Mexican drug cartels recruit thousands of students in Texas to traffic drugs and arms

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

The Mexican drug cartels have managed to recruit thousands of youngsters, in primary, secondary and preparatory schools in Texas, to form gangs under their control, in order to strengthen the flow of narcotic drugs to all of the United States.

This is clear from a National Gang Report from 2014, released by the Department of Public Safety for the State. In Texas there are about 100,000 Gang members and in El Paso approximately 5,600, distributed among 307 criminal organisations, according to information.

In accordance with the document "Texas Gang Threat Assessment", the Cartels of Sinaloa, Juarez, del Golfo, and Los Zetas, recruit students using the internet and prisoners to become involved in illicit activities.

The gang members, who are supporting any of the Cartels, receive orders to locate children, who accept money, fame, women and drugs in exchange for activities related to drug trafficking, human trafficking or sexual trafficking.

He's Called the Face of Ciudad Juarez Terror

Authorities say Eduardo Ravelo has helped turn the border city into Mexico's homicide capital. Now investigators think he played a role in the U.S. Consulate slayings.

Los Angeles Times

El Paso, Texas - Authorities think he had his fingertips altered to disguise his prints and plastic surgery to mask his face. Except for his dark eyes, federal officials doubt he looks anything like his 12-year-old FBI most wanted photo -- round face, trim mustache and a scar along his cheek.

Eduardo Ravelo, known on the street as "Tablas," or "lumber," for his ability to crush, allegedly rules thousands of acolytes in an operation that authorities say specializes in killing, conspiracy, extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Though he is thought to live across the border in Ciudad Juarez and regularly cross into Texas, he has eluded arrest.

"He's a butterfly, a moth," said Samantha Mikeska, an FBI special agent leading the hunt for Ravelo. "He takes care of his people and that keeps him under the radar."

Ravelo, 42, is said by law enforcement to have been a major factor in turning Ciudad Juarez into the homicide capital of Mexico, with nearly 5,000 people slain there since 2008 and more than 600 this year. He is thought to be responsible for dozens of the slayings.

Now he has risen to new prominence as authorities in the U.S. and Mexico investigate whether he was behind the recent drive-by killings of three people associated with the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez.

Arthur H. Redelfs, a detention officer at the El Paso County Jail, and his wife, Lesley A. Enriquez, a consulate employee, were ambushed and killed March 13 as they drove home from a birthday party. A third person, who was married to a consulate employee, was apparently killed by mistake as he drove from the same party in a vehicle similar to the Redelfs'.

Barrio Azteca Targeting Police DHS Warns

Mexican 'Assassin Teams' May Target U.S. Law Enforcement, DHS Warns.

FOXNews.com

Law enforcement officers in west Texas are on guard following an alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security warning of retaliatory killings for a recent crackdown on the Barrio Azteca gang.

March 30: Police officers escort Ricardo Valles de la Rosa, right, to a court hearing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Law enforcement officers in west Texas are on guard following an alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security warning of retaliatory killings for a recent crackdown on the Barrio Azteca gang.

El Paso, Texas - David Cuthbertson, special agent in charge of the FBI's El Paso division, said the paramilitary-style gang has an "open policy" to kill its rivals and may turn its sights toward local law enforcement officers.

"[They] are extremely cold-blooded and aggressive," Cuthbertson told FoxNews.com. "The killings are done really without thought and any kind of remorse."

Citing uncorroborated information, Homeland Security issued an Officer Safety Alert on March 22, advising lawmen in the El Paso sector to vary their routes to and from work and to wear body armor while on duty. The alert also suggested that officers' relatives pay closer attention to unusual activity in the area.

"The Barrio Azteca gang may issue a 'green light' authorizing the attempted murder of [law enforcement officers] in the El Paso area," the alert read. "Due to the threat, it is recommended that [law enforcement officers] take extra safety precautions."

Sheriff Richard Wiles says Slaying Suspect's Claim False

El Paso Times

El Paso -- El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles on Wednesday took odds with an explanation by Mexican authorities that the Aztecas gang killed one of his detention officers in Juárez for allegedly mistreating gang members while they were in jail.

Other U.S. law enforcement experts also questioned the explanation, the first time Mexican officials offered a motive for the March 13 slayings of three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate.

The experts also said they feared that the case may become mired in politics between the U.S. and Mexico.

A former El Paso Barrio Azteca member, Ricardo "Chino" Valles de la Rosa, 45, is accused in Mexico of acting as a lookout for other gang members who carried out the attack on detention officer Arthur Redelfs because he allegedly mistreated gang members.

Wiles disputed that theory.

