Borderland Beat |  |
- Army kills four city workers in Guerrero
- Tijuana cartel member sentenced in California for attempted murder.
- 6 Radiactive Material Thieves are Held in Hospital
- Mexico City: Kidnapped as Police Stand by, Caught on Video
- Mexican Fugitive Wanted for Massacre of City Officials Arrested in Sacramento
- Fewer Homicides Reported In Michoacán Towns with Self-Defense Groups
- Caro Quintero asks Peña Nieto for "Justice, not vengeance".
- The “Niños Sicarios” Who Behead, Use Drugs and Work for the Narcos
- Stolen Radioactive Material found removed from Box thieves are most likely dead
- Mexican Priests: Danger Persists, 2 Killed in Veracruz, Chapo's Message
- Emergence of a New "Revolutionary" Armed Group in Guerrero?
- Leader of The Community Police In Guerrero Detained
Army kills four city workers in Guerrero Posted: 06 Dec 2013 09:28 PM PST Proceso (12-6-2013)by Ezequiel Flores ContrerasTranslated for Borderland Beat by un vatoCHILPANCINGO, Gro. (proceso.com.mx).- Four officials with the Arcelia, Guerrero, ayuntamiento(county government), among them the Director of Municipal Traffic (police), Mario Uriostegui Perez, "La Mona", and the deputy director of the same agency, Josue Gavinez Ramirez, died in an alleged confrontation between soldiers and armed civilians in the vicinity of the town of Palos Altos, located on the border of the Tierra Caliente (Hot Country) of Guerrero and the southern part of the State of Mexico. The Army identifies "La Mona" as the father in law of Johny Olascoaga Hurtado, "El Mojarro", one of the main leaders of the criminal organization "La Familia", which operates with impunity under the protection of the civilian and military authorities in the Northern and the Tierra Caliente regions of the state. In response, at least a hundred residents of Palo Alto are using heavy vehicles to block the highway that connects Guerrero with the southern part of the State of Mexico, at the location known as El Ushe, where they have detained soldiers, ministerial police officers and dozens of drivers. The blockade extended to the entrances and exits of the county seat of Arcelia, located on the Iguala-Ciudad Altamirano federal highway. The protesters are demanding clarification of the incident and they accuse the military personnel with the 102 Infantry Battalion, based in San Miguel Ixtapan, Tejupilco Municipality, State of Mexico, of executing the father in law of "El Mojarro" and his three fellow passengers. According to official reports, around 5:30 a.m. this Friday, a convoy from the 102 Infantry Battalion intercepted four men who were traveling in a white Nissan pickup near a dirt road located 500 meters from the highway that connects the town of Palos Altos, Arcelia County, with the Teloloapan-Ciudad Altamirano federal higheay. Without any explanation being given at this time, the soldiers opened fire against the vehicle and shot the passengers. The men killed by the Army were identified as Arcelia County government workers, among them the Director of Traffic (police), Mario Uriostegui, 45 years old, who was carrying a shotgun, as well as the deputy director of that same agency, Josue Gavinez Ramirez, 29 years old, who was driving the pickup, and two employees in the cultural area, Marcelo Martinez Alarcon and Juan Martinez Estada. At this time, the PRI mayor of Arcelia, Taurino Vazquez Vazquez, has not taken a position with respect to these events.  | ||||||||||||||
Tijuana cartel member sentenced in California for attempted murder. Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:26 PM PST Borderland Beat
Note: Thanks to J on forum for the tip on the news. A United States citizen whose brother is said to be a high-up drug cartel assassin was sentenced on attempted murder charges in San Diego, Calif. on Friday. 30-year-old Jorge Sillas received at least 21 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempted murder, the Associated Press reported. Law enforcement officials said that Sillas participated in a scheme to kill a mother and her son in Southern California who hadn't yet paid a drug debt. Sillas allegedly offered $50,000 to have the duo taken out. Sillas didn't say much in court on Friday. He apologized for the crimes, while his attorney explained that the client had been influenced by his older brother, Juan, AP reported. Until this brush with the law, Jorge Sillas has kept a clean criminal history. Sillas was said to be working under orders from the Arellano Felix cartel - one of the most well-established and powerful drug cartel operatives in Mexico. Juan Sillas was largely seen as one of Tijuana's most ruthless assassins prior to his 2011 arrest.
