Friday, May 30, 2014

CDS cell leader "El Rocky" arrested in Tijuana.

Borderland Beat


Tijuana.- Juan Valencia Caliz aka Jesus Ismael Gonzalez Larrañaga aka "El Pelos" or "El Rocky" was arrested yesterday by the Tijuana Security Coordination Group. "El Rocky" is identified as a member of the group led by Alfonzo Arzate Garcia aka "El Aquiles", Valencia Caliz had two arrest warrants against him for homicide and organized crime.

Alejandro Lares Valladares, Tijuana´s Public Safety Director, announced this afternoon that Valencia Caliz is responsible for the execution in past years of several people related to drug trafficking, his arrest was conducted by members of the Tijuana Municipal Police, State Public Safety Board and of the Mexican Army who are part of the Security Coordination Group.

"El Rocky" acknowledged "working" for "El Aquiles" and was translated to the Federal Attorney´s General Office under charges of illegal weapons possession and of crimes against health(drug possession).

According to Lares Valladares, intelligence reports helped to conclude "El Rocky" was in charge of the Sinaloa Cartel operations in Tijuana (on behalf of Alfonzo Arzate). His arrest is one of several conducted by the Coordination Group in past months.

According to the press report, yesterday at about 10:00 PM, members of the Coordination Group who were conducting a routine patrol received information about a suspect introducing weapons inside a vehicle parked in the corner of Blvd. Casa Blanca and Matomi.

When the agents arrived at the scene they arrested Valencia Caliz, 39, who was carrying a 9 mm handgun with 12 rounds in the magazine. When his vehicle was searched, the agents found a backpack and 3 bags containing 8 assault riffles, another handgun, 1 111 rounds, 29 magazines and a bulletproof vest.

4 packages containing crystal meth were also seized, giving a total weight of 9.5 pounds. After finding this, the Coordination Group ran a background check on him and found out he had an arrest warrant for murder and organized crime.

His other alias, Jesus Ismael Gonzalez Larrañaga also had an arrest warrant issued early this year for attempted murder.

Source: AFNTijuana

Michoacán's Ghost Towns




By: Valentina Valle

May 20, 2014

There are about 100 kilometers that separate the city of Coalcomán from the city of Colima, a distance that is covered in roughly two hours.  Thirty years ago, moving between these two places was a journey of nine hours; traveling through villages such as La Cuchilla, Guadalupe del Cobre, Pantla and El Guayabo.  Following the completion of Highway 110, the floods in Trojes, and 20 years of war between the Jalisco Cartel, Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana, and Los Caballeros Templarios, what remains of life that liven up these places is a bunch of abandoned houses, scattered in nature that has gradually regained its power.  No one visits these ghost towns, nobody talks about its displaced or murdered people and above all, no one cares about the new business that is emerging-the uncontrolled and illegal exploitation of the ones- that transforms the villages still inhabited into cemeteries of the living.
Roads of Michoacán, arriving at Villa Victoria
These places are beautiful and rich in history, but when visiting them, the atmosphere we breathe is ghostly and the feeling of restlessness is constant.  Hihuitlán, in the municipality of Chinicuila, is the last village where there are roadblocks of the autodefensas: from then on, it remains “no man’s land”.  A farmer returning from the corn fields with his bundle of corn on horseback comes over and asks us what we came here for and where we are going.  Shortly ahead, near the palapa erected by the autodefensas is the last of the first roadblocks of Michoacán.  A massive block is still blocking the road and a man is still sitting in front of a cabin.  To the right of him are pieces of what was a hacienda, trees have grown in the adobe walls.  The air is still; time has stopped.  Now, like ten years ago, the community watch the village, they question us, their request is not a nuisance but a guarantee of safety.

