6 Radiactive Material Thieves are Held in Hospital

Borderland Beat

Here is the latest "story" from Mexico.  Remembering first reports of empty truck, later "tampered truck but material inside", then "found the material in an isolated farm", today reporting finding  the material in back of a house.  Pick your story.  Additionally, report today is that they have arrested the six men and only one shows a few signs of radiation but "no testing results as of yet" .  The photos today sure do not appear to be the same location as yesterday, but here is the story du jour....

Six people have been arrested and are being tested for radiation exposure. The six are suspects in the theft of a cargo truck carrying radioactive cobalt-60.

MEXICO CITY — Six people being tested for possible radiation exposure in a hospital in central Mexico are suspects in the theft of highly radioactive cobalt-60, a government official said Friday.

The official said the six were arrested Thursday and taken to the general hospital in Pachuca for observation and testing for radiation exposure. Once they are cleared, they will be turned over to federal authorities in connection with the case of a cargo truck stolen Monday at gunpoint that was carrying the extremely dangerous material.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. He did not specify how the six were allegedly involved in the theft.

Hidalgo state Health Minister Pedro Luis Noble said Friday that the six suffered from skin irritations and dizziness, but that none are in grave condition and may be released soon. Only one was vomiting, a sign of radiation poisoning.

But based on the tests, "none are showing immediate signs of radiation poisoning," Noble told Foro TV.

The cobalt-60 theft triggered alerts in six Mexican states and Mexico City, as well as international notifications to the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. It raised concerns that the material could have been stolen to make a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material.

The atomic energy agency said the cobalt has an activity of 3,000 curies, or Category 1, meaning "it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour."

But Mexican officials said that the thieves seemed to have targeted the cargo truck with moveable platform and crane, and likely didn't know about the dangerous cargo. The government official would not give details or location of Thursday's arrest nor names or ages of the suspects.

The six were arrested by Hidalgo state police, said state attorney general's spokesman Fernando Hidalgo.

The driver of the truck, who had stopped to rest at a gas station early Monday when the theft occurred, said two armed men made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot.

Hidalgo said he didn't know how or if the others were involved.

The truck was found abandoned Wednesday about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from where it was stolen, and the container for the radioactive material was found opened. The cobalt-60 pellets were left about a kilometer (half mile) from the truck in an empty rural field, where authorities said they were a risk only to anyone who had handled them and not to anyone in Hueypoxtla, the closest town of about 4,000 people. There was no evacuation.

The material was from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City.

Authorities maintained a 500-meter (yard) cordon around the site where the cobalt-60 still remains in the state of Mexico and continued to work Friday to extract it safely, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

"It's quite an operation and it is in the process of being planned," he said. "It's highly radioactive, so you cannot just go over and pick it up. It's going to take a while to pick it up."

Federal police blocked access Friday to hospital where the six were held. (AP)

CNN's account:

Six people exposed to radioactive material stashed inside a stolen truck were being treated at a Mexico hospital on Friday, a day after authorities said they'd recovered all of the potentially deadly substance.

The five adults and one 16-year-old had apparently come into contact with cobalt-60 about 12 hours after the truck containing it and medical equipment was stolen Monday inTepojaco, said Hidalgo state health official Jose Antonio Copca, as reported by state-run Notimex.

A source in the Hidalgo state government confirmed to CNN that six had been hospitalized for presumed contact with cobalt-60, adding that they lived near where the dangerous material was found.

All six were in stable condition at Pachuca General Hospital, according to Copca.

While the treatment for possible radiation poisoning is considerable, given how it can damage organs and cells, the state health official insisted that other patients at the hospital are not in danger.

News of their hospitalizations first surfaced on Twitter.

It comes after Mexican authorities announced they'd recovered all the radioactive material, though it wasn't clear whether they'd also found those who stole it.

Tijuana cartel member sentenced in California for attempted murder.

Borderland Beat

Tijuana.

Note: Thanks to J on forum for the tip on the news.

 

A United States citizen whose brother is said to be a high-up drug cartel assassin was sentenced on attempted murder charges in San Diego, Calif. on Friday.