The hit on the Southern California couple was lined up between 2010 and February 2011, before law enforcement performed a raid on Jorge Silla's Palmdale home. Police took two AR-15 rifles, around $20,000 in cash and at least 1,000 rounds of ammunition from the residence. Sillas, along with defendants Victor Gonzalez and Danny Cepallo, were said to have organized the murder. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to attempted murder, while Cepallo was sentenced to five years in a state facility in June. U.S. attorneys are currently looking to extradite Sillas from Mexico concerning a separate charge from 2005, when a man in North Dakota was shot nine times in front of two children after a drug deal went south. BACKGROUND INFO Suspects Arrested in Murder-for-Hire Plot Commissioned by Mexican Drug Cartel Thursday, February 17, 2011. PALMDALE – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced the arrest today of three suspects in a foiled murder-for-hire plot commissioned by a Tijuana drug cartel. Dozens of special agents from the California Department of Justice armed with a search warrant conducted the early morning raid at a residence in Palmdale, California. Arrested there without incident at 6:50 a.m. were Jorge Ernesto Sillas-Rocha, 27, and Victor Manuel Magana Gonzalez, 24, for conspiracy and murder-for-hire. Agents also seized two AR-15 assault weapons, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and an estimated $20,000 in cash. Agents later arrested Daniel Ceballos, 34, at a Starbuck’s coffee shop in Palmdale. Also to be charged in the case is Juan Francisco Sillas-Rocha, 33, known as “Ruedas,” who is a lieutenant in the Tijuana cartel called the Arrellano Felix Organization, a vicious gang of drug traffickers responsible for violent murders in Mexico. “This case sends a message to the border drug cartels trying to do business here: Justice will be swift and certain when you cross into California,” Attorney General Harris said. “I applaud our agents and law enforcement partners for their good work in uncovering and thwarting this murder-for-hire plot.” Ruedas Sillas-Rocha was identified by investigators as soliciting individuals to assassinate victims in California who owed the cartel large sums of money. Ruedas Sillas-Rocha directed these individuals to carry out the murder of five family members in a simulated home-invasion robbery. Ruedas Sillas-Rocha was willing to pay the would-be assassins thousands of dollars for committing the murders. Earlier this month, agents with the Department of Justice received information about a possible murder-for-hire plot targeting victims who reside in California and who have ties to the Arrellano Felix Cartel. The targeted victims were said to have owed the cartel a large sum of money, believed to be the proceeds from drug sales. Agents used sophisticated investigative techniques to track the suspects to Palmdale, northeast of Los Angeles. The investigation also implicated Fernando Sanchez Arrellano, the boss of the Arrellano Felix Cartel, in the California murder-for-hire plot. That investigation is ongoing. Jorge Ernesto Sillas-Rocha, Gonzalez, and Ceballos are being held in the San Diego County Jail. They will be prosecuted by the San Diego County District Attorney, who is also expected to issue a warrant for Ruedas Sillas-Rocha’s arrest.  | ||||||||||||||
6 Radiactive Material Thieves are Held in Hospital Posted: 06 Dec 2013 05:26 PM PST Borderland Beat  Here is the latest "story" from Mexico. Remembering first reports of empty truck, later "tampered truck but material inside", then "found the material in an isolated farm", today reporting finding the material in back of a house. Pick your story. Additionally, report today is that they have arrested the six men and only one shows a few signs of radiation but "no testing results as of yet" . The photos today sure do not appear to be the same location as yesterday, but here is the story du jour.... Six people have been arrested and are being tested for radiation exposure. The six are suspects in the theft of a cargo truck carrying radioactive cobalt-60. MEXICO CITY — Six people being tested for possible radiation exposure in a hospital in central Mexico are suspects in the theft of highly radioactive cobalt-60, a government official said Friday. The official said the six were arrested Thursday and taken to the general hospital in Pachuca for observation and testing for radiation exposure. Once they are cleared, they will be turned over to federal authorities in connection with the case of a cargo truck stolen Monday at gunpoint that was carrying the extremely dangerous material. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. He did not specify how the six were allegedly involved in the theft. Hidalgo state Health Minister Pedro Luis Noble said Friday that the six suffered from skin irritations and dizziness, but that none are in grave condition and may be released soon. Only one was vomiting, a sign of radiation poisoning. But based on the tests, "none are showing immediate signs of radiation poisoning," Noble told Foro TV. The cobalt-60 theft triggered alerts in six Mexican states and Mexico City, as well as international notifications to the U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. It raised concerns that the material could have been stolen to make a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material. The atomic energy agency said the cobalt has an activity of 3,000 curies, or Category 1, meaning "it would probably be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period in the range of a few minutes to an hour." But Mexican officials said that the thieves seemed to have targeted the cargo truck with moveable platform and crane, and likely didn't know about the dangerous cargo. The government official would not give details or location of Thursday's arrest nor names or ages of the suspects. The six were arrested by Hidalgo state police, said state attorney general's spokesman Fernando Hidalgo. The driver of the truck, who had stopped to rest at a gas station early Monday when the theft occurred, said two armed men made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot. Hidalgo said he didn't know how or if the others were involved. The truck was found abandoned Wednesday about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from where it was stolen, and the container for the radioactive material was found opened. The cobalt-60 pellets were left about a kilometer (half mile) from the truck in an empty rural field, where authorities said they were a risk only to anyone who had handled them and not to anyone in Hueypoxtla, the closest town of about 4,000 people. There was no evacuation. The material was from obsolete radiation therapy equipment at a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana and was being transported to nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which borders Mexico City. Authorities maintained a 500-meter (yard) cordon around the site where the cobalt-60 still remains in the state of Mexico and continued to work Friday to extract it safely, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards. "It's quite an operation and it is in the process of being planned," he said. "It's highly radioactive, so you cannot just go over and pick it up. It's going to take a while to pick it up." Federal police blocked access Friday to hospital where the six were held. Six people exposed to radioactive material stashed inside a stolen truck were being treated at a Mexico hospital on Friday, a day after authorities said they'd recovered all of the potentially deadly substance. The five adults and one 16-year-old had apparently come into contact with cobalt-60 about 12 hours after the truck containing it and medical equipment was stolen Monday inTepojaco, said Hidalgo state health official Jose Antonio Copca, as reported by state-run Notimex. A source in the Hidalgo state government confirmed to CNN that six had been hospitalized for presumed contact with cobalt-60, adding that they lived near where the dangerous material was found. All six were in stable condition at Pachuca General Hospital, according to Copca. While the treatment for possible radiation poisoning is considerable, given how it can damage organs and cells, the state health official insisted that other patients at the hospital are not in danger. News of their hospitalizations first surfaced on Twitter. It comes after Mexican authorities announced they'd recovered all the radioactive material, though it wasn't clear whether they'd also