Drug cartel violence flares again in Northern Mexico state

Reuters: Drug cartel violence in Mexico's Tamaulipas state flared up for the second time in a week on Wednesday, with gun battles and arson attacks erupting in the street after police captured four alleged drug gang members.

The detainees, whose identity is still unknown, are from the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico's oldest drug trafficking groups, also known for kidnappings and immigrant trafficking. Read more. 

Son of Mexico cartel boss pleads guilty to U.S. smuggling charge

Reuters: The son of a former Mexico cartel boss faces up to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to trying to smuggle ammunition across the Texas border into Mexico, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Osiel Cardenas, Jr., is the son of Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, who headed the Gulf Cartel in Northeastern Mexico until he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after his arrest in 2003. Read more. 

Mexican cartels steal billions from oil industry

AP: Mexico overcame 75 years of nationalist pride to reform its flagging, state-owned oil industry. But as it prepares to develop rich shale fields along the Gulf Coast, and attract foreign investors, another challenge awaits: taming the brutal drug cartels that rule the region and are stealing billions of dollars' worth of oil from pipelines.

Figures released by Petroleos Mexicanos last week show the gangs are becoming more prolific and sophisticated. So far this year, thieves across Mexico have drilled 2,481 illegal taps into state-owned pipelines, up more than one-third from the same period of 2013. Pemex estimates it's lost some 7.5 million barrels worth $1.15 billion. Read More. 

In Mexico, State Seeks to Ban Narco-Messages

InSight Crime: The governor of Sinaloa state, west Mexico, is trying to outlaw the posting of "narcomantas," public banners hung by drug gangs to threaten enemies or improve their image, in an initiative that seems both counterproductive and doomed to fail.

Governor Mario Lopez Valdez has introduced a bill that would make it illegal to hang the banners or to serve as a lookout, also known as a “halcone”, for criminal groups, as Riodoce reported.

Lopez, whose state is among the most violent in Mexico and is home to many of Mexico’s most notorious capos, did not say what the penalties would be for breaking his proposed law.

Mantas have become an increasingly common element in Mexico’s criminal landscape over the past few years, with messages appearing on a regular basis to taunt enemies, call on the government to take action against rivals, improve a group's image with the public, or a combination of the three. Read more.

Mexico: 8 Held in Investigation Into 49 Dismembered Bodies

The New York Times: Brief: The army said it had detained eight suspected members of the Gulf cartel and seized drugs, guns and hand grenades during investigations into the discovery last week of 49 dismembered bodies on a highway in northern Mexico. The suspects were apprehended on Thursday as part of an operation designed to capture those responsible for the grisly discovery in the city of Cadereyta, the Defense Department said. Officials did not say whether the eight suspects were directly involved in the 49 killings. The authorities had previously suggested that the rival Zetas cartel was responsible for the killings.

Bodies of 23 found dumped near U.S. border in Mexico drug war

Reuters: "The bodies of 23 people were found hanging from a bridge or dismembered in ice boxes and garbage bags in northeastern Mexico on Friday, in an escalation of brutal violence involving rival drug gangs on the U.S. border.

In a first incident, the bodies of five men and four women were found hanging from a bridge in Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state just across the border from the Texas city of Laredo. read more

Rule of Law: How to Fix Mexico's Broken Prisons

InSight Crime- "An incident earlier this week at the prison in Apodaca, in the tumultuous northern state of Nuevo Leon, resulted in the escape of 30 inmates and the massacre of 44. The dead, who succumbed to beatings and stab wounds, were members of the Gulf Cartel, while the perpetrators and the escapees belonged to the Zetas, a rival group. While the incident was widely described as a riot,·it seems to have been a carefully planned assault rather than a spontaneous eruption of violence, as with the mass killing in a Juarez jail last summer.

Such incidents of mass violence have become common in Mexico’s prison system. While the Apodaca killing was the worst on record, several comparable massacres have been documented in recent years: 19 prisoners were killed in a Gomez Palacio, Durango facility in 2009; 20 died in a Juarez facility in 2009, and another 17 were killed last year; 23 inmates wound up dead·in an incident in Durango in 2010; in Mazatlan, 28 prisoners were killed in 2010; and just last month, 31 inmates were killed in a Tamaulipas prison." read more

Drug War: Mexico Says Prison Riot Masked Escape of Drug-Gang Members

Wall Street Journal—A day after 44 inmates died in Mexico's worst prison riot, authorities said they believed the massacre was a cover for the escape of 30 drug-gang members.

