Singer Alfredito Olivas gunned down mid concert in Parral, one dead, three injured

Lucio for Borderland Beat

Update: Olivas is "out of danger", the state attorney says there have no arrests in the shooting and motive remains uncertain and under investigation.  The singer was transferred to an undisclosed U.S. hospital and sustained 8 gunshot wounds.

Earlier:   Alfredito Olivas, the regional music singer, was shot last night during a performance in the city of Parral, Chihuahua. As of one hour ago, his condition is listed as “critical”, sustaining   2 bullet impacts two others missed the singer. A few blog reports are stating he has died.

El Diario and social media is reporting that that the shooting was the result of a jealous rage from a gunman who was inebriated. Supposedly, Olivas was flirting with the man's girlfriend. Olivas had gone down into the audience, (conversely, he brought her up on stage), then dedicated the song to the girl. Police have suspects in custody and have recovered a gun used in the attack. The shooter is reported as being Rafael Mendoza age 38.

However, last June, a manta was hung in Obregon Sonora threatening Olivas, after the murder of popular singer Tito Torbellino:

Well we are here and we are not leaving,
  Chapito Trinis watch out... because we’ve come
with everything,  pure federal force salazar and the same that

was done  to Tito is going to happen to
Alfredito Olivas, fucking Chapo Trini Olivas

AN EYE FOR AN EYE 

The arrest of La Tuta: What happens now to the Caballeros Templarios?

Lucio: translated and republished from 'La Silla Rota' written by Víctor Manuel Sánchez

Note:  'El Tena' was on the original short list of the Autodefensas as a target.  He has a loyal following, and good potential to emerge as a leader.   'EL Gallito' is another strong possibility as he already has been working independently.

But, Viagras and their alliance with CJNG is the biggest threat, they have become strong in the past year, they are from Michoacan, have backing of CJNG and their alliance and entities on "the payroll" and have taken over many of the drug labs.

In his last recording La Tuta said about the Viagras:

"The government has identified them and they are within reach. They can arrest them whenever they feel like it. They are right under their noses.

They (Viagras) made a deal and became allies of Nazrio Moreno Gonzalez and El Gallitoto read the text of that last recording link to post here."

La Silla Rota post:

The government has identified them and they are within reach. They can arrest them whenever they feel like it. They are right under their noses.

They (Viagras) made a deal and became allies of Nazrio Moreno Gonzalez and El Gallitoto read the text of that last recording link to post here.

Capturing Servando Gómez Martínez, alias “La Tuta ", which occurred yesterday in the city of Morelia, Michoacán, is a blow to the Caballeros Templarios, who in less than a one year period have lost virtually all their leaders. 

In fact, the Tuta was the last of the leaders of the Caballeros Templarios, who had the ability to unite different regional cells of the criminal group. Because of this, it is not unreasonable to ask the following question, which will be the theme of this article: 

Subsequent to the capture of Servando Gómez Martínez, what structural changes might the Caballeros Templarios experience?

video footage: Tuta being transferred via helicopter

Lucio: material from changoonga

This is a much longer video than necessary, Tuta appears beginning at the 4:40 mark

Federal police seized:  3 grenades 40mm, 4 rifles, seven handguns, cocaine, 3 vehicles, tactical clothing , communication devices and propaganda material on the group calling itself Caballeros Templarios.

At  4:22 hours Friday, federal forces made the arrest at  la calle Findencio Juárez número 49 in the  Tenencia Morelos.  The drug trafficker has orders of arrest against him for, kidnapping, extortion, homicide, trafficking arms, trafficking drug, manufacturing of crystal meth.  There are 17 other federal investigations for various offenses.

Detainees who were detained with Servando Gómez were identified as Eduardo Esteban Avilés 43-year-old from Tijuana, Marie Antoinette Moon Avalos 27 years of Lazaro Cardenas, Juan Manuel Ayala Maldonado, Edgar Augusto Ramírez Haro, Fabricio Magaña Jurado, Jesus Fernando Uruapan Magaña, Cristian Emanuel Arias Sánchez 30 years of Guadalajara, and Marcelo Sánchez Reyes 46 of Tumbiscatío. His brother Flavio, at , was arrested today in Merida.

