Tomas Yarrington, ex Governor of Tamaulipas arrested in Italy

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from two Milenio articles and video from Riodoce

Subject Matter: Tomas Yarrington, Ex Governor of Tamaulipas, CDG, Los Zetas
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required.

Reporter: Ruben Mosso
The Ex Governor of Tamaulipas, Tomas Jesus Yarrington Ruvalcaba, was detained in Italy, he is required by the authorities of Mexico and the United States for allegedly receiving money from the Cartel del Golfo and Los Zetas.

In our country, there is an existing arrest warrant against the ex Governor for his alleged responsibility in crimes against health in his term in office.


The warrant was raised due to the interchange of information between the United States and Mexico in May of 2012, the United States Department of Justice presented two demands in Federal court to decomission properties of Yarrington which had presumably been acquired in Texas under false names and with funds of illicit origin.

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El Terrible, Plaza boss of CJNG in Colima arrested

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

Subject Matter: Ivan Margarito Esquivel Garcia, CJNG, Colima
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Ruben Mosso
Ivan Margarito Esquivel Garcia, El Terry or El Terrible, cell boss of the CJNG that operates in the Colima region of the Tierra Caliente, Michoacan, was detained by elements of the investigation agency of the PGR.

The subject, identified by authorities as violent and dangerous, has been alleged to be responsible for the homicides of agents of the PGR in Colima, as well as the execution of Carlos Sierra Santana, La Sopa, leader and founder of the criminal group Los Viagras on the 4th of March on the outskirts of the towns of Agulilila and Buenavista in Michoacan. (Otis: see link to article on his death)

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Note from Chivis...and another plea for help

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Just when I think something is solved…..

We were riding high and smoothly after my last effort to recruit help for Borderland Beat.

Fact of the matter is, we are now hurting ...big time.  The blog work cannot be on the shoulders of 2 or 3, we need a strong team of at least 4 regular contributors, that are willing to contribute 3 posts a week, and another 3 or 4 folks that will contribute a 1 or two a week.

We also have an option of Guest Reporters.  Anyone can become a guest reporter.  And no set number of contribution is expected, it may even be that you want to share something and it is a onetime event.  It all is appreciated.

Truth is, Borderland Beat will not be able to exist if we do not get solid commitments. I have been on a semi medical leave and continue to have treatments.  

I have not publicly discussed my issue, but on last July 3^rd, I awoke at 3am with excruciating pain in my legs and became non-ambulatory.  No more walking, no more standing, driving etc.  It is an autoimmune disorder that attacked the nerves in my lower extremities and did quite a bit of damage.

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CJNG: Narcomanta and shootout in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo

Posted by Anasai with material fromEl Sol de Mexico

Trouble continues in a vacation destination, considered  the safest in Mexico, as Mencho gains territory...........

Yesterday, in what was considered a challenge against the authorities of the three levels of Government,  there was another shooting in Playa del Carmen, while in Cancun a narcomanta was placed as a threat to a store accused of  protecting the CJNG.

In the center of Playa del Carmen there was a shooting followed by the pursuit of a blue Jetta, which culminated in the Colonia Luis Donaldo Colosio, where the police captured one of the attackers, while one other suspect managed to flee.

Preliminary data indicates that the intent of the alleged assassins was an execution.

During the events, the Tourist Police radio reported the pursuit  of the blue Jetta vehicle carrying two individuals who fired guns at the junction of 8 North Street and 30 Avenue in the heart of Playa del Carmen to give themselves the ability to escape on the road and penetrate the colonia mentioned.

Relatedly, the municipal police received a report of a "narcomanta" hanging in Supermanzana 21, near the Sam's Club store.

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Once again the CAF threaten Zetatijuana

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

Subject Matter: Cartel Arellano Felix
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

In May of 2004, after a chase and shootout in La Gloria, agents of the State Preventative Police, detained one Jose Roque Garcia, he was 26 years old. Together with Eric Ballesteros Estrada and Jaime Ocampo Morineau, declared to their captors that they participated in kidnapping, extortion and narco trafficking. Also they admitted to murder, and disposal of bodies in acid. These same drug traffickers threatened local merchants.

