported that they were part of a group of 20 guys recruited in San Diego´s Barrio Logan by Melvin Gutierrez Quiroz aka “El Melvin”, “El Marino” and/or “El Camacho” with the intention of fighting the Sinaloa Cartel and “take back” some áreas of Tijuana for the AFO.

The second group conformed of 3 men and the guy identified by them as theis ciminal boss, Juan Vuelva Garcia aka “El Cero” confirmed the presence of the new breed of mexican-american hitmen in Tijuana.

Although they claim they were recruited by “Melvin” in the beginning of 2013, these men identified a guy known as “Mesien” who works for “El Ingeniero” as one of their bosses. These man´s operations in Tijuana had been revealed unoficially in the inteligence áreas of the operative forces since October 2012.

For 4 months “El Mesien” was included in the criminal diagram as Juan Mellado and regarded as a relative to Sanchez Arellano, his activities were deemed only as administrative then. However those detained claimed this man was with them just minutes before being detained at about 11:OO P.M. the 22nd and also declared he was their criminal boss.

They explained that just like them, the same day at the same time there were other criminal groups consisting of Logan Heights and local criminals used as guides distributed in the city awaiting orders from “Melvin”, in their case it was Mellado who was in charge of telling them the location of their objectives and if they were to be kidnapped of killed.

Included in the grouo detained with Vuelva was a man by the name of Julio Sanchez Camacho, identified as “Halcon” and in charge of alerting the sicarios of pólice presence had been captured the 25th of July 2012 and presented as part of a sicario´s cell.

At the time they were shown as part of the Sinaloa Cartel and at the orders of Alfonso Arzate aka “El Aquiles”. However confusión among authorities and sicarios changing sides is usual after 2008 in Tijuana Kidnappings and those responsable.

The reactivation and growth in firepower in the Tijuana Cartel includes the kidnapping and execution of drug dealers working for the Sinaloa Cartel but that at some time worked for the Arellanos, that´s the reason why it´s being so easy for the sicarios to find them.


The following persons have been identified as cell leaders from the Sanchez Arellano group by the State Public Security Secretariat :

-Luis Fernando Meza Garcia aka “El Focu”, brother of Cesar Alfredo Meza Garcia, the latter
aprehended in September 2012 in Tijuana for his relationship with the AFO.
-Salvador Alcala, allegedly responsible for the shipment of Marijuana in big scale from San Quintin
to Tijuana and of charging “piso” or tax in the west side of Tijuana.
-Roberto Panass, investigated as responsable of shipping drugs to the US in modified vehicles.
-Edgar Ruiz aka “El Chore”, middle man in the drug deals with other cells.
-Esteban Nides, alleged leader of operative groups in charge of settling scores, “levantones” and the recovery of criminal áreas for CAF.
-Melvin Gutierrez Quiroz, who is supposedly in charge of big drug shipments to the US and at the same time is the hitmen leader.

Source: Zeta Tijuana

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Another Narcotunnel discovered in Tijuana

Borderland Beat

An underground drug smuggling tunnel in the midst of construction was found yesterday in the city of Tijuana. Seventeen people were arrested working in the excavation.

According to police authorities, the site has a depth of 10 meters and  370 in depth, but  there was no outlet yet in the United States. It was planned to cross under the border near the Otay Mesa port of entry.

The Mexican Army discovered several suspects who they arrested outside a winery,from there, they continued conducting a review of the property, where they discovered the tunnel of 1.20 by 0.80 meters.

The tunnel has artificial lighting and ventilation, a hydraulic system used to descend to a depth of 10 meters and guide rails similar to those used in mines, equipped with motor.

Also located were several packages of marijuana which equalled about 15 kilos of pot, which with the detainees were turned over to the PGR.

Cartels Best Kept Secret: NarcoTunéles Engineers

Otay Mesa, Calif.-Federal agents who spend their days in search of the narco tunnels used to smuggle marijuana from Mexico to the United States know the signs of an illegal passage, hidden in the maze of merchandise in warehouses in this border community on the outskirts of Tijuana.

A member of the Army of Mexico walks through a tunnel
discovered in Nogales, Jan. 10.

They know that large tunnels cost about $ 1 million and that their construction can take up to nine months. They know the alleged drug kingpin behind the most sophisticated passages-including one that has a electric rail system - those that have been appearing on the border with alarming frequency.

But a mystery remains constant in the heart of the phenomenon of narcotúneles: the identity of the people who designed and built these feats of engineering.

 

 

While border agents focus on investigating and dismantling the networks that fund and use these tunnels, finding engineers is crucial, federal agents say.

"It resembles winning the lottery of public safety," said Derek Benner, special agent in charge of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S., in the city of San Diego. "These guys would be a valuable and abundant source of information for us."