Drug Trafficking for Dummies

Borderland Beat posted by DD republished from Bloomberg Business

Why are murders down and shootings up? Rookie shooters with bad aim.—“Noonie” Ward, former Chicago gang leader

By  Mario Parker, Nacha Cattan and Benjamin Bain

U.S. and Mexican authorities hailed the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in the Pacific coast town of Mazatlan as a major victory in their war on drugs. A year later the power vacuum caused by his absence is fueling chaos on the streets of Chicago and Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso.

As head of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s largest, Guzman was a ruthless enforcer of discipline. He employed violence to protect his distribution routes and intimidate rivals. The kingpin of kingpins, Guzman had the sway to settle disputes with other drug traffickers. In Chicago, his distribution center for the U.S., he cast a long shadow: Few dared cheat the Sinaloa cartel.

The order Guzman imposed is starting to dissolve. At least two of Guzman’s lieutenants are in a struggle to control the Sinaloa organization. The resurgent Juárez cartel is trying to retake the narcotics supply routes that Sinaloa wrested from the Juárez group in a drug war five years ago that cost more than 10,000 lives. 

“The Juárez cartel is taking back Juárez. We’ve seen a recent spike in violence in the last couple of weeks,” says Oscar Hagelsieb, an assistant special agent in charge with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations office. He says Guzman’s capture “demoralized people that were fighting for Chapo outside of the conventional strongholds and rallied rival cartels.”

Guzman secured his near-mythic status by escaping from prison in a laundry cart in 2001 and later unleashing an assassination spree of rival drug lords. Afterward he controlled much of the narcotics entering the U.S. 

Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam is "transferred"

Proceso (www.proceso.com.mx/?p=397077) February 27, 2015 Translated by un vato

Former head of PGR Jesus Murillo Karam

Senator Arely Gomez Gonzalez

 

 MEXICO, D.F. (apro).- In the context of the 90th March for Ayotzinapa, Jesus Murillo Karam leaves the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (PGR) to head the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu: Secretaria de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano).

At the head of the PGR, President Enrique Pena Nieto will propose the appointment of Arely Gomez Gonzalez*, who today requested leave to resign from her Senate seat.

Murillo Karam incited rejection by the Ayotzinapa families, and from investigators and social organizations, when he promoted the so-called "historical truth" that the 43 students were massacred by gunmen with the Guerreros Unidos and their remains incinerated in an immense pyre then scattered in a river.  

In Joaquin Lopez Doriga's nightly news report, the reporter also predicted that Jorge Carlos Ramirez Marin, still the head of the Sedatu, will seek a "plurinominal" (proportional vote) candidacy to the Chamber of Deputies (Camara de Diputados, analogous to the U.S. House of Representatives).

* Senator Arely Gomez Gonzalez is the former head of the Special Office for the Prosecution of Electoral Crimes (Fepade: Fiscalia Especializada Para la Atencion de Delitos Electorales). She is also the sister of Leopoldo Gomez, Vice President of News with the Televisa network.-- un vato

Tuta was captured while eating 3 am hotdogs

Lucio for Borderland Beat

La Tuta's brother  Flavio Gómex Martínez also captured in Merida, in a simultaneous operation

Reforma and others are reporting the hotdog story, it appears the four homes that the FP busted into, thinking Tuta was there, came had come up empty.  This is what several Mexican mainstream outlets are reporting.  Until PGR gives their conference we will not know for certain, but I thought I would

put out this version of the capture from  Reforma, El Norte and others.

At the stroke of 3:00 am on Friday, Servando Gómez, "La Tuta," one of the most important targets in the  Caballeros Templarios of the federal government, was arrested while eating.

The alerts came into the Center Police Intelligence Federal (PF) when "La Tuta" apparently was eating hot dogs in downtown Morelia, said federal sources. "He did nothing to resist or prevent  his capture.  Supposedly, 6 others were taken into custody along with the organized crime leader, including his girlfriend.

The location of Gómez was surprising because, according to investigations in late January, the Army

and federal police determined that the Templarios leader was traveling in Michoacán territory, but on the border with Colima and Jalisco. 

 Sources of the Department of Defense claimed that even his lieutenants or hit men were detected in Lazaro Cardenas, Aquila, Coahuayana and Los Reyes with the capo.

The federal government will detail at a press conference the arrest of Gomez, who a few days ago released, an audio in which he denied having an agreement for his protection by authorities.

At the end of the recording, the Templario leader said that it would be his last message,  "not out of fear, (but) because I have to take measures to move and protect myself, he said.