Barrio Azteca: Slain Was Retaliation

Suspect: Sheriff's officer was killed in retaliation for alleged mistreatment

El Paso Times

A former Barrio Azteca gang member from El Paso suspected of being involved in the killing of three people tied to the U.S. Consulate in Juárez claimed the target of the attack was a detention officer who mistreated gang members at the El Paso County Jail.

Mexican authorities on Tuesday accused Ricardo "Chino" Valles de la Rosa, 45, of being a lookout for gunmen who carried out the hit.

Valles was arrested Friday by the Mexican army in Juárez and remains in custody in Mexico.

Valles alleged during his detention hearing that a gang leader ordered the hit on Arthur Redelfs, an El Paso County sheriff's detention officer, because Redelfs mistreated fellow gang members at the jail. Valles had another hearing Tuesday before a judge, also in Juárez.

The Barrio Azteca is a brother gang of the Juárez Aztecas gang, and both are aligned with the Carrillo-Fuentes cartel.

Barrio Azteca Targets Police

Barrio Azteca threat targets law officers.

El Paso Times

El Paso, Texas -- The Barrio Azteca gang could be plotting to kill El Paso law enforcement officers in retaliation for a recent crackdown on gang members, an alert issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned.

"The Barrio Azteca gang may issue a 'green light' authorizing the attempted murder of LEOs (law enforcement officers) in the El Paso area," stated a copy of the alert obtained by the El Paso Times.

A "green light" is a murder sanctioned by the military-style leadership of the gang. The gang works with the Juárez drug cartel and is under scrutiny for its possible involvement in the unsolved murders in Juárez of three people tied to the U.S. Consulate.

The warning, or Officer Safety Alert, stated that the potential threat was "uncorroborated" but that officers and their families should take extra precautions.

"We understand it's uncorroborated information so we don't know how serious a threat it is," said Special Agent Andrea Simmons, spokeswoman for the FBI in El Paso.

The alert, issued Monday, tells officers to wear body armor while on duty, to vary routes to and from work and to tell their families to watch for any unusual activity. It also stated that suspicious people and vehicles near government buildings should be reported.

The Injustice of a Broken Down System

The sicarios had already been detained, again and set free, again.

Jesús Bustos Rentería and Luis Alberto Camacho Ramos

At least two of the suspected assassins that were "presented" to the media Wednesday by the Coordinated Operation Chihuahua (OCCH) as participants in the massacre of Villas de Salvárcar, both had been arrested previously a couple of times and had been "presented" as hitmen in multiple executions since June 2009.

However, they managed to regain their freedom and were again involved in various criminal incidents until they were arrested again in early March this year.

One of them had experienced an attack that injured him, while his brother was also injured and his sister-in-law, who was pregnant at the time, was killed.

Military present Heriberto Martinez, left, Jose Alfredo Soto, a.k.a. 'El 7,' center, and Jesus Bustos to the press in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, March 17, 2010. According to the army, the men are alleged members of the drug gang 'La Linea' and suspects in the January massacre of 16 people in Ciudad Juarez, many of them teenagers.

Bustos Jesus Renteria and Luis Alberto Camacho Ramos, were identified this week by Mexican authorities as being involved in the murder of 15 people on January 30, 2010. The victims of that massacre were mainly students and neighbors of the community of Villas de Salvárcar.

Both of these suspects were arrested on June 27, 2009 in the community of Galeana. At that time, officers and military of the task force OCCH accused them of being members of the street gang "Los Aztecas" and being in possession of firearms. Newspaper archives indicate that the men were arrested along with Jorge Raúl Márquez Ramírez.

The operation that resulted in their arrest occurred at about 1430 hours in the street Cuicuilco by military personnel from the 4th Military Police Battalion. At that time the soldiers observed the occupants in a black Dodge Caravan acting very suspicious.

The Street Gang Connection

Mexican DTO's will not think twice to utilize the US and Mexican street gangs to maximize their effort in ensuring they remain the primary supplier of illicit drugs to the US.

Most recently the street gangs in Mexico and the US have been receiving a lot of notoriety. The recent execution of the two Americans in Ciudad Juarez with ties to the US consulate has many in the media and both sides of the government pointing their finger at Barrio Azteca, and with reason. 

Looking at the crime spree in the last few years in Mexico they have good reason to be suspect and be very concerned. The massacre of 16 students in cold blood in February of this year in Ciudad Juarez was possibly done to take out some of the "Double A" or "Artistas Asesinos." The mass killings last year in some of the rehab centers in Juarez have had ties to Barrio Azteca.

It has been rumored for some time that street gangs have allied with the big drug cartels, in the US and Mexico. They do this to distribute the drugs and in many cases to be the foot soldier of the big drug corporations.

The Barrio Azteca has had a strong relationship with the Juarez cartel while the “AA” have been rumored to support the Sinaloa cartel of El Chapo Guzman.