Drug traffickers have been digging under the border for two decades. Since 1990, 159 tunnels have been discovered crossing the U.S. from Mexico. Construction soared as increased border security, forcing traffickers to go underground. In the last four years, the construction of illegal tunnels increased by 80%, according to a federal report 2012.

The tunnels are mainly used to smuggle marijuana into the U.S., but Homeland Security officials say the passages U.S. are "a significant security threat" because they could easily also be used to smuggle weapons or troops across the border. Many located in Arizona and California, are rudimentary holes, or use existing drainage systems across the border.

The most sophisticated tunnels tend to sprout in Otay Mesa, a bustling border town that is part of San Diego, where clay in the soil allows longer and deeper passages and the constant presence of port shipments helps conceal wineries outputs. The tunnels are often more than 300 meters long, reinforced concrete and wood,  equipped with ventilation systems, telephones, lighting and, in one case, an electric rail system capable of propelling tons of marijuana below the border about 30 kilometers per hour.

The tunnels usually start in a house in Mexico, running under the border fence and often found to be in a warehouse district that is used to store legal border trade products. Agents usually discover them when they detect abnormal activity in the warehouses on the U.S. side, as night shifts, or parked rigs that seem to never move.

In 2009, authorities discovered a tunnel under the false floor of a bathroom built on a hydraulic lift to descend 27 meters underground. "It was an engineering marvel," said Jerry Conlin, a Border Patrol agent in the U.S., who said the tunnel had ventilation, lighting and telephone. After a tunnel is discovered, federal agents fill it with high-strength concrete to seal said.

Federal agents believe that architects come from  Durango, a mining  state in northern Mexico and there is a small group of trusted engineers, who are highly valued and protected by drug traffickers who hire them, they've been responsible for designing and overseeing the construction of tunnels.

Who is engineer X?

Authorities say they only know of an architect who was arrested and sentenced in U.S.: Felipe de Jesus Corona-Verbera, who built one of the first sophisticated tunnels that was discovered at the border, a passage of 60 meters from Agua Prieta, north of Mexico to Arizona, and was used to transport cocaine. It was found in 1990 and Corona-Verbera eluded authorities for more than a decade until he was arrested in 2003. Three years later he was sentenced to 18 years in prison, according to federal records, and is currently being held near Tucson, Arizona.

 

"If you have an engineer who is building tunnels very good, protect that asset," said Tim Durst, assistant special agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who leads a team focused on tunnels. "It's the most important thing."

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4 die in Sinaloa state

Four men in their 20s were found executed in a remote area of Sinaloa state Sunday, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news  report posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily said that the four men were found in Sinaloa municipality on a road leading to Bacubirito.

The victims were identified in a separate news report which appeared on the website of El Debate news daily as Joel Lopez Cabrera, 25, La Jaina, Jose de Jesus Elizade 25, Los Mochis, Avetano Hernandez Elizade, 29, Los Mochis and Juan Carlos Valdez Sanchez, of El Gallo.

All four victims were shot at the scene.  Police found 20 spent AK-47 and two .38 Super cartridge casings at the scene.  Reports are two of the victims attempted to flee the shooting before they were caught by the gunfire.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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7 die in Nuevo Laredo

Seven unidentified individuals were found shot to death in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas last Saturday, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news report posted on the website of Vanguardia news daily Monday said that four men were found shot to death near a beer dispensary known as Super Plus Carmen, which is near the intersection of calles Ocampo and Gutierrez. 

The article, which was a news dispatch from an El Universal wire service said that three of the dead were partially identified. A fifth victim, an unidentified minor, was also found at the scene.

Later the same night, two unidentified men in their 20s were found shot to death at a a beer dispensary known as Modelorama near the intersection of calles Dr. Mier and Aquiles Serdan.  The article said that a third victim was taken for medical treatment, but later died.  He was identified as José Luis Pérez Vargas.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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Newly named La Laguna security operation to begin

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Government officials from Durango and Coahuila states are expected to meet Wednesday to map out a new security operation in the La Laguna region of Mexico, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news account posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily, Durango state Fiscalia del Estado (FGE) or attorney general Sonia Yadira de la Garza was quoted as saying the new operation would encompass municipalities of both Coahuila and Durango.

Fiscalia Yadira de la Garza

La Laguna is the name of a region in north central Mexico which includes part of eastern Durango and western Coahuila states.

The name of the new security operation will be changed to Operativo Laguna.

According to the article, Fiscalia Yadira de la Garza said the Durango state Secretaria de Seguridad Publica del Estado (SSPE) or public safety ministry,  would have single control over the operation.  Currently with the absence of 158 municipal police agents, who were detained two weeks ago in an investigation of corruption, Mexican security forces are currently supplying much of the manpower for patrolling the Durango side of La Laguna.  At last report, the Mexican Army was answering 066 emergency telephone calls in the region and was coordinating security patrols.