The case was linked to the Cartel Arellano Felix and prosecuted by the PGR, Roque Garcia was for years in El Hongo prison, but he obtained his freedom. In 2009 elements of the Mexican Army searched in the 2nd Military Zone, they had returned to apprehend him and carry out operations against the CAF.

In the following years the authorities knew little of him, until 2017, because now he is sought by authorities of Mexico and the United States. Supported by illicit resources and corrupt Ministerial Police of Baja California, Jose Roque Garcia has returned to Tijuana, and according to bi-national investigators, his intention is to re-establish the CAF without the help of the CJNG.

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Mexican marines open fire on US couple in border town

Posted by DD republished from El Pais  and KHOU

Shooting from a helicopter, security forces confused visitors’ vehicle with that of drug cartel boss

El Pais Reported;

Two US citizens were injured when Mexican marines reportedly opened fire on their vehicle in Reynosa on Tuesday after they had visited relatives in the border town, which sits across from McAllen, in Texas.

Alfredo Alemán, aged 39, and his wife Alejandra were injured after a marine helicopter reportedly opened fire on their car. Both were hit by glass when their windshield and other windows shattered. Both were transferred to MacAllen. An investigation has been launched by the Mexican Attorney General’s office.

There have been a number of incidents in recent days in the area, in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas: on Tuesday, up to four suspected criminals were shot by security forces. Leading Mexican daily Excélsior, citing security forces, reported that the marines had received information that Comandante Toro, a leading figure in the Gulf Cartel, based in Matamoros, the second-largest city in Tamaulipas, was traveling in a late model grey Ford Tahoe.

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Top Mexican Official Said to Tip Drug Cartel About Probe

Posted by DD from material from AP written by Mark Stevenson and from Chicago Tribune written by Jason Meisner


MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a major embarrassment for Mexican law enforcement, U.S. prosecutors said in documents made public Wednesday that the commander of a Mexican police intelligence-sharing unit was passing information on a DEA investigation to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in exchange for millions of dollars.

Ivan Reyes Arzate, 45, was named in a U.S. district court indictment, just hours after Mexican federal police commissioner Manelich Castilla revealed that an unnamed agent had been charged with obstructing an investigation.

What Castilla did not say was that Reyes Arzate was the commander of a federal police sensitive investigative unit (siu).  SIUs, were formed starting in the 1990s precisely to create more secure groups that the U.S. could feel comfortable sharing intelligence with.

  Castilla said Reyes Arzate had been fired in November. He is in U.S. custody.

The Justice Department described Reyes Arzate as "the principal point of contact for information being shared between U.S. law enforcement and the Mexican Federal Police."

As a top Mexican police commander, Ivan Reyes Arzate was trusted for years with the most sensitive information surrounding U.S. investigations of dangerous cartel drug traffickers, from notorious Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the violent offshoot faction known as Beltran-Leyva.

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Alfredo "Mochomo" Beltran Leyva sentenced to LIFE in D.C. federal court

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

A life sentence is rare in drug trafficking cases, having been imposed in less than one-third of one percent of all drug trafficking cases.

This is a "determinate life sentence"....meaning life without parole.  He will spend the remainder of his natural life in prison, unless he wins on appeal. .  He is 46.

Alfredo Beltran Leyva was handed down a “life” sentence today.  Judge Richard J Lyon, imposed the sentence in a Washington D.C. courtroom.

A life sentence is rare in drug trafficking cases, having been imposed in less than one-third of one percent of all drug trafficking cases.  And the sentence of life is fairly rare in all cases, representing apx 2.5 percent of all cases in the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). 

Alfredo,  had requested a sentence of 25 years.  He was 35 years old at the time of his 2008 Mexico arrest.  He has been incarcerated continually since that date.  Alfredo, the baby brother of Arturo and Hector Beltran Leyva, leaders of the Beltran Leyva, was betrayed by El Chapo Guzmán, who provided  information to authorities, that resulted in the arrest of Alfredo.  El Chapo swapped the information in exchange for the prison release of his son Archivaldo.  Archivaldo had been incarcerated three years by 2008, with little hope of being released for years.  He was released within 90 days of Alfredo’s arrest with the government declaring the action was the result of the case having “no evidence”. 

