Narco blockades in Tamaulipas

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

Subject Matter: Reynosa, Narco Blockades
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Chaos in Reynosa because of Narco Blockades; Marines attend the emergency

Reporter: Proceso Redaction
Elements of the Marines continued operations this morning in various sectors of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, earlier during the evening the operatives answered the call when a State emergency alert was activated because of blockages of streets and avenues.

According to information given in the daily "El Manana de Reynosa", the first reports of blockades and paralysis on the roads and arteries registered around 21:45 Wednesday, which obligated the Municipal Government to send out a Yellow alert in its face book and twitter accounts at 22:12.

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Nayarit: Attorney General arrested at border for drug trafficking-distribution operation

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat Tu Sancho thank you for video.....

Edgar Veytia, 47, the attorney general of the Mexican state of Nayarit, has been arrested at the U.S./Mexico border, specifically, at the Cross Border Xpress airport terminal, a transit point that links San Diego to the Tijuana airport.

The arrest was made after a filing of charges, derived from  a sealed indictment on March 2, 2017. 

Veytia, was openly spoken about as being in charge of trafficking for the Zetas, in a drug trafficking distribution operation.  In a video included with this post and arrested Zeta declares Veytia as his boss for  Nayarit operations.

He will remain in San Diego until after his April 11 hearing, then he will transfer to New York to face charges:

Count I: International Heroin, Cocaine, Methamphetamine and Marijuana Manufacture and Distribution Conspiracy; 

Count II: Heroin, Cocaine, Methamphetamine and Marijuana Importation Conspiracy; 

Count III: Heroin, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, and Marijuana Distribution Conspiracy.

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El Chapo complains to court of "draconian prison conditions" and "hearing voices"

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Different prison, different country….same old song incarcerated Sinaloa capo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, is singing while in his Manhattan prison cell.

Not many that are long time followers of the Mexican narco war, will forget that Chapo has escaped from two high security prisons, one supposedly via a laundry cart, and more recently, when he became the first inmate to escape Mexico’s highest security prison, Altiplano No.1.  From No.1 he fled through one of his famous tunnels, constructed from a farm near the prison.  He descended through a hole created through the concrete shower floor. 

While Chapo was in No.1 he filed several complaints about his conditions.  He was transferred to No. 9 in Juarez.  He began immediately filing about the conditions at the Juarez prison.  It was cold, it was loud, he was awaken every hour causing high blood pressure and other ailments.  He actually won a transfer back to No. 1 but was given a different transfer instead…to New York City.  When he was awaken for the extradition he asked if he was being taken to No.1, he was told no, “the United States”. 

As soon as he landed in the U.S. the complaints began.  And make no mistake; they are taking precautions as seldom seen before.  It is not solely an escape that concerns authorities; it is for the safety of those working towards a long incarceration.  It has been alleged that Chapo has ordered killings in the past, even to transpire in foreign countries, so authorities are taking no chances. 

He is in a private cell, windowless, visits from his attorneys twice a day, and no outside time.   He is not allowed visits from his wife, Emma Coronel.  Coronel provided a marriage certificate to the court.  However if the court checked with Mexican prison authorities they would see that Chapo is still legally married to his first wife, who he never divorced, and who he listed as his wife on prison records.

Nevertheless, the court was not going to allow the visits. 

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Official Start of Campaigns Still Days Away, Moreira and Calderon Already Throwing Mud

Posted by DD Republished from MexicoNewsDaily

 

Days before the official start of the election campaign in the state of Coahuila, two prominent ex-politicians have taken over the limelight, one of them a former president.

Humberto Moreira Valdés, a former state governor and former national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has been widely condemned for embezzling billions of pesos, but never charged.

 

When it was made public late last year that he was pursuing a Deputy’s seat in the state Congress, politicians and other public figures expressed disbelief and outrage, with some remarking on the accusations of ties to the Zetas cartel.

It was also asserted at the time that behind Moreira’s revived political aspirations lay the pursuit of a fuero, a constitutional privilege that grants immunity against prosecution to government officials.

Earlier this week, Moreira — considered one of the 10 most corrupt Mexicans by Forbes magazine in 2013 — confirmed his intention to obtain a candidacy from the local Young Party, or Partido Joven.