Mexican Naval Infantry and Policia Federal Preventativa forces have been in the region for at least two weeks, since the mass detentions of Ciudad Lerdo and Gomez Palacio municipal police agents.  Durango state has assigned police cadet volunteers to help fill out the police rosters.  It is known from news accounts that security forces from all three levels of government patrol in mixed patrols on the Durango side of La Laguna.

The area itself has suffered a large increase of violence since the old Laguna Seguro was cancelled by then Secretaria de Gobernacion (SEGOB) or interior minister Alejandro Poire.  The following spike in violence,according to a claim last week by Durango governor Jorge Herrera Caldera, has been reduced to a lower level in the past two weeks.

But problems in the region persist.

According to a tweet posted by Durango journalist Ruben Cardenas Tuesday night, the residence of Gomez Palacio mayor Rocio Rebollo was attacked Tuesday night, presumably by small arms fire.   No one was reported hurt in that attack.

In another example, an official in Gomez Palacio was reportedly found dead last Saturday.  Víctor Habib Nieto, 58, was found dead on Bulevar Ejercito Mexicano in Chapala colony.

According to a news account from El Contexto de Durango news daily, Habib Nieto, and his wife, Rafaela Araluce, 58, and his 24 year old son were kidnapped last Friday night.  Habib Nieto was a department head of Gomez Palacio's traffic police corporation, Secretaria de Proteccion y Vialidad.

A separate news account posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango said that Habib Nieto has been dismembered.

Also, according to a separate news brief published on the website of El Siglo de Durango, an unidentified pregnant female in her 20s was found shot to death and dumped near ejido Huitron Jimenez in Gomez Palacio municipality.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news  for Rantburg.com.

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The Resurrection of the BLO and CDG.

Borderland Beat

Two of the biggest drug cartel believed to be on the brink of extinction, the Beltran Leyva and the Gulf Cartel, have shown signs of life in various regions of Mexico for so far this year.

Independent analysts from law enforcement agencies consulted by InSight Crime concluded that two Mexican drug cartels than were previously thought to be weakening due to internal infighting, pressure from Mexican authorities and constant attacks from rival cartels actually seem to be regaining strength.

The Gulf cartel (CDG) and the Beltran Leyva organization (BLO) have recently reappeared in various parts of the Mexico, including the corridors in the northeast and western Mexico, strategically valuable regions for the production and trafficking of drugs.


Video from the archives.

The CDG
After years of a bloody war with Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel recently took control of most of the industrial center of Monterrey, which had been under the rule of the Zetas since around 2010, around the time when they were separated from CDG and both cartels began a battle throughout the Northeast.

Intelligence analysts of the Mexican government, as well as independent agencies that provide crime monitoring service such as Southern Pulse have establish that at least three quarters of the metropolitan area of Monterrey - which includes the municipalities of Apodaca, Garcia, General Escobedo, Guadalupe, Juarez, Monterrey, San Nicolas de los Garza, San Pedro Garza Garcia, Santa Catarina and Santiago - are currently under the control of the Gulf Cartel.

The resurgence of the Gulf Cartel is even more surprising when one considers the arrest of their main leader, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, alias "El Coss." Security analysts consulted by InSight Crime speculated that this resurgence of the CDG in Monterrey can also be the cause of the deterioration of Los Zetas, who lost its leader, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, “El Lazca and who have been victims of intense infighting in recent months.


Video from the archives.

The BLO
According to experts the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) an ally of Los Zetas were also thought to be wiped out, but have recently made a presence in other parts of the country by challenging their former boss, the Sinaloa Cartel.

Since December of 2009 experts began to speculate that the organization of the Beltran Leyva were destined to fade away after the death of their leader Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias the "Jefe de Jefes" or "El Barbas," and following the arrest of other leaders like Sergio Villarreal, alias "El Grande" and Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "La Barbie."

The final blow for the BLO was said to come during the alleged death of Adolfo Jauregui Felipe Meza, alias "El Paletero", a lieutenant of the cell "Sinaloa Sonora," where Beltran Leyva and Los Zetas were steadily recovering their territory.

With the repeated blows that the Beltran Leyva cartel have managed to give to the Sinaloa cartel in their own turf in the state of Sinaloa, the emergence of a new stronghold tied to its national alliance with Los Zetas and the Juarez cartel, appears to have allowed the Beltran Leyva cartel to become what once made them one of the most feared cartels in Mexico.

The Beltran Leyva also seems to be gaining on the legal front as well. The case against five senior retired military officers, who were allegedly part of their structure, is falling apart, this according to a judge of the Attorney General's Office.

