Borderland Beat |  |
- La Tuta captured in a house in Morelia Michoacan
- What if "Jimmy Hoffa in a Skirt" (Esther Gordilla) has no home?
- Detention of "El Papacho" of CDS in Valle de Juarez, a media circus and half justice
| La Tuta captured in a house in Morelia Michoacan Posted: 27 Feb 2015 05:21 AM PST 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 In the next few hours, La Tuta will be transferred to Mexico City to be presented to SEIDO From Michoacan 3.0 The operation captured him at 4am local time, he had returned to Morelia to undergo plastic surgery and surgery to change the tone of his voice. Original article in Spanish at Milenio  | ||||||||||
| What if "Jimmy Hoffa in a Skirt" (Esther Gordilla) has no home? Posted: 26 Feb 2015 09:08 AM PST Borderland Beat by DD
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. Jailed Former Mexican Labor Leader's $10 Million California Mansions Up For Grabs  Two years after her arrest, Elba Esther Gordillo, a long time union leader and political powerbroker once described by The New York Times as "the most powerful woman in Mexico," sits in prison in Mexico City waging a fight to be granted the privilege of house arrest for humanitarian reasons. She recently turned 70 years and suffers from a number of illnesses. Gordillo was arrested on February 26, 2013 at Toluca airport outside Mexico City as she landed on a private jet from San Diego, California where she lived like a queen and spent like a millionaire. Mexico's Attorney General's Office accused her of embezzling $200 million in funds from the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, which she controlled through bribes and perks. She was also charged with money laundering and organized crime.
Gordillo's arrest was a shocking event in a country where the rich and powerful mostly go untouched by the law. But the government's initial bold move against a woman whose influence reached into the highest echelons of power, soon gave way to a sloppily handled case. Gordillo's legal status is essentially the same as when she was detained: charged, but not tried, much less convicted. Her attorneys often appear to have the upper hand filing motion after motion to try to release her. The lack of a legal resolution in Mexico has affected two luxury properties linked to Gordillo on an exclusive cul-de-sac in Coronado Cays, California. The first property, a 6-bedroom mansion with swimming pool and a boat slip located at 23 Green Tuttle Road, was Gordillo's second home; the other house at 1 Green Tuttle Road, which was under renovation at the time of her arrest, is believed to have been occupied by one of Gordillo's daughters.
According to San Diego county records, the houses were bought by Comercializadora TTS, S.A. de C.V., a Mexican shell corporation owned by Zoila Estela Morales Ochoa, Gordillo's deceased mother. The houses, which the Mexican authorities claimed were purchased with embezzled funds, are currently in judicial limbo. While the Mexican government has not taken any actions to seize them, delinquent property taxes are piling up. The day after Gordillo's arrest, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided Gordillo's house. Lauren Mack, ICE spokesperson in San Diego, confirmed that ICE agents executed a search warrant at the request of the Mexican government. "We secured the property meaning it was locked up when we left," she told me by phone. One would think that the houses are considered incriminating evidence against Gordillo and that they would be sealed and vacant. "As far as I know, (23 GTR) it's empty. Don't know if some one sneaks in at night", Nick Arthur, General Manager of the Coronado Cays Homeowners Association, told me. As of last month Gordillo had not paid fees to the HOA for at least three years. There are strong indications, however, that 23 Green Tuttle Road is not empty. According to Erin Siegal McIntyre, an investigative local reporter who recently visited the neighborhood several times, piles of fresh trash bags with empty food wrappings inside built up over three weeks. Electricity and mail delivery have not been interrupted. Lights were on inside and outside the house. The front garden was recently cleaned up with freshly planted flowers.  Mack, the ICE spokesperson, said that the Mexican Attorney General's Office is the lead agency in the Gordillo investigation with ICE playing an assistant role. "At this point the investigation is still ongoing and that investigation is being worked by our financial fraud unit related to suspected money laundering," she said. Gordillo has not been charged in the U.S. County Clerk Jeff Olson said by phone that property taxes where not paid for any of the residences in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and that payments due in December for the cycle 2014-2015 were missed. In California, property taxes are paid twice a year, in December and April. Records show 23 Green Turtle Road with a defaulted amount in property taxes of $110,956.60, and 1 Green Tuttle Road with $72,296.99. Record also show that the Coronado Cays Homeowners Association filed a notice of default early last year, reporting that the properties were delinquent in their HOA fees. Last month the HOA released the notice of delinquency for 23 Green Turtle Road with no explanation. Debora M. Zumwalt, attorney for the HOA, declined to comment. Under California law, state authorities can take possession of properties with the purpose of foreclosure the fifth year following the declaration of tax default. The web site Zillow estimates 23 Green Tuttle Road's market price at $5.6 million and 1 GTR at $4.4 million. Neither property is currently on the market.