found those who stole it. The missing vehicle, along with most of the missing radioactive element used for medical purposes, was located in a remote area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from where it was taken. All of the radioactive material had been accounted for in that same area early Thursday evening. Mexican authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the truck, which was transporting the material from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center, was stolen Monday. Tepojaco is located some 55 kilometers north of Mexico City and 48 kilometers from Pachuca. The container holding the cobalt-60 was found about a kilometer (half a mile) from the truck and had been opened, said Juan Eibenschutz Hartman, head of Mexico's National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards. Where are the thieves? Authorities -- who have said they expect that the thieves will turn up to get medical treatment for possible radiation exposure -- have not announced explicitly that anyone has been caught. But the Notimex article detailing the hospitalizations did state that a 25-year-old man and a 16-year-old man are in federal police custody. The report did not say why they'd been detained, only that the Interior Ministry will soon have more details. Nor was there an indication whether the two were among those hospitalized in Pachuca, the capital of Hidalgo state. The Hidalgo government source declined to say whether any of those being treated in his state's capital are suspects in the criminal investigation. Cleanup Authorities are guarding the area and have set up a 500-meter (550-yard) perimeter around it near the city of Hueypoxtla, Eibenschutz said. They are evaluating whether any residents were exposed, but none has tested positive for radiation, according to the civil protection office. Cleaning up the area could take weeks, he said, because they don't have robotic equipment they would need to quickly collect the dangerous cobalt. They're coming up with a plan and considering asking for help from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States or Canada. An early theory is that the thieves were unaware of what exactly they had taken. "At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said. "However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged." But Eibenschutz said the truck wasn't properly set up to transport the radioactive material, since it didn't have a GPS for tracking or other necessary equipment. Uses for cobalt-60 Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy and in industrial tools such as leveling devices and thickness gauges. Large sources of cobalt-60 are used to sterilize certain foods, as the gamma rays kill bacteria but don't damage the product, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If released into the environment, the radioactive material can harm people. And experts consider cobalt-60 one of the "candidates" for making dirty bombs. Bombs made with cobalt-60 "pose a threat mainly because even a fraction of a gram emits a huge number of high-energy gamma rays; such material is harmful whether outside or inside the body," according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service. In a speech last year, the IAEA director warned that such a dirty bomb "detonated in a major city could cause mass panic, as well as serious economic and environmental consequences." Preliminary information suggests that the thieves did not know what the truck's cargo was when they stole it, said Jaime Aguirre Gomez, deputy director of radiological security at the National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards. The shielding that protects the cobalt-60 is designed so that the radioactive source is difficult to extract, Aguirre said. The casing is designed not to be opened or perforated easily. The theft The truck and its cargo went missing early Monday after the driver of the white 2007 Volkswagen truck and an assistant had stopped to rest at a gas station, local prosecutor Marcos Morales said. About 1 a.m. Monday, a man armed with a handgun knocked on the passenger window. When the passenger rolled down his window, the gunman demanded the keys to the vehicle, Morales said. Both the driver and his assistant were taken to an empty lot where they were bound and told not to move. They heard one of the assailants use a walkie-talkie type device or phone to tell someone, "It's done," Morales said. Mexico alerted the IAEA to the theft, following international protocol, Aguirre said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is assisting with the investigation into the stolen truck, Mexican authorities said. The U.S. government has sensors at border crossings and sea ports to prevent radioactive materials from entering the country. This includes large stationary sensors designed to scan vehicles going through land border crossings as well as pager-size devices carried by agents. Some of this equipment is sensitive enough that it has been set off by people who had recently undergone radiation therapy, according to a U.S. law-enforcement source. According to the Congressional Research Service report, in Thailand in 2000, a disused cobalt-60 source was stored outdoors and bought by two scrap collectors, who took it to a junkyard where it was cut open. Some workers suffered burn-like injuries, and eventually three people died and seven others suffered radiation injuries, the report says. Nearly 2,000 others who lived nearby were exposed to radiation.  | ||||||||||||||
Mexico City: Kidnapped as Police Stand by, Caught on Video Posted: 06 Dec 2013 04:41 PM PST Borderland Beat  Police stood by as a man and woman is kidnapped, one can hear people excitedly screaming, multiple times, “Are they kidnapping?” “Are they kidnapping?” This occurred yesterday in broad daylight in the epicenter of Mexico, Mexico City, in front of the ultra-busy Oceania subway. It is described as an Express Kidnapping, however, it does not indicate what led to that conclusion. Express kidnappings are when a victim is taken and a ransom is demanded of his family. Once the random is paid the victim is usually allowed to go free. However I don’t see how it was determined that this was an fact an Express Kidnapping opposed to any other type of kidnapping. An anonymous YouTube user posted this video yesterday. A group of men in a white pickup are seen forcing a man into the truck bed, they were armed with weapons. A pair of auxiliary police idly stands by and watches the crime even after people approached them.  On the video it can be heard people saying "and the police? why are they not doing nothing?" also stating the license plates numbers, however most likely the vehicle is stolen. The videographer stated he attempted to report it to the Federal Police, was kept waiting an hour and they did not take his information. The sharp eye of a BB reader notices a woman also being kidnapped. You will see the videographer quickly panning to the left where the white car is, a woman is being held by a choke hold and dragged to the truck. (see white arrow below)  On the far left footage you can there is a man by the white automobile that looks as though he also may be a police. He is wearing what appears to be a uniform with an emblem patch on the right sleeve, and a hat having an orange red top, much like the police standing in front of the wall. See Magician's post Link Here  | ||||||||||||||
Mexican Fugitive Wanted for Massacre of City Officials Arrested in Sacramento Posted: 05 Dec 2013 10:51 PM PST Borderland Beat  More than 13 years ago, Genaro Olaguez-Rendon moved with his four children to the Sacramento area from his home state of Sinaloa, Mexico. In the years since, the 53-year-old Mexican citizen carved out a quiet life working as a landscaper, attending church and eventually settling into a cramped, two-bedroom rental home in North Sacramento, where he drew little attention to himself... Until Tuesday. Just after 3 p.m., a fugitive task force led by U.S. marshals confronted Olaguez-Rendon in his driveway and arrested him in connection with the May 2, 2000, massacre of eight municipal officials in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, as well as unrelated marijuana cultivation charges out of San Joaquin County. The arrest came three months after Mexican officials approached U.S. authorities looking for help in finding Olaguez-Rendon, who apparently had blended seamlessly into everyday life in Sacramento, right down to the lighted reindeer and candy canes that adorned the front lawn of his home Wednesday.