Perhaps most important, one of its main leaders, the infamous Alfredo Beltran Leyva, alias "El Mochomo" has not yet been extradited to the United States and, according to some, continues to run the organization from his prison.

Source: Mexico Rojo

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Treasury Targets Money Laundering Operation Linked to Los Zetas

Borderland Beat

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced the designation of Filemon Garcia Ayala, and two of his companies located in Mexico pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for their links to Los Zetas, the violent Mexican drug cartel. In addition to the entities located in Mexico, Treasury is also identifying three U.S. companies affiliated with Filemon Garcia Ayala as blocked property pursuant to the Kingpin Act.

Today’s action prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions with these designees, and also freezes any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

Filemon Garcia Ayala is a Mexican national who leads a money laundering network that makes large international transfers on behalf of Los Zetas. In June 2012, Mexican authorities sought to arrest Garcia Ayala on money laundering charges, but he fled and remains a fugitive.

“By exposing another key money operation tied to Los Zetas, Treasury is depriving the Zetas of an important avenue to launder their narco-dollars,” said Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Adam J. Szubin. “We will continue to target individuals and businesses linked to Los Zetas and take any action necessary to protect the U.S. financial system from their illicit financial dealings.”

Treasury is designating two of Filemon Garcia Ayala’s companies located in Mexico, Prodira Casa de Cambio S.A. de C.V. and Trastreva S.A. de C.V., both located in Zacatecas, Mexico. OFAC is also identifying the following U.S. companies as blocked property due to Filemon Garcia Ayala’s interest in them: Prodira S.A. de C.V., incorporated in Texas; Prodira, Inc., which is currently incorporated in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, and Texas; and Internacional & Nacional Exchange Services Inc., which is incorporated in Texas.

The President identified Los Zetas as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Kingpin Act in April 2009. On July 24, 2011, the President identified Los Zetas as a significant Transnational Criminal Organization in the Annex to Executive Order 13581 (Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations).

Today’s action is part of ongoing efforts pursuant to the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and their organizations worldwide. The Treasury Department has designated more than 1,200 individuals and entities pursuant to the Kingpin Act since June 2000.

 

Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1.075 million per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $5 million.

 

Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million. Other individuals face up to 10 years in prison and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act.

 

Source: US Department of the Treasurer

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Acapulco: Tourists Robbed and Raped by Gunmen

Borderland Beat

 

The masked rapists-robbers are reported being of an organized crime group although the group was unnamed

Early Monday, in the state of Guerrero  six Spanish tourists were sexually assaulted by men who reportedly stormed  a bungalow  in  the village of San Andrés, Barra Vieja of the  Acapulco region known as Zona Diamante de Acapulco.  The attack occurred at the Babaji Bungalows.

The  attackers also robbed the other tourists including the six men of Spanish origin and  a Mexican tourist.  All their valuables were taken, including Ipads, cell phones, computers and currency.

The security force supposedly in charge of the areas is “Operation Safe Guerrero”, a coalition of state and municipal forces.

At least 15 men wearing ski masks were involved in the attack of which half were heavily armed.

After raping six women, the men robbed the women of their money and belongings, all six were Spanish tourists.

While the women were being raped the men were restrained by wire and cell phone cords.

First reports stated seven women were raped later the mayor reported it was in fact six.

The first report of the crime came in through the Emergency Service 066, which alerted authorities about a theft,  but later confirmed the rape of the six Spanish tourists in addition to the robbery.

Operation “safe” Guerrero subsequently became involved in the investigation that not only includes elements of the state, municipal and federal agencies.

Sources use to compose this post-Milenio and Univision

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Can Vigilante Justice Save Mexico?

Borderland Beat

    Related story from Guerrero: Masked  vigilantes
 shoot at and injure tourists, story  follows first post

Hooded residents of Ayutla de los Libres, in the Mexican southern state of Guerrero, stand guard at a checkpoint on Jan. 19, 2013. Hundreds of civilians armed with rifles, pistols and machetes decided to create their own security squad for the communities of Tecoanapa and Ayutla de los Libres because of the presence of unidentified gangs committing robberies, kidnappings and murders

 

Can Vigilante Justice Save Mexico?

AYUTLA DE LOS LIBRES, Mexico — For almost a month now, hundreds of masked men wielding old shotguns, rifles, revolvers and machetes have claimed to be the law in the rugged mountains outside the faded resort of Acapulco.

Manning roadblocks and patrolling by the truckload, these citizen posses have been rounding up accused drug dealers, rapists, killers and rustlers under the wincing but winking watch of state and federal security forces.