The PGR agency reports that after Tuta gives his statement, he will be transferred to Supermax prison No. 1 "Altiplano" in the state of Mexico.
 
(To read the narrative of his last message, link to post here)  


United States weighs in on the capture

DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart today issued the following statement in response to the capture of  Servando Gomez-Martinez, a.k.a. "La Tuta" by the Mexican Federal Police:

(videos and photos on next page)

La Tuta captured in a house in Morelia Michoacan

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

Servando Gomez Martinez alias " La Tuta" presumed leader of the Knights Templar Cartel, and one of the criminals who's capture was deemed a primary objective of the Federal Government, was captured by elements of the Federal Police, confirmed authorities of the corporation.

According to preliminary information, "La Tuta", was detained in a house in Morelia, Michoacan without any shots being fired. ( otis: so much for the I won't be taken alive).

The PGR offered a reward of 30 million pesos for information leading to his detention.

This Wednesday past they reported a series of operations  in the Limitrofe zone of the Municipality of
Arteaga, from where he originated, and Tumbiscatio, Michoacan, where colleagues of La Tuta were captured as a result of the capos arrest.

In the next few hours, there will be a press conference on the details of his detention.

The columnist of Milenio, Joaquin Lopez Doriga, informed on his twitter account, the detention of Gomez Martinez

UPDATES WILL BE POSTED ASAP: OTIS

El Chapo and La Barbie return to head up another prison protest at Altiplano

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

They want better treatment at the Altiplano Super-max in State of Mexico, they started a hunger strike, organised by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Edgar Valdez Villarreal, "La Barbie", in this past June, it was raised by inmates in a complaint submitted to National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH).

In a hand written letter made from 11 pages stripped from a notebook, the 138 prisoners accuse the Prison Authorities of violating their human rights.

The document, broadcast in the portal Nayaritenlinea.mx, describes the irregular conditions in which conjugal and family visits are carried out. It also describes the overcrowded and unsanitary cells, in addition to unstable power supplies to the prison and problems with telephone calls.

The prisoners, according to the text, only have one hour a day to leave their cells, there are no social re-insertion activities, the medical service is inefficient and the prison shop is insufficient and badly operated.

The group of criminals, among them "El Chapo" and "La Barbie", Hector Beltran Leyva "El H" and Miguel Angel Felix Gallado, denounce Librado Carmona Garcia, Technical Director of the prison located in the State of Mexico, and who they accuse of corruption and repression. ( Otis: cry me a river, the boot is on the other foot now).

Capos Captured in 2014

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

The detentions of El Chapo Guzman and Vincente Carrillo Fuentes were big hits against the Sinaloa and Juarez Cartels

City of Mexico:
The maximum security prisons of Altiplano in the state of Mexico, and Puente Grande in Jalisco had new organised crime tenants in 2014

Among the most important captures of the year are Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, El Chapo, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and Vincente Carrillo Fuentes, El Viceroy, head of the Juarez cartel.

Other cartels also suffered big hits to their structures, Beltran Leyva, Arellano Felix, Knights Templars, Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Los Rojos, La Familia Michoacana, Los Zetas, CDG, and Guerreros Unidos.

What if "Jimmy Hoffa in a Skirt" (Esther Gordilla) has no home?

Borderland Beat by DD

 

Gordillo before a few plastic surgeries

 DD; Quick summary;  Elba Esther Gordillo, the ex President ("for life") of the 1 1/2 million member teachers union, SNTE,  has been in jail since her arrest in Feb. 2013 for tax fraud, money laundering and organized crime.  She is accused of embezzling about $200 million dollars from the teachers union. 

Though she has been charged, she has not been tried nor convicted of a crime.  She is just being detained in prison without bond while awaiting trial. 

Last month a federal judge ruled that Gordillo qualifies under the "Law on The Rights of Older Persons" under which she could be released from prison and held under "house arrest" while she awaits her trial.

There have been no announcements or news reports of her being released prison and placed under house arrest since the January ruling by the federal judge.  Now the question may be which house will she call her home.   Due to the wealth she accumulated during her tenure as head of the teachers union (she claims it is from inheritance and her $6,000 a month salary from the SNTE) she probably has several choices, but her favorite is probably the $10,000,000 dollars mansions in San Diego.

Forbes magazine recently reported on the status of those properties.

