December 2009
Sicarios Attack Aguascalientes Police Headquarters
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Aguascalientes, MX - Earlier last Thursday, a gang of 40 armed men attacked a police headquarters in San Francisco de los Romo, in the central state of Aguascalientes, killing two police officers. In the morning of December 3 a heavily armed commando with more than 30 luxury SUVs attacked and slaughtered3 police officers.
Ten of the SUV surrounded the building of the Municipal police headquarters and started firing their high-powered weapons. They threw grenades and fire power from 50 caliber weapons. The result was two policemen dead and one seriously injured.
Then another group of gunmen aboard two trucks, plunged into the parking lot and fired their his AK-47 "cuernos de chivo" and AR-15 killing police officer José Manuel Robles Prieto, 38 years of age, who was at the entrance of a guard house. His death was instantaneous.
Then they entered the police station asking for the director César Barbosa Barrios who was not in at the time. Then they sprayed the facility gun fire.
The gunmen boarded their trucks and fled, but they had advanced a few yards when they met a patrol vehicle driven by police officer Clemente Castro Díaz 40. When the sicarios saw him, they began shooting at him.
Faced with the unexpected attack, the officer diverted his vehicle away to some soccer fields that were located behind the police building but the sicarios continued firing at him.
There wasconvoy of 9 trucks that was following him aboard with numerous gunmen, but one of the trucks left the convoy and went directly after the police vehicle that was attempting to flee in a dirt empty field.
One of the bullets struck one of the tires of the police unit and Diazgot out ofthe unit running on foot.
The sicarios continued to pursue the officer and one of the sicarios was able to hit the officer on the back.
Wounded, the officer continued to run but the truck driven by the sicariosstruck the officer running him over.
The truck stopped and one of the sicarios got out and fired at least 53shots at the body of the officer at close range hitting him several times including several shots to the head.
More than 1,300 spent shell casings were foundat this sceneand the police vehicles was destroyed in this sad note of Mexican history.
January 2010
Dismembered Body of Federal Judiciary Found
They found the mutilated body on the street with a narco message in Veracruz-Boca del Rio.
Veracruz-Boca del Río - The Federal Judiciary, Nayeli Reyes Santos, 32 years of age, who was abducted last Thursday when she was walking to work, was found at 7 this morning dead and dismembered in the streets of Invernadero and Marte in the community of Joyas de Mocambo.
With signs of torture, mutilated and a narco-banner nailed to the back with a knife, is how the remains of Reyes Santos were found. The narco-poster had a warning against those who tried to betray the cartel members "Z" or Zetas. Unofficially it is believed that the message said, "This is what is going to happen to all thosewho show no respect or finger the company. Atte Z."
Later authorities were able to confirm that the body found belonged to Nayeli Reyes Santos, who was intercepted by a van with unidentified men, when she was walking on the street Habaneras near the corner of Paseo Jardines de Virginia.
After being missing for 72 hours, the body of Reyes Santos was finally found. She is thecounsel of the official Second Judicial Court of the Federation, who was abducted last Thursday morning a few blocks from her home when she was walking to work.
The soldiers who had arrived at the scene saw that it was the body of a woman, her dismembered body had the legs and arms wrapped in plastic bags and her torso was facing down. She was wearing underwear and a tank top. The hands were still secured by handcuffs and, black pants and shoes were found with the limbs. Her head was detached from the body. The head was later found under two sheets at the corner of Invernadero street in the community of Jardines de Virginia, near her home and where she was raised.
They do not have any clue to the identity of the criminals.
Several units of the Mexican Army, Federal Police and elements of the Secretariat of Public Security arrived at the scene. Also at the scene was the staff of attorney general’s office, who was already conducting an investigating of the disappearance of the girl since last Thursday.
According to unofficial sources, the death of the employee of the Federal Judicial Power is related to the arrest of the auditor and supervisor of the cell "Sur" of the Gulf Cartel.