Almost nothing is known about the history of these people who in the beginning of the 2000’s, faced the narcos who came down from the mountain of La Morena, a place still infested with criminals.  Once again it was the women who lead the resistance that has unfortunately been lost in the memory of others.  Back then there were no AK-47’s or rifles, the only weapons they had were the weapons they used to protect livestock , and even then they didn’t arms themselves until after the assassination of Vicente Virgen Cerillos, father of the mayor of Chinicuila and a brave man who defied the cartels.  Compared to the media noise that erupted in the last 16 months, after the armed uprising of Tierra Caliente, the struggle of this corner of Michoacán went completely unnoticed.  Maybe it was because of the lack of heavy weapons or because it was a rebellion on common land where there were no lemon or avocado orchards, or even ranchers; but there was not a word devoted to these farmers who with sticks and rocks blocked the roads and managed to remove the traffickers.  Or maybe it was because it seemed that there was nothing on this land but oil, and to exploit hydrocarbons it is not only desirable but almost necessary that the land in which this precious liquid is needs to be as empty as possible.  Whatever the reason, the inhabitants of the common land of Barranca Seca were left alone and if on one hand they managed to remove the Milenio Cartel and the Zetas, on the other hand they couldn’t stop the advancement of the Templarios.  The result is where ten years ago there used to be a movement, resistance, and life, today, there are only ghosts.
Hihuitlán: what remains of the hacienda
Pantla is in the municipality of Coalcomán and appears on our right after a half hour from Hihuitlán.  47 deserted houses greeted us in a tumbal silence, just a dog barking behind a rusty fence.  Here, there are only two houses that are inhabited, there are neither women nor children, no noise can be heard; there are only two men who are unloading a cart of firewood.  A father and son answered quickly, looking elsewhere, they say that they stayed in the village even though everyone else had all left and they were always “at ease”.  It is unclear what is at ease about living alone in a village abandoned by government oversight and at the fury of the narcos, what is clear though is that they don’t want to talk anymore.

An abandoned house heading towards Pantla
 El Guayabo, the second ghost town, is another half-hour away, coasting along burned cornfields and dried fields of grass.  The houses on both sides of the single street look empty, broken windows, even the ones that have clothes hanging in the yard are lonely and dark.  Two people become aware of our presence, a man sitting in the plaza, alone, and a lady at the door of her house, not even passing the doorstep.  The basketball court is abandoned, the school is closed.
Basketball court from Guayabo
At about five hundred meters away is Ahuijuillito, the third village.  We stopped, got out of our car, and took photos.  A lady with a child appears out of nowhere and disappears out of nowhere; answering the only question we could ask her: out of the 25 houses in the village, only four are inhabited.  The trees have invaded the gardens; one covers what was a child’s swing long ago.  The door of the church is closed, but it doesn’t have a lock.  We don’t force it open out of respect that it might be the only sacred place in the town that breathes desolation.

Mr. Jesús García Martínez gets up from his hammock as we arrive.  He greets us happily upon having an unexpected visit and he says that he has been living alone with his dog for three years; him and three other families, two old men that live towards the end of the street and the residents that live two houses down from there.  No one can drive a car, no one can contact the “outside world”; the only link is a man who every Monday at 9 in the morning passes by to sell tortillas.  Ten years ago there were many people, Don Jesús recalls, but then everyone left, some to other places, some to “another world”.  The Templarios arrived all the way here, with their indiscriminate massacres, to sow death where there were only farmers who planted corn.
Ahuijuillito
If the entire state is considered a strategic territory, these hills extending between Michoacán, Jalisco, and Colima are even more so: the mineral wealth of the subsoil, the presence of the beautiful sangualica wood in the forest, the closeness of the Michoacán coast and the port of Manzanillo, the ability to easily move between the three neighboring states, make this part of the municipality of Coalcomán full of captivating payoffs for organized crime.  It is also suspected that the killings that occurred here were not only confrontations between rival drug gangs, but they also served as a measure to empty the land of its inhabitants.

“When working in Puerta de la Mina, we removed bags of dead animals from our territory, dead fishes floated and even a child who lived along the banks of the river died, after an illness of which the origin was never clarified.  I myself, as a child, had stains on my skin by bathing in these waters that were once pure and clean”, a man native of Tepamillo, Chinicuila recalls.  He adds: “Now, after almost thirty years, nature is just beginning to recover to its original form, but we hear that they want to reactivate the work and start again with the pollution.”  As we approached the mine, and asking about the communities around, it is found that the revival of La Minita (The Mine) is more than a rumor.

The residents of Guadalupe del Cobre, in a meeting convened by the Council for the Development of Coalcomán—an organization recently formed by citizens of the municipality who, independently from the autodefensas, are looking to reorganize the coalcomanense society— they denounced that since a few months ago, they had seen truckloads of soil and expressed their concern to know who was exploiting their territory.

 A Look at Mining in Coalcomán

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Musician Tito Torbellino killed in Obregon, Sonora


Musician Tomas Rascón, 33, whose stage name is Tito Torbellino, was riddled with bullets from 9mm firearm having been shot  by multiple gunmen, while dining Red Cocina Oriental restaurant in the Sonora city of Obregon . 

He was killed at point blank range at 3:40 PM this afternoon.

