A Journalists Murder Underscores Growing Threat in Mexico

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from the Chron

Riodoce Co-Founder Javier Valdez Cardenas
Executed with 12 Bullets on May 15, 2017
with in Sight of his Office

By: Maria Verza, AP
Aug 4, 2017

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The staff of the weekly newspaper Riodoce normally meets on Wednesdays to review its plans for coverage of the most recent mayhem wrought in Sinaloa state by organized crime, corrupt officials and ceaseless drug wars.

But on this day, in the shadow of their own tragedy, they've come together to talk about security. It's important to change their routines, they are told. Be more careful with social media. Don't leave colleagues alone in the office at night.

Two senior journalists discuss what feels safer: to take their children with them to the office, which was the target of a grenade attack in 2009, or to leave them at home.

 In this June 26, 2017 photo, local journalists gather for a press conference concerning the kidnapping of 8 people at an upscale restaurant, at the Sinaloa Attorney General's office in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico,not long after the murder of Javier Valdez Cardenas, one of the Co-founders and inspiration for Riodoce.

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CJNG is going for control of all national territory after breaking alliance with El Mayo Zambada

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

Subject Matter: Territorial expansion of the CJNG
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

(Otis: this article makes some fairly big claims about CJNG, and should promote some good discussion in the comments section.)

The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion will dispute more territory with the Sinaloa Cartel after breaking its alliance with El Mayo Zambada, and taking control of Fuerzas Especiales de Los Damaso.

The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion is vying for control of the entire national territory. Unofficial sources from the Centre for Research and National Security (CISEN) presume that the break up of the organization led by Nemesio Oseguera Gonzalez, El Mencho, with the faction of the Sinaloa Cartel headed by Ismael Zambada Garcia, El Mayo, with whom he had an alliance after the recapture of Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo, in January of 2016.

The breakup of the two cartels, the two most important in drug trafficking in Mexico, could have been motivated by the recent delivery to the US authorities of Damaso Lopez Serrano, El Mini Lic, head of the Los Damaso faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, after the capture of his father, and head of the Fuerzas Especiales del Damaso. FED had allegedly been transferred to the control of the CJNG.

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Soccer star Rafael Marquez named in Largest Mexican Cartel Kingpin Designation

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Mexican soccer star and a Norteno band leader are 2 of 22 sanctioned 

As a result of several long-term DEA investigations, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today identified Mexican national Raul Flores Hernandez and the Flores Drug Trafficking Organization (Flores DTO) as Significant Foreign Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act).

  Raul Flores Hernandez Cartel Chart by Chivis Martinez on Scribd

In addition to Flores and the Flores DTO, OFAC also designated 21 Mexican nationals and 42 entities in Mexico for providing support to the narcotics trafficking activities of Raul Flores Hernandez and the Flores DTO and/or for being owned or controlled by the Flores DTO, its members, and trusted associates.

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Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman retains lead attorney of Alfredo "El Mochomo" Beltran

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

El Chapo Hires legal Dream Team....

Among many complaints from El Chapo Guzmán about his treatment and case, Guzmán’s wife Emma made it known the family was shopping for a new attorney. So it comes as no surprise that a new lead attorney has been retained. The surprise is that the attorney, Eduardo Balazero was the lead attorney that tried the case of Alfredo “Mochomo” Beltran Leyva. “Mochomo” was expected to become a witness against Guzmán, if ever the case went to trial.  It was wisely expected he would cut a deal with the feds in exchange for testimony . However, that never happened, Mochomo cut no deal, pleaded guilty and offered nothing.Balarezo notified the court in May that he had no intentions of going forth with Mochomo’s appellate case.

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Tijuana: "El Tribi" CJNG/CTNG cell leader detained

"El Tribi" CJNG cell leader detained 

To understand the killings in Tijuana, you must understand, to a degree, these men.  The detainees, the ones whose name dance across narco mantas, glistening in the morning sun, whose names line the pages of ZETA, whose songs are published on Youtube, and played in private parties, and mariscos spots, with pistols in their waists, newer model vehicles, cocaine, meth, alcohol in their systems...

Tribi, one of these men, was detained today, with a weapon and crystal meth, in neighborhood in Tijuana. He is said to be operating in Ciudad Jardin, El Cortez, Altamira, Los Altos, among others.  It was reported he was arrested in San Antonio de Los Buenos.  Heavy violence and killings are routine in those neighborhoods.  

"El Tribi", whose name has long rang in the circles mentioned above, appearing even in the latest edition of Zeta.  Jesus Salvador Padilla Rodriguez, is one of the main crystal meth distributors in the Western area of Tijuana, under the line of Javier Cabera Beltran, known as "R4", "JP". 

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La Familia Michoacana accuse Astudillo of protecting Guerreros Unidos

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

Subject Matter: La Familia Michoacana
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Proceso Redaction
A group of armed subjects that identified themselves as members of the criminal group La Familia Michoacana accused the Governor Hector Astudillo Flores of giving protection to the PRD Mayor of Teloloapan, Robel Uriostegui Patino, as well as the community guard of this town linked to Guerreros Unidos.