These are just two of the more prominent gangs active in both Juarez and El Paso, but there are more, a lot more. Only someone very naïve about drug trafficking strategy would think that gangs do not have links to the Mexican drug cartels, simply because they deal in the same business; drugs and violence.

So we should not be surprised when Mexico apprehends sicarios and they find them to be from a street gang with a cartel connection. Americans are very concern about the “spillover” of violence and drugs in to US soil, and some even dread that perhaps someday the Mexican drug cartels will set up shop in the US as they do in Mexico.

The Foot Soldiers of the Drug Cartel

The drug cartel connection that has been overlooked;
the US/Mexican street gangs.

From the The New York Times -

"They carry both American passports and high-caliber weapons, making them the perfect cross-border assassins. They confuse the authorities by using a coded language that blends English, Spanish and the Aztecs’ ancient tongue of Nahuatl. The threat of prison is no big fear for members of the Barrio Azteca street gang, because they consider the cellblock to be home.

Barrio Azteca supplies hired killers for the drug traffickers who operate in Ciudad Juárez,

Barrio Azteca works for the Juárez cartel, which is run by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and the drug gang’s enforcement arm, which is known as La Línea, or The Line. Their avowed enemies on the Mexican side of the border are members of the Sinaloa cartel, which has been fighting for control of the lucrative smuggling route through the northern state of Chihuahua."

On Monday we will take a closer look at the street gangs like "Los Aztecas," and how they interact with the Mexcian cartel in their mayhem to retain their power base.

Gangs Unite for Cartels

Drug cartels unite rival gangs to work for common bad

USA Today

Rival prison gang members, including warring white supremacist and Hispanic groups, are brokering unusual criminal alliances outside prison to assist Mexican drug cartel operations in the U.S. and Mexico, federal law enforcement officials say.

The groups, including the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia, remain bitter enemies in prison, divided along racial and ethnic lines. Yet outside, the desire for profits is overcoming rivalries.

Kevin O'Keefe, chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives criminal intelligence division, says investigators have linked the rival gangs to stolen vehicles, some loaded with currency and weapons, moving toward Mexico from Texas, Colorado, California and even Georgia.

"They realize that the financial gain is so lucrative that they have been willing to work together," O'Keefe says. "It's all about business."

Herb Brown, section chief of the FBI's gang division, says the groups use tactics of intimidation and violence. "What has concerned us — and, frankly, surprised us — is the increasing nexus between these gangs and the cartels," he says.

Most are involved with drugs, but officials say members also are moving into human smuggling.

Lynxes and, Azteca Formed Hit Squad

'Lynxes,' Azteca formed hit squad: Birthday party attack directed by cartel, gang.

El Paso Times

Karla Cuburu, 22, of El Paso was one of 53 students from El Grupo Nazaret and Life Teen representing a living rosary Wednesday night in memory of all those who have been killed in Juarez, including the 16 slain in the recent birthday-party massacre.

Ciudad Juarez, Chih - A hit team described as the shock troops of the Juárez drug cartel and Azteca gangsters are suspected of being involved in the recent massacre of students in Juárez, according to information from the Chihuahua state attorney general.

The attorney general's office said the involvement of Los Linces and an Azteca leader were revealed in interrogations of two men arrested in connection with the Jan. 30 attack at a birthday party that killed 16 people, including 11 teens.

Los Linces (the lynxes) is a secretive assassination group reportedly made up of former Mexico special forces soldiers. The group works for the Juárez drug cartel, reputedly led by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

An unidentified leader of Los Linces, depicted wearing sunglasses in an artist rendering, had a support role in the mass shooting, according to the attorney general's office. The role was not specified.

Sicarios Arrested

The 'Sugus' was captured in Juarez

According to a statement from the "Joint Operational Chihuahua," a task force made up of army troops and federal police, Mendoza-alias "Sugus" or "Payaso" - was arrested along with three other suspected gunmen, who authorities accused of committing several murders.

They admitted to authorities to be members of a gang called "Los Aztecas," or "Los carnales" who took orders from a person nicknamed "El Kiri", supposedly resident in Las Vegas (USA).

A Mendoza is considered head of six cells of assassins dedicated to selling drugs on a small scale in the center of Ciudad Juarez in the State of Chihuahua (northern Mexico).

The Fall of the Azteca Clown

Man who says he had role in 200 gang killings arrested.

El Paso Times

A reputed Azteca gang lieutenant allegedly involved in 200 murders was arrested along with other gang members early Thursday at a Mexican army checkpoint on a Juárez street, military officials said.