Last week, the vigilantes paraded 54 captured men and women in front of thousands of their neighbors, the vague and unsubstantiated charges against them read aloud over loud speakers.

“Organized crime,” intoned a community leader as the accused were escorted into the covered square in El Mezon, a mostly Mixtec indigenous village belonging to Ayutla township, some 75 miles northeast of Acapulco. “Murder. Rape. Kidnapping. Extortion.”

Despite years of promised reforms,  justice remains cut from the thinnest of fabrics. Tens of thousands of purported criminals rot for years in Mexican state and federal prisons as they await trial. The convictions handed down for every 100 arrests can be counted on one hand, academic studies show.

Citizens "Court"

President Enrique Pena Nieto, scarcely two months into a six-year term, has vowed to move away from his predecessor's strategy of military-led offensives against drug trafficking gangs. Instead, the president plans to focus more on the robberies, extortion and violence that affect mostly ordinary Mexicans.

For Pena Nieto to pull that off, Mexican security analysts say he will need better local policing and criminal prosecutions, a high hurdle in much of the country. The villagers in these mountains aren't holding their breath.

“The federal and state governments haven't been able to do anything,” said Evert Castro, an Ayutla municipal councilman. “And we don't have the capacity to fight these criminals. So the people got tired and decided to act on their own. We see this as a good thing.”

Following negotiations this week between community leaders and Guerrero's governor, most of the detainees seem likely to be turned over to state prosecutors.

“They must be subjected to the established laws and institutions,” Gov. Angel Aguirre recently told local reporters in the state capital, Chilpancingo. “We are going to continue working to provide security and confidence so that a climate of harmony returns in communities where this problem is focused.”

But Bruno Placido Valerio, a founder of the volunteer forces that comprise the bulk of the vigilantes, told the crowd last week that the accused would remain in community custody for at least two more weeks, when another public assembly would be held.

“This is not taking justice into our own hands,” Placido Valerio told villagers. “We have to be just.”

 

Only a handful of the prisoners stand accused of murder and kidnapping. One youth was arrested for tending to three marijuana plants at his house — and for smoking the harvest. Another faces charges of stealing a cow.

“Considering that he's a parasite on society we want him to be judged according to the uses and customs of the people,” intoned the speaker of the supposed rustler, referring to the traditional justice that exists a world apart from official law. Punishment can mean everything from community labor to expulsion.

More than half the prisoners seem to have been taken for being “hawks,” or street corner lookouts, for a local criminal group headed by an Ayutla native known only as “El Cholo.” The gang leader's wife, brother, father and mother were all among the detainees. But Cholo himself had slipped through the dragnet.

The tightly-packed crowd murmured and shook their heads as the vigilantes read the most serious charges. Necks craned for glimpses of particular perpetrators. “He's from my village,” whispered a shotgun-toting man of one alleged murderer. “A fool.”

Anchored by Acapulco — which ongoing gang wars placed it among Mexico's deadliest cities last year — Guerrero state stretches hundreds of miles along the southern Pacific Coast, the high Sierra Madre range running through it like a backbone.

Many urban Mexicans have long considered these mountain hinterlands as “untamed.” Popular wisdom holds that the rough and ready people living here are best not riled.

“They call us the wild people,” concedes Evert Castro, the Ayutla councilman. “But it's not like that. This a tranquil area.”

These mountains, however, have earned a sordid place in Mexico's history.

 

Ayutla was the birthplace of a 1854 rebellion launched against Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexico's dictator of the moment. Then, in the 1970s, a leftist guerrilla movement that swept through the Sierra Madre was eventually crushed by a ruthless military campaign. The state police put down a similar rebellion in 1988.

Police dispatched by a governor ambushed and killed 17 unarmed protesting farmers near Acapulco in 1995. Soldiers in 1998 killed 11 suspected guerrillas and local village leaders meeting at a rural schoolhouse outside Ayutla.

As in much of Mexico, criminals began to besiege Ayutla and other nearby towns about six years ago, when gangster violence erupted along the US border and down both coasts.

Kidnappings, extortion and murders all spiked. Unemployed people started using cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs, many of them going to work for the dealers as lookouts, sellers, even assassins.

“It was very quiet here and then from one day to the next it seemed to all go bad,” said Celerina Garcia, a housewife taking in the late afternoon air at Ayutla's crowded plaza. “You couldn't leave your house at night.”

Garcia and other residents say things have calmed considerably since the vigilantes started patrolling. In addition, hundreds of state and federal police, as well as soldiers, have set up highway checkpoints of their own in recent days, keeping a wary but respectful distance from the village militiamen.

As planting season approaches, ongoing talks with the governor aim to return the armed farmers to their plows.

“We are going back to the fields but we are not going to give up our weapons,” Placido Valerio told the assembly last week. “We are going to start building a system of justice."

