Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Mexico: Police confess to handing 3 Italian men to the CJNG cartel

Raffaele Russo, 60, his 25-year-old son Antonio, and his nephew, Vincenzo Cimmino, 29, disappeared on January 31 in Tecalitlán, in the western state of Jalisco.

The state’s governor said the officers had confessed to handing the Italians over to a local criminal gang.

The police had allegedly arrested them at a petrol station beforehand.

What is alleged to have happened?
Raffaele Russo, 60, his 25-year-old son Antonio, and his nephew, Vincenzo Cimmino, 29, had stopped at a petrol station in Tecalitlán, an agricultural town.

The last relatives back in Italy heard from them was a Whatsapp message from Mr Russo saying they had been approached by police officers who arrived on cycles and in a van.

The police told them to follow them, according to the message.

The son of one of the disappeared earlier told Italian radio that the men had been “sold to a gang for €43” ($53; £38), but regional officials said they could not confirm that information.

And the police? (emphasis added)

Four police, including a female officer, have been detained and charged. The Mexican authorities say three more police are being sought in connection with the disappearance.

Following the trio’s disappearance, the town’s entire police force was sent for retraining, although some local media speculated that they were sent away so that they could not be intimidated by local cartel members into changing their story.

As you may recall, the state prosecutor in the 43 missing Iguala student teachers alleges that they were handed by local police to a criminal gang, who killed them and burned their bodies.

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Mexico: Hernandez and Martinez found dead

The two special agents kidnapped by the CJNG have been found,
Forensic experts in Mexico say human remains found last week are those of two special agents kidnapped by armed men earlier this month.

The two agents went missing on 5 February while they were on leave attending a christening in Nayarit state, western Mexico.

Mr Martínez, a 26-year-old lawyer, and Mr Hernández, a 28-year-old criminologist, had joined the agency less than a year ago.

Their bodies were found in a car in the city of Xalisco. So far no one has been arrested in connection with their killing.
. . .
The country experienced its most violent year in 2017 with more than 25,000 murders, official figures suggest.

It is the highest annual tally since modern records began. Organised crime accounted for nearly three-quarters of those murders.

in case you missed it, Jesús Pérez Caballero examines Mexico’s CJNG: Local Consolidation, Military Expansion and Vigilante Rhetoric

In each of the states where the group operates, it continues to successfully exploit its defining features: the flexibility to combine a military perspective with its historical criminal ties, a strategic commitment to become involved in pre-existing conflicts, and the promotion of vigilante rhetoric through propaganda.

Read the full article.

UPDATE

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Mexico: CJNG kidnaps two special agents

Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (Jalisco New Generation Cartel) is on the move. Here are two articles:

Two members of a special investigative police force who disappeared in Mexico a week ago have been shown in a video posted on YouTube.

The two agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency appear sitting in front of five masked men who force them at gunpoint to read a statement.

The armed men are believed to be members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

The cartel has been expanded rapidly and aggressively across Mexico.

Mexico’s Attorney General Raul Cervantes recently declared it the nation’s largest criminal organisation and it has been blamed for a series of attacks on Mexican security forces and public officials.

Here’s the YouTube (in Spanish),

Jesús Pérez Caballero analyzes at InSight Crime, Mexico’s CJNG: Local Consolidation, Military Expansion and Vigilante Rhetoric

The CJNG is expanding its presence and influence throughout Mexico. In each of the states where the group operates, it continues to successfully exploit its defining features: the flexibility to combine a military perspective with its historical criminal ties, a strategic commitment to become involved in pre-existing conflicts, and the promotion of vigilante rhetoric through propaganda.

At the moment, the rewards of this strategy seem to outweigh the risks assumed by the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) and its leader, Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho.”

Read the full report.

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Mexico: Cartels are using explosive drones

The case has stoked fears drug cartels could soon target the U.S.

Mexican Federal Police arrested four men Oct. 20 in Guanajuanto who were driving a stolen vehicle equipped with a 3DR Solo Quadcopter drone attached to an IED, Small Wars Journal reported. The drone had a range of about half a mile, but modifications would have allowed it to fly farther.

Narco-Terror: Mexican Cartel Operators Busted with Explosive Drone

Gunmen belonging to a Mexican cartel planned to use a drone as a weapon by strapping an improvised explosive device to the popular flying tech. The new tactic was unveiled in a region seeing a sharp spike in cartel violence.

The drone was seized by Mexican authorities during a vehicle inspection in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato. Authorities stopped a white 2015 Mazda transporting an AK-47, ammunition, and a FLY 3DR drone with explosives attached. Inspectors found a cell phone they suspect would be used to detonate the device.

In the war between the Zetas and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, another player,

The seizure comes at a time when members of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) are working to take control of Guanajuato. The region was previously controlled by Los Zetas. A local cartel known as the Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima, believed to be made up of Zetas, is openly challenging the CJNG. As Breitbart Texas reported, Guanajuato is a prized territory for the theft of fuel. The cartel violence has manifested itself in attacks against police officers to boost recruitment for the CJNG.

