Attack in western Mexico kills 15 police officers, wounds 5

AP: Gunmen ambushed a police convoy in the western state of Jalisco, killing 15 state police officers and wounding five as bullets riddled their vehicles in the deadliest single attack on Mexican police in recent memory.

The attack happened late Monday as the convoy traveled on a rural road between the Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, the state capital, the Jalisco state prosecutors' office said. The death toll exceeded that of what had been the largest recent since attack on law enforcement, an assault that killed 12 federal police officers in neighboring Michoacan state in 2010. Read more. 

Mexico's Vigilantes Resurface, Faulting Government For Failing To Take Down Knights Templar Cartel

International Business Times: Mexico’s vigilantes are back, and angry. The so-called self-defense groups that rose up against drug cartels in the turbulent state of Michoacán last year regrouped over the weekend, took up AK-47s, and blocked roads in several cities, announcing their return in full force -- a development that underscores how the security situation in parts of Mexico is still dire, despite the president's two-year-old promise to fix it. 

The vigilantes, known as “autodefensas,” took over roads in six cities across Michoacán state on Sunday, saying the federal government was failing to protect them from the Knights Templar cartel and another organized crime group known, strikingly, as Los Viagras. The vigilantes, many of whom for months have been part of a specialized military unit called the Rural Defense Forces, also complained about not receiving salaries or adequate support from the state. Read more.

Castillo Reports Govt. Has Seized Four Hundred Thirty Million Pesos of Templar Leaders Real Estate

Borderland Beat: Los Caballeros Templarios' cartel leaders managed to accumulate a fortune of more than 430 million pesos ($35,000,000USD) in properties,  authorities revealed yesterday.

The current leader of the criminal organization, Servando Gómez "La Tuta", added various properties for 195 million pesos. Read more.

U.S. 'Interference' in Michoacan is the Last Thing Mexico Needs (La Jornada, Mexico)

WorldMeets 
 La Jornada – Original Article (Spanish)
January 20, 2014

A member of the community police of Michoacan, a vigilante group, in the home of the leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel [Caballeros Templarios], in Nueva Italia, Jan. 16. The raging drug conflict in the Mexican state has led to a loss of governance, with vigilate groups and drug cartels opposing one another and the government largely sidelined.

According to information released Jan. 15 by Germany's DPA News Agency, a senior U.S. State Department official remarked that the violence and loss of governance in Michoacan is "extremely worrisome," and characterized the situation as one of "communities that were already under pressure from drug traffickers and criminal gangs now caught in a battle between those who claim they are protecting them, and those using them for their own interests." She also said that the citizens affected fail to receive the necessary support from the central or local governments. Moreover, the official also said that the United States stands ready to provide assistance to the Mexican government in terms of the security operation undertaken few days ago by federal forces in the state.

Without denying the gravity of the events occurring on the territory of Michoacan and the type of problems they present for governing the region and country, the statements of this official are unwelcomed and irrelevant, to the extent that the situation she described is an internal affair of Mexico, and the solution exclusively for Mexicans. There is no reason for a foreign authority to in any way address the issue or to state its opinions on the situation.  Read more. 

Mexican drug cartels try to establish direct ties in Las Vegas, officials say

Las Vegas Sun: Jackie Valley. Mexican cartels are working to establish a direct foothold in Las Vegas to sell drugs here and use the region as a stepping stone to shipping large quantities of drugs to the East, law enforcement officials say.

The vast majority of drugs entering the region still come via long-established routes through Phoenix or Southern California and are overseen by middlemen. But with greater frequency, traffickers here are ordering drugs directly from cartels in Mexico, enforcement officers have found. Read more.

Saint, knights and crystal meth; Mexico's bizarre cartel

Reuters: MORELIA, Mexico — Known as the "El Mas Loco" or "The Craziest One," one of Mexico's most feared drug traffickers is now venerated as a saint by a new generation of smugglers and gunslingers.

Nazario Moreno was shot dead by police in December 2010 during one of the most spectacular battles of President Felipe Calderon's six-year offensive against drug gangs, but his spirit lives on in the criminal underworld that made him. Read more.

Mexico Suspects Cartel in Pepsi Subsidiary Attacks

PepsiCo subsidiary Sabritas has been attacked in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guanajuato. The attacks are among the first against a transnational company in Mexico’s drug war. The suspect detained is a lieutenant from the Knights Templar drug cartel. 