Reports from witnesses revealed that Tito Torbellino was alive when  transferred to  a city hospital but was dead on arrival.

He was scheduled  to perform a concert tomorrow night  at the  Obregon Expo, his last concert was in Hermosillo, Sonora.  His parents were both born in Obregon. 

While in Phoenix last week he celebrated his 33rd birthday.  On his facebook he expressed happiness at being surround by his family "even my son".  [above]

On that day he posted this  comment on his facebook page:



"I thank  God for another year of my life and for all that He has given me. Thank you to my children, family, friends and my  fans everywhere. Thank you for all the gifts and  good wishes. I didn't think I would get to this age. I promise to be calmer and less careless. jajaja. On my way to Bakersfield to do what I like, singing for my public. The celebration is just starting."


Guasa on forum posted this foto that is supposedly him.


Sinaloa Cartel paid $250,000.00 to kidnap an El Paso resident

El Diario de Juarez (5-25-2014)

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

Gabino Salas Valenciano, killed August 2013

DISTRITO FEDERAL (Reforma)-.  The Sinaloa Cartel of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman paid $250,000.00 dollars to kidnap U.S. citizens in that country and bring them to Mexico to be executed.

Gabino Salas Valenciano, who was until last year the principal head of the organization in Ciudad Juarez, employed arms dealers and drug traffickers from the U.S. to eliminate debtors in the U.S. who did not pay their debts.

That was the case with Texas resident Sergio Sauceda, who supposedly lost 300 kilos of Sinaloa Cartel marijuana. In retaliation, he was kidnapped in El Paso in September of 2009 and subsequently found dead in the Valle de Juarez with his hands cut off and placed on his chest.

The price paid for his head was $250,000.00 dollars, according to Criminal Case No. EP-11CR-2817-FM, filed in the West Texas Federal District Court in El Paso, against Francisco Javier Pulido "El Pichas", Cesar Pineda and Carlos Cuellar, all three already under arrest in Mexico and the United States.

According to the file, from the time "El Chapo" began to take gradual control of Ciudad Juarez and displace the Carrillo Fuentes clan on that border, four of its men became important in handling drugs, weapons and money.

They were Noel Salgueiro Nevarez, "El Flaco", Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, "El Jaguar", who started the war to grab the plaza from the Carrillos; Gabino Salas Valenciano himself, who handled shipments of drugs, and Luis Carlos Marin, a local drug trafficker.

Salgueiro was captured on October 5, 2011, in Culiacan, Sinaloa.  Torres Marrufo was arrested on February 3, 2012, in Leon, Guanajuato, and Salas Valenciano was killed on August 8, 2013, in the Juarez Valley (Valle de Juarez"). The only one still at large is Marin.

On August 5, 2009, at the Border Patrol's Sierra Blanca, Texas, inspection station, agents stopped two individuals with a trailer that was transporting 303.9 kilos of marijuana, which drug had been smuggled (into the U.S.) by Sergio Sauceda, a 30-year old U.S. drug trafficker.

Luis Carlos Marin, a lieutenant of Torres Marrufo, "El Jaguar", had sent him the drug shipment , and it appears this loss was the last one for the recipient.

Almost a month later, on September 3, 2009, a group of masked gunmen -- also from the U.S.-- broke into a house in Horizon City, in the El Paso suburbs, and carried off Sergio Sauceda in a maroon-colored Ford Expedition.

The kidnappers drove to a lot in the vicinity of Fabens, (Texas), where the mobile home belonging to Francisco Javier Pulido, "El Pichas", was located. He was a Mexican-American drug trafficker who was already being sought by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Shortly thereafter, Victor Elias, "El Chito", Cesar Pineda and Israel Cardenas Garcia, "El Rayelo", arrived there.

"The men, who were wearing masks, took Sauceda from his vehicle and placed him in the rear seat of the vehicle I was driving. Pulido was also there at the mobile home. I then transported Sauceda from Pulido's house to Mexico across the Fabens-Caseta Port of Entry," Pineda testified before the U.S. court.

According to the court file, Pineda took Sauceda to a place known as "La Cabana" in the Juarez Valley, which was nothing more than a house fixed up as a weapons store house. When they got there, they delivered Sauceda to a group of 10 men.

The victim had just been delivered to Torres Marrufo, "El Jaguar", and Luis Carlos Marin.

"Pulido informed me that Sauceda had stolen more than 600 pounds of marijuana from the organization of Luis Carlos Marin, who worked for Torres Marrufo. He also told me that the Luis Carlos Marin organization, on behalf of Torres Marrufo, had paid Salas Valenciano $250,000.00 to kidnap Sauceda," testified Pineda.