 

30-year-old Jorge Sillas received at least 21 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempted murder, the Associated Press reported. Law enforcement officials said that Sillas participated in a scheme to kill a mother and her son in Southern California who hadn't yet paid a drug debt. Sillas allegedly offered $50,000 to have the duo taken out.

 

Sillas didn't say much in court on Friday. He apologized for the crimes, while his attorney explained that the client had been influenced by his older brother, Juan, AP reported. Until this brush with the law, Jorge Sillas has kept a clean criminal history.

Sillas was said to be working under orders from the Arellano Felix cartel - one of the most well-established and powerful drug cartel operatives in Mexico. Juan Sillas was largely seen as one of Tijuana's most ruthless assassins prior to his 2011 arrest.

Juan Sillas Rocha, Jorge´s brother is responsible among other crimes for the kidnapping of Mayo Zambada´s nieces. At the moment of his arrest in Tijuana he was believed to be working in partnership with the Beltran Leyva Cartel.

The hit on the Southern California couple was lined up between 2010 and February 2011, before law enforcement performed a raid on Jorge Silla's Palmdale home. Police took two AR-15 rifles, around $20,000 in cash and at least 1,000 rounds of ammunition from the residence.

Mexico City: Kidnapped as Police Stand by, Caught on Video

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

Police stood by as a man and woman is kidnapped, one can hear people excitedly screaming, multiple times, “Are they kidnapping?” “Are they kidnapping?”

This occurred yesterday in broad daylight in the epicenter of Mexico, Mexico City, in front of the ultra-busy Oceania subway.

It is described as an Express Kidnapping, however,  it does not indicate what led to that conclusion.  Express kidnappings are when a victim is taken and a ransom is demanded of his family. 

Once the random is paid the victim is usually allowed to go free.  However I don’t see how it was determined that this was an fact an Express Kidnapping opposed to any other type of kidnapping.

An anonymous YouTube user posted this video yesterday.  A group of men in a white pickup are seen forcing a man into the truck bed, they were armed with weapons.  A pair of auxiliary police idly stands by and watches the crime even after people approached them.

The person recording the crime reports there were two vehicles, the truck and a car.

On the video it can be heard people saying "and the police?  why are they not doing nothing?" also stating the license plates numbers, however most likely the vehicle is stolen.

The videographer stated he attempted to report it to the Federal Police,  was kept waiting an hour and they did not take his information.

The sharp eye of a BB reader notices a woman also being kidnapped. You will see the videographer quickly panning to the left where the white car is, a woman is being held by a choke hold and dragged to the truck. (see white arrow below)

I thought there were two being kidnapped near the truck, but it is difficult to distinguish, bottom line 2-3 people kidnapped. 

On the far left footage you can there is a man by the white automobile that looks as though he also may be a police. 

He is wearing what appears to be a uniform with an emblem patch on the right sleeve, and  a hat having an orange red top, much like the police standing in front of the wall.

 

Read Magician's post link here

Mexican Fugitive Wanted for Massacre of City Officials Arrested in Sacramento

Borderland Beat

More than 13 years ago, Genaro Olaguez-Rendon moved with his four children to the Sacramento area from his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico.

In the years since, the 53-year-old Mexican citizen carved out a quiet life working as a landscaper, attending church and eventually settling into a cramped, two-bedroom rental home in North Sacramento, where he drew little attention to himself...

Until Tuesday.

Just after 3 p.m., a fugitive task force led by U.S. marshals confronted Olaguez-Rendon in his driveway and arrested him in connection with the May 2, 2000, massacre of eight municipal officials in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, as well as unrelated marijuana cultivation charges out of San Joaquin County.

The arrest came three months after Mexican officials approached U.S. authorities looking for help in finding Olaguez-Rendon, who apparently had blended seamlessly into everyday life in Sacramento, right down to the lighted reindeer and candy canes that adorned the front lawn of his home Wednesday.

Son was stunned at the news his father was wanted for a mass murder, he was only 5 when the family fled to California

Even his oldest son, 18-year-old Jair Olaguez, expressed bewilderment at the fact that his father had been arrested, much less implicated in an attack that allegedly involved assault-style weapons and killed a city commissioner and seven other city officials and wounded four others.

