"La Barbie", "El Coss", and 11 others Extradited to the United States

by Lucio R. for Borderland Beat

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, aka "La Barbie lost his long fight against extradition today when he along with 13 other narcos was sent to face justice in the United States.  Planes transporting the suspects landed in Tucson for processing.

Cartel del Golfo (CDG) Capo Jorge Costilla Sanchez, known as "El Coss," was also extradited.

Garcia Sota

Another extradited person in the group is Jose Emanuel Garcia Sota, who is charged in the 2011 killing of ICE agent Jaime Zapata in San Luis Potosi.

Early reports indicate a number of those extradited were from the Federal Social Readaptation Center No. 1 "Altiplano" maximum prison now defamed since Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman successfully tunneled his way out of the prison, the first successful escape in it’s history.  Speculation is that the mass extradition resulted from the escape.

El Barbie was arrested in 2010, he faces multiple charges in Georgia, Texas and Louisiana.

From State Department about La Barbie

Narco Singer Larry Hernandez to be extradited

by Lucio R. for  Borderland Beat

Narco singer Larry Hernandez was ordered held without bail and extradited to South Carolina to face charges.

Hernandez attended his first court hearing today after his arrest on September 25, at the Ontario, California airport.   He was transferred from the Rancho Cucamonga jail to the city of San Bernardino for his 8:30 hearing in Department 17.

After Hernandez had booked his flight, police in Denver notified airport police in Southern California that Hernandez, who had a warrant for his arrest, was boarding a Southwest flight in Ontario for a flight to Denver.

  

Family in court, wife is front left

His mother, wife, and a group of friends and family were in the courtroom in support of Hernandez.

Univision is reporting that his bank accounts have been frozen, which may have precipitated his wife to place various real estate properties on the market, this after Hernandez transferred the properties in her name.

The alleged crime

The concert promoter told the Newberry police his story and about the crime Hernandez had committed against him. According to reports, the kidnap and beating took place at a skating rink after the concert. Allegedly, Hernandez had the man “wrapped in clear plastic wrap and beaten.” Hernandez was not alone, however. The concert promoter said that the singer had an accomplice help him. When the man identified Larry as one of the perpetrators, the case was given to the 8th Solicitor’s Circuit by the Newberry Police Department. Hernandez was charged with kidnapping and third-degree assault and battery, along with a man named Jesus Ivan Solis, who was identified as his associate in the violent attack.

Hernandez is also wanted by Mexico.

The Fly-Wheels weekly drug bust round up

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat

Location: Tijuana
Drug: Marijuana
Weight: 1.7 tonnes
Discovery: Truck

The command of the Second Military Region discovered and confiscated a truck carrying 1.7 tonnes of Marijuana, the drugs and the vehicle were put at the disposition of Agents of Federal Public Ministry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location: Tijuana
Drug: Cocaine
Weight: 2 kilos
Discovery: Jaguar Car
Value:2 million pesos

In Tijuana agents of the State Preventative Police detained an alleged drug trafficker identified as Aaron Benjamin Valenzuela Chavez, who at the time of detention was found with 2.2 kilos of cocaine, he is 20 years old and originally from Sinaloa.

'La Tuta' from inside prison

After 'El Chapo's' escape, security measures around Servando Gómez Martínez were tightened. In prison La Tuta is guarded by three officers of Cisen four custody area officers and two perimeter security commanders.

Classified as a highly dangerous prisoner, with alter ego (dual personality) and a power of corruptibility almost like that of "El Chapo" Guzman, the head of the Knights Templar cartel, Servando Gomez Martinez, 'La Tuta' is subject to special surveillance and tight security by the custodial staff. At no time during the 24 hours he's out of sight.

Federal prison security in Almoloya, Cefereso No. 1, Are assuming 'La Tuta' is the inmate with more potential to escape since Joaquin Guzman Loera decided to escape. At least he think that and he has let the psychology staff know it since he meets with them once a week. "Sometimes playing with the mind of the psychologists," an official from the federal prison said.

A source explains Servando Gómez Martínez was separated from the prison population because of his personality. He was sent to a segregation cell, where he receives "special treatment" which is nothing more than to keeping him isolated and guarded 24 hours a day.

