Borderland Beat |  |
- Hipólito Mora Released from Prison!
- "'Zona Norte is cartel Arellano"
- 319 kilos of cocaine seized in Tijuana
- Narco message left in Cd Victoria Tamaulipas signed CJNG
- Gun-Toting Fishermen Policing Town Show Holes in Mexico Security
| Hipólito Mora Released from Prison! Posted: 09 Mar 2015 10:57 PM PDT Lucio R. Borderland Beat material from reforma, El Pais, Michoacan 3.0  After over 2 months, Hipólito Mora Chavez and his group of 26 people, tonight obtained their freedom after the Seventh Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of the State revoked the detention order against them.  Mora, a founder of autodefensas in Michoacán, left the Mil Cumbres prison tonight, along with his men, at about 10 P.M. A convoy of at least six trucks carrying the released men, left the penitentiary, located on Morelia-Charo road. Before leaving prison, the activist reflected on his release and that of his men. "Justice was done. I feel good," he said by telephone after learning of the decision of the Judicial Branch of State revoking the detention order against him, that had been issued on January 3rd. "I will continue with my ideals, that will not change "he added. Prior to his release, the former commander of the Rural Force was visited by the State Attorney, Martin Godoy. After talking with the staff and signing documents, Mora left prison without stopping to talk to the media who were waiting for a statement. Mora and his group were accused of homicide, after the shooting clash of December 16th against the men of Luis Antonio Torres alias 'El Americano' in La Ruana, municipality of Buenavista Tomatlán that left 11 dead including Mora's son Manuel.
The ruling noted that; "at the time of the confrontation, the son of autodefensa leader Hipólito Mora died, furthermore, Hipolito Mora his men were part of the Rural Force, ie, were legally recognized as part of a state institution." El Americano will likely be freed also Luis Antonio Torres, "The American" along with nine defendants could also gain freedom in the coming hours. As with Hipólito Mora Chavez and his men, the detention order against "EL Americano" and his group may be revoked by the Judiciary of Michoacan. Luis Antonio Torres, is being held in the Social Rehabilitation Center in Morelia David Franco Rodriguez for his alleged responsibility in the crime of homicide. Worth noting, last Friday a recording surfaced of Americano giving orders, that if he was not released by Monday (today) that his group was to begin shutting down Michoacan by road blocks. In the recording he stated that he was to be released today.  | ||||
| "'Zona Norte is cartel Arellano" Posted: 09 Mar 2015 03:55 PM PDT 'Zona Norte Is Arellano Cartel' Zona Norte Tijuana is home of the infamous red light district, and heavily trafficked by tourists from San Diego, seeking the sordid and sleazy thrills of the cities sex trafficking trade. It is also one of the forefronts of the retail drug trade, as meth, heroin, pills, and marijuana are sold in wraps, to the local residents, as well as the swells of visitors from the north.  As Tijuana, and Mexico as a whole descended into the bloody chaos of Felipe Calderon's administration, post 2005, retail drug markets began an increasingly integral asset of organized crime groups. They served to fund the wars, and increase drug profits, in turn unleashing an epidemic of addiction and social problems, as well as extreme violence as these retail markets became the battlefield for rival organizations. Local drug dealers, tienderos, are generally the first victims in flare ups and wars between crews, they are dismembered, kidnapped, and displayed with viciousness, as groups attempt to one up the others cruelty. Tijuana has seen less and less of these kinds of incidents, yet they still linger….bodies casually dropped in the street, crudely written messages, cryptic and ominous scrawled on papers or cardboard, left on the victims. Flesh and blood warnings para los contras. "This goes for all the smugglers, tienderos, westeros credit card, that turned flag…Zona Norta is cartel Arellano' carefully 'La Barredora' (The Sweeper). The bearer of the message was shot, several times with a .45 caliber pistol, the message was attached with an once pick into the victim. 