“He killed what?” his son asked when approached by a reporter at the family home on Grove Avenue on Wednesday. “No, I think they got the wrong person. He didn’t kill no one.”

The U.S. Marshalls Service listed the suspect by the name Genaro Olaguez, but he was booked into the Sacramento County jail under the name Olaguez-Rendon, then transferred to San Joaquin County, where he was being held without bail in connection with charges of cultivating marijuana, possessing a firearm and theft of utility services.

 

That case apparently stems from a raid earlier this year on six marijuana grow houses in Stockton linked to Olaguez-Rendon, according to a January report in The Record.

It was unclear Wednesday how Olaguez-Rendon could have faced charges for 11 months without being tied to the case in Sinaloa. He is scheduled to appear in court in Stockton this afternoon on the marijuana charges, but he also is expected to face deportation to Mexico in the Sinaloa case, authorities said.

Olaguez-Rendon had been under surveillance by the task force and offered no resistance when approached Tuesday, said Deputy Frank Newsom of the U.S. Marshals Service in Sacramento.

He initially presented a phony identification card, but agents were having none of it, Newsom said.

“He’s been here for a very long time, and especially for an individual on the run that long you assume he’s gotten comfortable with those new identification documents,” Newsom said. “But we don’t stop looking for you.

“We’ll look until a body is found or until they turn the age of 100.”

The suspect’s son said he knew nothing about fake identity papers and that his father had lived in the Sacramento area under his own name.

“I think they’ve got wrong information or something,” he said. “The whole time he was using his own name for everything.”

 

U.S. officials had little information about the incident in Mexico, saying in a statement that the suspect “used heavy weapons to massacre a commissioner and seven other city officials in Sinaloa, Mexico,” and that the Mexican government sought help in locating him after he fled to this country.

Numerous reports have concluded that the violence has spilled over into the United States as feuding drug lords stake out their territory.

“Many Los Angeles-based Sinaloa cartel members use local gang members to assist in or commit kidnappings, acquire or sell drugs, and collect drug proceeds,” one Department of Homeland Security report stated.

Sacramento Bee-Record Net-Informador

Fewer Homicides Reported In Michoacán Towns with Self-Defense Groups

A self-defense checkpoint in Tancítaro, Michoacán
Photo: Eduardo Miranda

By: Francisco Castellanos J.

Morelia, Michoacán (December 2)—Despite emerging measures implemented so far by the federal government- sending federal and military forces, cleaning up police forces, having military officials in police stations, and monitoring security in various municipalities-, intentional homicides in the state register a slight increase during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, compared to last year’s predecessor, the panista Felipe Calderón.

According to the report “criminal indicators” of the National Public Security System (Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública (SNSP)), last year on average 32.5 executions were committed each month (considering 12 months) on average 33.22 were committed since September of this year.

In round numbers, in all of 2012, 306 intentional homicides were committed; while in the first nine months of this year 299 have been committed, with the fact that the months of October, November, and December have not been counted for.

Other interesting data from the SNSP: in 2012 the months of April, September, and December were the most violent, with 53, 51, and 40 executions, while this year the bloodiest months were March, July, and August with 50, 42, and 44 intentional homicides.

 

Municipalities with higher crime rates

Caro Quintero asks Peña Nieto for "Justice, not vengeance".

Borderland Beat

(Jorge Carrasco Araizaga/PROCESO) With a possible extradition to the United States in the horizont, Rafael Caro Quintero is asking president Enrique Peña Nieto not to be pressured by Washington´s desire of "vengeance and payback" for the murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar.

“What I owed, I already paid”, wrote the former leader of the extinct Guadalajara Cartel in a letter signed by him and which his lawyers delivered to the President´s particular secretary office this past November 19th, it was also addressed to the head of the Interior Ministry, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, and to the one in charge of re-capturing him, Jesus Murillo Karam, Mexico´s Attorney General.

Considered a wanted man since this past November 6th, when four ministers of the Justice Supreme Court reversed the protection which helped him get out of jail given to him three months before , Caro Quintero also asked for the Judicial Power not to concede to “the pressures and orders” from Washington, after they “obeyed” and reverted his liberation order.