He stated it was not a whim, having attempted on four occasions to run for different offices after his term as governor ended in 2011. But the PRI denied all of them, even when he was “ahead in the polls.”

In this context, ex-president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa accused Moreira of not only being close to Los Zetas, but of allowing the criminal gang to live “comfortably in the state” during his stint as governor.

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Another Veracruz Journalist Shot as Attacks Against Journalist Soar

Posted by DD partially Republished from Toronto Metro, by: Lev Garcia The Associated Press, and some material translated from Regeneracion.Mx and TeleSur


VERACRUZ, Mexico — A reporter in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz was reported in

Armando Arrieta Granados

serious condition after being shot outside his home early Wednesday in a region plagued by drug cartel violence. It adds to a string of attacks on reporters in a country considered one of the most dangerous places to practice journalism

Regeneration Mx. reported that although it has not been an official part by the statement by authorities of the Public Security Secretariat of the State of Veracruz or the State Government, the first versions indicate that Armando Arrieta received at least four 9 mm caliber bullet hits, He was rushed to a clinic, where his condition is reported as severe.

The president of the state commission for the protection of journalists, Ana Laura Perez, said a bullet punctured the lung of Armando Arrieta Granados, who worked as the news editor for the newspaper La Opinion de Poza Rica.

 Armando Arrieta holds a Masters Degree in Higher Education from the Universidad Veracruzana and since 2005 was a harsh critic of the authorities, and has demanded the clarification of the murder of his leader and owner of the same newspaper, Raul Gibb Guerrero, in April of that year. year.

It was the second shooting attack on a journalist in two days in Mexico. A bodyguard protecting a threatened journalist was shot to death on Tuesday in the Baja California resort of San Jose del Cabo.Journalist Julio Omar Gomez was not wounded in that attack at his home. But his bodyguard was reportedly shot when he tried to repel the attack.

Gomez previously ran an internet news site, and currently works for the city press department. He had been the apparent target of two previous attacks on his home, and the government had supplied bodyguards to protect him.

Wednesday's shooting also was the fifth attack on journalists this month; the previous three were fatal.

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Los Chapitos confuse Al Jazeera Journalist for Los Damaso , kidnap and assault them

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

Subject Matter: Journalists, Los Chapitos, Villa Juarez
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

An armed group of Ivan Archivaldo Guzman, son of El Chapo Guzman, detained and assaulted Al Jazeera journalists when confusing them with another delinquent group linked to Damaso Lopez "El Licenciado", in Villa Juarez, Navolato.

The group of journalists were held for 45 minutes and were later released after the armed group realized their mistake. However the journalists were stripped of their vehicles, work tools and cell phones, and then set free in a field a kilometer from the Villamoros community.

The victims had arrived in Sinaloa to work on a report on agricultural workers and violence, but in the course of carrying out their work were intercepted by the armed group.

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El Z-40 transferred to Ciudad Juarez Prison

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

Subject Matter: Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z-40
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The Commission for National Security has informed that the ex leader of Los Zetas, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, was transferred from the maximum security prison of Altiplano, to the Cefereso at Ciudad Juarez.

Reporter: Milenio Digital
The leader of Los Zetas, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z 40, was transferred from Altiplano to the Cefereso at Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, informs the Commission for National Security.

"It is a precautionary rotation, that is carried out as a matter of course with the authorization of Judiciary", indicated sources of the Commission.

El Z-40 was detained by elements of the Marina during a surprise operation in Anahuac, Nuevo Leon, in July of 2013. ( Otis: See Link to article by Chivis on his capture).

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Third Mexican Journalist assassinated in March; this time in Chihuahua capital (UPDATED)

Posted by DD republished in part from Mexico News Daily and Insight Crime

 

Reported by Mexico News Daily,
A well known Chihuahua journalist was killed Thursday morning in the state capital, the third to be assassinated in Mexico this month.

Miroslava Breach Velducea, 54, was killed by four gunshots fired at close range while in a vehicle in the Infonavit Nacional neighborhood at 7:00am, said state police in a statement.