Even his oldest son, 18-year-old Jair Olaguez, expressed bewilderment at the fact that his father had been arrested, much less implicated in an attack that allegedly involved assault-style weapons and killed a city commissioner and seven other city officials and wounded four others. “He killed what?” his son asked when approached by a reporter at the family home on Grove Avenue on Wednesday. “No, I think they got the wrong person. He didn’t kill no one.” The U.S. Marshalls Service listed the suspect by the name Genaro Olaguez, but he was booked into the Sacramento County jail under the name Olaguez-Rendon, then transferred to San Joaquin County, where he was being held without bail in connection with charges of cultivating marijuana, possessing a firearm and theft of utility services. That case apparently stems from a raid earlier this year on six marijuana grow houses in Stockton linked to Olaguez-Rendon, according to a January report in The Record. It was unclear Wednesday how Olaguez-Rendon could have faced charges for 11 months without being tied to the case in Sinaloa. He is scheduled to appear in court in Stockton this afternoon on the marijuana charges, but he also is expected to face deportation to Mexico in the Sinaloa case, authorities said. Olaguez-Rendon had been under surveillance by the task force and offered no resistance when approached Tuesday, said Deputy Frank Newsom of the U.S. Marshals Service in Sacramento. He initially presented a phony identification card, but agents were having none of it, Newsom said. “He’s been here for a very long time, and especially for an individual on the run that long you assume he’s gotten comfortable with those new identification documents,” Newsom said. “But we don’t stop looking for you. “We’ll look until a body is found or until they turn the age of 100.” The suspect’s son said he knew nothing about fake identity papers and that his father had lived in the Sacramento area under his own name. “I think they’ve got wrong information or something,” he said. “The whole time he was using his own name for everything.” U.S. officials had little information about the incident in Mexico, saying in a statement that the suspect “used heavy weapons to massacre a commissioner and seven other city officials in Sinaloa, Mexico,” and that the Mexican government sought help in locating him after he fled to this country. Numerous reports have concluded that the violence has spilled over into the United States as feuding drug lords stake out their territory. “Many Los Angeles-based Sinaloa cartel members use local gang members to assist in or commit kidnappings, acquire or sell drugs, and collect drug proceeds,” one Department of Homeland Security report stated. Sacramento Bee-Record Net-Informador  | ||||||||||||||
Fewer Homicides Reported In Michoacán Towns with Self-Defense Groups Posted: 05 Dec 2013 08:07 PM PST
Morelia, Michoacán (December 2)—Despite emerging measures implemented so far by the federal government- sending federal and military forces, cleaning up police forces, having military officials in police stations, and monitoring security in various municipalities-, intentional homicides in the state register a slight increase during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, compared to last year’s predecessor, the panista Felipe Calderón. According to the report “criminal indicators” of the National Public Security System (Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública (SNSP)), last year on average 32.5 executions were committed each month (considering 12 months) on average 33.22 were committed since September of this year. In round numbers, in all of 2012, 306 intentional homicides were committed; while in the first nine months of this year 299 have been committed, with the fact that the months of October, November, and December have not been counted for. Other interesting data from the SNSP: in 2012 the months of April, September, and December were the most violent, with 53, 51, and 40 executions, while this year the bloodiest months were March, July, and August with 50, 42, and 44 intentional homicides.
For municipalities, the highest number of crimes are committed in the capital Morelia with 128; followed by Apatzingán with 44; Uruapan with 36; Zamora with 25; Lázaro Cárdenas with 23. In contrast the least violent are: Tumiscatío with one; Arteaga and Paracho with four; Coahuayana, Salvador Escalante (Santa Clara del Cobre) and Tiquicheo with five; Huetamo with six.
The criminal report of SNSP also shows that in populations where there is a presence of the self-defense movement and community policing, the homicide rates are lower: Tepalcatepec with 12; Tancítaro with 12; Aguililla with seven; Coalcomán with six; Aquila with eight; Cherán with one.
The exception is Buenavista Tomatlán which accounts with 37 executions since September, one more than Uruapan. Source: Proceso  | ||||||||||||||
Caro Quintero asks Peña Nieto for "Justice, not vengeance". Posted: 05 Dec 2013 01:05 AM PST Borderland Beat  “What I owed, I already paid”, wrote the former leader of the extinct Guadalajara Cartel in a letter signed by him and which his lawyers delivered to the President´s particular secretary office this past November 19th, it was also addressed to the head of the Interior Ministry, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, and to the one in charge of re-capturing him, Jesus Murillo Karam, Mexico´s Attorney General. Considered a wanted man since this past November 6th, when four ministers of the Justice Supreme Court reversed the protection which helped him get out of jail given to him three months before , Caro Quintero also asked for the Judicial Power not to concede to “the pressures and orders” from Washington, after they “obeyed” and reverted his liberation order. Caro Quintero –via his legal representatives- sent a copy of his letter to PROCESO along with the complaint he issued last week to the National Human Rights Commission for the persecution he claims he and his family have been victim of by Mexican authorities “instigated by the United States”, after his release from prison this past August 9th, in a case that marked the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto´s presidency. That day, at the early morning, the former drug lord left prison in companion of part of his legal team without any Mexican Government member or representative of the United States doing anything to stop him, this even after authorities from both countries knew about his release several weeks before the Mexican Justice System let him go. His release caused a supposed surprise on both governments, but above everything else, caused doubts on Enrique Camarena´s murder official version given by both Mexico and the United States.