Five days later, Sauceda's body was found on the banks of the Rio Grande, semi-nude, with signs of torture and with the hands cut off and placed on the chest.

The suspects who were involved in this crime were led by Gabino Salas Valenciano, "El Ingeniero".

'I bought 70 assault rifles in Texas.'

In the case filed against Cesar Pineda in a U.S. court, the alleged gunman for the Sinaloa Cartel states that the leaders of the criminal organization ordered him to purchase assault rifles in the U.S. Pineda was hired in 2009 by Diego Rodriguez, now deceased, to work for Gabino Salas Valenciano, "El Ingeniero", smuggling small quantities of marijuana into El Paso. That's when he met Francisco Javier Pulido, "El Pichas", who supervised the transportation of drugs.

"In July of 2009, I was instructed to go to El Paso, Texas, where Pulido gave me $24,000.00. They gave me the money to buy weapons in Fort Worth, Texas, specifically AK-47s for the Salas Valenciano organization. I went to Fort Worth, where I bought seventeen AK-47s. I took part in other weapons purchases for the Salas Valenciano organization, two in Fort Worth and one in Denver, Colorado. In total, I took part in the purchase of approximately 70 weapons, of which about 50 were AK-47 and approximately 20 were AR-15s," says Pineda.

Pulido also invited U.S. resident Carlos Cuellar to work for the organization, even though Cuellar  had previously worked for the Carrillo Fuentes organization. From June to August, 2011, Cuellar introduced 7 shipments of marijuana into the U.S., each weighing 150 kilos, according to his plea agreement.

He delivered the drug to two individuals known as Rene and Victor, in Socorro, Texas. Pulido paid him $1,000.00 per load successfully delivered.

"Pulido paid a fee to Reyna Mejia Garrido to transport marijuana through the sector that she controlled in the Juarez valley. In August of 2011, several of the persons who took delivery of the marijuana were arrested when they were trying to smuggle almost 150 kilos of marijuana into the United States," testified Cuellar before the El Paso court.

In May of 2011, Pineda was arrested in Texas and pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit homicide in a foreign country, for which he was sentenced to 240 months in prison.

Cuellar was also arrested in October that year for trafficking marijuana. He pled guilty in February, 2012, and was sentenced to 150 months imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Francisco Javier Pulido, "El Pichas", was captured on April 27, 2013, and sent to the Federal Prison in Hermosillo, Sonora, based on a court order for temporary detention while awaiting extradition.

The Foreign Relations Secretariat granted the U.S. petition for extradition of "El Pichas" on charges of organized crime violations; kidnapping resulting in death; criminal conspiracy to kidnap, murder and mutilate in a foreign country, and conspiracy to import marijuana.

The U.S. avoided using homicide as a basis for extradition because Mexico would have denied it, since that offense may carry a death penalty, which is prohibited in Mexico. 

www.diario.mx/Nacional/2014-05-25_384025d2/pago-cartel-de-sinaloa...  

  

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

The Art of War According to Chong

Proceso (5-27-2014)  By Sabina Berman

Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

Chong's war. Cartoon by Rocha.
MEXICO, D.F. (Proceso).- In the remote year of 2014, the astute Secretary Chong announced: the State needs to recover the remote province of Michoacan for the Government, and he sent a Commissioner for Pacification to the territory.

What he did not announce, and what he kept to himself, was that the first phase of the so-called Pacification would be the War against the autodefensas, the citizens groups who had already liberated entire cities from crime and were attracting the enthusiasm and the hope of the nation.

Attack your allies, but don't stop calling them allies. Attack them while getting photos taken with them. Attack them by cutting off the heads of their armies. Attack them suddenly. Or gradually. That is, any way you can. 

Immediately, the Commissioner for Pacification imprisoned one of the leaders of the autodefensas, Hipolito Mora, accusing him of murder, thanks to the testimony of a woman who witnessed the crime from a distance of five city blocks... at night.

Then, albeit more gradually, it discredited the second most visible leader, Dr. Mireles, accusing him of being charismatic, of being an articulate and plain spoken man, and of being good looking (and other offenses against the governing class), not to mention  being a murderer and crazy.

What was Secretary Chong doing? Why was he attacking his allies? Weren't they supposed to be his allies and wasn't the War against crime?

Nobody could understand him, language had lost all its meaning, Good was now Bad, and Bad... who knows what that was, and a fog of ambiguity cast a pall over the Michoacan lanscape.