She was outside her home when the attack took place, and was about to drive her son to school.

The victim was a correspondent for La Jornada and El Norte de Juárez and had recently launched a news agency.

 According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 74 percent of journalists killed in Mexico since 1992 covered crime, 29 percent covered corruption and 24 percent covered politics.

Insight Crime reported "Along those lines, Marcela Turati Muñoz, an award-winning reporter for the Mexican news outlet Proceso, told InSight Crime that it was impossible to confirm that organized crime was directly responsible for these killings. But Turati also pointed out that it is just as plausible that the assassinations have to do with political power struggles involving corrupt local politicians and businessmen as it is that they have do with drug trafficking cartels.

"It is easy for many assassins in these areas [where the journalists were killed] to disguise their crimes as the work of organized crime, because they know that no one will thoroughly investigate if the crime presents organized crime characteristics," Turati wrote in an email.

"In Chihuahua, for example, there aren't only cartel disputes, there is also an ongoing political dispute, a political readjustment. And in each of these three states [Guerrero, Veracruz, Chihuahua], links between politicians and cartels come to light," she added.

In March 2016, Breach had written specifically about these links in the state of Chihuahua, revealing the family ties between local candidates for elections and criminal groups."
 
 During her career, the journalist had spoken out against human rights violations and the negative impacts of drug trafficking. Among the most recent subjects she investigated was the displacement of hundreds of familes by drug trafficking organizations in Chihuahua, and organized crime's infiltration of local elections.

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Ten Cartels are fighting for control of Guerrero with more brutality and violence

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

Subject Matter: Organized crime in Guerrero
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Guerrero occupies the third place in terms of most poverty at 62% of the population and first place for homicides at 2884 in 2016 at the national level. It is the state most disputed among organized crime groups. There is a presence of 10 cartels, five of them top level. Its central zone has converted into a battlefield between two organizations Los Rojos and Los Ardillos and possibly others that authorities have not completely identified yet. The presence of 500 military and state police has not contained the disappearances and executions and the criminals come back each time more brutal.

In the last decade, Guerrero has converted in the land of cartels and death; the dispute between the Sinaloa cartel, CJNG, the Beltran Leyva Organization, the Knights Templar, La Familia Michoacana and no less than five local organizations have converted the state into the most violent with 18,000 executions since 2006, when the call to war against the narco was initiated.

In Guerrero, 12 of the 81 towns are considered neutral zones. The geographic location of Chilapa has converted it into a demarcation most fought over since 2012 by Los Ardillos and Los Rojos, and not only because it is an essential corridor for the transit of drugs, also its land is utilized for the growing of poppys, "that has just finished its first harvest of the year", according to the Guerrero Coordination Group.

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Drugs, Alcohol, parties and prostitutes in the prison at Culiacan where 5 capos escaped

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

Subject Matter: Culiacan Prison
Recommendation: See link to article on the escape by 5 prisoners

Reporter: Carlos Alvarez
Luxeries, excess and parties, is what its like to live inside the Culiacan prison, where this past Thursday Juan Jose Esparragoza Monzon "El Azulito", Alfonso Limon Sanchez "El Limon", Jesus Pena Gonzalez, "El 20", Rafael Guadalupe Felix Nunez "El Changuito Antrax and Javier Zazueta Rosales "El Pancho Chimal" escaped.

The daily newspapers in circulation El Universal and Reforma informed that the closed circuit tv cameras inside the Aguaruto prison, captured the prisoners with cellular telephones, consuming marijuana and cocaine, cells with flat screen TV's, prostitutes coming into the prison and a party a day before the escape of the five capos.

The festivities inside the prison were carried out with music, alcohol and drugs, according to Reforma a group of familiars of prisoners in modules 7 and 5 of the prison, where the capos were housed, were the governors of the prison for Jesus Alfredo and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, sons of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, alias El Chapo, and also for Ismael Zambada Garcia "El Mayo".

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Los Cabos: 3 dismembered bodies discovered, as narco war continues in region

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Click on image to enlarge

On Sunday, "hieleras" (ice coolers) were discovered containing dismembered remains.  The grisly contents were discarded in the heart of the tourist section of the popular vacation destination of Cabo San Lucas (Baja California Sur). Marking the first such violence in the tourist area.