The Associated Press: MEXICO CITY -- A drug cartel lieutenant has been detained in a series of firebombing attacks on Mexican potato-chip company Sabritas, a subsidiary of U.S. food giant PepsiCo. Businessmen and experts said Monday the attacks were the first coordinated targeting of a multinational company in Mexico's 5 1/2-year-long drug war.

Five Sabritas warehouses and vehicle lots were attacked Friday and Saturday in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guanajuato. Witnesses in one case described armed, masked men who tossed firebombs and torched dozens of the company's distribution trucks and some warehouses. 

Gerardo Gutierrez, president of Mexico's Business Coordinating Council, said Monday that it was "an isolated case" of the kind of extortion that gangs have previously practiced with small and medium-sized businesses. He called on authorities to act immediately to prevent the practice from spreading. Read more. 

Knights Templar Claim To Have Negotiated Drop in Food Prices

InSight Crime: "According to news service Agencia Esquema, one banner read, in part, "The Knights Templar are not narcos, much less a criminal cartel, the Knights Templar are are a brotherhood of citizens who respect the constitution... in the past few days our brotherhood has invited the meat and tortilla vendors to lower their prices. An invitation accepted by our friends the merchants and recognized by the neediest people of our state. Keeping clear that for said action to occur there existed no pressure, nor blackmail, much less charging fees."

"Narcomantas" were reported in the cities of Morelia, capital of Michoacan state, as well as Zitacuaro, Lazaro Cardenas, Uruapan, Apatzingan, Ocampo, and Tuxpan." read more

Pope's Visit to Mexico: Pope's Mexico Trip Clouded by Legion Victim's Book

ABC News: "Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Mexico this week to a very public reminder of one of the Catholic Church's most egregious sex abuse scandals: A new book says internal Vatican documents show the Holy See knew decades ago of allegations that the Mexican founder of the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order was a drug addict and pedophile.

The documentation has been compiled in a book "La voluntad de no saber" ("The will to not know"), which is co-authored by Jose Barba, a former Legion priest who along with other priests in 1998 brought a church trial against the Legion's founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, for having sexually abused them while they were seminarians." read more

Drug War: Car Bombing, Police Ambush Show Sophisticated Tactics of Mexico's Drug Gangs

InSight Crime: "The recent killing of 12 policemen in Guerrero, and a car bomb in Tamaulipas, serve as illustrations of the threat of large-scale violence posed by Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations.

... it is not clear whether the two attacks in Guerrero are linked, although state officials have said they believe they are. A note left by the decapitated heads said "this will keep happening to those who continue supporting the 'FM,'" which presumably stands for the Familia Michoacana. The drug gang is highly active in the region of the state, known as "Tierra Caliente," and is currently battling for control with a splinter group known as the Caballeros Templarios." read more

Drug War: Cocaine seizures drop in Mexico as traffic moves

CBS News: "Cocaine seizures have dropped precipitously in Mexico in recent years, and a top U.N. drug-control official said Tuesday the trade appeared to be moving to Central America because of law enforcement pressure and infighting among cartels.

Mexican officials seized 53 tons of cocaine in 2007 and only 10 tons last year, according to a report Tuesday from the International Narcotics Control Board, which monitors global drug-control agreements." read more

Mexico Drug War: Increased Violence Likely in Guanajuato State

STRATFOR: "Unknown assailants thought to be part of the Knights Templar killed eight people and injured another eight Feb. 16 in attacks in six municipalities of Guanajuato state (in central Mexico). The attacks followed the Knights Templar's placement of 18 narcomantas around Guanajuato warning the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (GJNG), which has ties to the Sinaloa Federation, to stay out of the state. The narcomantas appeared to be in response to the archbishop of Leon's request on Jan. 22 that organized criminal groups in Guanajuato come to a truce during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the state, scheduled for March 23.

The incidents also follow the January release of a video depicting the interrogation of Los Zetas leader Hector Daniel Reyes Reyes in which he states he was in Jalisco to prepare for a possible incursion into Leon, Guanajuato's largest city and a regional transportation hub. The attacks, combined with the indications that CJNG and Los Zetas may be attempting a move into Guanajuato, could portend increased violence in the region." read more

Drug War: Security Surge in Michoacan to Confront Familia-Knights Templar Battle

InSight Crime: "Mexico deployed approximately 4,000 troops to the western state of Michoacan, where rival criminal gangs are engaged in a heated battle over control of the Tierra Caliente agricultural region.