Alfredo’s brother Arturo was enraged at the betrayal, and a split between the two groups and brutal war commenced.  

It is suspected that is was on the orders of Arturo, that El Chapo’s son Edgar was gunned downed in 2008 at a Culiacán shopping center parking lot. (left)

The two families had been very close, with multiple marriages within and between, members within the Beltran Leyva and Guzmán family.

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Alfredo "Mochomo" Beltran Leyva set to be sentenced in D.C. today

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat *Big thanks, once again, to Narcomics!*

Alfredo Beltran Leyva will have his sentencing hearing today in a Washington DC Courtroom.  It is set for 2:30PM. 

The U.S.  is asking for a life sentence.   The court found that sentencing enhancements asked for by the U.S. are applicable.   The government also asks that his guilty plea result in no sentencing credit for his accepting responsibility.  This is based because of  his filing to withdraw the plea.  The filing to rescind was denied by the court.  This means that although he is not permitted to withdraw his plea, so in effect he is pleading guilty, the U.S.  wants no credit be awarded when calculating sentence. 

In the sentencing process, various credits favorable to the defendant, and enhancements  which  give weight to a greater sentence, are calculated by using a number scale.  Refer to the image below to view the U.S. contention of how  they determined a life sentence was in order with a tally of 50.

One of the enhancements is the contention of cartel leadership.   When he pleaded guilty, he was questioned by the judge regarding leadership role.  He was clear that he was a member of BLO, and worked for his brother Arturo, but he was not the leader.

Click on image to enlarge

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Mexico newspaper announces closure, citing risk of violence

Posted by DD Republished from Reuters Yahoo News

The facade of the El Norte newspaper office is pictured after the paper announced its closure due to what it says is a situation of violence against journalists in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 2, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican newspaper in the border city of Ciudad Juarez is shutting down due to the risk of violence after a string of killings of reporters around the country, the paper's owner said on Monday.

"Norte" ran a headline that said "Adios" on the front page of its Sunday edition and its owner, Oscar Cantu, explained in a letter he was shutting the newspaper down after 27 years. He said on Monday the online version would also be closed.

"No company, no business is worth more than a person's life," Cantu said in an interview. "Keeping going with the company, or on-line version, would put people at the same risk due to the type of journalism we do."

Cantu pointed to a string of recent murders of journalists including the death of Miroslava Breach, who was shot multiple times last month in the northern state of Chihuahua.

Earlier in March, the attorney general's office in the Gulf of Mexico state of Veracruz said it was investigating the murder of journalist Ricardo Monlui.

At least 16 more journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2015, according to the Committee to Project Journalists.

The closure of Norte came as a surprise to reporters, editors, photographers and other employees of the newspaper, and many found out about the decision from the front page letter.

"More that just losing a source of jobs, what is being lost is press that can be a counterweight, a press that indicates what is really happening in our environment, what happens in our government and society," said Norte journalist Salvador Esparza.

Juarez became the murder capital of the world last decade due to a war between drug cartels while El Paso, Texas, across the border is one of the safest U.S. cities of its size.

The murder rate in Ciudad Juarez had fallen in recent years, but strong demand for methamphetamines in Juarez has triggered a turf battle and a new spike in violence.

(Reporting by Jose Luis Gonzalez; Editing by Paul Tait)

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How A Small Cog In Mexico’s Criminal Economy Grew Into A Hotbed Of Terror

Posted by DD republished from Huffington Post

By Jesselyn Cook
World News Reporter, The Huffington Post

Homicide rates in Mexico’s southeastern state of Veracruz have skyrocketed to record levels, and some now call it the country’s biggest mass grave.

This aerial image shows the area known as Colinas de Santa Fe where Mexican authorities work to find the remains of people buried in mass graves on the outskirts of Veracruz. More than 250 skulls were found there earlier this year in what appears to be a drug cartel’s mass burial ground, prosecutors said.