Extradition threat At 61 years old, Caro Quintero knows he would be the rest of his life in prison if he is extradited to the United States, practically guarantying the silence he kept for the last 29 years on the case that sent him to prison. If he is given to the US, they won´t charge him with Camarena´s murder –he was already charged in Mexico-, he would however be charge with drug trafficking and money laundering. “This are crimes I did not commit, much less my family”, wrote the former drug lord in his letter to Peña Nieto, which the Republic´s General Attorney´s Office receive on November 20th, the Interior Ministry received it one day later. In his letter, Caro Quintero asks: “How is it possible that the Country capable enough to spy on presidents and presidential candidates and to know what they do, for 28 years and 5 months I spent in prison didn´t charge any crime against my family? Why did they wait until my release was near to start the hunting against my alleged drug dealers and money launderers?” Last June, the United States Government added four of Caro´s offspring, his wife and a daughter-in-law to their list of forbidden individuals and entities to which any citizen can do business with. “After my release from prison”, wrote Caro Quintero, there was a resurgence “with great notoriety of a persecution against me and members of mi family by the United States of North America”. They pressured in such a way the press “that they got the Nation´s Justice Supreme Court to revert the decision” of the Third Collegiate Court in Criminal Matters based in the state of Jalisco. In fact, on November 6, with 4 votes to 1, the Supreme Court reverted the resolution which acquitted him of some crimes, took others as served-drug trafficking as an example- and ordered his release from the double homicide, considering that these crimes should be tried by a local court, not a federal one, as it was done. The Supreme Court ruled otherwise. They recognized Camarena as a “Intergovernmental agent” and “internationally protected”, and considered the Mexican pilot who died along Camarena as in function, which justified the Federal Justice intervention on the case. In consequence it ordered a new sentence against Caro Quintero. The original sentence was for 40 years, according to the legislation valid at the time. Since they didn´t mention the other resolutions made by the Court of appeals, they will remain, in other words, the former drug lord is only wanted in Mexico for the homicides of Camarena and Zavala. He also has to fight the extradition request by the United States. In case of an arrest, the process for his delivery to the US could take 1 or 2 years. Unlike his first arrest in 1985, this time around Washington did make a formal request to the Mexican government for his extradition. In 1985, once Caro was apprehended, they did nothing to take him to the US. They didn´t believe Caro would be set free before his full sentence was served. Even though the government of Peña Nieto favors extradition, Caro Quintero is asking, as president of all Mexican –“In which I´m included”-, to make sure all the legal processes against him are conducted in compliance with the law. “Respecting my constitutional and above all, human guarantees, and not just because he has this or that last name justice has to be any different for me”. He adds: “My only petition…is for my file to be analyzed with justice, a trial where last names have no weight against legality. I ask for a fair trial…neither to yield to political pressures, nor a process which only competes to the Judicial Power be resolved by polititians”. He tells his Federal government interlocutors: “It´s not fair, Sirs, that Mexican justice be subdued to the orders the United States wished to impose over a Mexican who only wishes for peace and tranquility for himself, and for his family”. This past August, the United States government requested to Peña Nieto´s government for the former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, this by a petition of a Federal Court in California where he is accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. “The conducts they try to charge me with are totally false. They only want his vengeance against me to be felt, using my family and discrediting Mexico, its laws, and pretending to overwhelm our sovereignty with the only ever present intention of feeling superior”, he adds, “I´ve always said…that I had a debt with both society and law (and) it has been settled.” “The justice the US is asking for his compatriot has already been paid in Mexico under the terms they imposed me”, he tells Peña Nieto in allusion to the 28 years and 5 months he spent in prison, 18 of those in maximum security federal prisons. Since international laws forbid judging someone twice for the same crime, now the US government insists “on charging me with new criminal conducts”, the former drug lord writes: “Incredibly (they charge) not only me, but also my mother, wife and kids”. According to Caro Quintero, “none of them has ever committed any crime, them being proven humble and decent people”. Letter to the Ombudsman In his complaint filed to the Human Rights National Commission, he states the Mexican government has acted against him and his people yielding to pressures of the United States. PGR, the Army, Marines, Interpol and the DEA offices in Mexico, he adds, have “harassed and pursued” him along with his family, “who has been a victim of aggressions and intimidation without any investigation, presentation or arrest warrant”. He is accusing those institutions of physically assaulting those close to him during raids to their homes. He particularly accuses the Federal Attorney General´s office of “socially and publicly insulting them” when they mention them in several press releases as criminals responsible of several crimes, “of making operations with illegal money”, a situation “of which there is no clear and direct accusation, since it has never been proven”. According to the former drug trafficker, “several rights and benefits” have been cancelled by “harassment and threats done by State organisms”. “There´s an obvious hunt against everyone who has any family relationship, friendship or who even works for me”, this in reference to his lawyer Juvencio Ignacio Gonzalez Parada, who achieved his release. In his complaint addressed to the Human Rights National Commission, Raul Plascencia Villanueva, he insists his debt with the Mexican State has been settled. “However…It has been my last name the reason of constant stalking by the Mexican authorities, conspiring against me urged by the American government”. Mexican Authorities, he claims, want to transfer an imposed sentence to “innocent people, without giving them an opportunity to be heard and beat” in a trial. He claims those are violations against human rights –like the presumption of innocence- which are protected both nationally and internationally, among others, by the International Pact of Civil and Politic Rights and by the American Convention on Human Rights or San Jose Pact. My name notwithstanding, this violations cant remain unpunished nor be taken as a vengeance or payback against me or my family, because if I had a debt with the State and society, I have paid it”, he states. SOURCES:  | ||||||||||||||
The “Niños Sicarios” Who Behead, Use Drugs and Work for the Narcos Posted: 05 Dec 2013 04:38 PM PST
By: Hugo Guzmán Rambaldi Between 2012 and 2013, only the Mexican Army detained 473 minors, 61 of them girls, for being part of drug gangs and organized crime. These are the “niño sicarios”, who are capable of killing with a firearm or by cutting them, beheading, transferring drugs and drug money, consuming drugs, and making many women and teens become sex slaves.  According to information from the Network for the Rights of Children in Mexico (Red por los Derechos de la Infancia de Mexico), the average age of the “niños sicarios” is 13 years and thePublic Safety Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the country revealed that there are 30,000 underage children who are engaged in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, piracy, and murder. The kids, according to reports from public and private agencies, can earn between $1-3,000 a month, although some even receive this amount by committing one or more crimes. There are reports that they can be paid between $150 and $200 a week just by collecting information on the movement of the police and the army, and also by delivering data on gangs or rival groups. It is one of the realities imposed by the expansion of the drug cartels, organized crime gangs (Which among other activities they practice kidnappings), and groups of smugglers (In Mexico there is a widespread smuggling network of stolen cars, for example). The thousands of children involved in these criminal networks are from poor provinces (states) of Mexico, from rural areas, they belong to families that make up more than 80% of the poor in this nation of around 110 million inhabitants and many live through the domestic violence occurring, the abandonment, and even becoming orphans. The drug dealers and gang leaders offer them money that allows minors to help their families out or simply run away from home and start a new life. A factor that influences this decision is that under Mexican law, a minor cannot be sentenced to jail for more than three years.  A report from Infancia en Movimiento (Children in Motion) indicates that in recent years the arrest of minors for serious crimes increased by 34% and that 70% of arrests were related to killings, abductions, torture, drug trafficking, theft, and severe injury. It comes to a point where at national and international levels they are already famous, El Ponchis, Gloria, Erick, El Cris, Las Chavelas, for their criminal actions such as beheading, their leadership among boys captured by the narcos and their recruitment capabilities.