'La Barredora' is not all known in Tijuana, though there is some small traces of a criminal cell operating in Zona Norte, as kidnappers and extortionists, as far back as 2013, according to the article. http://www.el-mexicano.com.mx/informacion/noticias/1/3/estatal/2013/11/21/713332/levantones-en-zona-norte-buscan-narcos The article mentions members of the cells attempts to locate and find rival drug dealers, picking up people on the street, to interrogate them for the location and names of rivals. The known boss of the Zona Norte has been Manuel Luis Toscano, 'El Mono', who has been arrested at least three times in the last year, yet always has been quietly released. It is common for narco cells to fight for control of retail markets, though these kind of big profile tactics have been less common, and discouraged internally. It is up for debate whether the message is from people actually representing the long troubled and largely nonexistent Arellano Felix, CAF. it is also common for narco messages to be disinformation, to discredit, disguise, or call attention to rival groups. There are no known Arellano Felix members known to be active in the business. Many cells and lieutenants began working with Sinaloa and their representatives in Tijuana, others work with CJNG, others work alone. A recent Zeta article detailed Arellano Felix cells and members who had been displaced, but had not switched, these included 'El Chan', and '5-8'. The dancers grind slide down the poles, the small wraps are sold in the bathroom, consumed in dingy hotel rooms, inhaling meth and alcohol, lost in the sensations of sex and sin…..The women unwrap condoms, endure another shift, men stumble back home, the scent of cheap perfume and unmade beds still clinging to their clothes…..The taxi drivers shuttle the women to hotels, and back to the club, the patrons from the bar to the brothel, and back to la linea…Zona Norte, Tijuana. Sources: Zeta Tijuana, El Mexicano. | ||||
| 319 kilos of cocaine seized in Tijuana Posted: 09 Mar 2015 03:25 PM PDT 319 kilos of cocaine seized
This morning in Tijuana, Mexican Army working in a counter narco operation seized 290 packages of cocaine, containing 319 kilos of cocaine, and 162,000 in cash. The money and product was in a safe house in the Lake Gardens private upscale community, in Cerro Colorado. The operation was performed quietly, and efficiently, with no shots fired. Interestingly, no detainees have been named or announced at this time. This is the largest seizure in the last 2 years in Tijuana, according to General Gabriel Garcia Rincon, commander of the second military zone. The kilos are assessed at roughly 21,000 per, before crossing the border. The last large seizure of cocaine was the 325 pounds seized from the narco tunnel discovered in fall of 2013 , in an industrial warehouse in Otay Mesa, along with 8 tons of marijuana.  In 2015, 400 kilos of cocaine, more then 400 kilos of methamphetamine, and 3.5 tons of marijuana have been seized in Tijuana. Last week, at the Otay Mesa crossing, 19 tons were confiscated by US Border Patrol and Customs agents, one of the larger marijuana seizures in recent years. As a whole cocaine trafficking has declined slightly, as consumption has ceded slightly in US markets, making overseas destinations more desirable to traffickers. Prices in the US remain high, even in border cities. No information was given on a particular group, or individual the product belonged too. Due to the circumstances, it is likely the seizure was derived from information from a suspect in custody, through (very) enhanced interrogation techniques, or even likelier a tip, that may have come from a rival group or organization. The General offered little commentary on the success, except saying 'they are taking drugs off the streets that harm our children". Sources: AFN Tijuana, Frontera, El Diario. | ||||
| Narco message left in Cd Victoria Tamaulipas signed CJNG Posted: 09 Mar 2015 05:02 PM PDT Lucio R. Borderland Beat also posted by Bjeff  "A todos los mugroso:
What it is worth to have control, if when captured they cry like 42 (Omar Treviño) and you assholes why work if you are not receiving pay. Cd Victoria is yours Demon and Dandy when you stop being submissive to the assholes in Nuevo Laredo.