Detention of "El Papacho" of CDS in Valle de Juarez, a media circus and half justice

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

El Papacho and his criminal group

Chihuahua.

The detention of Mauricio Luna Aguilar "El Papacho" in the Valle de Juarez, is a media circus and half justice.

"El Papacho" is a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, and has spread terror in this region and that caused around 90% of the people in the Valle de Juarez to leave the area.

With the title of "Authorized Crime", members of 10 families were exiled from the Valle de Juarez, today offered a press conference, of them five had to leave the region because of threats by Luna Aguilar, and agents Federal, State, and Military.

In the press conference, the families required of the Mexican Authorities to arrest the officers who have facilitated crimes against the citizens of that region, who have been stripped of their heritage.

Singer Ariel Camacho killed with two others, another in ciritcal condition

Lucio for Borderland Beat

Ariel Camacho, leader of La Banda de los Plebes del Rancho was killed in an automobile accident around 3AM this morning. Reports indicate the driver was speeding and lost control of his vehicle while attempting to command a curve on the road. The vehicle ran off an embankment into a canal in Los Ranchitos, Sinaloa.

Iguala mayor finally charged in the disappearance of normalistas; if justice was served in another case the students would be alive

By Lucio for Borderland Beat

Mayor Abarca is charged in the murder of activist Arturo Hernández -witnesses testify Abarca shot and killed  Hernández, and now is charged  in the disappearance of 43 normalistas

                        Protests against the mayor in the Hernandez case took form in defacing municipal buildings

Infamous former Iguala mayor, José Luis Abarca, has finally been indicted for crimes connected to the case of the missing normalistas.

BB reporter Chivis has long contended that the case of the normalistas against the former Iguala mayor and his wife was worrisome, lacking strong evidence.  She hoped that the case of Mayor Abarca killing a social activist,  Arturo Hernández Cardona, in front of witnesses, would go forth, as it was the easier of the two cases to successfully prosecute.

And that perhaps the winning of a conviction in the Hernández case would lend credence to the normalistas case, and fearful witnesses would then come forward. Here is the back story from Chivis’ earlier post:

-The PRD national council unanimously approved the immediate expulsion of José Luis Abarca, Mayor of Iguala, Guerrero. Also impeachment proceedings have been initiated.

Because the mayor was wanted for murder.  

But not in the case of the 43 missing students (normalistas) or the others killed by municipal police on the night of September 26, 2014, it was for the murder of Hernández.

On May 30th 2013 hundreds of striking miners, farmers and activists belonging to Unión Popular Emiliano Zapata (UPEZ), were conducting a protest in Iguala, Guerrero.

The grievances had lasted over seven years and nothing had transpired to addresses the issues of  exploitation and extreme occupational hazards that faced Taxco miners on strike against Grupo Mexico, the Larrea family, and the complicity, abuses, and impunity of local rulers.  Other issues were the exploitation of farmers.

In the case of Iguala, the local ruler is mayor, José Luis Abarca.  Iguala residents have long complained of the criminality of Abarca and his wife, and their alleged ties to Guerrero Unidos cartel.  

                            "You're dead!" shouts Mayor's wife Maria at Hernandez who is holding

                              the mic.  She had to be restrained from physically attacking him.  He was killed the next day.

On May 29, 2013 Abarca ordered the social activist group in an open forum to;

“Stop fucking around with me, I have people that work for me, that can take care of this”. 

Sophisticated Narco Tunnel found between Arizona and Mexico

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

Naco Arizona :

Agents of the Office of Customs and Border Protection, confiscated this morning 2.3 tonnes of Marijuana in a sophisticated narco tunnel located in the city of Naco, Arizona, 355 kilometres  north east of the Sonora Capital.

The American agency informed that the investigation started last night when a squadron of anti narcotics agents detected an unusual movement of vehicles at the frontier with Mexico.

There they mounted an operation with drug sniffing dogs, who found the passageway built with wooden pillars and cement walls, equipped with a hydraulic mechanism to transport the drugs.

400k pesos (27k USD) Bribe to Judge Frees son of El Chango Mendez

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

A Federal Judge allegedly bribed by Michoacán narco's, frees son of a capo, various audio shows that La Familia and Los Viagras rescued El Chucin Mendez.

