I have been busy with other stuff the last few days, but I have not seen any analysis (or even speculation?) about this event in Jalisco other than the Mexican government’s focus on the CJNG. Has there been any mention of the fact that one of the original leaders of the original Guadalajara Cartel–Rafael Caro Quintero–was released from prison in 2013 and has been at large since, despite manhunts and rewards offered by both Mex-Feds and US-DEA? There were also rumors months ago that Ernesto Carrillo–his older compatriot from Guadalajara and also uncle of Juarez cartel leaders Amado and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes might be released from prison. Both of these men were tried en absentia in the US for the torture and murder of Enrique Camarena in 1985 and never extradited by Mexico despite years of requests from the US. Their incarceration in Mexico stemmed from nebulous drug charges and not specifically the murder of Camarena. Numerous Guadalajara state officials as well as Mexican federal cops and politicians were also involved in the Camarena case and some of them were convicted in federal court in the US in the early 1990s. The analysis below also does not mention that the slaughter in Ciudad Juarez began in early 2008 with the murders of state and municipal police working for the Juarez cartel and that this was the catalyst for the federal police and military incursions into Chihuahua in March 2008. The death toll in Juarez by the end of 2014 was 12,000+ and much higher if homicides from the whole state of Chihuahua are counted. -Molly
Category Archives: DEA
Peace Pact In Juarez…Cleanup To Come…Proceso 1960
Two reports by Jesus Esquivel from PROCESO #1960… An anonymous source in Juarez says that La Linea is still in control (or back in control) in Juarez and that professional sicarios are operating in the city to clean up the malandros–the young wannabes (los malandros que se sentían narcos)… So that the people being killed now are only those that need to be killed… and that the city will be a good place for the good people of Juarez again… as in the days before the Calderon project turned Juarez into the most violent city in the world… The police in Juarez, especially the municipal police, will be cooperating more than ever with this new/old regime to make sure that life gets better in Juarez and also ensure that the real big time drug crossing business functions properly–generating more money and less violence…
The Sinaloa Cartel people have withdrawn from Juarez and the new objective (is this new?) is to get the business done as it should be done. The real shipments to the US will continue to cross in big cargo trucks, not carried over by little guys… All those little guys trying to do business on their own (hormigas carrying loads in private cars or on foot) will be cleaned up if they haven’t been already…
DEA tells Proceso that Juarez is again (was it ever not?) a major crossing point for drugs, including more meth, though the city is less violent… -Molly
En Juárez, Paz Pactada…Pero Viene Una “Limpia” (Proceso)
See Borderland Beat’s translation of the story below.
Juarez Is Peaceful…But There’s A Clean Up Coming (Borderland Beat)
Menos Violencia, Más Anfetaminas (Proceso)
See the Frontera List post for a Google translation of the articles.
Commentary on The Hunt for El Chapo from The New Yorker
I finally read the article in the New Yorker. It seems less reporting than just a rambling rehash of he mainstream English-language media on Chapo Guzman. Bill Conroy sent me a comment that I’m posting part of (with permission):
“Guzmán’s decision to jettison his huge security force had allowed him to move around quickly and inconspicuously, but he was left essentially defenseless.
Or, as Hector Berellez (a former DEA agent quoted in a Narco News story ) said, was it pulled back by the government itself? Why would Guzman get rid of his security when he knew the US feds and Mexican military were hot on his tail? It doesn’t pass the smell test. And this is just a throw-off line in the story, with no explanation to speak of, as though the writer doesn’t even understand the significance of what he’s saying. All through the story, it’s clear the feds knew how to find Guzman at any given time, but chose not to move on him until now, and coincidentally Guzman cooperated by deciding to shed his security detail. Again it don’t make sense.
And apparently, someone else didn’t think so either, given the report shortly after Guzman’s arrest of his head of security being tortured and murdered. That sounds like payback for someone who betrayed Guzman. That does pass the smell test in that world.”
Here’s one snippet I noticed from the bio of Guzman in the New Yorker:
and in the seventies, in spite of his illiteracy, he became an apprentice to two drug chieftains: Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who owned a fleet of airplanes and was known as the Lord of the Skies; and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, a police officer turned drug baron, who ran the Guadalajara cartel and was known as El Padrino—the Godfather.