Mexico Vigilante Group Shoots at Tourists Injures Two

A group of vigilantes in the Mexican state of Guerrero has injured two tourists heading to the beach.

The masked men, who say they have taken up arms to protect residents against increasing drug-related violence in the area, were manning a roadblock when the pair approached in their car....-continues on next page-

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US Continues to Cut Cushy Deals With Drug Traffickers

Borderland Beat

 

Can't blame Mexico for this farce: The United States continues to cut sweet deals with drug traffickers:

On April 13, 2009, the United States Department of Justice published a list with the eleven men most wanted by the DEA, which then had Arturo Beltrán Leyva, Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes topping the list.

In fourth place, however, appeared the name of an unknown: Ovidio Limón Sánchez, whom the DEA, the FBI and the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) identified as "person of El Chapo", but more curious was that Limón Sánchez is listed as wanted more than  Ismael "Mayo" Zambada, Ignacio Nacho Coronel and Juan José Esparragoza, "El Azul", who does not even appear on the list.

Such was the importance of Ovidio, who along with Víctor Emilio Cázarez, Tony Tormenta, El Coss or even El Lazca, not even the brothers Miguel Ángel and Alejandro Treviño Morales, who also made up the list, were as relevant to the DEA as Ovidio.

The hunt then began and two and a half years later the Mexican army arrested him in a residential area of Culiacán, whereas he  was immediately incarcerated  in Puente Grande, Jalisco.

It took less than a year for the Mexican Government to approve the extradition, since Ovidio was the "fourth most wanted man by the DEA, and he posed a strong threat to the United States".

But it is precisely on U.S. soil where the case came to a head, now that days after his extradition, Ovidio Limón Sánchez appeared before a federal court in Los Angeles, and at the recommendation of his lawyer, pleaded guilty. Given this, judge, Andrew J. Guilford determined to punish him with a sentence of 120 months in prison, crediting time served in Mexico.

                                                                 Phoenix BOP Prison

Undisclosed was the fact that before sentencing Ovidio agreed to give $600,000 in cash to the United States, in addition to properties valued at more than two million dollars; It was the price of a lenient sentence, considering the magnitude of his "dangerousness".

And what other agreements did Ovidio's defense make with the U.S. judicial system to achieve a sentence this light? That remains a mystery.

After a stealthy and quick trial, the name of Ovidio Limón Sánchez appeared in the lists of the Department of prisons of United States (BOP), where it is explained that he is being held at a medium security prison in Phoenix, Arizona, and that he will be free on June 5, 2021.

Federal judge Andrew J. Guilford, who after being informed that the defendant relinquished $600,000 in cash, in addition to a mansion in Los Angeles, then decided to sentence with an "exemplary punishment" of 120 months in prison, in addition to counting his incarceration in Mexico.

The Federal Court of United States from the Central District of California, located at the corner of Spring and Temple, in downtown Los Angeles, was not so kind as to overlook an additional fee for $100 that Ovidio was ordered to pay immediately, "given the gravity of his crimes".

So the United States ended up cutting a deal, once again, with another "powerful" drug trafficker, much like the cushy deals made with; 

 Benjamín Arellano Félix, who payed $ 100 million, or Héctor "el Güero" Palma, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who had $ 50 million seized, or Javier Torres Félix JT,

whose cases were closed, and according to the BOP he will be free in the next few years.

[Read Prison Handbook by linking here ]

The American farce
A list of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world, published by the DEA in 2009, with names, monikers, age, height and weight, was a sensational document. There appeared the names Arturo Beltrán Leyva, Joaquín "el Chapo" Guzmán, Ovidio Limon Sánchez, Emilio Cázarez Salazar, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, among others, followed by the “Most Wanted” title and  the DEA seal.

Out of all of them, only Ovidio is held by the Government of the United States, while the remainder of the most wanted, eiher remains fugitives, or they have been killed....-continued-

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Invasion of Los Templarios and the Violent War With CJNG

Borderland Beat

Neither the federal authorities nor the state authorities dare to report  what international  intelligence agencies, such as Stratfor,  have reported;   of exactly what the inhabitants of of Jalisco and Michoacan are suffering; that the killings of the last days of 2012 and the beginning of the present year is caused by the conflict  over  expanding  territories between  the Knights Templar and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, after  emerging as the main groups in their native entities.

 

Inhabitants of the region, who feel at mercy of the criminals, report  the dispute between Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Knights Templar that erupted before  Christmas and continued during the first weeks of January, is due to the conflict over  control of  the ‘Jalmich’ territory  (the border of Jalisco and Michoacan).

The clash between the groups in conflict has caused an increase in extortions of civilians and the imposition of a parallel government, since the criminal groups control the movement of the people and charge fees to merchants and agricultural producers.