Taking of the Municipal Presidency

Jorge Armando Wong Aceituno, the Federal Judge that exonerated 43 of the 44 cases of detained AUC after a gun battle that killed nine people in Apatzingan on January 6th. He was allegedly bribed by the remnants of La Familia Michoacana and leaders of Los Viagra to prevent the son of a high capo being identified by the Federal Government and being brought to trial.

A dozen telephone calls detail the conversations between both organisations soliciting the bribe to the Judge and an Agent of the Federal Public Ministry, who disappeared evidence and collaborated to reduce the charges to obtain the release of one of the children of Jesus Mendez "El Chango", founder of La Familia Michoacana.

Dámaso “El Licenciado” López Núñez has emerged as a Sinaloa cartel leader

Lucio republished from EL PAÍS posted by siskiyoukid-Translation: Dyane Jean François

EL PAÍS weighs in with their theory of who is leading the Sinaloa Cartel

A picture of Mexican baseball legend Benjamín Gil hangs on the wall of a barbershop where you can get a haircut for just two Dollars.  The owner spends no more than five minutes on each customer, applying his clippers mercilessly to each head.  Wearing cowboy boots and hats, they walk in with mops of hair and leave with military style haircuts.

As he clips away, he explains how things work around here. “He,” he says as he touches up some sideburns, “already knows that you are here, sitting on this sofa.” In this town called Eldorado, Dámaso “El Licenciado” López Núñez or “El Lic,” one of the heirs to imprisoned drug baron Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is invisible but occasionally pops into view. 

The barber points to the street, specifically to a man peering out of the window of a white van, looking around as he takes notes. Once he notices he is being observed, he starts the vehicle and disappears.

The mountain is the home of the Sinaloa cartel. Farmers have been selling their marijuana and poppy crops to the executives of this “Amazon of drugs” for decades. The organization can make any delivery, anywhere, in record time. In this rocky and hostile environment, El Chapo, who was arrested almost a year ago, amassed a fortune. El Licenciado – someone who wouldn’t be out of place on a company’s board of directors – has focused his efforts on the city on the plain: Eldorado. The town is the most populated area of the suburbs around Culiacán and is visible on the horizon because of the smoke coming out of the sugarcane mill.

El Lic was born here 48 years ago. Most of the streets are unpaved. The wind and horse-drawn carriages working as taxis raise the dust that clings to everything. El Lic’s father, Don Dámaso, was a tax collector and president of the regional livestock assembly. In 2007, he was elected trustee of Culiacán City Hall and built a bridge to connect the isolated community of Portaceli, his hometown, with the main highway. 


Don Dámaso died in office. He is buried in a mausoleum near the bridge – an enormous white building topped with a cross. There are security cameras on the outside of the memorial and a kitchen, air conditioning, and leather-covered seats inside. “He tried to give his kids a good education,” a family acquaintance says.

El Lic studied with the Carmelite Sisters before entering Universidad de Occidente to study law. In 1991, he got his first job as a police officer at the Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office. According to El Universal newspaper, he even directed a program to track down fugitives from the law. He was promoted through the murky world of corrupt police precincts and eventually served in the federal prison system. He held several low-level positions while earning $600 before he was appointed to a management position at the maximum security prison in Puente Grande where El Chapo was serving time after his 1993 arrest in Guatemala. Alcohol and prostitutes soon flooded the cells and with El Lic’s help, El Chapo fled in 2001. El Lic resigned from his post, citing dissatisfaction with vacation time and salary and became a full-time drug dealer.

Mexican "Best Director" seizes the moment hoping for a better goverment

 By Lucio R. for Borderland Beat

(Added information at bottom) 

Yes, I concede this has almost nothing to do with drug trafficking, although one may really stretch boundaries and link curbing organized crime to a better Mexican government, so to the BB purists.... somethings are too good not to acknowledge.

"Too good", is not the fact that Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu made history in 2006 by becoming the first Mexican director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, that time for his drama Babel.

And "Too good", is not that on Sunday night at the Academy Awards in L.A. , Gonzales Iñárritu  won the award, thanks to the dark comedy Birdman, making it two years in a row that a Mexican-born director has taken home the Oscar. Birdman also won the  "Best Picture" award.  Sweeping the most prestigious awards of the night.

As delicious as the sweep was for Mexicans, and  those  long appreciative fans  of Mexican film-making, if that was the end of the story, I would not be writing this post.

What overshadowed the movement is what happened when Gonzales Iñárritu gave his acceptance speech.