Nuevo León Gov. Rodrigo Medina said that 30 inmates, all members of the Zetas drug cartel, used the massacre on Sunday as cover for an escape from Apodaca state prison, a few miles from the state capital of Monterrey. "Without a doubt there was premeditation," said Mr. Medina, speaking at a news conference. "This was planned."

Mr. Medina said all the dead prisoners were members of the rival Gulf Cartel. The Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have been warring for two years for control of drug routes and lucrative drug markets, especially in the northeastern Mexican states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.

Mr. Medina said prison personnel appeared to have been involved in the massacre and escapes. He said four top prison officials had been fired from their jobs, as had 18 guards on duty at the time of the incident. All were being investigated for complicity, he said. As police and soldiers combed the state searching for the escaped prisoners, Mr. Medina said the state was offering a reward of about $800,000 for information leading to their capture. read more

Drug War vs. the Rule of Law: Gang war leads to death of prison inmates in Mexico

sydneymorningherald: "A riot in a northern Mexican prison left 44 people dead on Sunday, providing yet another sign of the violence and crowding overwhelming Latin American prisons... The authorities in Mexico's Nuevo Leon state said a confrontation among inmates in two cell blocks broke out about 2am on Sunday and lasted a few hours before the state and federal police could bring the prison, in Apodaca, under control.

Jorge Domene, a spokesman for the state government, said it appeared members of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups, started the fight as part of a power struggle, using sharp objects, stones and clubs. He said firearms were not used. ... Local news reports said the prison in Apodaca held 3000 inmates but was built for 1500." read more

Drug War Corruption: Former Governor of Tamaulipas accused of receiving money from Cartels

More details on the corruption allegations against the former governor of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Antonio Yarrington.

Justice in Mexico: "The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) filed an indictment before a District Court in Texas against Antonio Peña Argüelles, arrested in San Antonio, Texas on February 8 for money laundering. According to testimonies collected by the DEA, Peña is believed to be a liaison between drug organizations and Mexican politicians, as he acted as a link between groups like the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, and elected officials like Tamaulipas’ governor Antonio Yarrington " read more

Drug War Corruption: Gulf Cartel Boss Exploits Turmoil in Northeast Mexico

InSight Crime: "The shifting balance of power in northeast Mexico has been bad news for the Gulf Cartel, which has seen its influence decline, but a new report from Proceso suggests that one Gulf leader, known as “El Coss," has benefited from the changing landscape.

....While the Gulf Cartel is a diminished force, it retains control of a number of significant border regions, most notably Reynosa and Matamoros, and continues to battle it out with the Zetas in other cities around the region, such as Monterrey and Tampico. Indeed, while its territory has been reduced, the Gulf's level of control in the areas that remain under its dominion seems to have hardened, despite the ongoing battle with the Zetas.

According to Proceso, this is due to the links between Costilla Sanchez and high-level elements in the military. The anonymous source whose account was the basis for the story says that, in exchange for millions of dollars, army and marine commanders essentially give Costilla Sanchez free rein to operate in Mexico’s northeastern region, and attack his enemies as needed." read more

Drug War: DEA says Mexican Governor Got Millions in Drug Cash

The informer probably is Miguel Ángel Soto Para, founder of the Los Zetas cartel, who was reported last week by La Jornada to be one of more than 50 protected witnesses U.S. and Mexican authorities have shared and to have provided information about three Tamaulipas governors taking drug cartel payments.

ABC News: "Confidential informants told Drug Enforcement Administration investigators that leaders of the Zetas and Gulf cartels made payments to Institutional Revolutionary Party members including Tomas Yarrington, who served as governor of Tamaulipas state in 1999-2004, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, Texas." read more

Drug War: U.S. and Mexico share protected witness central to murder of U.S. agent and investigation of Tamaulipas governors

This is complex and important story for several reasons. Soto Para is a big "catch" in the drug war and he is emerging both as being the reason behind the murder of American immigration agent Jaime Zapata and as the informer regarding the possible corruption of the threeTamaulipas governors. The story also reveals more about the growing cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico governments in their use of informants in the drug war. Translated by CIP intern Michael Kane.