Caro Quintero –via his legal representatives- sent a copy of his letter to PROCESO along with the complaint he issued last week to the National Human Rights Commission for the persecution he claims he and his family have been victim of by Mexican authorities “instigated by the United States”, after his release from prison this past August 9th, in a case that marked the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto´s presidency.

That day, at the early morning, the former drug lord left prison in companion of part of his legal team without any Mexican Government member or representative of the United States doing anything to stop him, this even after authorities from both countries knew about his release several weeks before the Mexican Justice System let him go.

The “Niños Sicarios” Who Behead, Use Drugs and Work for the Narcos

Members of the South Pacific Cartel, most of who are aged 12 to 23

By: Hugo Guzmán Rambaldi

Between 2012 and 2013, only the Mexican Army detained 473 minors, 61 of them girls, for being part of drug gangs and organized crime.  These are the “niño sicarios”, who are capable of killing with a firearm or by cutting them, beheading, transferring drugs and drug money, consuming drugs, and making many women and teens become sex slaves.

According to information from the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (Red por los Derechos de la Infancia de Mexico), the average age of the “niños sicarios” is 13 years and the Public Safety Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the country revealed that there are 30,000 underage children who are engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, piracy, and murder.  The kids, according to reports from public and private agencies, can earn between $1-3,000 a month, although some even receive this amount by committing one or more crimes.  There are reports that they can be paid between $150 and $200 a week just by collecting information on the movement of the police and the army, and also by delivering data on gangs or rival groups.

Stolen Radioactive Material found removed from Box thieves are most likely dead

Borderland Beat
Men who took device are probably dead or dying

 

 

More Serious than Reported (December 5)

 

Mexican soldiers set up a safety perimeter around a cancer-treating device containing dangerous radioactive material that was stolen along with a truck from a gas station.

The people who stole the truck and removed the device from a steel-reinforced wooden box and left it in a rural area north of Mexico City are probably already dead or dying, the national nuclear safety board said.

But the danger of contamination is minimal because the area where the device was found is so uninhabited, it added. No evacuations were necessary.

There was no immediate word on who might have stolen the truck. It was on its way to dispose of the disused medical device at a nuclear storage facility.

Experts are trying to figure out the best way to recover the device safely, the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) said in a statement Wednesday evening.

The thieves apparently just wanted the truck, which was stolen Monday, without knowing about the cargo it carried, officials said.

The device containing cobalt-60 was taken out of its container and left hundreds of meters (yards) from the truck in Hueypoxtla, said Mardonio Jimenez, operations director at the CNSNS.

"It's almost absolutely certain that whoever removed this material by hand is either already dead or about to die," CNSNS director Juan Eibenschutz told Milenio television.

Eibenschutz said the transport company failed to live up to its commitment, saying the truck lacked a tracking device or proper security despite the firm's experience. He said the matter should be investigated.

The white Volkswagen Worker truck was transporting the device from a hospital in the northwestern city of Tijuana when it was stolen at a service station in central Hidalgo state.

The vehicle was supposed to deliver the material to a radioactive waste disposal facility in the central state named Mexico.

The International Atomic Energy Agency warned that the material was "extremely dangerous" if removed from its shielding. Experts also said the 60 grams of cobalt-60 inside it was enough to make a "dirty bomb", designed to spread radioactivity.

Authorities had searched for the truck in six states and the capital, delivering radio messages for people to call an emergency number in case they saw the truck.

The driver told investigators that two gunmen approached him at a Pemex service station, tied him up and drove away with the truck, according to a text of the testimony shown by the Hidalgo state prosecutor's office.

The manager of the Pemex service station, an hour's drive north of Mexico City, told AFP the driver appeared to have parked across the street to rest overnight.

The material was on its way to the Radioactive Waste Storage Center in Maquixco, Mexico state. The facility is surrounded by a white fence topped with barbed wire, but no armed guards were visible outside, an AFP correspondent said.

An official from the center said the truck driver had been waiting for the facility to open at 8:00 am on Tuesday.

Mexico's drug cartels have diversified their illegal activities in recent years, stealing oil and minerals, but officials have not said who the cobalt-60 thieves might be.