Mexican authorities consider the case a matter of national security.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Mexico: National soccer team captain sanctioned by US Treasury

Rafael Márquez among individuals linked by Treasury Department to drug kingpin Raúl Flores Hernández of the two main Mexican drug cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel.

The sanctions are a blow to the image of Mexican soccer. It is also a sign of how deeply drug-trafficking has permeated Mexico’s civil society, from politics to culture and sports, analysts say. Mexican singer Julio César Alvarez, known as Julión, was also sanctioned Wednesday for acting as a frontman of Mr. Flores.
. . .
The sanctions freeze all U.S. assets of the people and entities named and forbid U.S. citizens from doing business with them. It also strips Mr. Marquez, 38, of his U.S. visa, meaning he can no longer travel to the U.S. to play games with the Mexican national soccer team. The sanctions don’t necessarily imply criminal prosecution.

In the largest Kingpin Act action so far, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a total of nine firms and 21 people for ties to alleged trafficker Raúl Flores Hernández and his organization.

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Mexico: Jalisco New Generation CJNG cartel expands into U.S.

InSight Crime reports,

American officials are reporting that the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) has expanded its trafficking operations in the United States, marking an important evolution in the modus operandi of the growing criminal organization.

As reported by Proceso, the CJNG has used its growing presence in Juárez to boost its participation in US markets for cocaine and heroin. This marks a change in direction for the group whose prominence in Mexico has risen sharply over the past five years, but whose international forays seemed to be mostly limited to trafficking to Europe.

The Proceso report squares with other recent indications from US authorities. In its 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment, published in November, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported that the CJNG was one of the six Mexican organizations with the greatest presence in the United States. It has set up distribution hubs in Los Angeles and Atlanta, and also operates in far-flung cities such as Miami, San Antonio, San Francisco, and even Roanoke, Virginia. The most recent assessment reflects an increased presence relative to prior DEA reports.

CJNG was founded in 2010 as an offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel, distributing cocaine in Europe and, as InSight Crime points out, has a substantial operation in Asia.

In other Mexican cartel news, the manhunt for Gulf Cartel leader Julián “El Toro” (The Bull) Loisa Salinas has created infighting within the organization, leaving nine dead so far.

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Mexico: Jalisco Cartel – New Generation’s bloody history, and Colombia’s FARC cocaine trade partners

InSight Crime posts Luis Alonso Pérez’s article, Mexico’s Jalisco Cartel – New Generation: From Extinction to World Domination

From a small group of deserters from the now-extinct Milenio Cartel, they evolved into a vast criminal network whose links extend through all of the Americas, as well as Europe and Asia.

The key to their rapid expansion has been the strategic presence of operations on the southeast border of the United States, next to Tijuana, and the northeast border, next to Vancouver, Canada. Additionally, they control areas in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Alonso Pérez states that “As of this year, this cartel is the biggest and most important in Mexico.”

Among their allies, Alonso Pérez writes, are Colombia’s FARC, who supply the cocaine,

The report states that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) supplied the cocaine, and that the CJNG transported shipments to 10 key cities in the United States including San Diego, Los Angeles and Seattle. Among the points from which they regularly operate are maritime ports and high-capacity airplane terminals, which facilitate trafficking activities. The latest indication of their international expansion towards the Southern Cone was the arrest of Gerardo González Valencia — Abigael’s brother — and his wife, Wendy Amaral, in April of this year in Montevideo, Uruguay. The charges: assisting Los Cuinis with drug trafficking.

Read the full article here, and the Spanish original here.

Read also The Unstoppable Rise of Jalisco Nueva Generación As North America’s Largest Drug Cartel.

Exit question:
Is placing the unelected FARC members in Colombia’s Congress, while the FARC remain partners with Mexico’s most important cartel, a good idea, for the sake of “peace”?

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Mexico: El Chapo’s son(s) kidnapped at #LaLeche

Following up on yesterday’s post on the kidnapping of six people (initially reported as ten people) at La Leche restaurant in Puerto Vallarta,
Son of ‘El Chapo’ Is Among Men Abducted in Mexico, Prosecutor Says. Authorities believe competing cartel is behind the kidnappings in power grab for empire of jailed organized crime leader

Jalisco state prosecutor Eduardo Almaguer said forensic evidence, footage from security cameras as well as interviews with witnesses convinced authorities that Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, 29, was seized by armed gunmen early Monday as he dined in an upscale restaurant in the resort city.
. . .
Mr. Almaguer said investigators believe the abduction was the work of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, an up-and-coming gang increasingly challenging Mr. Guzman’s once dominant Sinaloa cartel.

Unofficial sources claim that another of El Chapo’s sons, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, el Chapito, was kidnapped, too.

However, Héctor De Mauleón, writing for El Universal, denies the claim that El Chapito was there, even when El Chapito’s birthday is on August 15, coinciding with the date of the kidnapping during a birthday party at La Leche.

De Mauleón questions why the kidnapped men went out apparently unarmed and with no bodyguards.

Only one thing is clear: There’s a drug war on.

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