In a sobering new report, “Veracruz: Fixing Mexico’s State of Terror,” the International Crisis Group describes the crime- and corruption-plagued region as “emblematic of the challenges facing the country as a whole.” Veracruz has at least 2,750 unresolved disappearance cases, but civil society groups say as many as 20,000 people could be missing.

Just this week, police discovered a note near the tortured bodies of two women and nine men. “You want a war, you’ll get a war,” it reportedly read. Veracruz Gov. Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares said the killings, like more than 70 percent of recent homicide cases, were linked to organized crime gangs.

Veracruz atrocities largely stem from political failures that include ineffective law enforcement strategies, systemic obstruction of justice and a lack of judicial accountability, the International Crisis Group report says.

    The recent history of Veracruz, the gruesome details of which are starting to emerge, underlines the crisis not of one state administration but of the Mexican political system as a whole, where a well-intended democratic transition has fallen short of expectations and become corroded by organized crime. The ease with which political power-holders have been able to pursue criminal ambitions points to structural weaknesses in the democratic system.

The rise of organized crime throughout the country reflects Veracruz’s evolution from a base for drug trafficking to a “set of criminal enterprises,” according to the report. Crimes, including extortion and kidnapping, have been on the rise at both the state and federal levels in recent years.

The International Crisis Group calls on the U.S. and other governments to increase pressure on Mexican leaders to address root causes of the nation’s organized crime epidemic, and refocus strategies for resolving the crisis. Support must be directed away from militarization and toward anti-graft efforts, the group explains.

Effective reform in Veracruz will depend strongly on sustained federal support, which seems unlikely. The Mexican government is already grappling with challenges like U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed import tax and border wall threatening its economy, straining resources to combat organized crime.

Ineffective Government, Rampant Corruption

Veracruz’s transformation from a small hub in Mexico’s criminal economy used by drug cartels into an increasingly dangerous region plagued by record violence is becoming clearer with mounting evidence of grisly brutalities and deep-seated corruption.

Violent crimes in the state surged as more criminal groups pushed in after the election of Javier Duarte Ochoa, an unpopular governor who came into office in late 2010. There were 3,208 homicides logged in the first four years of his term ― an alarming jump from 1,848 during his predecessor’s first four years.

Duarte has been declared a fugitive criminal since resigning six years into his term over allegations that linked him to embezzlement, drug cartels and the murders of several journalists.

Under his leadership, widespread state-criminal collusion and impunity gripped the region, undermining the legitimacy of the Mexican government at all levels. A whirlwind of killings targeted legal professionals, police officers, crime witnesses and others who dared to challenge criminal institutions and their suspected political accomplices

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Want to tackle violent crime in Mexico? Then start in Veracruz state

Posted by DD republished from Miami Herald

Relatives of slain Rev. Jose Alfredo Suarez de la Cruz grieve as his casket is lowered into the floor inside Our Lady of Asuncion Church in Mexico’s troubled Veracruz state. Marco Ugarte Associated Press

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article140482313.html#storylink=cpy

DD:  This is a companion piece written in conjunction to the story posted  "How a small clog in Mexico's Criminal Econmy Grew into a Hotbed of Terror".  The author, Mark L. Schneider, is a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group, the conflict prevention organization, which was mentioned several times and was a major source in the Huffington Post "Hotbed of Terror" story.  He is also a former Director of the US Peace Corps. 
Mark L Schneider:

Decades ago, while training for U.S. Peace Corps service in El Salvador, I traveled into the rain forest of the state of Veracruz to the tiny village of Zongolica. Most of the men and all of the women and children spoke only Nahuatl, survived on subsistence farming and faithfully maintained their culture despite four centuries of Spanish influence. There was little crime, much less violence, in the state — and a strong sense of community, particularly in Zongolica, where adobe bricks were made cooperatively for each other’s homes.