In this manner, the nation saw its enthusiasm transformed into a vague sorrow, a sensation that was identical to its usual self image.

The idea is to win the War against allies before the war against the enemy, for two tactical reasons. They are closer and more unaware (how the hell could they have imagined that their ally would attack them?).

Astute Secretary Chong's idea was to destroy the autodefensas before defeating the criminals. For the reason just given: it was easier.

In addition, as the Commissioner explained, the autodefensas could at some uncertain future date become paramilitary groups. Or they could become politicians. Or become something worse: citizens who would demand from the State the right to survival and peace.

In any case, the final objective is always for the State, not independent groups, to decide the life and death of its citizens and not to take orders from anybody.

To lose that exclusivity is to lose what it most cherishes: Power.

So, then, demoralized, without leadership, confused and terrified, the allies joined the State forces in the role of vassals.

Autodefensas were dressed up as police and were taught to say "Yes, sir!",  "Yes, sir!",  "Yes, sir!" They became lawful members of the same forces that previously and for 12 years were not able to attack criminals in Michoacan, in large measure because they were infiltrated by criminals.

It doesn't matter, they said, what was important was the State's hegemony, that is, making sure that if the State could not win its War against crime, neither could anybody else.

Once the allied armies were subdued, peace was made with the overthrown leaders and they, too, were graciously allowed to become servants of the State.

Hipolito Mora and Dr. Mireles were hired to be part of the police and had their pictures taken shaking hands with the Commissioner.

The astute Secretary Chong did his calculations.

In less than a year he had defeated his allies and returned a state to a condition called exactly that by the philosopher Confucius: confusion.

That is when the astute Secretary Chong undertook at last the War against the real enemy: crime. Or rather, he did not undertake it.

Feeling at last peaceful, free from demands, the astute Secertary Chong began to consider how he would go against the criminals. Or how he would not go against criminals. The decision lacked urgency.

Meanwhile, the leader of the criminals, "La Tuta", who had been observing the progress of the Pacification on TV from his home, scratched his head. Famously, a month earlier he had stated in an interview with Telemundo, "I know that the State will kill me some day"

Now, he was not so sure...

(www.proceso.com.mx/?p=373240)

El Paso: Fingerprints led to the Narco Billboard Suspect

 Hmmmm...I am not sure I am buying the report  of no connection to film makers....but here you go..thanks to the reader sending the heads up....


El Paso Police's Department of Homeland Security Unit arrested the man who allegedly vandalized two billboards last week.

According to EPPD officials, 25-year-old Ryan Edward Jean from Las Vegas (NV), was tracked down via fingerprints left at the scene of the vandalism. When law enforcement ran the fingerprints through the FBI's database, they matched Jean.

Officials say that Jean [in photo below] had flown to El Paso, and had scheduled a flight back to Las Vegas.  They said that the intent of Jean's messages on the billboards was unknown, so EPPD's SWAT Unit, Airport Police and detectives went to the airport and were able to arrest him Sunday afternoon before he left El  Paso.

Detectives then interviewed Jean and found out that there was no connection to Mexican drug cartels or any movie and TV productions. They added that Jean "vandalized the billboards in an effort to make a political statement."

According to police documents obtained Tuesday afternoon, Jean admitted to the crime.

According to complaint affidavits filed by El Paso Police, Jean told investigators he jumped the chain-link fence of E.F. Building Materials INC. on the 9400 block of Gateway East, near Americas in East El Paso, after the business closed on Wednesday. The affidavit said Jean then climbed 10 to 15 feet to access the ladder of the billboard and proceeded to paint the message "plata o plomo" -- which roughly translates into "money or bullets" -- and hang a mannequin from a noose.

The documents said Jean cut a hole in a chain-link fence at L Tune Automotive to get to the second billboard located in Central El Paso at 5220 Gateway East, near Raynolds.

Investigators said Jean's left middle finger print was found on a plastic bag used to line the head of the Eastside mannequin.

NewsChannel 9 has learned Jean has a lengthy criminal history in Las Vegas dating back to 2007, including several traffic offenses, a DUI conviction, and a graffiti conviction from 2010.

Jean was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility on two counts of Graffiti, two counts of Criminal Trespass and one count of Criminal Mischief. He is being held on a total bond of $21,800.

Source channel 9 News in El Paso/ Juarez

Dutch Court Approves Extradition of Chino Antrax

Borderland Beat

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch court has approved the extradition of a suspected top enforcer in the Sinaloa Cartel to face drug trafficking charges in Southern California.