Amado Carrillo was born in 1956, so he was a teenager for most of the 1970s. He did not become important in the Mexican drug trade until 1986 and after the death of Ojinaga kingpin Pablo Acosta–interestingly–also an operation of Mexican federal police aided by FBI and DEA and including a cross-border helicopter strike on his hideout in the Big Bend village near Santa Elena canyon. Also, none of the Mexican traffickers used “fleets of planes” until the late 1980s when Amado Carrillo started flying Colombian cocaine through Mexico to the US. This is Mexican Drug History 101.
I also noticed the repeat of this story that has all the qualities of an urban legend in Mexico. I heard it on NPR after the capture of Guzman… A version is told in every city in Mexico with any kind of high-end restaurant. I heard it from a friend in Juarez in 2008. The story is never told by a person who was actually IN the restaurant when it happens. It is always a friend or relative who was there… This is Urban Legend 101, apparently believed by DEA agents and reporters.
Guzmán had other weaknesses. “He loves the gourmet food,” a D.E.A. official told me. From time to time, he would be spotted at an elegant restaurant in Sinaloa or in a neighboring state. The choreography was always the same. Diners would be startled by a team of gunmen, who would politely but firmly demand their telephones, promising that they would be returned at the end of the evening. Chapo and his entourage would come in and feast on shrimp and steak, then thank the other diners for their forbearance, return the telephones, pick up the tab for everyone, and head off into the night.
Even worse, this piece from the SLATE blog…
The blog post quotes from the New Yorker piece as to how the DEA agents assure the reporter that Chapo’s body guards were tortured by the Mexican Marines and that’s why they gave up Chapo. First, it is no surprise that Mexican feds and military torture nearly every one they arrest. A petty criminal picked up for robbing a store is just as likely to be beaten and tortured as a high-level drug suspect. This is Mexican policing 101. But worse than that, to somehow imply that torture would have been correct, even moral, in this situation, just as it is justified all the time on TV (24) by the “ticking time bomb” scenario is ridiculous. Did they think Chapo had wired the beach resort in Mazatlan with atomic bombs? Set to go off if the feds got too close? And just in case anyone wants to look into torture and the fact that the “ticking time bomb” scenario has always been a false and unsustainable defense for torture, read Alfred McCoy.
McCoy is interviewed here:
Alfred McCoy: “Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation” TORTURE 101…
So it goes… The New Yorker enshrines the official versions of the US and Mexican governments on the capture of Guzman. And admirers of Jack Bauer swoon over those tough guys who use torture to protect us. The business goes on as normal. molly
Trapping El Chapo: Chicago’s public enemy number one …Chicago Reader
Trapping El Chapo: Chicago’s public enemy number one
What the case against Vicente Zambada, son of Sinaloa cartel leader El Mayo, reveals about the federal government’s efforts to take down overseas drug suppliers—including the biggest of them all.
By: Jason McGahan
On February 22, the Mexican navy arrested Sinaloa cartel leader El Chapo Guzman, who surrendered without firing a shot.
For Latin American drug kingpins, there are few fates as terrible as extradition to the United States.
“They can’t bribe their way out, they can’t build their own jails, they can’t have their girlfriends come in,” says Jack Riley, chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago. “And they’re 1,800 miles away from what they know as life.”
Read the rest of the story here.
He helped capture EU in ‘El Chapo’ ; now his family faces deportation…El Diario de El Paso
A doctor who treated members of the Sinaloa cartel injured in the state of Chihuahua crossed the border to provide crucial information to US federal authorities that led to the capture of “El Mayito” (Mario Núñez Meza) and also to the capture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. He was promised protection and reward money for himself and his family, but his wife is now in deportation proceedings and he is also in danger of being deported. If returned to Mexico, they would be in danger because of his work as an informant in the US. Article from El Diario de El Paso. A google translation is also posted below
He helped capture EU in ‘El Chapo’ ; now his family faces deportation
Luis Chaparro
The Journal | 23:00
A man who was a key witness for the capture of Mario Nuñez Meza , alias “El Mayito ” or ” M-10 ” and Joaquin “El Chapo ” Guzman Loera, now faces deportation to his wife and says that no give more information to U.S. federal authorities , he will be the next to be expelled from the country , along with the other three members of his family, with the risk of being killed in Ciudad Juarez.
According to the evidence shown to The Journal by the informant and corroborated by members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA ) in charge of his case, ” Alfonso ” – the name acquired as a protected witness the U.S. government – was the one who handed the cell phone using which could be located at “El Chapo ” Guzman in Mazatlan.