'Sufficient' for dirty bomb

Experts have long warned about the risks posed by the large amounts of radioactive material held in hospitals, university campuses and factories, often with little or no security measures to prevent them being stolen.

In an incident involving a teletherapy device in Thailand in 2000, 425 Curies -- the measure of radioactivity -- of cobalt-60 was sufficient to make 10 people very ill, three of whom died, according to the IAEA.

The equipment stolen in Mexico contained nearly 3,000 Curies, CNSNS radiological security director Jaime Aguirre Gomez told AFP.

Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of the metallic element cobalt and the gamma rays it emits destroy tumors

 

Update Recovered!

Note:  While some news reports say the material was found with the truck, other reputable sources say the truck is empty.  Universal is reporting the truck was tampered with but that authorities are being secretive if the material was taken, or not. According to Milenio the National Nuclear Safety Commission of the country, Juan Eibenschutz, initially reported the truck was open and empty, later he was reported as saying the cobalt was dangerous in a mile radius of where it was found in the truck.....

 



Mexican authorities on Wednesday recovered a truck and the radioactive medical equipment it was hauling to a waste facility when gunmen stole it from a gas station two days ago.

The radioactive material, cobalt-60, was found about a half-mile from the truck and its empty protective lead container near Mexico City, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

Radioactivity was detected in the area, which authorities cordoned off.

 

The radiotherapy material used in cancer treatment "could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged," the International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier.

Direct exposure to the radioactive isotope would result in death within a few minutes, Eibenschutz told the Associated Press.

"This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz said, adding that it can be almost immediately fatal, depending on proximity. "The intensity is very big if it is broken."

Authorities have not said whether any suspects have been found, dead or alive.

Eibenschutz said nothing indicated that the thieves had targeted the material; they most likely waited the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane.

The material could not be used to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material, he said.

Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight, but that it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert. Local, state and federal authorities, including the military, are searching for the truck.

The material was used for obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in Tijuana when it was stolen.

The truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when it stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City, driver Valentin Escamilla Ortiz told authorities.

He said he was sleeping in the truck when two men armed with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help

The truck has a GPS locator but it wasn't active at the time of the theft.

Mexican Priests: Danger Persists, 2 Killed in Veracruz, Chapo's Message

Borderland Beat

Cardinal Rivera gives mass at Santa Martha prison heavily guarded by a ring of police

Catholic Priests in hot areas of Mexico have spoken out against cartels, and the government allowing impunity.  Their rehab operations and Casa Migrantes (migrant shelters) have come under attack, and death threats are delivered on a regular basis, but extortion is something relatively new. Since 2010 I have worked with the Casa Migrante shelters (honoring the 72 migrants slaughtered in Tamaulipas) and have gained a deep respect for the priests of Mexico. ...Chivis

The threatening calls reportedly came one after the other to Mexico's main Catholic seminary.

Callers, claiming to be from one of the country's feared drug cartels, offered an ominous warning: Pay up if you value the safety of your priests.

"They called several times. They identified themselves as the Familia Michoacana, but who knows?" Cardinal Norberto Rivera, archbishop of Mexico City, revealed at a Mass this week. "I spoke with the authorities. We made the appropriate report. Because they wanted us to pay. Because if not, they would kill one of us. They wanted to extort 60,000 pesos ($4,600)."

The long outspoken, migrant rights activist priest Alejandro Solalinde of Oaxaca
 (Hermanos de el Camino Shelter)had to flee Mexico temporarily after numerous death threats.

Reports of extortion have become increasingly common as drug cartels expand their reach in Mexico. But public denouncements of such attempts are rare.

Rivera called on parishioners to report extortion to authorities, and he urged them not to pay.

His description Sunday of the extortion attempts and a statement denouncing drug violence give a glimpse into the problems faced by a Catholic Church often caught in the crossfire of warring cartels and government efforts to stop them.

In the country's capital alone, more than 10 priests have been threatened with extortion, said the Reverend Hugo Valdemar Romero, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

"None of them have paid," he told CNN. "Last year, two extortionists were arrested."