La Jornada: Miguel Ángel Soto Para, founder of the Los Zetas cartel, is one of more than 50 protected witnesses who U.S. and Mexican authorities have shared. According to officials involved in the national security cabinet, he was being transported by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when they were attacked on a highway between Mexico City and Querétaro, resulting in the death of the American, Jaime Zapata.

The information shared by the authorities also refers to the accusations Soto Para has leveled against former governors of Tamaulipas, Eugenio Hernández, Manuel Cavazos and Tomás Yarrington, which has led the Attorney General to consider the former PRI leaders as collaborators with the Gulf Cartel, for which they reportedly received varying amounts of money.

The officials interviewed indicated that Soto Parra, who was detained in 2009, is considered by US agencies to be an “internationally-protected person” and has provided information on both his own Los Zetas cartel as well as the supposed links between Gulf Cartel members and public officials. Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel parted ways after the extradition of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén and they have battled to maintain control over their zones of influence.

The sources reported that the armored, luxury SUV with diplomatic plates that members of Los Zetas attacked on February 15, 2011, leaving the American Jaime Zapata dead, was ferrying a protected witness from Nuevo León to Mexico City.  The “internationally-protected person,” according to the information obtained, was Miguel Ángel Soto Para, who aided ICE agents in the identification of centers of operations of Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, El Mamito, another founder of Los Zetas who focused his activities on the states of Querétaro and San Luis Potosí. 

The attack against the ICE agents was led by Julián Zapata Espioza, El Piolín, who recently was detained in the United States, charged with “the crimes of murder of an American federal employee or official; attempted murder of an American federal employee or official; attempted murder of an internationally-protected person and using a firearm in the commission of a violent crime.”

After the attempt, Soto Parra was moved out of the country, but he continues to cooperate with the Attorney General and has become the only witness who has claimed that three former governors of Tamaulipas have alleged links with organized crime. However, at press time, they had not been charged with any crimes nor had the Federal Public Ministry issued a summons to any of them so that they may clarify or confront the assertions of the protected witness." Spanish original

Drug War and Mexico Politics: Former head of the Zetas is source for investigating three former governors

La Jornada: "The investigation by the Office of Special Investigations into Organized Crime (OFDI) against the former governors of Tamaulipas, Manuel Cavazos Lermas, Tomás Yarrington and Eugenio Hernández, is based mainly on statements made ​​by the former member of Los Zetas cartel, Miguel Soto Parra, who, in 2009, became a protected witness for the Mexican government and U.S. agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Officials from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) revealed that this investigation is in the exploratory phase and after two years, many of the statements of Soto Parra have not been confirmed, including those regarding trips made by the former governors, and some of their relatives, to meet with leaders of the Gulf Cartel." Spanish original

Drug War: Mexican cartel official pleads guilty in Texas

Houston Chronicle: " A man accused of being high-ranking member of the Mexican Gulf Cartel's drug operations along the Texas border pleaded guilty to immigration and weapons charges Monday, one day before jury selection was to begin for his federal trial, prosecutors said.

Jose Luis Zuniga Hernandez, 43, entered his pleas in federal court in Brownsville and was ordered to remain in custody until his sentencing April 16, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson's office. Zuniga could face up to 20 years in prison on the immigration charge and as many as 10 years' imprisonment on the weapons charge." read more

Mexico’s changing drug war: Shifting sands

An overview of shifts in the levels of drug war violence across Mexico during 2011.  Government spokesmen and outside critics offer differing explanations of why violence in decreasing in some places, like Ciudada Juarez, while increasing eleswhere.  A state by state map of levels and changes in those levels accompanies this article from the British newspaper, the Guardian. 

The Economist: "Since 2006, when Mexico’s president,  Felipe Calderón, ... launched  his war on the drug cartels... each year the number of deaths has risen, most of them concentrated in a handful of cities. But this year both those tendencies look as if they have started to change. The annual death toll seems to have plateaued at around 12,000. Hotspots have cooled, only for violence to invade places previously considered safe.

Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua state and on the border with Texas, is the most striking example of this... The turnaround is the fruit of better co-operation between the municipal, state and federal branches of government, according to Héctor Murguía, Juárez’s mayor.

... Others are sceptical about the relevance of the government in reducing the violence in places such as Juárez and Tijuana. In both cities ...  the dip in violence suggests that the powerful Sinaloa “cartel” has at last beaten or reached an accommodation with its rivals, believes David Shirk, head of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. ... Some of the (police) busts may be thanks to rival cartels’ tip-offs. “The government is an instrument that contributes—but whose hand is on the instrument?” asks Mr Shirk.

...Though Sinaloa’s expansion may have slowed the violence in Juárez and Tijuana, elsewhere it has stirred it up (in Monterrey, Acapulco and Veracruz)... violence in places such as (Monterrey,) Nuevo León “suggests that what has happened in Juárez can happen anywhere in Mexico,” Mr Shirk says." read more

Mexico Drug War: Amid Gulf Cartel infighting, leaders taken in by U.S. authorities

This article from a Rio Grande newspaper reads like a tangled 'whodunnit.' but it seems to be saying that some Mexican cartel members are fleeing across the border--and even turning themselves in to U.S. authorities--to save their own lives from war raging between two factions of the Gulf Cartel.

The Rio Grande Monitor.com: "An internal Gulf Cartel struggle may have directly caused at least two recent kidnappings in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as an apparent exodus of lieutenants who are looking for safety on U.S. soil. In the last two weeks of October, Rafael “El Junior” Cardenas Vela, Eudoxio “El Bocho” Ramos Garcia and Jose Luis “Comandante Wicho” Zuniga Hernandez were arrested by U.S authorities in Port Isabel, Rio Grande City and Santa Maria, respectively." read more

Mexico Drug War: Nephew of ex-Gulf cartel boss arrested in Texas, facing drug and immigration charges

Official: Nephew of ex-Gulf cartel boss arrested in Texas, facing drug and immigration charges - The Washington Post: "A man arrested on federal drug and immigration charges in South Texas is believed to be the nephew of the former boss of Mexico’s Gulf cartel and was a rising player in the drug trafficking network, a U.S. law enforcement official said Wednesday.

Rafael Cardenas Vela was arrested last week following a traffic stop in Port Isabel, a Gulf coast town that sits across the causeway from South Padre Island. He is charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute drugs and using a fraudulent passport, according to federal court records. The law enforcement official familiar with the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday that authorities believe Cardenas Vela is the nephew of Osiel Cardenas Guillen." read more

Drug War: Troops garrison Mexican border town battered by drug war

Fox News Latino: "The Mexican army has stationed an entire battalion in a northern border town abandoned by most of its residents late last year amid a brutal turf war between the Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels. Soldiers began patrolling the area months ago, but it only Monday that the troops formally moved into the newly constructed base in Ciudad Mier. Ciudad Mier and many other towns in the northeastern state have been found themselves caught in the crossfire after the March 2010 rupture of the alliance between the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, Los Zetas." read more

Mexico Drug War: Police Purge Leaves Monterrey Unguarded, as Cartel Battle Rages

InSight Crime: "Letras Libras reports from the streets of Monterrey, a north Mexican city bloodied by disputes between the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, where police are in desperately short supply after a purge of officers in the pay of drug gangs. ... Journalist Ricardo Cayuela Gally took a detailed look at the city’s recent decline in Letras Libres, a noted Mexican magazine. The following is InSight Crime’s translation of selected extracts from his report:

'Between the Mariano Escobedo Airport, in the industrial municipality of Apodaca, and my hotel in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a bit past 11 at night and after crossing the entire city of Monterrey, I don’t see a single soldier or policeman, ... The explanation for this lack of control was given to me by Jorge Tello Peon, unsalaried cabinet coordinator for security in the Nuevo Leon government ... and maybe the man who best understands what goes behind the scenes in Mexico’s security agencies, Tello is emphatic ...: “Nuevo Leon is facing an alarming deficit of police officers.” The systematic clean-ups of officers who are corrupt, if not on the payroll of organized criminal groups, has left the state agencies, and the majority of the municipalities, with negligible numbers." read more