Today, Veracruz is a battleground where five major cartels and multiple smaller criminal gangs kill for control over lucrative cocaine drug routes, oil pipelines and human trafficking networks — with the Zetas and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación emerging as the most dangerous and successful organizations. The state apparatus, far from preserving law and order, has been warped to protect criminal interests. Veracruz state, rich in natural resources, could be an economic powerhouse but is instead near bankruptcy. In 2016, homicides here increased by 123 percent — the second highest in the country.

President Donald Trump reportedly proposed sending over the U.S. military to take care of “bad hombres” south of the border, according to a leaked excerpt of his recent telephone conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Trump’s unilateral offer — coming alongside demands that Mexico pay for a border wall to stop illegal migration, a wave of deportations, and a threat to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement—has revived memories of U.S. gunboat diplomacy and prompted “Gringo go home” sentiments south of the border. (DD. Early the next morning after Trumps victory I walked into an Oxxo near my house and the first words I heard after the election were "Gringo go home")  In any case, most knowledgeable observers agree that a military response to the cartels will backfire.

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Narco manta left on corpse with threats against singer Miguel Comando

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

Subject Matter: Narco manta threats in Tijuana
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Isai Lara Bermudez
A narco manta was left draped around the body of a dead man with threats made against the singer of corridos Miguel Comando, who will give  a concert on April the 28th in Las Pulgas.

During the early hours of Sunday the 2nd of April, the body of a man was reported in the car park of a Home Depot store in Tijuana.

Even though the message is not fully comprehendible, some phrases can be understood such as " do not show yourself", and other which inform that they have pictures of him, and that if he does show up he will be "rolled up", inside or outside of Las Pulgas.

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Jesus Malverde, the man, the myth the legend Part 1

Written by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat

Subject Matter: Jesus Malverde, aka Jesus Juarez Mazo, aka the Narco-Saint

Many different cultures at different times past and present have a Robin Hood figure, such as Oleska Dovbush of Ukraine, Juraj Janosik of Slovakia, Nakamura Jirokichi of Japan, Scotty Smith from South Africa, Salvatore Guiliano of Italy and Phoolan Devi from India. As I hail from the UK, every child here knows the story of Robin Hood and he has been immortalized in many different Hollywood films featuring some of Hollywoods top stars. All have similar traits in that they rob from the rich and distribute their loot to the poor. But in nearly every old legend of this type, there is little evidence that they ever existed. Jesus Malverde is venerated particularly in Sinaloa and particularly by Narcos. Here we examine his story.

The second Jesus Malverde shrine in Culiacan, the original was built over

Reporter: Otis B Fly-Wheel

Jesus Malverde, possibly born Jesus Juarez Mazo, On December 24th, 1870 just outside of Culiacan in Sinaloa, he has many aliases, the generous bandit, angel of the poor, El Rey de Sinaloa and the Narco-Saint. He lived in Sinaloa , and grew up under the rule of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz. He allegedly died on May 3rd of 1909, which is now his Saints day, about the same time as Chinese immigrants started arriving in Sinaloa who were displaced by the great San Fransisco earthquake of 1906 and brought with them poppy seed and started to grow Poppy's for opium for the first time in Mexico.

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"El Cepillo", head of the Sinaloa Cartel in Balleza and Guadalupe y Calvo executed in Chihuahua

The leader of the Sinaloa cartel in the region of Guadalupe, Calvo and Balleza, Mario Eleno Corral Félix, "El Cepillo" or "El 00", was executed yesterday in the community La Cueva del Burro section of Turuachi, in the municipality of Guadalupe and Calvo.

State Police located the body of "El Cepillo", one of the criminal objectives of the Attorney General's Office (PGR).

The criminal group "El 00" controls Guadalupe and Calvo, but can not enter one of the largest populations, Baborigame, which borders Badiraguato, Sinaloa state, territory dominated by another antagonistic group but from the same Cartel.

In Guadalupe, Calvo and in El Vergel, municipality of Balleza, the capo made wifi networks available to the population that they named: "Del Cepillo para el pueblo" in El Vergel, and "Support for the people ", At the head of Guadalupe and Calvo.

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