It was last week when two shootings were reported in the port of Veracruz that resulted in the arrest of Juan Carlos Tarabay Castillo, aka "El 20," who served as auditor and supervisor for the cell "Sur" that includes Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo. Subordinate Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, aka "El 40," was the last major operator of that organization.
In addition they secured the arrest of Jaime Cifuentes Márquez, aka "El Chupon" and Desiderio Jiménez Rivera, aka "El Borrado," all members of the criminal organization of "Cárdenas Guillen."
UPDATE:
Corpse is returned to INMEFO
During the night, the parents of the lawyer Nayeli Reyes, discovered that the corpse they were viewing during the wake had some very different characteristics from those of their daughter.
The main observation was the fact that the body had curly hair, unlike Nayeli’s, who is straight and streaked with "highlights".
These inconsistencies were brought to the attention of the Governor Fidel Herrera, who immediately ordered all the necessary tests of exams to remove any doubts.
The wake was suspended and the body was returned to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, where in the course of the next few hours they will perform various forensic tests, including DNA testing.
Severed Head Found and Police Chief Killed
Police chief killed, severed head found in Mexican town.
The Associated Press
Morelia, Mexico - Gunmen killed a police chief and two officers Thursday in the same western town where a human head was dumped a day earlier.
Antonio Bravo, police chief of Quiroga, and two officers were attacked while they drove in a patrol car, Michoacan state prosecutors said in a statement.
Quiroga authorities found the severed head Wednesday in the town's tree-lined plaza near city hall. It was accompanied by a threatening message referring to a drug cartel.
Also Thursday, police in the Michoacan town of Zitacuaro found several plastic bags containing body parts near the city government offices, prosecutors said.
And in the PacificCoast state of Sinaloa, a man was hanged from a bridge in the Villa Union, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the resort city of Mazatlan.
Police found a message threatening the Zetas, a gang founded by former-soldiers-turned-hit men who also work with the Gulf cartel, state Attorney General's Office spokesman Martin Gastelum said.
Gastelum said the unidentified man had been tortured first.
Sinaloa is Mexico's drug-smuggling heartland and the birthplace of the leadership of four of the six major cartels.
Drug violence has killed more than 15,000 people nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on cartels in late 2006.
February 2010
The Chief of the PEP is Executed
He was apprehended in 2008 by soldiers, accused of extortion.
Along with his bodyguards he was later released.
Tijuana, BC - José Angel Meza Valdez, Chief of the State Preventive Police (PEP) was executed on Saturday afternoon, as he was driving his own personal car, a Ford Focus with border plates, and it was presumed he was going to his place of work since he had mentioned that he was going to "stand guard".
The chief had been was arrested along with five of his bodyguards in April 2008 by members of the Mexican Army, accused of extorting a woman, yet all of suspects got out, and despite the arrest, they all continued to work within of the police agency.
The Secretary of the Public Safety Department of the State (SSPE) this afternoon confirmed the death of this agent who was 41 years old and who was allegedly attacked with firearms at around 1524 hours.
Authorities learned that the chief was travelling on board his personal vehicle on the boulevard Cucapáh to go to the facilities of the State Preventive Police in the zone Rio when the attack occurred.
The chief of the PEP joined the agency on November 10, 2004. The body of the chief was still inside his vehicle slumped toward the driver's seat.
In this regard, the state prosecutor's office stated that the killing occurred on the street Cucapáh and street Plan Libertador in the community Buenos Aires Norte, where besides the body of police chief, they also located 6 spent casings of 45 caliber.
His arrest
The arrest of Meza Valdez was recorded on April 21, 2008, when a man complained to authorities that this commander had "detained" his wife Sandra Castaneda, which he was driving around in his unit, while he was demanding 5,000 U.S. dollars in order for her release.
Supposedly state agents had previously arrived at the woman's house in the subdivision Mariano Matamoros, where they searched the house and afterwards they put her in a Pickup truck, where they were detected by elements of the military.