It's not uncommon for individual parishes to face extortion threats, he said. But the calls last month to the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Mexico marked the first time such a large church-run institution in the capital had been targeted, Romero said.

Mexico's Catholic priests have long struggled with how to deal with spiraling drug violence and cartel culture.

In addition to widespread extortion attempts by gangs, church officials have said clergy have received threatening notes and telephone calls after sermons against drug use and trafficking.

In 1993, Cardinal Juan Posadas Ocampo was gunned down in the parking lot of an airport in Guadalajara, Mexico. Authorities said a drug gang had confused him with a rival trafficker, but some church leaders claimed he was targeted for denouncing drug trafficking.
 

In 2009, Hector Gonzalez, the archbishop of the northern state of Durango, raised fears of attacks on the clergy after he said that Mexico's most wanted man, Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, lived in a Durango town and that "everybody knows it except the authorities."

Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain military lieutenants in mountains nearby, accompanied by a note: "Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo."

Gonzalez quickly backed away from his comments, telling reporters who asked him about them, "I am deaf and dumb."
 

This year, even as government officials have suggested that drug-related violence could be on the decline, church leaders have warned that priests and the congregations they serve remain at risk.

Various articles of a few other incidents regarding killings and threats against of priest below:

Migrants line up to receive supplies we brought to the Saltillo Shelter, a death threat came in the next day The following article is one I wrote in 2012 when the Saltillo threats occurred

Reinforcing security at the Casa del Migrante

by Chivis Martinez (2012)

For over a week death threats have been received at one of the migrant shelters in Saltillo. Death threats have been delivered against the managers of the shelter.

Father Pedro Pantoja has also received death threats, but it has not been made clear by authorities  who is issuing the threats or why. 

Over one week ago I heard about the threats, and at that time I was told the threats were against the entire shelter and everyone in the shelter.  It now appears to be more specific than first thought.

Reports state:

Authorities announced that different state police forces are guarding Casa del Migrante, after the death threats they have received against several of its executives.

"We are investigating the death threats he received in recent days by  Father Pedro Pantoja de la Casa del Migrante," the Attorney General of the State (PGJE).

Emergence of a New "Revolutionary" Armed Group in Guerrero?

 

Armed Revolutionary Forces-People’s Liberation

By: Ezequiel Flores Contreras

Chilpancingo, Guerrero— The group, Armed Revolutionary Forces-People’s Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaras-Liberación del Pueblo (FAR-LP)), emerged in the Costa Chica and La Montaña de Guerrero Región, issued a call to take up arms in response to the violence perpetrated by the federal and state governments against society.

 

La Montaña Region-Pink

In a communiqué that was distributed to reporters on Monday, the new armed organization-that doesn’t have a history of their operation- critiques the return of the PRI through the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto.

Costa Chica of Guerrero-Purple

Leader of The Community Police In Guerrero Detained

The leader of the Community Police in the village of El Paraiso, municipality of Ayutla, Arturo Campos (with microphone in hand).

By: Ezequiel Flores Contreras

December 1, 2013-Chilpancingo, Guerrero—The leader of the Regional Coordinator of the Community Authorities (Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias (CRAC)), the community of El Paraíso, municipality of Ayutla, Arturo Campos Hernández, was arrested in Ayutla and transferred to the prison in Acapulco and charged with aggravated kidnapping.

The apprehension of the Mixtec indigenous activist occurred this afternoon at the end of a rally held in the town square, Granados Maldonado de Chilpancingo, where the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center announced the start of a campaign called “In defense of our life and liberty”, running from the 1^st of December to the 12^th to demand the release of the 12 Community Guards detained since late August and imprisoned in maximum and medium security prisons.

 

Ángel Aguirre Rivero

Speaking at the protest, Campos Hernández criticized the strategy driven by the government of Ángel Aguirre who intends to regulate the self-defense groups and community guards that have emerged throughout the state to directly confront crime.

EPN's First Year Notable Criminal Capture Report

Borderland Beat

The Mexican Federal Government feel they have hit the outer circles, nearer to the inner circular bullseye of 'El Chapo.' In the first year of Peña Nieto's presidency, they have captured 5 alleged operators of the Sinaloa cartel, in addition to the detention of the Z-40, the leader of 'Los Zetas', and 'El Caballo' of of Arellano Felix cartel.