The cities of Jalisco most  affected by this war are;  Jilotlán de los Dolores, Pihuamo, Tecalitlán, Quitupan, Mazamitla, San José de Gracia, Santa María del Oro, La Barca, Atotonilco, Ayotlán, Tizapán El Alto y Degollado, Tuxcueca, Jocotepec and Chapala.

 

In Michoacán, the conflict has erupted in;  Briseñas, Yurécuaro, Sahuayo, Marcos Castellanos, La Piedad, Zamora, Cotija de La Paz, Tepalcatepec, Los Reyes, Peribán and even Apatzingán, Tierra Caliente and hundreds of kilometers of mountain zones.

The residents of both states point out that the clashes  and the massacres in the zone was due to the advance of the Knight Templar into Jalisco territory, the bloody reaction of the CJNG and the incompetence of the authorities of both states to provide security.

“We are fearful that sooner or later this region will explode  into something more because of the conflict over the territory  is because of drug trafficking, also the location of production zones of marijuana or illegal substances".

"We don’t really know what is going on but we suppose that all these factors that are mentioned erupted in the wave of violence that ended  the peace in dozens of towns”, says a 65 year old farmer, who asked to maintain anonymous.

Government employees know they can’t travel into several municipalities to conduct work, even though their vehicles display state government license plates,  consequently road infrastructure and assistance for schools have gone incomplete or unaided due to lack of security and supervision.

The inhabitants of several municipalities are forced to pay  a  "war tax" to conduct their employment, either milkman, butcher or baker. Also those that utilize sand and gravel banks are charged.

“Sicarios demand even small business owners (in this case a milk man) pay the equivalent of three liters of milk for every ten liters they sell; farmers using the threshing  machines are charged 500 pesos for every thresh or 100 pesos for each  hectare”, says a witness.

“Employees of state  that give health services or support to communities of Jilotlan de los Dolores, Jilotlán de los Dolores, Tecalitlán, Quitupan and adjacent villages, have to enter from the south, travelling the perimeter of Michoacán territory to evade the criminals.

Citizens  have known for years, that the region is out of the control of the Jalisco government.. Explaining they came to the realization   when the attack occurred  on rural police in October of 2010.  In Jilotlan, at least 15 officers were killed, although the authorities only reported nine.

October 2010 deadly  attack on police; official tally was 9 officers killed, in reality it was 15

During the recent wave of violence, Erika Esparza Mora, of 22 years old, was killed. She was traveling Saturday  January 5th in a Frontier truck with her husband and her two year old daughter through the  Guadalajara – Morelia road, in the municipality of Tuxcueca, when they were attacked by  members of the CJNG, who apparently confused them with rivals of the Michoacán cartel (Knights Templar).                                                                               

[Below:Maria Santos former Mayor of Tiquicheo-Templarios took responsibility  for her killing]

The aggressors were in  a black Avalanche truck and in a white Mitsubishi. According to witnesses, Erika’s husband stopped after seeing they were pursuing them, but when he noticed that the aggressors were armed, he tried to escape. Then the hit men started shooting.

Later, the criminals realized their mistake and when they saw Esparza was seriously injured, they told her husband to go. It was known later that  the hit men’s Mitsubishi  had  overturned and  they escaped aboard a stolen red Tahoe truck.

However, municipal police of Jocotepec managed to capture them and confiscated two .45 caliber guns, a .9 mm gun and three AR-15. At the scene of the crime 37  shell casings were found.

The commando was formed of 10 individuals who said they were members of the CJNG, among them five minors. They declared that that Saturday, they were patrolling the road to Morelia and that in Tuxcueca, at the  junction to La Manzanilla, the gray recent model Nissan Frontier  and  no license plates caught their attention.

The detainees that were indicted to a criminal court by the Attorney General of Justice of Jalisco and later sent to the penitentiary of Puente Grande are: Manuel González Alonso, El Güero, 24 years old; Javier Ochoa Bautista, El Jaiba, of 30; Manuel Mercado Cruz, of 34; Francisco Ismael Grimaldo Mendoza, of 18; Pedro Magallón Orozco, also of 18, and five teenagers between 15 and 17 years old.

CJNG Thugs that Killed 22 year old mother Erika Esparza Mora;
 the 5 turned away are juveniles, Mexico 'protects' their privacy. 

Sunday 6th, at 8:45 am, the Rural Police was notified by Secretary of Public Safety of the State about the discovery of seven corpses in Jilotlan de los Dolores, at the height of Kilometer 17, over the road that takes to Tepalcatepec, Michoacán and near the ranch El Terrero.