The video which appeared in social networks this weekend, in which one can observe a dozen men carrying rifles, their faces covered and wearing military type uniforms, warn about a resurgence in the violence in the North region of the Tierra Caliente.

In this part of the State, where Astudillo promotes mining projects and provides security to investors, the groups of La Familia Michoacana and Guerreros Unidos maintain a confrontation for control of the routes for growing and transit of heroin and the profits generated by the mining industry which has left a trail of death, disappeared and displaced.

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Damaso Lopez "Mini Lic" indicted in San Diego

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

on right with El mayos son

Damaso Lopez Serrano, believed to be the godson of  Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who turned himself in to U.S. authorities, amid a power struggle conflict against the sons of El Chapo Guzmán, has charges filed against him, has been indicted and appeared today in San Diego ninth district federal court.

When he gave himself over to U.S. authorities in Calexico it was thought he  had no charges against him. The investigation lasted five years and involved intercepts of more than 250 communication devices. In 2015, there were tens of thousands of communication intercepts.

“Mini Lic”, and five of his  associates are accused of trafficking drugs into the U.S.from May 2005 to August 2016.

The amount of drugs have not yet been specified, but in general terms it was recorded on the indictment of being more than a pound of methamphetamine, more than two pounds of heroin and more than 11 pounds of cocaine.  In superseding indictments information will become more specific.

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Foreign Troops in Mexico

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

Subject Matter: Foreign troops operating in Mexico against El Narco
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Reporter: Raymundo Riva Palacio
After the publication of the transcripts of the conversation between the Presidents of Mexico and the United States on the 27th of January of this year, when Trump said to Enrique Pena Nieto that he was " 100% ready to send American troops to Mexico to kill narco traffickers, the newspaper the Washington Post that revealed the transcription asked, " can Trump send troops to Mexico?

Peter DeShazo, Professor of Latin American Studies at Dartmouth College, responded; "Its improbable that the Mexican Government will permit elite units, like the Green Berets or SEAL's, to confront the drug cartels, or to play a support role to the Mexican units. It is not a unilateral theme. The organized crime is an international concern, and is not a purely domestic theme from Mexico", De Shazo, said that Trump is exceeding what is required. Trump doesn't need to send troops, because his military have been in Mexico for some time.

Not in the form that the Washington Post remembers in the American invasion of 1847-48, or the American flotilla in Veracruz in 1914. This model of intervention corresponds to actions long in the past. The present deployment has distinct face and has been in Mexico for various years, since the dawn of the second world war, there has been a bilateral agreement that both countries can use, without the necessity to solicit authorization, the airports and military bases of each nation in extraordinary situations.

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CDS: Internal War Continues; Los Chapitos vs Los Damasos and Company

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Debate

Damaso Lopez Serrano, aka "El Mini Lic"

July, 2017

Last week Dámaso López Núñez Serrano, better known as "El Mini Lic" was handed over to US authorities, and yesterday ; Nahúm Sicarios alias, "El Quinceañero", was captured, the financial operator of the first, these facts indicate a marked  blow to organized crime, but José Reveles, an expert on issues of organized crime and drug trafficking and author of several books on the subject, says in an interview given to the Broken Chair, said that the violence will not end .

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US Federal Agents Flew a Secret Spy Plane to Hunt Drug Cartel Leaders in Mexico

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Buzz Feed 

                                   
Neither the US Marshall Service nor the Mexican Government wants to talk about their joint efforts to hunt drug kingpins. BuzzFeed news spotted a US Marshalls spy plane circling the skies around the time of a prominent capture in Sinaloa.

By: Peter Aldous and Karla Zabludovsky
Carlos Alvarez for Zeta
Aug 3, 2017

At 7:50 a.m. on May 1, Mexican marines stopped a vehicle carrying a key player in the bloody war for control of the Sinaloa drug cartel. David López was the chief bodyguard of Dámaso “El Licenciado” López, formerly the right-hand man of the cartel’s then-leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Shortly afterward, while being transported to a federal prosecutor’s office, the bodyguard collapsed and died. His boss was detained in Mexico City the following day.

But the official account of the bodyguard’s capture in Eldorado, Sinaloa, provided to BuzzFeed News by Mexican authorities under a freedom of information request, omitted an important detail. On April 28, and again on the morning of the capture, a small Cessna plane circled above Eldorado, a city of fewer than 25,000 people. The aircraft was operated by the US Marshals Service, and is part of a small fleet of spy planes used to hunt fugitives, in part by tracking their cell phones.

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Mexico's Deadliest Town. Mexico's Deadliest Year.

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from the NYT

Colima's Very Active Volcano
An Auspicious Symbol
Award Winning Photo by Nat Geo Photographer Sergio Tapiro
WordPress Award Winner 2016
Nat Geo Award Winner 2017 

By:Azad Ahmed

Paulina Villegas Contributes from Mexico City

Aug 4, 2017

TECOMÁN, Mexico — He slumped in a shabby white chair, his neck unnaturally twisted to the right. A cellphone rested inches away, as if he had just put it down. His unlaced shoes lay beneath outstretched legs, a morbid still life of what this town has become.