The anti-crime strategy implemented by the current Federal Government changed after former President Felipe Calderon left office, and out with his power went his declaration of war on drugs.

Since Enrique Peña Nieto took office, criminals were, "presented less" as the Interior Minister, Miguel Angel Osorio explained, the strategy meant that the data was unified and there weren't various scattered statements on issues security.

The head Segob declared that because of the presentation of delinquents, "previously many of those criminals had to be released from prison because their human rights had been violated, I do not think (Osorio said) it was because they were not criminals, most likely they probably were, but because of such spectacular displays before TV audiences, and in this time of  human rights considerations, they were released the next day "

From December 1, 2012 the Federal Government captured operators of Los Zetas, New Juarez Cartel, Knights Templar, Arellano Felix, the Gulf Cartel, and dismantled Laguna cartel or "Los Dannys".

Two of the most important captures of the current government were the arrests of Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, Z-40, the alleged leader of the criminal group 'Los Zetas' and Manuel Aguirre Galindo, "El Caballo" or "El Galán" the operator responsible for the financial management of the Arellano Felix cartel, and American sources have pointed out as one of the founders of this criminal group.

However, the Federal Government has hit five operators of the inner circle of the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin Archivaldo Guzmán Loera  "El Chapo".

Here the list of the most significant arrests of drug traffickers in Mexico a year after the peñanietista administration started and the return of the PRI:

Michoacán: "Blood Avocados"

Borderland Beat

Note:Michoacán is the leading producer of avocados in the world accounting for half of the world market.  Conditions in Michoacán are ideal for production of the preferred Haas avocado, rendering it non-seasonal, with year round "season".production.  Since the  health benefits have been widely known, the trade has increased three fold in 6 years, which in 2012  resulted in just shy of one billion dollars (0.9B) in shipped to the US alone. ...chivis

Vocativ/Jan-Albert Hootsen

The Knights Templar has brought kidnappings, murders, money laundering and fear to Mexico's prized avocado business
 

MORELIA, Mexico—There’s an almost Mediterranean charm to the rolling hills here in Michoacán, a state in western Mexico. Avocado farms occupy vast stretches of land, and the rows of low-growing trees resemble the olive gardens of southern Europe.

These idyllic farms grow millions of pounds of avocados that Americans consume every year. But there’s a dark story lurking beneath the surface of the fleshy green fruit—and the bowls of guacamole it produces. A drug cartel known as the Caballeros Templarios, the Knights Templar, has infiltrated the avocado sector, and now controls the local trade, from production to distribution.

In Mexico, the avocado is called aguacate. It has been a staple food here for thousands of years. It’s also Michoacán’s principal export: 72 percent of all Mexican avocado plantations are located in the state. More than 80 percent of Michoacán’s avocados are exported to the United States—the bulk of them of the fatty Hass variety. In the latter half of 2012 and the early part of 2013, the U.S. imported nearly $1 billion worth of avocados from this state. Not surprisingly, a common nickname for the fruit is oro verde, green gold, because it yields more cash than any other crop—including marijuana.

Few people here know more about avocados than Jesús, 50, whose family has been developing plantations and growing the fruit for generations. He took me on a drive around the countryside to show me the ins and outs of his trade, as long as I didn’t reveal his real name. Like many avocado farmers, he is afraid of the Templarios.

“The avocado used to make us all very rich people,” he says as we drive through miles of farms. “A single hectare, yielding one harvest every six months, can make a trader up to 1.5 million pesos ($113,000) per year. During the good years I easily made yearly profits of $1.5 million.”

The good years were the ’80s and ’90s, when Jesús’s family was among the wealthiest in Michoacán. Those days are gone. Last year, Jesús barely scraped together a profit of $15,000. Once, he had more than 100 people working for him. Now he has only seven. “The Templarios have ruined my business,” he says. “I don’t know how much longer I have until I go bankrupt.”