A speech that no doubt left the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto livid.

The proud Mexican director, seized the moment giving  an eloquent, thoughtful speech.  With the attention of a global audience, Gonzales Iñárritu dedicated the Oscar to the people of Mexico and to Mexican immigrants in the United States.  He delivered these words;

Decapitated man found in car at El Kommander concert in Monterrey

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

A man was found decapitated inside a car in the Arena of Monterrey, during a concert of the narco-corrido singer El Kommander, according to sources from the PGJ from Nuevo Leon

Alfredo Rios "El Kommander"

The discovery was made when security guards investigated an abandoned Dodge Caravan at approximately 19:00 hours last Friday.

Elements of the PGJ arrived and confirmed there was a decapitated corpse, put barriers around the vehicle and removed the body for autopsy.

The body according to reports was wrapped up, and the victims head was on the floor of the vehicle. the authorities reported that in the luggage compartment of the vehicle, was a man who had multiple stab wounds.

The subject was identified as Armando Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez, 19 years of age.

After the conclusion of the El Kommander concert, the artist left the Monterrey Arena heavily guarded by police officers, to Monterrey International Airport.

Original article in Spanish at Proceso

No extradition for Ines Coronel

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

Ines Coronel, father in law of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera feared extradition to the USA, authorities report no such request exists.

Ines Coronel Barrera

The Secretary of Exterior Relations, the Attorney General of the Republic, and other authorities informed that in the Second District Court in Sonora State, that there was no request or order for extradition so far against Ines Coronel Barrera, father in law of the drug trafficker "El Chapo" Guzman.

They inform that said authorities rendered within the amparo 1348, that Coronel from Durango promoted against the possibility of his extradition to the United States of America, where he and his son Ines Omar Coronel Aispuro had sent drugs.

Badiraguato Mayor talks: Chapo's replacement, El Azul's "death", the whereabouts of Rafael Caro Quintero

Lucio for Borderland Beat-translated from El Pais and posted by siskiyoukid

Driving along the road we happen upon cows and men with cowboy hats riding on the back of old mares.  We journeyed until in the distance, we saw the giant letters written on a hill, Hollywood-style, they read ‘BADIRAGUATO’. In this town of 32,000 inhabitants, located in the foothills of the Sierra in Sinaloa, where more savvy farmers grow marijuana instead of beans, the most famous drug traffickers in Mexico's history were born. 

The mayor is one of those ever present politicians. The municipality comprises a town and many villages scattered through the mountains, some seven hours away up the mountain.

This winter, Mario Valenzuela is touring all of them handing out blankets, wheelchairs and messages like this to residents: "I come to ask them to be responsible citizens. In Spain or United States they have the same laws, but there they are enforced. That is the problem we have in Badiraguato and in Mexico in general."

Valenzuela endures the midday sun at El Sitio de Arriba, a village which can be reached after crossing El Sitio de Abajo and El Sitio de Enmedio. His audience waited on the field where they are having the rally: women with children and the elderly. Before the interview in which Valenzuela (PRI, the ruling party) will talk about El Chapo, the mother of El Chapo, the flight of Caro Quintero, the cousin of Caro Quintero and the non-death of  El Azul, play a guessing game with voters:

 " What is the name of the animal that flies with legs? ".

“Duck!", someone  among the public shouts.

Q: What is the situation of Badiraguato a year after the arrest of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán? 

R: The problem is in the State (Sinaloa). An arrest of someone of the caliber of Chapo Guzman

leaves many people unemployed, at least temporarily. While things are transitioned, there are new controls, new hierarchies, resulting in new problems. Robberies have increased, also there are more assaults...

Q. A year ago, you told me that you had a relationship with the mother of El Chapo. 

R. La señora  (María Consuelo Loera) is thinner. On Wednesday of last week I was in La Tuna (a village of the municipality where EL Chapo was born).
 
She is quiet, stable. 

Today I did not see her, but the time before I went to a first stone ceremony (first stone laid commemorating a construction start) and to the Churchof which she belongs, (built by El Chapo, although he is Catholic, the church is Evangelical) and  I was with her for a while. She invited me to join her for breakfast and I did so with much pleasure. It is not her fault what her child does.