The North Holland Court ruled Wednesday that the extradition of Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa was legal based on a request from U.S. authorities

Arechiga, who was not in court for the decision, can appeal, a process that could take months.

He was detained late last year at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of a series of arrests leading up to the capture of Sinaloa leader Joaquin Guzman, known as “El Chapo.”

Arechiga is also known as “El Chino Antrax,” one of the two leaders of a group of sicarios who call themselves the Anthrax.
AP

From Prison Former "CT Mayor" Seeks to Name Successor

Borderland Beat Posted on forum by Pepe

The Michoacán State Legislature is currently considering naming the replacement for former mayor of Lázaro Cárdenas, Archímides Oseguera, who was arrested after appearing in the now-famous La Tuta video filmed at his house in Lázaro Cárdenas.

State law allows the deputies from his party (PRD) to choose the replacement, with the whole chamber later ratifying this decision. Yesterday the deputies from PRD were set to choose the successor.  

One faction led by the leader of the PRD deputies in the chamber, Fidel Calderón Torreblanca, had been pushing for the the wife of Oseguera, Nayeli Julieta Pedraza, to be named the new mayor.  The other faction led by state PRD leaders, such as Federal Deputy Silvano Aureoles Conejo (who's emerging as an AD supporter in next summer's governors race), was seeking to have the elected city administrator, Manuel Barreras Ibarra, named as mayor.

Well, yesterday, the Calderón Torreblanca faction switched its allegiance to city water director Agustin Zapién Ramírez.  Zapién is famous for appearing in the SAME VIDEO with La Tuta that brought down Oseguera.  He's also had several complaints filed against him for his work as water director for Lázaro Cárdenas.

It gets better.  It turns out that Calderón Torreblanca switched his support to Zapién after receiving a letter sent from prison by former mayor Oseguera.  In the letter, Oseguera recommends Zapién to Calderón Torreblanca as "someone who's aware of the promises we made during the campaign .... working very close with me in getting out the vote."

When the existence of the letter came out, there was an explosion of outrage, and Calderón Torreblanca was forced to cancel the vote and re-scheduled the decision for June 3rd. 

Sources: Provincia-Milenio-La jornada Michoacan 

Apatzingán:Chayos nephew "may be free in 2 months" says attorney

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Morelia, Michoacán.-The mayor of Apatzingán, Uriel  Chavez Mendoza could be released in two months, said his lawyer, Eduardo Quintero, who said that they have the necessary elements to prove his innocence.

Quintero said the arrest of Chavez Mendoza, was politically generated, and based on the testimony of only three people, the three councilors of the  City of Apatzingán, "oddly, one of them is the city office manager."

Also, the mayor said that when he is released he will file a lawsuit against his accusers because of their false statements. Currently the mayor is in criminal proceedings and  evidentiary stage.

On 15 April, Uriel Chavez Mendoza  was arrested for alleged extortion three aldermen of the City, requiring  them to pay an  amount of 20 thousand pesos to Cballeros Templarios.

Chavez Mendoza was long accused by autodefensas as having close ties to Templarios, the former mayor mother is the sister of  the fallen Templarios leader Nazario Moreno González, alias el Chayo.
If the attorney of Chavez looks familiar, he was the attorney representing autodefensa founder Hipolito Mora. 
 Mihoacan 3.0 and Borderland Beat

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

"El 20" Reported Killed in Nogales Sonora

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat
Nogales: Three men were killed last Saturday afternoon May 24 in the parking lot of the KFC restaurant in the El Greco zone.
 The dead were linked to  the Sinaloa cartel based in Hermosillo and Agua Prieta, Sonora.
The events took place when the victims were aboard a light color 2007 Volkswagen, without plates, when  armed men aboard a  minivan type vehicle pulled up to the vehicle and open fired.  The gunmen fled after the attack.

Two of the victims were identified  as Francisco Javier Balderama Marquez, 39 years old, who lived in a gated community of “Los Sauces , in the city of Hermosillo, he died after his arrival at a hospital.

Another victim who was killed was the driver and who was identified as David Avila Sergio Nunez, 46 years old, residing in the Lomas de Fatima.

The third deceased was identified as Julio Cesar Lopez Verdugo alias "El 20" Chapo Guzman’s  lieutenant, who was responsible for the  death of renowned sport promoter Mandy ArmandoMoreno in Agua Prieta, Sonora. 

Authorities have not yet confirm the killing of El 20.