On Saturday two men dressed in all black hung a manta in la colonia Mainero in cd victoria.CJNG  However, the hanging of fake messages is a tactic used by CDG in the past, and if I were pressed to offer an opinion I would say it is CDG behind the manta trying to heat up the plaza and blaming CJNG. In the message it gives a shot at humiliating Omar Treviño alias "Z42", for crying when captured. It also mentions El Dandy and El Demon, saying Cd. Victoria is now theirs, presumably after the arrest of 42, and asks how long are they going to follow the assholes in Nuevo Laredo. (Zetas)  El Dandy is Adrian Alejandro Gonzalez Zarazua or Pedro Odiel Villegas. He is Jefe de Jefes in Mante, but is a regional chief, a jefe de jefes, for cities including Gomez Farias, Xicotencatl, Limon, Santa Engracia and the region. El Demon must still be active, I do not know his legal name, but he also goes by El Gordo. He is a former police, and works under Dandy but is himself a plaza chief. I believe El Demon is headquartered in El Barretal, Tamaulipas. Not much has been heard about him for almost a year. | ||||
| Gun-Toting Fishermen Policing Town Show Holes in Mexico Security Posted: 09 Mar 2015 09:59 AM PDT Borderland Beat posted by DD, republished from Bloomberg Business By Eric Martin
Visitors who drive down the winding dirt road to the Mexican village of Nuevo Balsas are met by fishermen, farmers and teenage boys brandishing rifles. Most of the time, they're the only law enforcement to be seen, according to locals. A deputy commander of the militia, who identified himself as David out of concern for his security, said they were forced to take up arms to defend their families from robberies and rape by drug cartels. In early February, 13 people were kidnapped from near Nuevo Balsas. They included two contractors for Torex Gold Resources Inc. and one direct employee of the company, which is building a mine in the area. On Friday, four more mine workers, this time from Goldcorp Inc., went missing nearby in another apparent kidnapping, according to authorities. This is rural Guerrero state, where 43 college students were massacred by heroin traffickers working with local police and a mayor in September, according to a federal investigation. The national government arrested 100 suspects over the slaying and took control of security in the area, making it a test case for President Enrique Pena Nieto's goal of reimposing order on a country riven by drug violence. "We haven't seen an improvement in security," David, who several militia members deferred to as their leader, said in a Feb. 9 interview. "We've asked the federal government for permanent help, but the violence here continues. We want the world to know that the problems in Guerrero are bigger than 43 people." Failure to bring the situation under control in Guerrero could signal challenges for providing the security needed for economic growth and development of the energy industry in states like Tamaulipas and Veracruz, other areas where criminal gangs are active. Spurring DevelopmentMexico is seeking to attract foreign investment to reverse a decade of declining crude output, and analysts surveyed by the central bank consistently rank public security problems as the top obstacle to economic growth. Pena Nieto in a December speech promised to spur development in Guerrero, saying Mexico can't be a country where some areas are immersed in globalization while other regions are mired in poverty and violence. Nuevo Balsas sits in the mountains of Guerrero about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Mexico City. About 50 kilometers up the road that eventually leads to the nation's capital is Iguala, where the students were kidnapped five months ago.  Heroin CenterResidents say the city of about 140,000 remains plagued by violent crime, with 14 people slain in a three-day period at the end of February, according to Mexico City-based newspaper El Universal. Guerrero is a center of heroin and marijuana production and home to drug cartels including the Guerreros Unidos and Los Rojos. Like other gangs in Mexico, they are diversifying into extortion and kidnapping after the government under then-President Felipe Calderon stepped up efforts to combat drug trafficking starting in 2006 and cracked down on the biggest cartels, causing splintering and more violence among rival groups. Guerrero had Mexico's highest homicide rate at 63 per 100,000 people in 2013, the most recent year for which the data is available, according to statistics agency Inegi. The state is Mexico's poorest after Chiapas, with gross domestic product per capita of about 65,000 pesos ($4,200), according to research last year by Citigroup Inc.'s Banamex unit. 'Long Neglected'"This is a state that has long festered, long been neglected," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "There's a broad sense within Mexico that Guerrero is on its own in the wilderness." After the student massacre, Pena Nieto pledged to take steps to make sure that such a crime was never repeated. A Pena Nieto administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing security operations, said the government recognizes that the strategy of sending more forces hasn't had much immediate effect. Pena Nieto didn't expect decades-old security problems to be solved in a matter of months, and Guerrero needs stronger state and local institutions to partner with the federal government, the official said. The increased federal presence in Guerrero includes members of the army, federal police, navy and the Center for Research and National Security, a Mexican intelligence agency controlled by the Interior Ministry, the official said. He declined to say how many troops or officers are involved and said making that information public could help the criminals. Economic OpportunityA person familiar with federal police operations, who also asked not to be named, said 1,200 officers are deployed in Guerrero. The Defense Ministry didn't