On this last week of November 2013, one of the most dramatic cases of the “niños sicarios” rose in the media. El Ponchis was liberated. He was arrested in December 2010 when he was 14, accused of beheading and hanging four men, convicted of murder, ties to organized crime and possession of drugs. On top of that, he is also accused of causing serious injury to people who he attacked with firearms and by cutting them. A criminal record of this extent would be reserved for an adult man with experience in executing crimes, but El Ponchis was only 14 years old.  According to Mexican law, the boy, Edgar, could only be sentenced to three years in prison. He has now been released from prison after having fulfilled his time. A unique part of this tragedy is that El Ponchis was sent to the United States because he was born there and his closest relatives live there. At this point, this youth should be in the hands of specialized staff of Outcry in the Barrio, an organization that serves children who are in the same situations such as El Ponchis.
His sisters, incidentally, followed the same path because in the times that El Ponchis committed crimes, he had strong ties with leaders and lieutenants of drug traffickers and organized crime groups. They had been “sex servants” for criminals and they also performed other criminal activities. Press reports tell that Isabel, one of the sisters, was the girlfriend of Jesus Radilla “El Negro”, leader of the sicarios of the South Pacific Cartel.
The future of El Ponchis is unpredictable in the United States, even more the future of the thousands of children and teenagers who are still part of cartels and organized crime carrying out cruel criminal activities.  | ||||||||||||||
Stolen Radioactive Material found removed from Box thieves are most likely dead Posted: 05 Dec 2013 01:57 PM PST Borderland Beat Men who took device are probably dead or dying  More Serious than Reported (December 5) Mexican soldiers set up a safety perimeter around a cancer-treating device containing dangerous radioactive material that was stolen along with a truck from a gas station. The people who stole the truck and removed the device from a steel-reinforced wooden box and left it in a rural area north of Mexico City are probably already dead or dying, the national nuclear safety board said. But the danger of contamination is minimal because the area where the device was found is so uninhabited, it added. No evacuations were necessary. There was no immediate word on who might have stolen the truck. It was on its way to dispose of the disused medical device at a nuclear storage facility. Experts are trying to figure out the best way to recover the device safely, the National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) said in a statement Wednesday evening. The thieves apparently just wanted the truck, which was stolen Monday, without knowing about the cargo it carried, officials said. The device containing cobalt-60 was taken out of its container and left hundreds of meters (yards) from the truck in Hueypoxtla, said Mardonio Jimenez, operations director at the CNSNS. "It's almost absolutely certain that whoever removed this material by hand is either already dead or about to die," CNSNS director Juan Eibenschutz told Milenio television. Eibenschutz said the transport company failed to live up to its commitment, saying the truck lacked a tracking device or proper security despite the firm's experience. He said the matter should be investigated. The white Volkswagen Worker truck was transporting the device from a hospital in the northwestern city of Tijuana when it was stolen at a service station in central Hidalgo state. The vehicle was supposed to deliver the material to a radioactive waste disposal facility in the central state named Mexico. The International Atomic Energy Agency warned that the material was "extremely dangerous" if removed from its shielding. Experts also said the 60 grams of cobalt-60 inside it was enough to make a "dirty bomb", designed to spread radioactivity. Authorities had searched for the truck in six states and the capital, delivering radio messages for people to call an emergency number in case they saw the truck. The driver told investigators that two gunmen approached him at a Pemex service station, tied him up and drove away with the truck, according to a text of the testimony shown by the Hidalgo state prosecutor's office. The manager of the Pemex service station, an hour's drive north of Mexico City, told AFP the driver appeared to have parked across the street to rest overnight. The material was on its way to the Radioactive Waste Storage Center in Maquixco, Mexico state. The facility is surrounded by a white fence topped with barbed wire, but no armed guards were visible outside, an AFP correspondent said. An official from the center said the truck driver had been waiting for the facility to open at 8:00 am on Tuesday.  Mexico's drug cartels have diversified their illegal activities in recent years, stealing oil and minerals, but officials have not said who the cobalt-60 thieves might be. 'Sufficient' for dirty bomb Experts have long warned about the risks posed by the large amounts of radioactive material held in hospitals, university campuses and factories, often with little or no security measures to prevent them being stolen. In an incident involving a teletherapy device in Thailand in 2000, 425 Curies -- the measure of radioactivity -- of cobalt-60 was sufficient to make 10 people very ill, three of whom died, according to the IAEA. The equipment stolen in Mexico contained nearly 3,000 Curies, CNSNS radiological security director Jaime Aguirre Gomez told AFP. Cobalt-60 is a radioactive isotope of the metallic element cobalt and the gamma rays it emits destroy tumors Update Recovered! Note: While some news reports say the material was found with the truck, other reputable sources say the truck is empty. Universal is reporting the truck was tampered with but that authorities are being secretive if the material was taken, or not. According to Milenio the National Nuclear Safety Commission of the country, Juan Eibenschutz, initially reported the truck was open and empty, later he was reported as saying the cobalt was dangerous in a mile radius of where it was found in the truck..... Mexican authorities on Wednesday recovered a truck and the radioactive medical equipment it was hauling to a waste facility when gunmen stole it from a gas station two days ago. The radioactive material, cobalt-60, was found about a half-mile from the truck and its empty protective lead container near Mexico City, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards. Radioactivity was detected in the area, which authorities cordoned off. The radiotherapy material used in cancer treatment "could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged," the International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier. Direct exposure to the radioactive isotope would result in death within a few minutes, Eibenschutz told the Associated Press. "This is a radioactive source that is very strong," Eibenschutz said, adding that it can be almost immediately fatal, depending on proximity. "The intensity is very big if it is broken." Authorities have not said whether any suspects have been found, dead or alive. Eibenschutz said nothing indicated that the thieves had targeted the material; they most likely waited the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane. The material could not be used to make a nuclear bomb, but could be used in a dirty bomb, a conventional explosive that disseminates radioactive material, he said. Eibenschutz didn't know the exact weight, but that it was the largest amount stolen in recent memory, and the intensity of the material caused the alert. Local, state and federal authorities, including the military, are searching for the truck. The material was used for obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in Tijuana when it was stolen. The truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when it stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City, driver Valentin Escamilla Ortiz told authorities.  