Israel Cisneros, 20, died instantly in his father’s one-room house. By the time the police arrived at the crime scene, their second homicide of the night, the blood seeping from the gunshot wound to his left eye had begun to harden and crack, leaving a skin of garish red scales over his face and throat.

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Cartels operating in central Mexico, Familia Michoacana controls most territory

Chivis notes are in parenthesis:  Translated and republished from Animal Poltico

Breakdown of territory for; LFM, CT, CJNG, Zetas, Sinaloa, BLO and others...

By: Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés*

A little over three years ago, I published an article called “Why did violence increase in Edomex?” (Available link here ), which included a series of maps indicating in which of the 125 municipalities of the State of Mexico were criminal organizations were operating,  such as the La Familia Michoacana (LFM), the Zetas, the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Cartel del Golfo CDG), the Guerreros Unidos, Caballeros Templarios, among others.

In the three years since, the presence of criminal organizations has spread in the State of Mexico and Mexico City. An example is what occurred last week in  Tláhuac; That is why I considered it pertinent to update my database and perform a new radiograph of the presence of criminal organizations operating in the State of Mexico, now including the 16 delegations of Mexico City.

This database was constructed from a review of the journalistic material that has been generated around the criminality in these entities. In particular, a systematic search for reports for each municipality, delegation and criminal organization was made. Used when at least two independent reports were found that confirmed the presence of a criminal organization in a municipality or delegation, during the period from January 1, 2014 to June 8, 2017.

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Matamoros Tamaulipas: Narco Camp Discovered

Translated and republished from Reforma

Elements of the Army discovered an area used to train members of organized crime, used as well  for the amoring and cloning of vehicles in Matamoros.

The National Defense Ministry (Sedena) reported the finding as occurring on Thursday, when military personnel assigned to the Eighth Military Zone carried out patrols in the southeast sector of the city after receiving an anonymous complaint.

As soldiers moved in on the site, criminals blocked their passage by hurling ponchallantas (tire spikes) to avoid military intervention.

At the site, the agents found several abandoned buildings and training areas used for the training of members of the crime organization.

Seized in the operation  was a total of 13recent model  vans, two of them with armor, one with cloned distinctions of the Secretary of Marina and another with emblems of the federal Police, in addition to two automobiles.

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Deportee Kidnap Victim Freed: Talks of Beating and Starvation

 Posted By DD for Borderland Beat from Cleveland.com

US / Mexico Border between Laredo,Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas

Thanks to Tu Fren for the Heads Up and Link
By: Michael Sangiacomo, The Plain Dealer
Additional reporting by: Alfredo Corchado, The Dallas Morning News

Extra Material from News5Cleveland

Aug 2, 2017

PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- The Painesville man who was kidnapped Tuesday night by a Mexican crime cartel after being deported to a dangerous city in Mexico, was released Sunday night after enduring five days of beatings and starvation. Francisco Narciso was released after his girlfriend in Painesville wired two payments of nearly $4,000.

Francisco Narciso said he was accosted by two men with guns Tuesday night shortly after he was taken to Nuevo Laredo by ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

"He had just bought a bus ticket to another city when he was approached by two men with guns," said his girlfriend who is the mother of his two children but does not want to be identified. She talked with him by phone Sunday and he told her about his ordeal. "They went to either side of him, put the guns to his side and ordered him to get into a truck," she said.

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Routes and Capos of the drugs trafficking cartels in Tijuana

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

Subject Matter: Cartels operating in Baja California
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

In the criminal struggle that has caused 1137 executions, 5 criminal cartel cells have invaded Baja California, all converged on Tijuana and fight for criminal control in Ensenada for the arrival of drugs. "El Checo" Flores, of Mexicali has expanded into Tijuana, "El Tigre" Soto started out in State capital and expanded into Tijuana and Rosarito in Ensenada, a town in which they are fighting against Victor Mejia "El Griego", of Los Aquiles

Reporter: Zeta Investigations and Cortesia

All of the drug routes in Baja Califorina converge on Tijuana, evidence of this is the ten tonnes of marijuana secured by the State Preventative Police and the Army in the Nueva Aurora colonia, discovered in a search by the PGR on the 18th of July.

Before, on the 2nd and 17th of the same month,  244 packets and 33 bags on a yacht, also in the Flores Magon colonia, inside a car they found 62 kilos of marijuana, 213 more kilos of marijuana in a house in the Xochimilco colonia, and 100 kilos of marijuana on a dirt road in the Playas de Tijuana delegation. They were counted among the many other captures of 1 to 5 kilos of the drug.

On July the 9th, following the assassination of Commander Antonio Garcia Garcia in Ensenada, the primary investigation of the coordination group revealed that the officer who was riddled with bullets by drug traffickers who were unloading in the San Quintin valley for the CJNG, Los Michoacanos de San Telmo, who initially were criminals for Alfonso Lira "El Atlante" and whose principal activity was the control and logistical transfer of drugs to the Tijuana frontier.

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