Antonio Mendoza Ledezma, known as "Sugus" or "El Payaso" (the clown), told authorities he committed about 140 murders and ordered the deaths of about 60 other people in the past seven years, officials with Joint Operation Chihuahua said.

If the admission is true, it would make the short and portly Mendoza not only one of the most prolific murderers in Mexico's deadliest city but also one of the worst killers in world history.

The world's deadliest serial killer is Thug Behram of India, who is said to have murdered 931 people in the 1800s, according to several Web sites about serial killers.

The Barrio Azteca Gang-Cartel Interface

Barrio Azteza (BA) is only one of dozens of prison gangs operating along the U.S.-Mexican border that help Mexican drug trafficking organizations smuggle narcotics across the border and then distribute them for the cartels. Mexican drug trafficking organizations need groups that will do their bidding on the U.S. side of the border, as the border is the tightest choke point in the narcotics supply chain.

Getting large amounts of drugs across the border on a daily basis requires local connections to bribe border guards or border town policemen. Gangs on the U.S. side of the border also have contacts who sell drugs on the retail level, where markups bring in large profits.

The current trial has revealed that the partnership goes beyond narcotics to include violence as well. In light of the high levels of violence raging in Mexico related to narcotics trafficking, there is a genuine worry that this violence (and corruption) could spread inside the United States.

One of the roles that BA and other border gangs fill for Mexican drug-trafficking organizations is that of enforcer. Prison gangs wield tight control over illegal activity in a specific territory.

They keep tabs on people to make sure they are paying their taxes to the gang and not affiliating with rival gangs. To draw an analogy, they are like the local police who know the situation on the ground and can enforce specific rules handed down by a governmental body — or a Mexican cartel.

Barrio Azteca

Barrio Azteca is one of the most violent prison gangs in the United States. The gang is highly structured and has an estimated membership of 2,000. Most members are Mexican national or Mexican American males. Barrio Azteca is most active in the southwestern region, primarily in federal, state, and local corrections facilities in Texas and outside prison in southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

The gang’s main source of income is derived from smuggling heroin, powdered cocaine, and marijuana from Mexico into the United States for distribution both inside and outside prisons.

Gang members often transport illicit drugs across the U.S.–Mexico border for DTOs. Barrio Azteca members also are involved in alien smuggling, arson, assault, auto theft, burglary, extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, robbery, and weapons violations.

The Barrio Azteca was founded in 1986 by gangsters Benito “Benny” Acosta, Alberto “Indio” Estrada, Benjamín “T-Top” Olivarez, Manuel "Tolon" Cardoza, Manuel “El Grande” Fernandez, Raúl “Rabillo” Fierro and José “Gitano” Ledesma.

The gang succeeded in attracting thousands of violent offenders who hated the Mexikanemi and Texas Syndicate. The Barrio Azteca’s primary goal was to dominate the prison system and gain control of it’s lucrative drug trade.

More Gangs in El Paso than Juarez?

Police authorities have identified 539 gangs operating in El Paso, about 80 more than in Ciudad Juarez.

The official data also indicates that members of local criminal organizations total more than 5,600 men, women and children.

Although a few are just transitional and only a few are actually considered dangerous such as Barrio Azteca, otherwise known as the "Aztecs" when they cross the Rio Grande, the rest of the gangs pose a risk to border security as they could easily be hired by drug cartels that operate in the Mexican territory.

That is why local and state authorities have requested from the Transportation Committee of the Senate under the Homeland Security for more police resources and intelligence initiatives to dismantle these gangs and stop a possible expansion of the narco-violence in this border.

During the hearing held at the University of Texas at El Paso, the seven-member state committee heard progress and needs on infrastructure development of roads, border security and combating transitional gangs.

Gangs on the Borderland

American border towns have not seen anything remotely approaching the blood-stained carnage of some north Mexican cities where rival drug cartels are in a high-stakes war that killed over 6,000 people last year, but that may changed if the problems in Mexico spiral out of control. The links that U. S. gangs have with the Mexican cartels should be a concern. Gangs already control the distribution of the majority of illicit drugs in the streets of the U.S. The drug lords to the south can easily tap this ready-made criminal infrastructure for a range of nefarious purposes. And we better read the writing on the wall because it already has.

Gangs and their culture of violence, drugs and crime are one of America's pressing social ills, but in the borderlands the problem has an urgency. In the United States local gangs play a major role in the distribution of the drugs brought in from Mexico. It has been well documented that there is a significant cooperation between the drug cartels and the gangs in the US. are following established links with the cartels to expand their own business operations. Gang members will do what is profitable. Hardened gangs are carving out turf on the border and beyond as part of a scramble to make money from the tons of illegal drugs pouring north from Mexico each month.

Cross-border links between the cartels and gangs face one obstacle more formidable than the Rio Grande River:

Trust.