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| Detention of "El Papacho" of CDS in Valle de Juarez, a media circus and half justice Posted: 26 Feb 2015 06:01 PM PST Translated for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article by Otis B Fly-Wheel
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. "It was and remains the State," they warned. On February the 18th, the Attorney General of the North presented as a detainee, Mauricio Luna Aguilar and blamed him for at least 20 homicides in the Valle de Juarez. Together with him were other members of his criminal group : Isidro Soto Aguilar "El Pantera", and leader of the cell, Juan Carlos Nuria Gomez, "El Parral", Karina Carrillo Griego, Jonathan Arturo Torres Rodriguez, "El Jhon", Antonio Carrillo Griego, "El Tono" or "El Tio", and Juan Cuellar Cereceres "Qunitanilla". With these arrests, are also the killing of members of the Sinaloa Cartel that worked in this region, Leonardo Ruben Morales Rodriguez, "El Toga", and Jesus Manuel Morales Rodriguez "El Meno". "El Toga" had been arrested in 2012 and was freed months after. One of the exiled persons, recounted that "El Papacho" was like a rogue since he was a teenager, but when he was recruited into the Sinaloa Cartel, became one of the most aggressive and brazen criminals. From 2008, the citizens of Valle de Juarez, consisting of the Municipalities of Praxedis G Guerrero and Guadalupe Distrito Bravo, have been persecuted, robbed, murdered and disappeared, while the Government has done nothing.
Spector, with long experience in the defence of Mexicans exiled association, denounces that all the complaints previously made against this criminal group were ignored by the Government in different instances. He adds the question, "How can it be possible for someone to murder 20 people? In Mexico, in Chihuahua, and in the Valle de Juarez organized crime runs everything." At the press conference there were present, Jorge Reyes Salazar, 7 of his family members were executed, Isela Estrella Chavez, Lucia del Carmen Rangel, Gerado Gamez Hinojos, who was president of the municipal PRI of Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, Victor Garcia Archuleta and Armando Archuleta, friends of 3 young people killed this past December, one of them a student and activist, Sandra Flores and Miguel Murguia. Also a Rodriguez family member, who had a relative beheaded a week ago, when three families were forced to flee. Since 2008, there has been impunity for these people, like a hood for them to commit their crimes, they exiled 90% of the people of Valle de Juarez, added Spector. He includes, that "El Papacho" kidnapped two siblings of the Reyes Salazar family, Magdalena and Elias, together with the wife Luisa Ornelas, who were found murdered days after. Sarah Salazar, mother of the Reyes siblings, identified "El Papacho" on different occasions, and even though he was detained in the North Zone, when the current Attorney General for the Zone, Jorge Enrique Gonzalez Nicolas, a few hours later freed him and gave him a lift to his house. In the case of the assassination of the student and activist Elmer Garcia Archuleta, his brother Edgar Ivan and a cousin, Gabriel Gandara Archuleta, the family is involved in an asylum process for 13 people, who were staying at the home of Elmer's Uncle, Armando Archuleta, resident in United States.
Spector says that the return of violence in the Valle de Juarez coincided with the disappearance of the Normalistas of Ayotzinapa, in Iguala, Guerrero on September of the past year. However the Lawyer explained the situation that the Valle de Juarez caught the attention of the citizens and the Authorities themselves, when Elmer was murdered with his brother and cousin, since he was a student and renowned activist with credibility and prestige. The case has a connection with the Iguala phenomenon, so the towns of Chihuahua considered they had their own Iguala. The Archuleta family, were the only ones to put a direct complaint in against "El Papacho".
The day they kidnapped Elmer from his house, he had been wearing a long pair of multi - colored boxer style briefs, that his Uncle Armando had given him as a Christmas present in 2013. His uncle had given him those shorts at Christmas, multi - colored his wife had bought them for him, but thought the colors would better suit someone younger like Elmer, said Spector. On the day that "El Papacho" was apprehended, they were surprised that he was wearing the same pair of shorts. This is symbolic of the most cruel violence, its like saying "yes you fuckers, what are you going to do about it", he is the terror of small towns, committing crimes against humanity, there is even a remembrance day to commemorate the people he killed, in a place where the families have buried their dead in Fabens, Texas, because they cannot bury them in Valle de Juarez, "El Papacho" threatened the people in the Valley not to take part in the commemoration.
However, he said that not only had "El Papacho" forced into exile more than 200 Juarenses, but that Federal, State, and Military agents had took part, as is the case with the Multi-homicides of the Rodriguez family, which involved Federal agents. We have information that the Valle de Juarez, the Federal Police are aligned with La Linea, because they saw that the Sinaloa Cartel were not moving drugs, but stayed in the plaza only to extort, threaten and kidnap, said the Lawyer. He explained that according to the information that he has, La Linea were moving drugs, and the others were just creating havoc to maintain the terror in the Valley. About the detention of "El Papacho" and the other presumed members of his criminal group, he said it was strange that suddenly he was detained, when people had been denouncing him for years, he therefore concluded that the arrests were a "media show". The families that were exiled, have confirmed that those in the Valley had been visited by the criminal group to threaten people not to give any testimony against the detainees. Personnel of the District Attorneys Office of Chihuahua have taken testimony from the exiles, assure that the perpetrators will be in Jail for many years. Original article in Spanish at Proceso With additional material from Google Maps and Google Images.  |
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