” Alfonso ” was until last August attending a doctor at a hospital in Ciudad Juarez to members of the Sinaloa Cartel injured in the state of Chihuahua.
However, he said he decided to do what he thought was right and provide information on the exact location of ” The Mayito ” Guzman Loera course lieutenant , arrested two days after the meeting the informant with U.S. officials .
Now says U.S. authorities have turned their backs and ” Alfonso ” awaiting deportation of his wife, retained in a processing center from Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE acronym ) for seven weeks . If deported , reports ” Alfonso ” , your entire family could be murdered in Ciudad Juárez.
” Alfonso ” maintained relations with several leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel and Juarez who operated in the state of Chihuahua, through their families involved with one of them for 13 years. This relationship gave him direct access to the cell phones, social networking sites and Mario Nuñez Meza and Emma Coronel, the current wife of Joaquin “El Chapo ” Guzman .
Until the end of last August ” Alfonso ” was called to treat the injured Sinaloa Cartel statewide , and even made him the offer to work directly with Hermosillo Guzman writes.
” I began to treat the wounded in a hospital in Juarez and it never died and neither recognized me as a good doctor, why Emma Coronel wanted to take me Hermosillo ” he says.
However, a confession of Núñez Meza in 2013 lit the alerts ” Alfonso ” and he decided to surrender to U.S. authorities , there starting a collaboration with federal agencies in the United States.
” Last July I was asked to be the ‘ M- 10’ to bring a Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez. On the way back he told me that he had come to assemble the ‘ chingazos ‘ again , that was going to be another strong violence because he wanted time to regain control of Ciudad Juárez. This I did not like , I do not want to replace Juarez violent and so I thought it was right to give it , before I started the riot , “says ” Alfonso ” from a location in El Paso, Texas.
It was then called the number of anonymous reporting of the DEA in El Paso to provide information leading to the capture Nuñez Meza . According to his version, supported by documentation in the hands of the Drug Enforcement Administration and stamped on his immigration permit , the first meeting between the agents and ” Alfonso ” occurred on August 18 at the premises of the bridge “Free” around 12 Noon .
” At that meeting people was Interpol , the FBI and the DEA. I told them ‘The Mayito ‘ was in a hotel in Juarez , I gave them the phone he had, because that’s how they find them , the plates of their trucks and everything, “says the protected witness .
Ten days later, on August 28 , Mario Nuñez Meza was arrested by agents of the State Single Police Chihuahua in this hotel located on the Panamericana, ” thanks to a citizen complaint and intelligence work ,” as described by the press release at that time.
That same day around 4 pm ” Alfonso ” along with four members of his family crossed the border under the immigration form I-94 SPBP , delivered to reviewers or ” snitches ” by U.S. authorities .
Delivery of ‘El Chapo ‘
“The officers asked me if I had more information and I said yes , I could give them information on how to find the Chapo ” says ” Alfonso ” .
The doctor says he met Colonel Angelica Ortiz , cousin Emma Coronel, a U.S. citizen married to Guzman Loera .
” She gave me the phone to Emma Coronel, a fixed and a mobile phone, I knew she could find by Chapo and indeed it was ,” says ” Alfonso ” .
The informant showed Diary messages sent to the agent Muñoz cell phone contact with the pair of “El Chapo” . After a phone call to the agent Daniel , case manager , after Muñoz retired a few weeks ago , the version of ” Alfonso ” regarding the information provided was confirmed .
The special agent said not to talk to the reporter , however , be confirmed by agent “Alphonse ” as a protected witness DEA .
According to phone messages and documents submitted in possession of the lawyer ” Alfonso ” , on January 15 the first information to capture “El Chapo” began. 22 of the same month, ” Alfonso ” met with the special agents in charge Saul , Daniel and DEA supervisor John W. Jewett on the premises of the Department of Justice , located on Calle Mesa Hills on the west side El Paso, Texas, to make an official report on the information provided.
Joaquin “El Chapo ” Guzman was captured on 22 February in an apartment complex in the city of Mazatlan , Sinaloa, then the authorities will track the cell phone of the couple who accompanied him up before he was arrested by the Mexican Army , according to U.S. officials who spoke to the Associated Press news agency .
the reward
” Alfonso ” says Special Agent of DEA intelligence “Joe” confirmed the existence of a million dollar reward for information leading to the capture of Guzman. However, note in return gave his wife ‘s arrest by agents of Immigration and that if the judgment did not provide more information about the drug lords ” have no more money, more protection , not more permission to be in the United States. “
” What they did was become a protected informant witness but without pay . The reward is a lie , I never got anything and all I ask is support to get a permit to work here and support my family , “says the man.