Q. Do you believe that the successor of El Chapo may be Dámaso López Nuñez, El Licenciado?

Mora Hipólito candidacy for federal deputy is still 'viable'

 Borderland Beat posted by DD from material at Red Politica and Movimiento Cuidano

 The ex-leader of the AUC, Hipolito Mora seeks political contest in the upcoming elections on June 7 despite being imprisoned.

Dante Delgado , National Citizens Movement coordinator said  a bid by Hipólito Mora, former leader of the AUC is  "viable".

 

Mora at this time is imprisoned after  the confrontation in Apatzingán that occurred in December 2014, with elements of the Rural Force commanded by Luis Antonio Torres, El Americano.

 

Last year before the confrontation on Dec. 16 which resulted in 11 people dead, Mora expressed his desire to contend as a candidate for deputyship in the elections of 2015, however he did not indicate what party he would prefer to represent.

 

Here's the secret code a Mexican drug cartel allegedly uses to communicate

Borderland Beat posted by DD republished from Business Insider

By  Christina Sterbenz. 

To sell drugs and transport their profits, Mexican cartels need to stay off the grid. That means using ultra-secret communications.

In a recent money-laundering case in Chicago, special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Jill Dennewitz testified against 32 members of various Mexican drug cartels.

 

A cell phone and charger hooked up to a battery (not shown) and a solar generator are seen following the arrest of eight men accused of serving as scouts for Mexican drug cartels in Pinal County, Arizona

The cartel members often used blackberry messenger, or BBM, according to prosecutors. In one instance, Carlos Parra-Pedroza, also known as "Walt Disney" or "Don Walt," allegedly emailed a confidential HSI informant a list of codes to use while they talked. 

When they communicate, cartels likely spend a lot of time discussing shipment amounts and prices. Therefore, they created a system of codes that correlated with numbers.

Life after El Chapo: kingpin's arrest spells new era in Mexican drug war

Borderland Beat posted by DD republished from the Guardian

By Jo Tuckman in Culiacán

Friday 20 February 2015 

The fortune-teller smiled as she gazed out towards the distant peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range.

“The mountains are glowing red and it will be a good harvest,” she predicted. 

The forecast was not based on second sight, however, but on conversations with local farmers looking forward to a bumper crop of marijuana – and the cash bonanza it will bring.

This is Mexico’s own golden triangle. Straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua, the Sierra has been a stronghold of the country’s drug trade for as long as anyone can remember. Its deep canyons and dense pine forests have harbored narcos and hidden plantations of marijuana and opium poppies for decades.

It’s a world the fortune-teller knows well: over the years, she said she had often used her gift to help local people – locating a lost kilo of opium paste or comforting the girlfriends of slain traffickers.
 
The arrest of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán on 22 February 2014 was hailed  by the Mexican and US authorities as the one of the biggest blows to the drug trade in decades. But a year on, the core business of Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel seems hardly affected. “As long as there are people who want the drugs this will never stop, whoever goes to prison,” the seer said.

Coahuila: Video surfaces of Army and GATE forces in an apparent extrajudicial killing of 2

By Lucio for Borderland Beat

GATES of Coahuila continues to come under attack from human rights groups and citizens.

In the video detonations of firearms are heard and suspected members of GATE and army appear. The special police and tactical force founded by former governor Humberto Moreira, has been accused of executions perpetrated against citizens.

The issue has continued from the onset of the formation of the agency, with elements seemingly unconcerned, when such killings of civilians occur in view of the public.  

Also, reports of bodies discovered in army barracks have had  no consequence even that of a 15 year old teen found beaten and dead in the barracks of the border city of Acuña.

There have been more than 5000 complaints issued against GATE and its sister agency GROM (Metropolitan Reaction Task Force ).

In this video of an apparent extrajudicial killing, it is assumed the men killed are “suspects”, however  there doesn’t appear to be weapons around or in the vehicle of the dead men. Albeit the footage of inside the truck is blurry.

With GATES and soldiers standing facing the vehicle they began shooting.  It is obvious they are not in fear of retaliatory gunfire, as they shoot at a standstill without cover.  Then one of the forces says (paraphrased);

“Remove them from that side, I will finish off the mother fuckers."

"He's still alive,"

"The one in there is still alive, boss.",

"I will kill this dude"

 "Kill him."

10 years of Terror in Tamaulipas

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

(Ten Years of Terror)

Tamaulipas is the northern state most associated with violence, one that you cannot name without the typical comments arising that bring the harsh reality that exists in the state, and although violence is widespread throughout the country, but here were born the Zetas with all their violent fury, here they made their stronghold and with narco corridos have become part of the social culture.