Facebook-La Verdad Agua Prieta

An unusual outcome: Mele went hunting and the Tables Turned

Borderland Beat posted by Siskiyoukid published in RioDoce
I

For Melesio Beltrán Medina the plan backfired. Together with a group of gunmen operating in the South of Culiacan, he came to colonia Morelos to kidnap the younger brother of César Alberto Acosta Chairez, who was murdered  Monday the 19th in a shopping center in colonia Barrancas.

It seemed that he was waiting for them. Arriving at the house on Juan de Dios Bátiz Street and Guadalpe Victoria, the 21-year-old boy opened the door and fired, giving the Mele a bullet to the chest. When he fell to the ground wounded, his accomplices decided to help him.

They carried him off, took him to a Tacoma pickup and marched towards Sanalona road. They would drive to a specialty rehabilitation clinic hoping to save his life. They had shot him in the chest and he was dying. When they arrived at the hospital, Melesio Beltrán Medina had already died. They left him on the stairs and fled the place. Minutes later it would be full soldiers and policemen.

It was on Wednesday night. Two day before, the evening of Monday 19, César Alberto Acosta was driving a white Volkswagen beetle, without plate, in the colonia Barrancas, when he noticed that he had a "tail". He drove into the parking lot of the Soriana shopping center located in that sector and got out fast wielding a .38 caliber pistol. He ran and Mele's gunmen chased after him. The gunman fought back but was shot with AK-47s, cuernos de chivo, in one of the departments of the store, where he had run to, causing panic among employees and customers.

II

It is known that César Alberto Acosta, now known as Chiky Spay, had been arrested along with Gonzalo Inzunza Izunza, el Macho Prieto, in the dawn of May 5, 2005 at the Mazatlan ocean walkway, while traveling in an black Jetta without plates and a white Ford Lobo [F-150] pickup.

The municipal police searched them and found a weapons arsenal. Rifles, a bazooka, grenades, armor, guns, boots, drum magazines, money and jewelry. They were eight in total, all Culiches, and there were only six.

The detainees were presented as: Cándido Roche Ortiz, José Miguel Castro González, Alberto César Acosta Cháirez, Fabián Montes Aragón y Abraham Alberto Salcedo Hernández, 20, 22, 23, 26 and 26 years old, and a minor.

Police authorities were questioned but always denied that they had been eight detainees. However, there was evidence. Photographs of the search warrant, the police and detainees had been taken and they had already published. Two of them did not appear in the presentation. One was Gonzalo Inzunza and the other Ismael Bernal Cristerna. One appears in two photos sitting in a patrol box; the other stood while discussed with the police. Later, it would be known that they paid a hefty sum of money to be released.

It didn't take long before the detainees of that morning were released. The PGR issued a bulletin which gave an account of the facts and charged them with possession of firearms for the exclusive use of the armed forces and organized crime. But, within months they had reinstated the cells of el Macho Prieto. Including César Alberto Acosta Chairez.

Years later, on July 30, 2013, the Mongol was shot from truck truck in colonia Buenos Aires in Culiacan, after being chased for several minutes in the South of the city. In December 2013, el Macho Prieto faced off with the Marina in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. To date there is no official report on his alleged death.

Monday, May 26, 2014

"Commissioner Castillo's Strategy Is Bullying, Bully, Bully, Bully"

Clean cut, photogenic, well educated, smooth talking and articulate - Alfredo Castillo has always been the "go to guy" when EPN needed someone to put out fires and put the damper on potential scandals.  

None of the scandals that he managed for the President touched or tarnished the perception that the press and the public held for him as a honest forthright spokesperson.


But he has never been put into a situation as volatile as the situation in Michoacan when Pena Nieto created (by fiat) a Commission for Peace and Security and the Integral Development of Michoacán, and appointed Castillo as Commissioner.  

He effectively took over the powers of state government in Michoacan in January of this year. and he was thrown into the public spotlight for the first time.  As Commissioner, some call him Viceroy, he seems to be causing more fires than he is putting out.
As  reported in the publication la Journal,  in an article written by Arturo Cano,  Selene Vázquez,  Independent Deputy in Michoacán State Legislature, is quoted as saying  Castillo's strategy is summarized in one word that she repeats:
 

 "Bully, bully and bully."

With a long career [at the national level] in the PRD [Party of the Democratic Revolution], Vázquez left the PRD after the last presidential election and is now the Independent Deputy in the Michoacán Legislature. She is perhaps the politician closest to the self-defense groups (she is credited with the idea of ​​the movement "I Am Self-Defense," that will meet on Wednesday, May 28, in the Siqueiros Polyforum in Mexico City). 