But a DEA agent , who asked not to be identified , said in an interview to have delivered more than $ 50,000 in about seven months, ” Alfonso ” by the information provided.
” Yes I have given money to eat , to rent an apartment , but instead of leaving my job in Juarez, risking my family and now we can deport all ; that is not worth $ 50,000 also are to survive five people in the United States , “says the protected witness .
According to the records of the Bureau of Immigration (ICE ) , the wife of ” Alfonso ” was arrested on 26 February and has since been awaiting resolution of his case.
Currently seeking political asylum after he was yesterday the credible fear interview , according to the same unit . ( Luis Chaparro / The Journal)
A Drug War Informer in No Man’s Land…NYTimes
This long piece in the NYTimes is worth a look. Keep in mind that the DEA is famous for not protecting informants but merely using them. During the time period that the former informant portrayed here was police chief in Zapopan, Guadalajara, it was well-known to be a town sheltering many high-level traffickers. I’m particularly interested in the phone call Mr Lopez receives from an aging and sick General Rebollo Gutierrez recently. I have probably missed it, but I have not seen anything in the press about him being released from prison and transferred to a military hospital with his rank restored. In fact, I talked to a person recently who claims to have met and talked to the general in prison. Here is a long piece from 1995 about the arrest of El Guero Palma…
The figure of 60,000 dead seems to be the official number, despite the fact that the toll surpassed that easily more than one year ago and that people are still being killed in many places in Mexico… The weekend in Chihuahua state was especially violent, though spread out in rural areas. molly
Hand of U.S. Is Seen in Halting General’s Rise in Mexico- NY Times
I think it is interesting that this NYTimes article mentions only General Garcia Ochoa and that the DEA suspicions of him stem from reports of events back in 1997. That was the same year that another top Mexican General and “drug czar,” Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was discovered to be working directly for the Carrillo-Fuentes (Juarez) Cartel. In fact, the NY Times has many stories on General Guitierrez Rebollo at this link.
Not all of the articles are available, but just a scan of the headlines and dates will give you an idea. For more links, see:
It seems quite a missing piece in today’s article that the name of General Gutierrez Rebollo is not mentioned at all… But the article is well worth the time. Just leaves me with more questions than answers. Considering recent killings in Coahuila, we might wonder what General Garcia Ochoa was really up to there… molly
Deadly Addiction–series in the Albuquerque Journal
This is the first installment of an Albuquerque Journal series on drug use in New Mexico… The thing that strikes me in my initial reading of this is how disconnected the problem is from the hysteria over Mexico and “fighting the drug war” there. It makes the terrifying level of violence and death in Mexico all the more absurd when we realize that much of the drug abuse problem in New Mexico and in other areas of the US also, is a domestic issue–a family issue… Something that requires health care, education, job security, opportunities in society, etc. Remembering the piece I posted this morning about a supposed US military plan to “kill or capture Chapo Guzman” — does anyone really think that such a thing would stop the abuse of drugs in the US or reduce the violence in Mexico? molly
Excerpts:
“We are, from an enforcement and prosecution viewpoint, designed to deal with drug trafficking organizations,” U.S. Attorney Gonzales said. “Prescription drugs present a different dynamic.” Keith Brown, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement office in Albuquerque, put it this way: “There is no prescription drug cartel to target.”
• Undercover agents bought grams of heroin for $100 — the same price as in 1977.• The purity of the heroin agents purchased was three to four times the purity level of heroin sold just 10 years ago.• The heroin was cheaper than prescription opiate painkillers on the street, which average $1 per milligram. That’s $10 for a 10-milligram hydrocodone pill.
Two Mexican generals detained for alleged drug gang ties–Reuters; more…
Note this from the Mexican article that is not included in the Reuters
piece:
___________
Information from investigations carried out by DEA inside the US revealed
that some Mexican army and marines have been collaborating with the Zetas
and the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez cartels. The US officer, who asked that
his name and agency not be revealed because he was not authorized to make
statements to the press, said that the premise had always been maintained
that military officers were innocent until proven guilty and in some cases,
they will be seeking extradition to the United States so that they can
collaborate with justice in the US.