Plaza Chief "El Escorpión" killed in CDG internal struggle

Lucio R. Borderland Beat  material from Facebook, VXT and Valor tamaulipeco,

Yesterday morning, the body of Lazaro Martinez Rodriguez. Aka "El Escorpión", was discovered outside a Madero, Tamaulipas nightclub, “Viento Rodeo”.  

With the body was found a narco cartulina with a message. Martinez-Rodriguez was once policía ministerial in Nuevo Laredo and later Tampico. After moving to Tampico, he worked alongside kidnapper, torturer enforcer, Francisco Javier Peña Ruiz "K21", allegedly using the police station for torturing  kidnapping victims, subsequently becoming plaza chief of Madero.

The killing is the result of an internal CDG conflict according to the message, which identifies the deceased as plaza chief of Madero.  Conflict has heightened in Tampico, Madero and Altamira, in an internal control struggle, after the fall of “EL Chive”.  

Rumor has it that it was El Escorpión who betrayed  Silvestre Haro Rodriguez, ( El Chive) which led to his arrest.   El Chive, was chief of the Gulf Cartel plaza in metropolitan area of Tampico, Madero and Altamira.    

Zeta plaza boss "El Fresa" shanked to death in Topo Chico Jail with 11 others wounded

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

[ Subject Matter: Mario Alberto Roldan Zuniga "El Fresa"
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Reporter: Zeta Redaction
Monterrey N.L: A zeta plaza boss was assassinated with home made prison type knives (shanks) on Thursday night in the Topo Chico prison, during a riot in which 11 other prisoners were also injured, informed the Government of Nuevo Leon.

Mario Alberto Roldan Zuniga, "El Fresa", 32 years of age, originally from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, he was the zeta plaza boss in this town, and was detained in February of this year, for possession of drugs and fire arms in San Nicolas, the town from where he operated.

Narco Corrido singer Larry Hernandez arrested for aggression and kidnapping in USA

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

[ Subject Matter: Larry Hernandez
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Reporter: Trinidad Ramirez Toriz

On Friday 25th of September Larry Hernandez was detained at Ontario airport, the narco corrido singer was arrested under the charges of kidnapping and aggression, after a complaint in Newberry, South Carolina, by an individual whose name has not been revealed, who assured that on the morning of 16th of August this year, he was kidnapped by two people from the entourage of "El Ardido".

According to information from various media both national and international, the victim ( a businessman), had solicited the services of the singer who charges 30,000 dollars per appearance, could only pay the singer 14,000 as he had not sold all the tickets for the gig, and according to the businessman he was taken to the hotel where Larry was staying, and gagged and beat him. He managed to escape later from his captors, and went to the police to make a statement.

Click on image to enlarge

Mexico Drug War Fast Facts

(CNN)Here's a look at the Mexican Drug War. The Mexican government has been fighting a war with drug traffickers since December 2006. At the same time, drug cartels have fought each other for control of territory.

Facts:

More than 60,000 people have been killed from 2006 to 2012 due to drug-related violence, during former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's six-year administration, according to Human Rights Watch. During that same six-year period, 26,121 people have gone missing in Mexico, though authorities don't have data about how many of the disappearances are connected with organized crime.

Since December 1, 2012, when Enrique Peña Nieto assumed the presidency, overall intentional homicide numbers have declined slightly, but the number of reported kidnappings continues to climb.

There are approximated 6,700 licensed firearms dealers in the United States, along the U.S.-Mexico border. There is only one legal firearms retailer in Mexico.

Nearly 70% of guns recovered from Mexican criminal activity from 2007 to 2011, and traced by the U.S. government, originated from sales in the United States.

Ninety percent of the cocaine that enters the U.S. transits through Mexico. Mexico is also a main supplier of marijuana and methamphetamines in the U.S.

Mexican drug cartels take in between $19 and $29 billion annually from U.S. drug sales.