 "He Threatens Everyone": Deputies

In her role as Deputy, Vázquez voted against the forfeiture law recently passed by the Michoacán Legislature. She gives her reasons:

    "Before it was approved (May 8), there was a meeting of the Commissioner and PRI Deputies. One of them told me: 'He yelled at us; it isn't worth it. He threatens all of us'."

Independent Deputy Vázquez continues:
 

"He told them that he had more photos and videos of La Tuta, that the Congress was useless, and that they were not helping the President's strategy." 
(dd; yes it has been photo-shopped)




The Commissioner's main complaint was that the Legislature had not approved the forfeiture law, which he himself and Governor Fausto Vallejo announced last February.

Before meeting with the PRI, Castillo met with PAN Deputies in early May.

Someone had to point out the small detail that the State Legislature had not received any initiative [draft bill] on the subject. The deficiency was resolved immediately. The day after the meetings with legislators, they presented the

    "initiative as a matter of opinion, as if it had already been studied, read, dealt with by the Deputies. It was approved by the PRI and the PAN without reserve."

Their haste can be explained by what a PRI Deputy said to Vázquez:

    "Very agitated, he asked me, 'Can they put a Deputy in jail?'

    "I answered, 'Yes.'

    "You can imagine what he threatened them with."

The PRI Deputy also asked if they could disappear the powers of the state of Michoacán:

    "I replied that, definitely, they need the helping hand of their PAN and PRD allies in the Senate, but regarding the powers of the State, yes, they can. Imagine what fear they put into their fellow PRI members, which forced them to take, without an opinion, a law that was not discussed. It is very serious."

The new forfeiture law (the haste is not understandable, given that the same draft set a deadline of 60 days for its entry into force), was given to the Deputies only 40 minutes before the vote.

 La Jornada: The vox populi [voice of the people] speaks of "Viceroy Castillo."

    "A species of vice-consul or viceroy. All the instruments of power are at his service. If it is necessary to put Hipólito in jail, a crime is invented, you let him stew in jail for two months, then you promise him that you're going to get him out, and you even promise him, as his attorney said, that he is going to be governor. The institutions become an instrument for forcing a peace that does not exist in Michoacán."

La Jornada: Now the charges against José Manuel Mireles must be added.

    "Today Castillo can play at embracing Hipólito, but it was he who, on national television, said that Hipólito was involved in two murders. He announced it the same way he announces everything, because he likes being on TV.

    "Although the day he wanted to close the fair he left after the shortest jeers of his life, because he couldn't bear more than 20 seconds of being shouted down."

La Jornada: He did something similar with José Manuel Mireles.
 

"What he did was shameless. If they tell you on the news program "Channel of Stars" that Mireles held a head as a trophy and there are photos ... It turns out that it isn't so; it turns out that the photo is of a body [intact] that does not have the head detached, but the image is what remains. In this war there have been so many dead that this scene can be repeated 20 times, and that picture, too, and not just with him, but for example with El Pantera and others who have fallen."

Accusing Mora and Mireles in the media, says the Deputy, "backfired" on the Commissioner, so

    "he starts backpedaling with his rhetoric. Then, he who accused [Mireles] of having a head as a trophy, four, five days later, he [Castillo] says definitely, that they [Mora and Mireles] are going to register in the rural police, and that Mireles asked him to register other of his boys [bodyguards]."

Secretary of Social Development in the administration of former Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy, Vázquez judges that on this issue the Commissioner has acted in a "ridiculous" manner.

    "But it's a media war, into which the media fall, because they are also part of the toolkit that power has for beating up on a movement in order to do and undo, without being accountable for abusing all the institutions of the State."

The Commissioner Against Michoacán's Movers and Shakers

A few weeks ago, Alfredo Castillo, Federal Commissioner for Michoacán, asked the priest José Luis Segura, pastor of La Ruana, to accompany him to a meeting that he was to have self-defense leaders at the prison constructed in that community.

Segura has been the parish priest twice in La Ruana, and he is knows the locals very well. He knows what he's talking about when he says:

    "I had never seen the people here afraid of anyone, but they fear Commissioner Castillo."

Alfredo Castillo didn't just impose on Michoacán's Secretary of Public Security and the State Attorney General. Lest there be any doubt about who holds the reins, he also installed one of his cohorts, Óscar Juárez Davis, as Undersecretary of Finance. A member of the Michoacán Cabinet says: