Texas Gang Assessment, "Tango Blast" tops numbers

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat material from DPS Texas Gang Assessment

Tango Blast 19,000 members in Texas

Texas Gang Threat Assessment, which was developed to provide a broad overview and update of gang activity in Texas.

“This report provides an overview of gangs operating in Texas, which gives law enforcement important information to help protect our communities from these violent organizations,” said DPS Director Steven McCraw. “Gangs and their associates remain a significant threat to public safety in our state, not only because of their penchant for violence and criminal activity, but also their relationships with other criminal organizations, such as Mexican cartels.”

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"El Pozolero": 10,500 Bones Found in Narcofosa La Gallera

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Zeta

Sept 4, 2017 Tijuana, BC

Six years after the first human remains were found at the site where "El Pozolero" dissolved 300 bodies in acid, 10, 000 additional bone fragments were found, which represent a new hope for the families of missing persons.

 The United Association for the Disappeared in Baja California, headed by Fernando Ocegueda, will initiate a state campaign jointly with federal authorities to take genetic samples of relatives of missing persons in all of Baja California in an  attempt to identify the more than 100 kilos of bones found recently.

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Sicarios try to shoot down a Marines Helicopter, five of them dead

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article with additional images from Valor por Tamaulipas

Subject Matter: CdG try to shoot down Marines Helicopter
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

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Review :"Bloodlines", Los Zetas, Treviños, and the American Quarter Horse Racing Scheme

Review by Adam V.(Siskiyou_kid) for Borderland Beat

image from Texas Observer

Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty by Melissa del Bosque

Veteran reporter Melissa del Bosque is an excellently researched book about the federal investigation into the Treviño Morales brothers, and their attempts to launder millions of dollars in illicit cash through the purchase, running, and breeding of champion quarter horses. Bloodlines is set for release Sept. 12 and it's an easy read that introduces the reader to the history of organized crime in Mexico, and fleshes out the current situation leading to a riveting story of ruthless crime bosses and the people who are tasked with taking them down. Del Bosque accomplishes this seamlessly, without boring any ardent follower of events in the narco world.

We are introduced to how the Zetas paramilitary force, has broken away from the Gulf Cartel, where they worked as enforcers. They went to war against their former benefactors, as well as other groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel, which was the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico at the time.

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US / CBP Has Busy Week Busting Millions Worth of Drugs at Border Crossings

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from USCBP

USGS Border Marker near San Ysidro, BC /US Border Crossing
The Busiest Border Crossing in the World

Extra Link: USCBP
US Customs and Border Patrol News Releases
Sept 8, 2017

CBP Field Operations Seizes Nearly $4 Million in Meth in a Commercial Trailer at the Pharr, Texas International Bridge:

The seizure occurred on Sept. 5, when CBP officers assigned to the Pharr International Bridge cargo facility encountered a white 2008 Freightliner tractor trailer. After the conveyance was referred for a secondary inspection, CBP officers utilized a non-intrusive imagining (NII) system along with the help of a canine team to locate the narcotics. CBP officers extracted 36 packages containing 199.61 pounds of alleged methamphetamine concealed within the trailer.

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Guanajuato: Reporter who first published security video of commando attack is gunned down

Thank you Tu Fren material from Pagina Negra

10th Reporter Killed in Mexico This Year

Juan Carlos Hernández Ríos, was murdered Tuesday night. Hernández was a collaborator of the La Bandera Noticias de Yuriria portal.

The 29-year-old journalist was attacked by two men dressed in black who carried large-caliber weapons as the reporter left home in the Guadalupana colony.

Hernández Rios, who was editorial assistant and photographer of the news portal, was transferred to the community hospital of Yuriria, where he succumbed to his injuries.

The victim, worked for the La Bandera Noticias portal, which in recent months has managed to bolster police content.

Hernández Rios, was the first reporter to publish the security video of the commando police  attack that killed 7 including 4 police this past Monday.

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litigation update of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

A press release from Attorney Eduardo Balarezo, announces he now formally represents Joaquín “El Chapo" Guzmán.  

In the press release, Balarezo gives his first statement as Chapo’s attorney. 

Mr. Balarezo has represented many high profile defendants including Zhenli Ye Gon and more recently, Alfredo Beltran Leyva.

William Purpura the attorney in the John Gotti Jr case, will also represent Chapo.

In the statement, [see below] Mr. Balarezo  projects the trial will last apx 3-4 months

Other case news:

• Files for dismissal of indictment
• Chapo says U.S. prison is torture; that his treatment is the worse in the U.S.
• Still denied visits or phone calls from wife and family
• No contact counsel visits
• Accused of shipping 181 million grams of cocaine in U.S.
• Eduardo Balarezo and William Purpura are now  formally representing Guzmán

Chapo is “subjected to torture”

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Rocco Morabito: How a fight with his wife led to the downfall of Italy's 'Cocaine King'

republished from ibtimes.uk

The 'Ndrangheta manage at least 60 per cent of Europe's cocaine trade, and deal directly with Mexican Cartels, Zetas and CDG, along with South American drug cartels for their supply. They also traffic heroin, cannabis and weapons.

The downfall of an Italian mob boss who evaded police for 23 years came after he checked in to a hotel because of an argument with his wife, it has been revealed.

Dubbed the "Cocaine King of Milan", Rocco Morabito had been wanted since 1994 after playing a major role in the drug trafficking trade between South America and Italy. The 50-year-old – a member of the notorious Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta organised crime syndicate – is said to have been living in Uruguay since 2002.

He was recently arrested in a downtown hotel in the country's capital of Montevideo, authorities said Monday (4 September).

Investigators claimed he had checked in to a room alone after having an argument with his wife.

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Guanajuato: 7 Dead in commando attack including 4 police officers (video)

Thank you Tu Fren... from Proceso

CELAYA, Gto.- Seven people, including four municipal police, a Transit employee and two employees of a gas station, were riddled by bullets, when armed  individuals aboard four pickup trucks attacked in Apaseo el Alto.

Around midnight Monday, at a gas station located at the corner of Daniel Ángel Ortega and Guadalupe Mandujano streets,   four Tahoe trucks arrived with a large group of men with long guns, who began the gun assault.

The employees managed to throw themselves on the floor. However, several members of the command approached and shot the two in the head, they died at the scene.

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"El Guero Chihuahua" of CAF Detained for Trafficking

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Zeta

Adan Rodriguez Guevara aka "El Guero Chihuahua"

Sept 4, 2017 Tijuana BC

For the purpose of extradition and in coordination with US authorities, the State Preventive Police (PEP) captured Adán Rodríguez Guevara "El Güero Chihuahua" at 6 pm on Thursday, August 31. That was the information provided by the authority in its first reports. They then stopped the flow of information on the grounds that it could cause conflict in coordination and in process.

Of the detainee, "El Guero Chihuahua", the Baja California Coordination Group has this information: "he has a lot of money, owns a restaurant and a bar, trafficks cocaine to the United States and within the local criminal organization is identified as the chief of assassins and right-hand man of José Manuel Núñez López, "Don Balas", a  criminal lieutenant of the Cartel Arellano Felix (CAF).

According to public records, this is the third time that the Baja California Coordination Group has arrested the man named Adan Rodriguez Guevara: the first time he was arrested by the PEP in 2004 and identified as the leader of the group of thugs called "Los Omegas" in the service of Núñez Lopez.

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Video Police Caught Applying Coup de Grace to 3 Sicarios

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from an El Debate Article

Subject Matter: See Post Title
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Four alleged criminals had died after a chase by Police, but the Police shot them again just to make sure.

Reporter: Unknown
Nuevo Laredo
This past Friday the 1st of September, around 5:30 pm a chase was registered that finished with a confrontation on the part of elements of the Tamaulipas Police Force against four Sicarios.

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Book Review: Martin Corona, Confessions of a Cartel Killer Part 2

Confessions of a Cartel Killer: Part 2

Steve Duncan, a California Justice Department special agent, was the first handler of Martin Corona, and wrote the foreword in Corona’s book, Confessions of a Cartel Hitman. Below are three excerpts from that foreword, followed by questions proposed to Duncan, by “J” and Chivis and his answers. Gratitude to Steve for giving his time, assuring we received the information we asked for.

Excerpts from Duncan’s foreword:

First excerpt;

We got a multiple murderer; a brutal hit man who participated in many killings and murdered at least eight people himself. He often left victims near death. He destroyed families in the United States and Mexico. We got him. Martin Corona, an accomplished hit man for the extremely violent Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization. He signed a plea agreement created by the prosecutor and me. Corona then stood before a federal judge and pled guilty to cocaine distribution.  He was sentenced to roughly twenty-five years.

Wait!  He pled guilty to cocaine distribution when he was a multiple murderer and you’re good with that? Hold on now, there’s more.     

Corona was thirty-seven years of age.  In the federal system, you do 85% of your sentence.  In this case, 20.6 years.  Corona would be released when he was fifty-eight years old.  He was sentenced in October 2001, he would not be released until 2022.

During intensive debriefings with Corona in 2001, he confided to our team that he had Hepatitis C, a virus that is chronic and can lead to an early death. We feigned sympathy but after we locked Corona back into his cell, we smiled.  We truly believed he would die in prison.  “Divine intervention,” I thought.

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PGR Destroys more than 33 Tons of Precurser Chemicals

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Riodoce

Sept 2, 2017

More than 33 tons of chemical substances and precursors were destroyed by staff of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) in Sinaloa.

Through a statement, it was reported that the Deputy Attorney General for Regional Control, Criminal Procedures and Amparo (SCRPPA), in coordination with personnel from the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) and the Navy Secretariat, Armada de México (SEMAR) destroyed the massive amounts of chemicals.

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Baja California Sur: Tourist Mecca Becoming a Ticking Time Bomb

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Multiple Sources

A Typical Tourist Day in Cabo San Lucas
or any other Mexican Mega Resort Town

By Pedro Juárez Mejía La Puma de BCS
La Paz, BCS Sept 1, 2017
BCS Noticias, Zeta

In three separate shootings registered in three of the five municipalities of Baja California Sur (Comondú, La Paz and Los Cabos), groups of assassins with machine guns, ie "Cuernos de Chivos" murdered 11 people, in a period of less than four hours last Friday August 25.

This week there have been countless murders up and down the entirety of the Baja Peninsula, in both states. Today, Sept 1, 2017 Tropical Storm Lidia is literally putting a damper on violence while much of BCS experiences the most rain they have had in one storm in nearly a century. 6 deaths have already been reported. State of Emergency just declared for all 5 Municipalities of BCS.

The predicted uptick in violence due to the splintering of factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, the arrests of key players and the rise of power of CJNG are all factors as rivals battle for power and plazas.

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Book review: Martin Corona, "Confessions of a A Cartel Hitman"

This is the first of two parts...

Much appreciation to former Special Agent Steve Duncan for advancing a  copy of "Confessions". When Steve offered to send me an advance copy, I knew that at BB we had someone who could do the review justice, Borderland Beat contributor “J”. J grew up visiting Tijuana often including the violent years of the city.  He was able to put a personal element in his outstanding review.  Any of you who followed the Tijuana cartel/AFO need not an introduction to Martin Corona. Before becoming a teen he began dealing drugs, beginning his criminal career.  He became a sicario leader of an elite group of enforcers for the Tijuana Cartel.An example of Corona’s killings, is that of the sisters of a target named Ronnie Svoboda. One sister, Luz, was pregnant, the other, Ivonne, was a Paris fashion model, both are shot, Ivonne took 3 bullets in the head.  Luz’ 9 yr old daughter watched all the horror from the back seat, but was physically unhurt.  Amazingly the sisters survived but notunscathed, as Ivonne suffered brain damage.  Just a month later, the little girl would see Corona once again, when he and notorious sicario, David Barron, arrived at the grandfathers Tijuana home to beat her father to death.  He is now remorseful for his ghastly deeds,  From a Boy Scout to an effective, ruthless killer, Corona now asks for forgiveness. After the arrest of Javier Arellano-Félix in 2006, Corona played a key role in the downfall of the cartel when he turned state's evidence. The book also is an excellent source to exemplify how seamless cartel criminality flows from border cities like Tijuana to their U.S. counterpart, in this case San Diego County.  Many affluent Mexican nationals, wealthy by legitimate and/or organized crime endeavors, reside in San Diego cities such as Chula Vista. -C.M.-                                          

***

"As far as first hand documentation of the way of the gun in Tijuana, the brutality, the killings, the Arellano Felix brothers, their top lieutenants, there are few books like this."

Confessions of a Cartel Hitman by Martin Corona with Tony Rafael:

Review by Borderland Beat Reporter "J"

I grew up going to Tijuana, and seeing the wanted posters of the Arellano Felix brothers as we crossed through San Ysidro, thousands of cars in the night, in the gridlock of the border.  I used to stare at them, stare at the Federales with rifles walking above, and between the cars.  I asked my Mom once, who these men were, why were they wanted.  "Bad people", she had replied, "Bad men".  I wanted to know where they were, "But, Mom where are they"?  At 10 years old or so, I thought they were close by.

In a sense, they were.

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