The Mexico drug war: Bodies for billions

It's #49 not #43; The forgotten victims of the Iguala Massacre

Lucio R Borderland Beat

#49 

It was a horrific series of events on September 26 and 27 of 2014, that the world came to know the Ayotzinapa Normalistas, those students in rural colleges becoming teachers.  The label #43 was quickly attached to the 43 students who remain unaccounted for, but there were 49 (some accounts say 50) who were also a part of the mayhem in Iguala Guerrero.  They have become the forgotten ones. The press are not publishing their stories, and highlighting the grief of their families, who in some aspects, at a greater degree,  are hounded by revulsion of terror of the night from hell.

There were 3 other normalistas killed that night, and three others, a bus driver, a lady in a taxi, and a 15 year old soccer player shot and killed as his team bus came under attack.

Of all the victims, of what is known, no one suffered more in the minutes before his death than Julio Mondragon. 

He was beaten so badly his skull sustained multiple fractures, his internal bleeding included his brain, and his face was flayed. 

The Los Angeles, California native, born and raised in L.A., decided to return to his mother’s homeland.  He quickly fell in love, married, became a father and set his sights on helping his indigenous community by becoming a teacher.

I found this article while searching the internet for a story that is different, hats off to “El Daily Post” for this post.

On the first anniversary of the Iguala massacre paying respects and acknowledgement to :

#44 Julio Mondragon, #45 Daniel Solís, #46 Julio César Ramírez, (normalistas killed on September 26^th) #47 Victor Manuel Lugo Ortiz bus driver, #48 Blanca Montiel, and soccer player #49 David José García Evangelista.    (Lucio)                  

 Below is the article.by Maria Verza of AP.

Screen shot of Julio's face book page

Zetas: Pancho Colorado wins another appeal, his bribery conviction is tossed out

by Lucio R. Borderland Beat

At the close of the Austin Texas Zetas Money Laundering trial, a stunning addendum intruded the Austin courthouse, when prosecutors made aware the business partner and the son of defendant Francisco “Pancho” Colorado Cessa, [below left] had attempted to execute a scheme that would bribe a U.S. District Court judge, on behalf of Colorado, for a favorable sentence.

In another one of those situations which could have easily been created in Hollywood, Francisco Colorado Jr. and Ramon Segura attempted to bribe the presiding judge, planning to pay him 1 million USD.

Judge Sparks was never aware of the scheme.  The plot included; an informant, secret meetings with undercover agents, code words and a fictitious story by the agents saying the judge had accepted the deal.

Colorado Jr. and Seguro pleaded guilty in exchange for Cessa receiving a light sentence, of about one year.  They were released and deported to Mexico, where they promptly declared they were railroaded by the U.S. government and were innocent.

For his part Cessa pleaded with the judge to punish him but allow his son to go free.  He then pleaded guilty.  He attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, but the presiding judge, in the bribery case, Donald Walter, ruled against Cessa rescinding his plea, saying “he had implicitly accepted the plea agreement”, thereby was prevented from repealing the agreement.

He was sentenced to 5 years. 

But a federal 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals, found in disagreement with the presiding judge, concluding that he had the right to rescind the plea agreement.

The conviction was overturned.

"La China" and her boyfriend "Betrayal"

The reign of terror of Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda 'La China', one of the few women who has gained notoriety in the drug trafficking world, collapsed as she was about to board a plane to leave the state of Baja California Sur. She was betrayed by her boyfriend Hector Gomez Pedro Camarena 'El Chino', arrested last July.

Calderon Ojeda (responsible for the deaths of about 170 people) was in charge of "Los Damaso" special forces of the Sinaloa cartel, for a couple of years but became independent when she was demoted and decided to form her own criminal organization.

'La China' declared war on their former employers and partners, and tried to take control of La Paz and then Los Cabos. With "La China" as the boss, 'El Chino' took the role of second in command; Sergio 'The Scar' Beltran became chief of assassins; Rogelio 'Tyson' Franco was responsible for logistics, and Peter 'Peter' Cisneros was appointed head of sales of narcotics and to disposed the bodies of enemies.