This is Reynosa to Nuevo Laredo, because from Reynosa to San Fernando, there is a more ancient history, the longest lived cartel of Mexico, which can be attributed to the birth of the Zetas.

Tamaulipas is composed of 43 Municipalities, of which few do not have organized crime activities in its streets.

Chapo Guzman sends extravagant floral arrangement to funeral of 'El Barbarino'

Lucio for Borderland Beat posted by Siskiyoukid Spanish original El Debate

                                                   "From your friend and partner JGL"

After a 48 hour vigil El Barbarino, the famous sicario and compadre of Chapo was buried at an undisclosed place south of Culiacán

Francisco Aceves was quietly buried yesterday in one of the cemeteries in the town of Culiacán, Sinaloa

At the stroke of noon, the body was transferred  from the funeral home where a vigil was held for 48 hours, without revealing where the burial would be held; in fact, this data was not disclosed on the public announcement board at the funeral home. 

The exit

The man, who was gunned down while leaving a restaurant on Monday, traveled his last journey through the streets of the city of Culiacan. 

Initially, the funeral procession left the funeral home located at the Emiliano Zapata Boulevard and headed towards the south part of the city by  avenida Álvaro Obregón. 

It was believed that because he was  a religious devotee of la Guadalupana [Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe], surely his family would have wanted  a mass at the Temple of the Virgin of Tepeyac, however, the procession did not go to the temple of La Lomita. 

3 La Mochomera banners appear in Acapulco, Ex-Gro Governor bank accounts frozen "money laundering"

Lucio for Borderland Beat

As if Guerrero didn't have enough problems, three narco banners (mantas) were placed in various areas of Acapulco, one at a bridge in colonia  Benito Juarez, one on the bridge of colonia Garita, and the third on a bridge in colonia 20 de Noviembre.

The three banner messages are directed at entrepreneurs and local taxi drivers, ordering them to stop paying “piso” (narco tax/fee) to Victor Aguirre Garzon, the message is signed 'La Mochomera' “and El Jefe de Jefes” (the now deceased Arturo Beltran Leyva).

The message also declares Victor Aguirre Garzon,  alleged cousin of the now resigned governor Angel Aguirre Rivero, as being identified as one of the leaders of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (ICAD). Aguirre Garzon  allegedly was instrumental, in the successful governorship campaign of the former governor.

 

According to the publication El Universal, Victor Aguirre was linked with Arturo Beltrán Leyva and is presumed to be an ally of ‘Los Guerreros Unidos’, drug traffickers who are  responsible for kidnappings and extortion in Guerrero.

The former governor received other bad news today, the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), through the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), asked the Attorney General's Office to freeze the bank accounts of  the former Governor, Angel Aguirre Rivero, on suspicion of money laundering.

United States applies sanctions to businessman linked to Sinaloa Cartel

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

Gastelum Serrano Drug Network

The Mexican businessman Fransico Javier Gastelum Serrano was designated a significant narco trafficker, by the Government of the United States, and they have applied sanctions against the business Andiamos Dalmine, with its base in Federal District.

Gastelum Serrano is accused of utilising his business and three subsidiaries to store narcotics and then export them to the United States for the Sinaloa Cartel.

"With these actions against Fransisco Javier and his company, we are once again acting against the Gastelum Serrano network, a powerful cocaine trafficking organisation, responsible to give support to the Sinaloa Cartel," it said in a communication from John E Smith, internal Director of the Office of Foregin Control (Ofac).

Los Rojos manta about the 43 dissapeared students

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

One of the Mantas hung in Morelos

Santiago Mazari Hernandez alias "El Carrete" marked for participation in the disappearance of the 43 Students of the normal rural of Ayotzinapa, blames the son of singer-songwriter from Guerrero Joan Sebastian.

Mantas were placed in several locations, all public places of the municipalities of Acatepec, Jojutla, Amacuzac, Tetecala, and Chautia, in Morelos, Mazari said these do not belong to Los Rojos, he also blames Federico Figueroa of having bought everything so that nothing goes out to the light.

The mantas were taken down by State Police, they also had a message for the parents of the disappeared students, where they exhort the parents not to believe what the Government says, and remove their blindfolds.