 

The victims exhibited bullet wounds and were blindfolded, and gagged. The state and federal authorities reinforced the surveillance in the limits of the two states and the Public Ministry started the corresponding investigations.

At dawn of the same Sunday, four men were riddled with bullets in a house in Ciudad Del Sol, in Zapopan. One of the deceased was identified as David Alvarez Ayala, El R-4, brother of two leaders of the CJNG: Ramon and Rafael, who was captured September 9th of last year by the military  in Napoles Street of Terranova Development.

In Quitupan, the state authorities picked up the corpses of three men executed in the square of Montoso delegation. One of them was about 70 years old; another one was 50 and another one about 25. The three men were taken to Medical Forensic Service for the autopsy and to try to identify them.

Monday 7th, the director of Public Safety of San Miguel El Alto, Sara del Refugio Chavez Rangel, was gunned down by sicarios using   AK47s as she was exiting her home with her two bodyguards.

The body guards had no time to repel the attack.  Despite the immediate mobilization of the police, the aggressors managed to escape. 

The director sustained 7 bullet rounds resulting in her transfer to a Guadalajara hospital. One of her body guards was also transferred having sustained serious injuries.

Chávez Rangel  also had lead police corporations in Guanajuato and in Ojuelos, Jalisco....continues on net page

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'Mamito' Pleads Guilty in U.S.

Borderland Beat

High-Ranking Member of Mexican “Los Zetas” Cartel Pleads Guilty to Drug Conspiracy Charges Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, aka “Mamito” and “Caballero,” a high ranking member of the “Los Zetas” drug cartel, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to import multi-ton quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Rejon Aguilar, 36, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein in the District of Columbia.  Rejon Aguilar was extradited to the United States in September 2012 and was ordered detained in federal custody pending trial.

On Nov. 4, 2010, Rejon Aguilar and 19 co-defendants were charged in a superseding indictment with conspiracy to manufacture and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana for importation into the United States. 

The indictment charges that between 2000 and 2010, members of Los Zetas, including Rejon Aguilar, engaged in a conspiracy with members of the Gulf Cartel in an arrangement referred to as the “Company” to import drugs into the United States.  Rejon Aguilar was an original member of Los Zetas and held a high ranking position with the Company.

 “As a leader of the Company’s drug trafficking operation, Rejon Aguilar ensured that mass quantities of cocaine and marijuana were brought into the United States for distribution,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. 

“The Justice Department is committed to working with its law enforcement partners to bring cartel members and associates to justice for their crimes.”                                                    

 

“As an original and high-ranking member of the Los Zetas cartel, Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar was responsible for funneling massive amounts of marijuana and cocaine into the United States while using violence to intimidate anyone that stood in his way,” said DEA Administrator Leonhart.

 “Rejon Aguilar’s plea today was possible only with the strength and power of international law enforcement cooperation.  DEA, along with our Mexican counterparts, are committed to bringing violent criminals like Rejon Aguilar, to justice.”

According to the indictment, the Company transported shipments of cocaine and marijuana by motor vehicles from Mexico to cities in Texas for distribution to other cities within the United States. 

The indictment alleges that Rejon Aguilar, his co-defendants and others organized, directed and carried out various acts of violence to retaliate against and to intimidate anyone who interfered with, or who were perceived to potentially interfere with, the cocaine and marijuana trafficking activities of the Company......continues on next page

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Mexican Army kills 8 armed suspects in Tamaulipas state

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Seven unidentified armed suspects were killed in an encounter with a Mexican Army road patrol in Tamaulipas state Friday evening, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news account published on the website of Milenio news daily said that the gunfire exchange took place in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas at around 1700 hrs near ejido Estacion Caballero, near the PEMEX facility east of the city.

The suspects were travelling aboard two vehicles when they were observed by a Mexican Army unit.  A pursuit ensued which ended in gunfire.  Among the seven dead were two women.  Four rifles were also secured in the aftermath.

Separately, one armed suspect was killed in an encounter with a Mexican Army unit in Reynosa, according to the same report posted on Milenio news daily Friday night.

The encounter took place on Bulevar Colosio in Obrera colony when the army road patrol came under small arms fire from suspects who were travelling aboard a vehicle.  Army return fire killed one suspect.  One rifle was seized following the conclusion of the encounter.

Five other individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang violence in Tamaulipas state, according to several Mexican news accounts.

• Four unidentified car buyers from Michoacan state were killed in an apparent kidnapping.  The victims arrived in Tamaulipas January 10th to close a purchase when they were kidnapped.  Despite the family's protestations the ransom demands were met in full, the four were killed.
• An unidentified man in his 30s were found beaten to death and dismembered on the highway between Ciudad Victoria and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Thursday night.  The victim was found when a vehicle hit the remains on the road.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

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