 Rogelio 'El Tyson' Franco, Sergio 'The Scar' Beltran and Pedro "Peter" Cisneros, suspected assassins working for "La China". Photos: PGR

Actress Ali Landry's inlaws, kidnapped in Tamaulipas, killed in Veracruz

by Lucio R.  for Borderland Beat

Tortured and killed after 5000 dollar ransom was paid

In-laws of actress and former Miss USA, Ali Landry, were kidnapped in Tampico, Tamaulipas and found dead in  ejido El Chachalaco, Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz.

Veracruz attorney general Luis Bravo, issued a statement saying Juan Manuel Gomez Fernandez and Juan Manuel Gomez Monteverde, father and brother of Miss Landry’s Mexican film maker husband ("Bella", "Little Boy"), Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, had both been killed by blows to the head, and left for dead several days before being discovered.  [photo of the couple at left]

The son, who lives in McAllen a Texas border city, was visiting his father at his Tampico livestock ranch. 

The kidnappers, using a stolen car with Tamaulipas license plates, abducted the two victims as they exited the ranch. A second report in the Mexican press says; after they left the ranch and were accosted in an area of Huasteca which is identified by authorities as a point of high risk.

The vehicle was found abandoned in Veracruz after the kidnapping.

Tampico is at the southernmost tip of Tamaulipas, sharing a border with the state of Veracruz.  A 17 minute drive separates the two cities involved in the kidnapping.

It was on September 4^th when the victims were reported missing, but the news was not made public for over 2 weeks.  The bodies were discovered on September 16^th .

Sinaloans are laundering drug proceeds, using Tijuana currency exchange centers

Through two owners of currency exchange centers captured in Colombia, the Sinaloa Cartel launder millions of dollars from the sale of drugs, and transported shipments of cocaine to the United States.

The detainees pending extradition, are linked to the group of "El Atlante", a drug trafficker imprisoned since 2014.

In less than two years, Guadalupe Ayon Omar Diaz and Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga launder more than 45 million dollars for the Sinaloa Cartel from the sale of drugs in the United States, through exchange centers in Tijuana and companies in Sinaloa.

By Inés García Ramos

Sought by Interpol, wanted by the US Federal Prosecutor and the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the two men were far from keeping a low profile.

Traveling from Culiacan, Sinaloa, to the Tijuana border and the United States, they cruise around California, eating lobster in the tourist area of ​​Puerto Nuevo in Baja California and were protected by a group of bodyguards.

                       Osvaldo Contreras Arriaga, accused of trafficking cocaine.

New battle between Military and CJNG leaves 5 dead

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

UPDATED 23rd Sept with information from Milenio
UPDATED 25th Sept with pictures from Zetatijuana

[ Subject Matter: Cartel Jalisco Neuva Generacion
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Reporter: Felipe Cobian
Guadalajara: In an alleged confrontation between the Military and civilians occurred this morning in the town of Ameca, less than 90 kilometers from the Jalisco Capital City, it left five dead members of the CJNG, according to primary reports.

An operation carried out at 7am today in the Village of San Antonio Matute, killed"El duende" whose true name is Juan Carlos Marquez Perez, alleged Plaza Boss in the Valles region, operating out of Ameca.

click on image to enlarge

San Antonio Matute is a small village located approximately 75 kilometers from Guadalajara, alongside the highway, where the Secretary of National Defence received various requests of support for Infantry and armored vehicles, according to the primary reports.

Cartel Jalisco roaming Nuevo Leon

The DEA highlights on a report the rapid growth of this criminal group, thanks to the constant struggle over the territory between Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel in the state of Nuevo Leon that opens the door for the New Generation Jalisco Cartel.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) notes the presence of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel in Nuevo Leon.

On a new evaluation report by the DEA on the hands of Reporte Indigo, the DEA is saying that the internal power struggles and disorder of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, can cost the loss of its territory in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

BY JESUS PADILLA - Monday, September 21, 2015

"Internal power struggles and disorder between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas are likely contributing to the expansion of CJNG in Nuevo Leon. CJNG is in a position to increase their drug trafficking operations, "the document of the DEA said.

Reports show that New Generation Jalisco Cartel has reached the limits of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and the municipality of Anahuac, Nuevo Leon.