The remains of two male and one female have not been identified.

On March 3 and 4, six bodies were found in an area close to Cabo San Lucas.  An uptick in violence in the region has been noted in the last five months,  near the tourist areas, but the Sunday find, the first that hit the heart of the tourism area.

On Thursday March 3 and Friday March 4^th

Thursday:

A female body found on a desolate area leading to the airport.

3 Bodies, all male, discovered shrouded in plastic and covered with a tarp found in San Jose del Cabo.  Bodies revealed signs of torture

Friday:

Two bodies, a male and a female, were found near airport.  Both bodies had bullet impacts

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29 prisoners escape from the Ciudad Victoria Prison and 10 have been recaptured say authorities

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

Subject Matter: Prison break out in Ciudad Victoria
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The spokesman for security of Tamaulipas, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, informs that there were 29 prisoners escaped from the prison at Ciudad Victoria and that ten have been recaptured by Federal and State authorities, who launched an operation to find the other 19.

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The Finances of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel

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

Subject Matter: Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Zeta Investigations
Papers confiscated from the criminal organization of the descendants of the extinct capo Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, can describe his finances. The current expenditure of the group, that nominally includes, payments to corrupt Police, gasoline, cellular telephone bills and rent for houses and furniture, is more than a million pesos monthly. As well as extraordinary expenditure for fire arms, ammunition, repayments, and fit out of vehicles modified to carry drugs, armaments and money.

Investigation carried out since 2013 by Federal Authorities in the Cartel de los Coroneles or "La Corona" that permitted the capture of Javier Carrasco Coronel "El 06", in November of 2016, in Sinaloa, contain part of the accountability that form rudimentary running of the criminal organization.

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Protected By Autodefensas, Students Return To School in San Miguel Totolapan

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

Guerrero— Protected by autodefensas, students from San Miguel Totolapan returned to school on Monday, March 20, after schools at different educational levels (preschool, primary, secondary, and upper secondary) closed for three months because of the presence of the criminal group “Los Tequileros”.

According to information from the newspaper El Sur, autodefensa members known as “Movimiento de La Paz” are responsible for protecting students.

Federal and state authorities have been ignorant of the problem of violence and insecurity experienced by the inhabitants of the municipality, so that neither members of the different state police units nor the Mexican Army have been present to provide protection in the area.

In the municipal seat, there are three kindergartens, three primary schools, two secondary and upper secondary schools, some of which have closed their doors since January for fear of Los Tequileros.

And this criminal group is the main perpetrator of the kidnappings, extortions, and homicides that have been registered during the last three years in the Tierra Caliente region in Guerrero.

Therefore, autodefensa members have been responsible for providing protection not only to the students, but also to the teachers and workers of these institutions.

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BLO: Alfredo "Mochomo" Beltran Leyva to be sentenced on April 5th

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat-thank you Narcomics!

A week prior to the originally scheduled trial, Alfredo “Mochomo” Beltran Leyva informed his attorney, Eduardo Balarezo, of his desire to enter an “unconditional guilty plea”.  The plea is as bad as it sounds, he unlike any other narco who has litigated in the federal court of U.S. did not seek  a deal in exchange for a favorable sentence,     

From the point of the extradition filing and as the process continued, the case contained irregularities. If one retrieves the life of the case beginning at “Zero”, as Borderland Beat previously pointed out, only at the point that Beltran Leyva was nearing the end of his prison sentence in Mexico, did the United States have him in their crosshairs.  He was not mentioned in previous BLO Cartel indictments, nor named in previous witness testimony given by cooperatives, such as the Flores twins who named, and gave critical information against  scores of capo’s and cartel members they interacted with.  Yet one of the twins was slated to testify in behalf of the U.S. in any trial against Beltran Leyva. 

The rushed indictment was bare bones, boiler plate issue.  When he pleaded guilty,  he was pleading to one charge, taking place in Washington State in November, 2010, the bust occurred while Beltrán Leyva was incarcerated in Mexico.  It is the contention of the U.S.,  that the defendant was still continuing to give operational orders while behind bars.

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