For decades, rich drug traffickers have purchased avocado plantations to launder money or to make legitimate profits. It wasn’t until several years ago, however, that the Templarios became further involved in the avocado business.

click to enlarge

The cartel derived from an earlier group of drug traffickers known as La Familia Michoacana. La Familia was founded by Nazario Moreno, called The Craziest One, a former preacher who reportedly wrote his own version of the Bible and recruited new members at drug rehab centers. Under his stewardship, La Familia gained thousands of followers.

Most were converts to Moreno’s strange brand of evangelical Christianity, which uses Old Testament verses to justify beheadings and other brutal tactics. Not content to traffic marijuana, cocaine and heroin, La Familia set up a variety of extortion rackets in Michoacán. The avocado business was one of them.

But after Moreno was reportedly killed in 2010, internal strife led to his gang’s dissolution and the creation of its offshoot, the Templarios. This new gang intensified Moreno’s forays into extortion and kidnapping, but went even further. Now avocado farmers and traders say the Templarios not only demand money, but they also actively take over plantations and packing plants.

Here in Michoacán, very few dare to speak openly about the Templarios. The farmers prefer to simply call them los malos, the bad guys. With an estimated 100,000 people working directly or indirectly for the cartel, lookouts abound.

“We are always being watched,” says Jesús, as we eat at a taco stand in Uruápan. He quickly changes the subject when a man in his 30s in a baseball cap sits next to him. On his elbow, the man has a tattoo of a sword, one of the symbols of the Templarios.


Templarios piso/tax receipt

"Cholo Ivan" of CDS asks Peña Nieto for help and blames General on former Miss Sinaloa´s death.

Borderland Beat

A year after the death of beauty queen Maria Susana Flores in a shootout with the Mexican Army, several banners were left in the municipalities of Culiacan, Salvador Alvarado and Mocorito in Sinaloa, blaming a Mexican General of Her death.

The messages were left in visible places for passing motorists and pedestrians to see, they were left in the cities of Culiacan, Guamuchil and at the entrance arches of several town in Mocorito. The banners were left in the early hours of the day. In Culiacan they were left in the area of La Lomita, around Blvd. Emiliano Zapata on several bridges, outside the 9th Military Zone headquarters and in the State Government´s Administrative Services Unit.

The banners read: "General Gurrola, you frightened and murdered Maria Susana Flores and keep killing innocent people, Mr. Defense Secretary, let this general be investigated because he has only trampled the human rights, killed, tortured innocent people, just like you killed Maria Susana Flores, and many more. Mr. President, with all due respect, open an investigation on this General who should not be on the Army, but on jail. Yours truly, Cholo Ivan". 

Original text: “General Gurrola atemorizaste y mataste a María Susana Flores y todavía sigues matando gente inocente, señor Secretario de la Defensa que se investigue a ese General porque lo único que se ha hecho es pisotear los Derechos Humanos, matar, torturas gente inocente, así como mataste a María Susana Flores y muchos más, señor Presidente con todo respeto investigue al General que no debería estar en el Ejército si no en la cárcel, atte Cholo Ivan”.

The man signing the banners is accused of operating in the area of Evora (NOTE: He is considered a cell leader for CDS in charge of battling BLO), authorities accuse him of stealing fuel from PEMEX in that area.

The banners make reference to the death of Maria Susana Flores(You can read BB´s post on the subject HERE), she was the girlfriend of the alleged criminal. She was gunned down during a gun fight between hit men led by Cholo Ivan and members of the Mexican Army which took place on November 24th, 2012 in the towns of Caitime and El Palmar de los Leal.

The banners were taken away by soldiers and members of all the different police agencies.

Maria Susana Flores, former Miss Sinaloa.

On May, 2013, a series of small pamphlets were thrown from Army helicopters in the cities of Guasave and Culiacan, the pamphlets ask for citizens to denounce Ivan Gastelum Medina aka "El Cholo Ivan", who they accuse of "homicide, femicide, thief, kidnapper, extortionist, hitman, rapist and retail drug seller".

"Your call is anonymous" they claimed.

The answer came two days later. A banner alluding the pamphlets thrown by the Army helicopters was hung in the city of Guamuchil.

The banner read: "It was already known which side you were on, why do you have to fill Guasave with pictures of "Cholo Ivan"?, where are the ones from "Chapo Isidro"?...".