He said he was sleeping in the truck when two men armed with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby. When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help The truck has a GPS locator but it wasn't active at the time of the theft. "Our suspicion is that they had no idea what they had stolen. This is a area where robberies are common," Fernando Hidalgo, spokesman for the Hidalgo state prosecutor, told Reuters. Authorities sent out an alert to six central states and the capital, and Mexican customs officials were on alert to prevent the truck from crossing the border. All of the U.S. ports of entry have radiation detectors in place, and trucks crossing the border are routinely screened for radiation. Such unwitting thefts of radioactive materials "are not uncommon," IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor told NBC News. "In some cases, for example, radioactive sources have ended up being sold as scrap, causing serious health consequences for people who unknowingly come into contact with it," he said.  Original report: The theft of a truck with a dangerous medical radioactive material in Hidalgo, in central Mexico, Wednesday generated alert Mexican authorities, U.S. and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) . Mexican authorities reported to the IAEA that the truck carrying cobalt-60 used in therapy device of a hospital in the city of Tijuana, was stolen in the early hours of December 2 when it was transported to neighboring State of Mexico. "At the time of the theft of the truck, the source (radioactive) was properly sealed," the IAEA a statement . "However, the source can be extremely dangerous to a person if the seals are removed, or if they are damaged." Mexico alerted the IAEA theft following international protocol for such incidents , said Jaime Aguirre Gomez, deputy director of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards. The Department of Homeland Security United States said Wednesday that it is working with their Mexican counterparts in the investigation of the theft. Radioactive material was used in radiotherapy for cancer treatment at a hospital in Tijuana, in northern Mexico, and was no longer in use, he said. The shield that protects the cobalt-60 is designed so that the radioactive source is difficult to remove, Aguirre said. The housing is designed not to be easily opened or perforated. Cobalt-60 can be used for both medical and industrial purposes, he said. The vehicle left the Tijuana November 28, on a planned travel distance of about 2,750 kilometers. The driver, Valentin Ortiz Escamilla said he stopped in a parking lot of a gas station to rest when at approximately 01:30 pm (local) two men assaulted him and forced him out of the truck, Notimex reported. Once it was reported stolen, the Attorney General indicated that Hidalgo initiated an operation to search for the vehicle and the stolen material in which the governments of Querétaro and Mexico State, Hidalgo collaborated. CNN Mexico-US Today-Associated PressBig thanks for the reader giving a heads up on the update!  | ||||||||||||||
Mexican Priests: Danger Persists, 2 Killed in Veracruz, Chapo's Message Posted: 04 Dec 2013 09:04 AM PST Borderland Beat
Catholic Priests in hot areas of Mexico have spoken out against cartels, and the government allowing impunity. Their rehab operations and Casa Migrantes (migrant shelters) have come under attack, and death threats are delivered on a regular basis, but extortion is something relatively new. Since 2010 I have worked with the Casa Migrante shelters (honoring the 72 migrants slaughtered in Tamaulipas) and have gained a deep respect for the priests of Mexico. ...Chivis The threatening calls reportedly came one after the other to Mexico's main Catholic seminary. Callers, claiming to be from one of the country's feared drug cartels, offered an ominous warning: Pay up if you value the safety of your priests. "They called several times. They identified themselves as the Familia Michoacana, but who knows?" Cardinal Norberto Rivera, archbishop of Mexico City, revealed at a Mass this week. "I spoke with the authorities. We made the appropriate report. Because they wanted us to pay. Because if not, they would kill one of us. They wanted to extort 60,000 pesos ($4,600)."
Rivera called on parishioners to report extortion to authorities, and he urged them not to pay. His description Sunday of the extortion attempts and a statement denouncing drug violence give a glimpse into the problems faced by a Catholic Church often caught in the crossfire of warring cartels and government efforts to stop them. In the country's capital alone, more than 10 priests have been threatened with extortion, said the Reverend Hugo Valdemar Romero, a spokesman for the archdiocese. "None of them have paid," he told CNN. "Last year, two extortionists were arrested." It's not uncommon for individual parishes to face extortion threats, he said. But the calls last month to the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Mexico marked the first time such a large church-run institution in the capital had been targeted, Romero said. Mexico's Catholic priests have long struggled with how to deal with spiraling drug violence and cartel culture. In addition to widespread extortion attempts by gangs, church officials have said clergy have received threatening notes and telephone calls after sermons against drug use and trafficking. In 1993, Cardinal Juan Posadas Ocampo was gunned down in the parking lot of an airport in Guadalajara, Mexico. Authorities said a drug gang had confused him with a rival trafficker, but some church leaders claimed he was targeted for denouncing drug trafficking. In 2009, Hector Gonzalez, the archbishop of the northern state of Durango, raised fears of attacks on the clergy after he said that Mexico's most wanted man, Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, lived in a Durango town and that "everybody knows it except the authorities." Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain military lieutenants in mountains nearby, accompanied by a note: "Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo." Gonzalez quickly backed away from his comments, telling reporters who asked him about them, "I am deaf and dumb." This year, even as government officials have suggested that drug-related violence could be on the decline, church leaders have warned that priests and the congregations they serve remain at risk. Various articles of a few other incidents regarding killings and threats against of priest below:
For most of his 70 years, Hesiquio Trevizo has been a man of good will, preaching the word of God. These days, the Roman Catholic priest is a self-described capitan de la guerra -- a war veteran. That he should feel so within the confines of the sanctuary tells all about the violence and pervasive fear that have gripped the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. "None of us are entirely safe from organized crime. Not even priests," Trevizo says. He laughs, awkwardly. Trepidation leaks out with every word. Perhaps the most important aspect of his job as a priest makes him a potential target for organized crime. Criminals know that grisly details of violence have spilled out in the privacy of the confessional, and crime bosses would rather not have those details repeated or remembered........read full article here and an article about another of the 120 priests in Juarez read that article here 2009: The killing last weekend of a Catholic priest and two seminary students in southwest Mexico marked the first time that drug cartel hit men have purposefully targeted a clergyman, said Manuel Corral, public relations secretary for Mexico’s Council of Bishops. The Rev. Habacuc Hernandez Benitez, 39, was gunned down as he traveled in a vehicle in the town of Arcelia in the state of Guerrero, together with two seminary students, Eduardo Oregon Benitez, 19, and Silvestre Gonzalez Cambron, 21. “In this case the drug traffickers followed them and ambushed them,” said Corral, who declined to name which cartel is suspected behind the incident...read full article hereCNN Mexico-Fox Latino-ElDiario-El Paso Times  | ||||||||||||||
Emergence of a New "Revolutionary" Armed Group in Guerrero? Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:47 PM PST
By: Chilpancingo, Guerrero— The group, Armed Revolutionary Forces-People’s Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaras-Liberación del Pueblo (FAR-LP)), emerged in the Costa Chica and La Montaña de Guerrero Región, issued a call to take up arms in response to the violence perpetrated by the federal and state governments against society.