respond to an e-mail requesting information on how many troops are in the region. Pena Nieto has said creating economic opportunity in Guerrero will be an important part of improving security. That won't be easy. Workers building a mine for Toronto-based Torex, one of the few foreign companies and biggest employers operating in this part of Guerrero, were victims of the latest mass kidnapping. About 300 people work directly for Torex at the mine site and 1,600 more work for contractors, according to the company. After the militia drove the drug gangs out of the area near the mine in 2013, the gangs returned this year. Hours after the Feb. 6 kidnapping of the people, some from the road between Nuevo Balsas and the town of Cocula and others from a nearby fishing site, one victim was released and sent back to the village with a message: the narcos were back, and they wanted their cut from the mine profits, David said. Victims FreedTen more of the victims were freed within two days by federal police working with the militia and the army. The final two victims, including the Torex employee, were held hostage for two weeks and freed only after their families paid ransoms that the community helped them raise, according to David. David said he also once worked for a Torex contractor. Now, like many in the village who don't work at the mine, he lives off the community's fishing and subsistence farming, which includes raising chickens and pigs and growing corn. Torex is working with the government and the community on an agreement to increase the presence of official security forces in the region, said Fred Stanford, Torex's chief executive officer. 'Particularly Vulnerable'"All of the people were recovered, but during that process the community felt particularly vulnerable," Stanford, who visited Nuevo Balsas at the end of last month, said in a phone interview. "What they're uncertain of moving forward is if they'll be left exposed again. If we get a permanent force in there, it will be better for the community." Torex has its own private security force that protects workers on the grounds of the mining project, Stanford said. The four missing Goldcorp workers disappeared from the municipality of Eduardo Neri, which borders Cocula, and authorities are working to locate them, the Guerrero attorney general's office said in a statement on its website on Friday. They appear to have been kidnapped after finishing their work for the week and leaving for their homes, according to the statement. Goldcorp, which owns the Los Filos mine in the area, declined to comment. The federal police and army visit Nuevo Balsas during a crisis, but they don't maintain the kind of permanent presence that could prevent attacks, David said. "To the extent that forces are just parachuted in or out, they won't become effective actors, they won't instill a sense of security or motivate people to cooperate with them," Felbab-Brown said. "I don't think we have signs yet that the government's strategy is working." Gold BannerThe road from Nuevo Balsas to Cocula, about 35 kilometers away in the direction of Iguala, stretches along hairpin turns through the mountains. At one point it reaches a ridge where locals say kidnappers have hidden in wait for victims. The journey is considered so dangerous that residents don't drive it after sundown, and vehicles leaving for Cocula in the days after the kidnapping traveled by caravan. In Cocula's center, across from the plaza and gazebo that serve as the focal point of life in the small town, a shining gold banner hangs against an outside wall of the federal police station, proclaiming the presence of an elite police unit, the gendarmerie, launched by Pena Nieto last year. An officer stands guard at the front as police come and go. Down the street, a woman who owns a general store that sells soda and chips, including to Torex workers, said that even with the officers there she closes up at 5 p.m., instead of 7 p.m. before the Iguala massacre, out of fear for what could happen once darkness falls. She asked not to be identified by name out of concern for her safety. Alleged CorruptionPena Nieto's efforts to restore law and order in Guerrero have succeeded in uncovering alleged corruption in local and state government. The mayor of Iguala, the municipality neighboring Cocula where the students went missing, was arrested along with his wife in November after a month on the run. The government says they were working with the Guerreros Unidos gang responsible for the massacre. Federal prosecutors last month also arrested the brother of former Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre, who took a leave of absence in October after the students disappeared. Carlos Aguirre and former state officials are accused of misappropriating 287 million pesos ($18.5 million) from government agencies. "In order for the security strategy to work, you need a partner, and the partner should be the local government," said Alejandro Schtulmann, president and head of research at Mexico City-based political risk consulting firm EMPRA. "In Guerrero, that's the main obstacle to progress." No PresenceIn Iguala, where in early November hotels were filled with police and investigators during their search for the students, the presence of federal forces has tumbled, said Taurino Castrejon Salgado, a local lawyer and activist. A visit on Feb. 9 to the town square once patrolled by soldiers with machine guns found no obvious security presence. Castrejon, speaking by phone three blocks from the town square, abruptly asked to hang up and continue the conversation later, saying he had stumbled upon a crime scene that included police standing over a body in a pool of blood. "The security situation is as bad or worse than it was before the students disappeared," Castrejon said. "We don't see federal police like in the weeks after the disappearance. People don't feel any more safe."
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