Information from the US anti-drug agency indicates that, after a year and a
half of operations in US territory, arrests have been made that have led to
the capture of members of the Zetas, as well as those of La Familia
Michoacana, and the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels inside US territory.
Failure of anti-narco fight is intentional, says Chomsky (google translation)-El Diario
Visit NACLA
Original article from El Diario
*New York-cons* so-called war on drugs is failing, but unintended
consequences are both within the United States and the hemisphere, said
Noam Chomsky, who also emphasized that the most notable change in the
Americas is their increasing independence from Washington .
“To say that the war on drugs has failed is not understanding something.
It is true that for 40 years the war on drugs has failed in its stated
objectives. Everyone knows that prevention and treatment is the most
efficient way to address drugs, and foreign operations is the most
inefficient. One has to wonder what is in the minds of planners face of
such evidence that does not work what they say they are trying to
accomplish. What are the likely intentions? The predictable consequences
are good indicators of effect, “he said.
Since the poisoning of crops in places like Colombia over drug fumigation
benefits the large agricultural interests and destroys the lives of the
peasants, that violence has displaced or destroyed the social fabric of
communities in several Latin American countries and because to drug
policies applied within the United States has imprisoned a large segment of
the poor, on the whole African-American and Latino, have to wonder if these
are predictable consequences, that is intentional, counter-narcotics
policy.
In comments-no-paper here to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the
publication NACLA, linguist and philosopher offered his views on the
changes in the hemisphere, and elaborated on what is behind the drug policy
of the U.S. government and political and economic elites in the region that
support it.
He recalled that in the United States these policies are doing what was
achieved after the end of slavery in the 1870s, when African Americans
enjoyed their freedom of form in this period, but “was achieved through
criminalize resclavizarlos” . This was key because the labor force subject
to these conditions resclavizada engine served as the Industrial Revolution
in America: the state was the supplier of imprisoned workers, which
companies do not have to worry about unions or contracts of any kind.
This lasted until the Second World War, which was followed by two decades
of accelerated and sustained economic growth, but that was halted in the
mid-70’s with the supremacy of the financial sector in the economy and with
the relocation of production abroad . There, under the pretext of the war
on drugs, began the mass incarceration of African Americans and Latino men.
In Latin America there is enormous money flows that benefit the elite,
and a large business is somehow involved with drug trafficking. On the
other hand, Chomsky provided examples in Colombia and other countries under
the pretext of the war, have been able to control and override autonomous
economic efforts of various communities in the region for the benefit of
powerful interests. All the while does not meet the stated objectives to
curb the drug and its consequences.
“I do not think the war on drugs is a failure, has a purpose different
from that announced,” he said Chomsky. “The drug problem in Latin America
is here in America. We supply the demand, weapons, and they (Latin
American) experience.”
But just on this subject, by the growing questioning of U.S. drug policy,
such as relations with Cuba, expressed a growing autonomy of Latin America
from Washington, said Chomsky.
“United States no longer decreed in Latin America” since the region is
increasingly shaping their own future, as expressed at the last Summit of
the Americas. That said, we could not adopt a final declaration by lack of
unanimity. Faced with overwhelming support for Cuba’s inclusion in future
summits, Washington and Ottawa just opposed, equal to a growing consensus
on the decriminalization of drugs, there were only two objections, the same
Washington and Ottawa.
“You have to recognize that something remarkable has happened in Latin
America: the days when the U.S. imposed its will on the hemisphere and are
very much in the past.” He said this has not yet recorded at the American
media, and still do not understand “that things have changed.”
In addition, there is a change in popular consciousness in the region,
marked by the election of Lula Inacio da Silva, Ollanta Humala, Evo Morales
and others, where the majority are being installed as leaders to “people
like them,” and not educated elites abroad and from the ruling class. At
the same time, regional integration processes and the increasing exclusion
of the United States these are another sign of a new relationship.
In celebration of 45 anniversary of the founding of NACLA prizes were
awarded to Chomsky, Javier Sicilia and Eduardo del Río (Rius)-the latter
was unable to attend and his award was accepted by his friend, the Mexican
cartoonist Feggo. Chomsky said that when NACLA was founded, was the
beginning of a wave of repression and dictatorship backed by Washington,
and worth celebrating the changes that have happened, at least to the
extent that the order decreed from the U.S. no longer dominates America
America compared to half a century ago.
After decades of U.S. policies designed to “kill hope” in Latin America,
said Chomsky, we are now at a time when that region is now “inspire hope”
for all.
Frontera List 