In a communiqué that was distributed to reporters on Monday, the new armed organization-that doesn’t have a history of their operation- critiques the return of the PRI through the first year of Enrique Peña Nieto.
The FAR-LP claim that Peña is the continuation of former president
The communiqué refers to “the systematic theft” of Peña contrasts with the situation in which thousands of homeless are living because of the severe rains caused by Hurricane Manuel and accuses the governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero as being “greedy” because his officials profit from the needs of victims. “What else are we to expect from these governments who slaughter us. The war against the people, as government policy, has unleashed a repressive offense based on the counterinsurgency against social activists; grassroots organizations; human rights defenders; environmentalists; journalists; community leaders; women’s rights activists; student representatives and all those who raise their voice and defend the people. They become an enemy of this government.” They therefore urge the people to: “Exercise your right to justice, (because) a crime against humanity will not go unpunished, let us fulfill the people’s justice."  The communiqué is signed by the general command of the FAR-LP, composed of the commanders: Emilio, Camilo and Esperanza, and concludes with the slogan: “With the people’s war, the people will be victorious.” Source: Proceso  | ||||||||||||||
Leader of The Community Police In Guerrero Detained Posted: 02 Dec 2013 06:45 PM PST
By: December 1, 2013-Chilpancingo, Guerrero—The leader of the Regional Coordinator of the Community Authorities (Coordinadora Regional de Autoridades Comunitarias (CRAC)), the community of El Paraíso, municipality of Ayutla, Arturo Campos Hernández, was arrested in Ayutla and transferred to the prison in Acapulco and charged with aggravated kidnapping. The apprehension of the Mixtec indigenous activist occurred this afternoon at the end of a rally held in the town square, Granados Maldonado de Chilpancingo, where the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center announced the start of a campaign called “In defense of our life and liberty”, running from the 1st of December to the 12thto demand the release of the 12 Community Guards detained since late August and imprisoned in maximum and medium security prisons.
Speaking at the protest, Campos Hernández criticized the strategy driven by the government of Ángel Aguirre who intends to regulate the self-defense groups and community guards that have emerged throughout the state to directly confront crime.
In this regard, he said that the community police associated with the CRAC located in El Paraíso, were not willing to subject themselves under the command of the police forces from the three levels of government, simply because “they were infiltrated by organized crime.” He was then detained in this capital by a group of ministerial agents when Arturo Campos intended to go in a public transport unit to the neighboring town of Tixtla. Then, he was transferred to the prison in Acapulco where he was brought before the first instance court #4 of criminal matters, who issued an arrest warrant against him for the crime of aggravated kidnapping.
In this regard, the Tlachinollan lawyer, Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, condemned the arrest of Campos Herrera and accused the government of Ángel Aguirre Rivero of promoting a campaign to dismantle the group of the Community Police associated with the CRAC headquartered in the Mixtec village El Paraíso, municipality of Ayutla de los Libres. This is due to the fact that these groups of community guards are considered by the government as dissidents because they have publicly manifested themselves with weapons against the policy implemented by Enrique Peña Nieto, the attorney indicated.
He also said that the group of Community Police of El Paraíso, which spreads from the municipalities of Tixtla, Huamuxtitlán and Olinalá, showed the indolence of the government against the brutal wave of violence and impunity that has suffocated the people of Guerrero. Consulted after the arrest of the leader of the CRAC in Ayutla, the litigator informed that Campos Herrera faces charges of aggravated kidnapping, belonging to two criminal cases, 191 and 142, based in courts of first instance in criminal matters of Acapulco and Chilpancingo. This is the same proceeding made by the government of Aguirre against the group of the PC-CRAC that keeps the 12 prisoners from late August belonging to the same self-defense group based in El Paraíso.
Among those in the group detained from El Paraíso are: the coordinator of the Community Police in the town of Olinalá, Nestora Salgado, currently imprisoned in the maximum security prison in Nayarit; the leader of the self-defense group in Tixtla, Gonzalo Molina, currently imprisoned in the maximum security prison in Oaxaca; as well as the coordinator in El Paraíso, Bernardino García Francisco and nine community guards, imprisoned in Acapulco and Chilpancingo.
The Tlachinollan lawyer stated that the government of Aguirre has not substantiated evidence of the aggravated kidnapping charges against the leaders of the PC-CRAC of El Paraíso. He also stated that the administration of Aguirre is violating the human rights of the Community Guards by transferring them to maximum security prisons outside the legal entity because they are not guaranteed the right to adequately defend and protect their family. Source:Proceso |
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