10 bodies discovered at "La Barbies" ranch

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Michoacán 3.0 article

[ Subject Matter: La Barbie, BLO
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Reporter: Michoacán 3.0 Redaction
The State Commission of Public Security of Morelos reported the discovery of 10 bodies in the interior of a ranch property of Edgar Valdez Villareal, better known as " La Barbie", Chief of Sicarios for the Beltran Leyva Cartel.

According to information from newspaper the financier, the ten corpses were found this Friday morning during an operation carried out by the Unified Command and Ministerial Police, in the town of Cuatla, Morelos.

"La Barbie" is currently incarcerated in "Altiplano" prison, in the State of Mexico since 2010.

UPDATES will be posted when available.

Original article in Spanish at Michoacán 3.0

Corrido Singer Remmy Valenzuela arrested

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

[ Subject Matter: Remmy Valenzuela
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Reporter: Zeta Redaction
The corrido singer, Remegio Alejandro Valenzuela Buelna, known as Remmy Valenzuela, was detained in Sinaloa by elements of the State Ministerial Police, yesterday night he was searched and found with a firearm.

According to the data obtained, it indicates that the singer was travelling down a highway when he was stopped and searched by the Ministerial Police, they found a .38 calibre pistol and some spare ammunition.

La China Chief of sicarios of Los Damaso arrested in BCS

Police elements managed to arrest Melissa Margarita Calderón Ojeda "La China", presumed Special Forces chief of assassins of the criminal organization "Los Damaso" in Baja California.

According to the weekly Zeta, the Attorney General of Baja California unofficially confirmed the arrest of the woman.

The publication reported the arrest at about 13:10, when she was trying to leave the state from a small airport outside Cabo San Lucas, in Baja California Sur.

He adds that because of the secrecy of the investigations, the case was not reported.

Calderon Ojeda was arrested along with a criminal cell.

Federal Prisons chief and 12 others arrested in El Chapo escape

by Lucio R. Borderland Beat

Former chief of federal prisons Celina Oseguera Parra

The Federal Police and the Attorney General's Office today arrested 13 officials charging them in the escape of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Including Celina Oseguera Parra, former general coordinator of federal penitentiaries, (she was fired the day following El Chapo’s escape) and Valentin Cardenas Lerma, a former prison director of Altiplano No. 1. 

Celina is the highest level of authority arrested in the case, she was chief of all prison directors, including Valentin.

Others arrested: Leonor García García, former legal director of the Altiplano;

And the following detainees:

Roberto Cruz Bernal, (custodian chief),

Reyes Mora Carrillo, (one of the top 3 federal police working at the prison)

PGJE hunts the child killers of Las Fuezas Especiales de "Los Damaso"

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

[ Subject Matter: Sinaloa Cartel, Baja California Sur
Recommendation: Read this article on recent events see link]

After the execution of a family on the Meliton Albanez common land, between La Paz and Los Cabos, the PGJE are investigating five suspects of the armed attack, who allegedly belong to a cell of  Las Fuerzas Especiales de "Los Damaso", responsible for killing children, women, and innocent men.

Raul Castillo de la Rosa "El Cochi" at right

Reporter: Zeta Investigations and Cortesia
The primary investigations of the PGJE after the execution of an entire family, on the night of 3rd of September in this location, point to a dangerous criminal cell of "Los Mataninos" or "The Child Killers".

According to the primary testimony of the three survivors, the five attackers wore military type uniforms which were colored marine blue, with the initials FED ( Fuerzas Especiales de "Los Damaso" and had a symbol of a Cockerel and two crossed rifles, after attacking their victims they boarded a Ford Mustang, colored red, on the river bed of a creek, just four metres from the asphalt of the La Paz to Cabo San Lucas Highway.

Narco Messages

The wave of homicides is continuing on a daily basis in Tijuana, among them professor Antonio Rodríguez Moreno and two companions, the PGJE is currently performing DNA test on three charred bodies to determine if they belong to the missing men.

During the week a municipal policeman who recruited people to work for a criminal group was also arrested. And criminal groups exchanged narcomensajes in the streets of Tijuana.

Zeta Investigation

Saturday, September 5, at nine o'clock, it was the last time the Tijuana men living in Mexicali, Juan Antonio Rodriguez Moreno, spoke with one of his sisters. He told her that he was headed to a property owned by the family in Tijuana delegacion de La Presa, and he said he had an appointment.

He explained that Elihu Quezada Ibarra contacted him and he will have a meeting with him, he explained that Elihu had asked him to meet because he wanted to fix things up before the trial that they had for the land they were visiting.

This litigation is recorded in file 284/2004, started 11 years ago by the First Civil Court, in which Oscar Jaime Rodriguez, Luz Maria Moreno Moreno and Joaquin Rodriguez Moreno (killed in 2008) are disputing the property to Quezada.

Arrest: "El Gil" lieutenant of G.U. author of manta accusing Joan Sebastian Brother as founder of G.U.

Lucio for Borderland Beat

Principal in normalistas case.  A manta of a year ago signed by "El Gil", claimed Federico Figueroa, brother of singer Joan Sebastian, was the founder of Guerreros Unidos.

Gildardo López Astudillo “El Gil” or “El Cabo Gil” a leader for Guerreros Unidos has been detained in Taxco, Guerrero.  According to the Mexican Federal Police webpage  page, he is identified as the one responsible for collecting, transporting and incinerating the normalista group on September 26-27, 2014.

He was apprehended in a home in the Colonia Taxco, in Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero.  According to CISEN,  El Gil had changed residences on at least three occasions since the normalistas massacre.

He also has warrants for drug trafficking, organized crime, and kidnapping.

PGR claims that several of the detainees pointed to Gil as the author of the normalistas attack and disappearance.  Sidronio Casarrubias Salgado, also named as a leader of Guerreros Unidos and involved in the crime, was arrested last October.

          

Manta of one year ago signed by El Gil

October 30, 2014, 34 days after the disappearance of the 43 normal school, a manta (banner) was hung in Iguala next to the  27^th Military Battalion.  It was signed by “El Gil “who is a lieutenant of Guerreros, working under Sidronio Casarrubias. The message offers to surrender when 80% of G.U. is behind bars, because detaining a few including commander Casarrubias (apprehended before the manta) would do nothing to disrupt the group. 

Blancornelas Without Justice

A Unitary Court of Toluca confirmed the acquittal of the Arellano Felix cartel gunman who in 1997 tried to assassinate the director of ZETA and killed his bodyguard Luis Valero Elizalde. In addition, they reduced the sentence of organized crime. He will leave prison in late 2015.

Arturo Marcos Quinones Sanchez "El Pato" a gang member of Barrio Logan in San Diego, who worked as a hitman for the Arellano Felix Cartel, could be released this year, after the Fifth Unitary Tribunal of the Second Circuit with residence in Toluca, State of Mexico, modified his sentence to resolve an appeal.

The Federal Court confirmed the acquittal of the criminal - he was sentenced 2013 by the Sixth District Judge of Federal Criminal Proceedings in the State of Mexico on charges of attempted murder committed against journalist J. Jesus Blancornelas, and the murder of Luis Valero Elizalde.

He was also exonerated in the murder of his criminal boss and accomplice in the attack, David Barron Corona "CH" from which he was facing the charge of intentional homicide.

Instead, of the initial sentence imposed to "El Pato" for organized crime was amended from 12 years nine months in prison, to 11 years 10 months and 15 days in jail. In addition, the original fine of $204,107 pesos and 40 cents to the amount of $77,740 pesos and 65 cents.

Second Ayotzingapa normalista has been identified, parents reject "findings", experts say possibility is "low"

Lucio R. Borderland Beat
update at bottom

Jhosivani's sister stands before his photo

He was once misidentified as the normalista whose face was flayed and eyes removed.  His parents went to the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) of Iguala.  Martina de la Cruz, touched the corpse of the young man, without a face, without eyes, and knew it was not her son. “This young man is not my son”, she said while touching the hands of the body mistaken of being Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz.

The student without a face was later identified as Julio Cesar Mondragon, a young husband and father of a new born.  Julio, who was Los Angeles born and raised, was later that day identified by his widow, who said she did so by identifying his hands and shirt, a shirt she bought for him. 