... The deployment appears to be in response to a wave of violence seen in Michoacan's rural Tierra Caliente region since late 2011. In the most serious incident, 13 men were found dead outside the town of Zitacuaro on January 9." read more

Mexico Politics: The Michoacán Debacle: Fault Lines Ahead of the Mexican Presidential Election

A good, clear explication of the election turmoil in the Mexican state of Michoacán and how it may foreshadow the coming presidential election

Upsidedownworld: "On December 28, Mexico’s Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF) annulled the recent mayoral election in Morelia, Michoacán, as the ugly fallout to the state’s gubernatorial and local elections in November continues. Opposition parties have called for the rest of the results to be thrown out as well – an unlikely prospect – amid a slew of controversies that hint at turmoil to come in this year’s presidential race.

... Ostensibly, the elections in Michoacán represented another significant victory for the PRI, with the party’s Enrique Pena Nieto a strong favorite to take the presidency on July 1. However, they also illustrated all too well the difficulty of holding fair elections in a region of the country plagued by corruption and organized crime." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: 13 bodies found at gas station in western Mexico

KGAN CBS 2: "Police in western Mexico have found 13 bodies at a gas station in the state of Michoacan.
Michoacan state prosecutors' spokesman says the bodies were dumped Monday near a convenience store on a gas station lot in the town of Zitacuaro." read more

Drug War: Mexico Arrests Knights Templar Drug Boss

Fox News Latino: "Officials in Mexico have arrested an alleged top leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel who was responsible for a rash of murders and was in control smuggling routes through the western Mexican state of Michoacán.

The Defense Department says Juan Gabriel Orozco Favela was in charge of smuggling drugs through the Michoacán state capital of Morelia for the quasi-religious gang, which is known as a major trafficker of methamphetamine." read more

Drug War: Mexico Declares the End Has Come for Familia Gang

A look not only at the decline of La Familia, but also of the rise of Los Caballeros Templarios, the Knights Templar, to replace it in the state of Michoacán and form links with other cartels. One or more hydra heads replace the one cut off.


InSight Crime: "The arrest of a commander of the Familia Michoacana is another blow to the sinking criminal group, just days after the Mexican government declared the gang had all but disappeared from its traditional home turf. As El Universal reports, Hector Russel Rodriguez Baez, alias "El Toro," was detained following a shootout with Federal Police in Chalco, Mexico State, this weekend. A spokesman with the Public Security Ministry (SSP) said that Rodriguez Baez was the highest ranking member of the Familia in Chalco, a Mexico City suburb of some 300,000 people.

... According to a recent report from Excelsior, officials with the SSP and the Mexican military view the Familia as a non-entity in Michoacan, with the Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) taking their place as the foremost group in the region, and absorbing their production and trafficking operations." read more

Mexico drug war gets political

Global Post: "A wave of killings in the lead up to a gubernatorial election in the native state of Mexican President Felipe Calderon raise the specter of the relentless drug war becoming more political. There have been more than 20 violent deaths during the campaigns for the Nov. 13 vote in Michoacan, in which the president’s own sister, Luisa Maria Calderon, is leading the race. While some victims have been alleged drug traffickers, others have included party activists and Mayor Ricardo Guzman of the town La Piedad." read more

Drug War Bloodshed: 20 Killed in Shootouts in Mexico

20 Killed in Shootouts in Mexico - NYTimes.com: "Twenty people were killed Friday in multiple shootouts in two states, law enforcement officials said. In Michoacán, 14 bodies were found in three different locations. ... In the border state of Sinaloa, a confrontation between members of an organized crime gang on a highway left six people dead, three of them unarmed civilians." read more

Mexico Drug War: Key figure in cult-like drug cartel captured in Michoacan

The Washington Post: "The Mexican army captured a key figure in the cult-like Knights Templar drug cartel that is sowing violence in western Mexico, a top officer announced Tuesday. Saul Solis, 49, a former police chief and one-time congressional candidate, was captured without incident Monday in the cartel’s home state of Michoacan, Brig. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas told reporters during a presentation of Solis."

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