(the couple is in the photo below left)

Julio was normalista #44, for  he was never counted among those, the world would come to know as the #43.

The experience of seeing Julio, thinking it was her son, was a shock to Martina, another trauma she, and her husband Margarito had to endure in the hours after receiving word that their son Jhosivani was dead.

For days Martina de la Cruz, slept on the floor of the Normalista school, the floor where Jhosivani had slept prior to September 26, 2014.  The waited for further news on the whereabouts of their son. 

Their wait continued until today, when the analysis of mitochondrial DNA of Jhosivani Guerrero and his mother, revealed a match to remains discovered among evidence collected by the forensic anthropology team working on the case.

They are hunting "La Muneca"

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

[ Subject Matter: Los Fuerzas Especiales de Los Damaso
Recommendation: Use the main board search function for "Los 28" and "Los Pepillos"]

The execution of Fanulfo Portillo Lopez, underling of Damaso Lopez Serrano "El Mini Lic", in the exclusive Guadalupe Colonia of Culiacan, Sinaloa, started a new wave of violence in La Paz. August closed with 22 assassinations between drug dealers of the North Zone and the South Zone, and September started with the capture of Sicarios in the service of Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda "La China".

Reporter: Zeta Investigations
In the last crime map elaborated by Federal and Military Authorities, Ranulfo Portillo Lopez "La Muneca" appears as one of the principal members of Las Furezas Especiales de Los Damaso in Baja California Sur.

The criminal boss, 31 years of age, and originally of El Dorado, Sinaloa, was responsible for the logistics and in charge of recruitment of Sicario's and sending them via sea from Las Arenitas, Sinaloa, to La Paz, in the war that confronts the capos Damaso Lopez Serrano "El Mini Lic" and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, of the Sinaloa Cartel, for control of the narco trafficking plaza.

Autodefensas Ambushed: 7 Dead

Archive photo

By: Rodrigo Caballero | Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

According to spokespeople from the autodefensas of the Michoacán coast, autodefensa members from the community of Caleta de Campos were ambushed by a group of armed men allegedly belonging to the Caballeros Templarios.

The attack occurred around 3 p.m. this Wednesday, September 16, 2015, in a small village called La Manzanilla which is located between Caleta de Campos and the port of Lázaro Cárdenas.  The ambush ended with seven dead; four were presumed Caballero Templario members while three were autodefensa members.

The autodefensa groups in the area mobilized themselves after the ambush and are searching for the perpetrators of the attack; however, they announced that they don’t have the necessary weapons to confront the attackers.

“The army took away our high-powered weapons such as AK-47’s and AR-15 and left us with only shotguns, we can’t go up against grenades with our limited weaponry.  We are on the brink of extinction; we are being killed with the complicity of the government.” Josefa Contreras, autodefensa leader in the area, denounced.

The community claimed that the attack was announced on the evening of September 15 but failed to prevent it because “after Cemeí (sic) (Verdía Zepeda) was arrested, a lot of people who were with us went with the Templarios.”

“This is a desperate call, they are going to kill all of us who were with Cemeí (sic) by the orders of the government,” the autodefensa leader announced.

According to Por un Michoacan Libre SDR.’s Facebook page, a group of autodefensa members who belonged to the Policia Rural (Rural Police) were checking up on an anonymous denunciation which indicated a group of armed men in the community of Bejuco.  The armed group belonged to “500” aka “El Quinini”.  Upon arriving, the Rural Police were ambushed by a group of armed men.  Three of the criminals have been identified as Melvin Lorenzano Reyes, 27, "La Tortuga", Joel Epitacio "El Pita" and a criminal only identified as "Poninis”.  Three of the Rural Police members of Caleta de Campos and Chucutitan were severely wounded but later died as they were being transferred to get medical treatment.  They have been identified as Santos Preciado Chavez, 49, J. Cruz Anguiano, 41, and Ponciano Maldonado Farias, 34, who was the leader of the Rural Police in the community of Chucutitan.

Source: Michoacán 3.0,