In his defense he said that the woman sold drugs and said that they were conducting an operation. Along with him were also arrested: José Aarón Coronado Ganda, Fernando Emmanuel Patiño Constantino, Álvaro Efrén Aburto Montalvo, Inés Navarrete Mariscal, Ángel Alfonso Fuentevilla Villalobos.
March 2010
Another Chief Executed
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Agualeguas, Nuevo Leon - The decapitated body of the police chief of a northern Mexico town and the body of his brother were found inside the chief's patrol truck Friday.
The Agualeguas municipal chief and his brother were discovered after state police received a telephone call early Friday about a patrol vehicle abandoned near a village more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon’s capital, state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said.
Forensic experts examine a police patrol car after police found the decapitated body of a town police chief and the body of his brother inside the car near the town of General Trevino, Mexico Friday March 26, 2010. The windshield and driver's door of Cerda's patrol car had 'C.D.G,' an acronym for the Gulf drug cartel, written in blood.
The body of Heriberto Cerda, the police chief in Agualeguas, was found on the bed of a patrol pickup truck, which was left on a dirt road in the nearby town of General Trevino. His head was on his lap, said a spokesman for Nuevo Leon state prosecutors who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.
The body of the chief's brother, Jesus Cerda, was found inside the truck, the official said. He didn't say how Jesus Cerda was killed.
Nuevo Leon state secretary general Javier Trevino told reporters that Cerda and his brother had been reported missing Thursday.
The killers used the victims’ blood to paint the patrol vehicle with the initials “CDG,” signifying Cartel del Golfo, or Gulf cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug outfits. The windshield and driver's door of the patrol car had "C.D.G.," an acronym for the Gulf drug cartel, written in blood, photos showed.
Forensic personnel inspect a police truck, with the letters CDG written in blood on the windshield.
The border state of Nuevo Leon, where Agualeguas and General Trevino are located, has seen an upsurge in violence that authorities say is the result of a turf battle between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas, the cartel's former hit men.
The slayings came a day after Mexican marines on patrol in the Nuevo Leon town of Cerralvo came under fire after ordering a convoy of gunmen traveling in six vehicles to stop. Six of the assailants were killed.
Drug-related mayhem has claimed a dozen lives in Nuevo Leon over the past two days, including six gunmen killed in a clash with Mexican marines.
Violence has intensified in Nuevo Leon and neighboring Tamaulipas since the appearance last month in Monterrey of giant banners announcing an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels against Los Zetas, a band of Mexican special forces deserters turned killers for hire.
After several years as the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.
The cartels arrayed against Los Zetas blame the group’s penchant for kidnapping, armed robbery and extortion for discrediting “true drug traffickers” in the eyes of ordinary Mexicans, many of whom were inclined to tolerate the illicit trade as long as the gangs stuck to their own unwritten rule against harming innocents.
Battles among drug cartels and the security forces’ struggle against the mobs have claimed nearly 19,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006, when current President Felipe Calderon took office.
Vowing to crush the cartels, Calderon has deployed 50,000 soldiers and 20,000 federal police to the country’s most conflictive areas, yet the pace of drug-related killings has only accelerated, from 2,700 people in 2007 to 7,724 fatalities last year.
The 2010 death toll has already topped 2,200, according to a tally kept by Mexico City daily El Universal.
Gunmen Kill Nogales Deputy Police Chief and Bodyguard
Saturday, March 27, 2010 | Borderland Beat Reporter Buggs
The assistant police chief in Nogales, Sonora and his bodyguard were killed late Thursday night in a barrage of gunfire.
The deputy police chief in Nogales, Son., Adalberto Padilla Molina, and bodyguard Iván Sepúlveda Espino, were killed Thursday night when police say a small group of men in a pickup truck pulled up to the van they were riding and opened fire, according to reports in the Sonoran newspaper El Imparcial. reported. The victims were traveling in a green Dodge Caravan along the main street called Luis Donaldo Colosio about 9:45 p.m. when the shooting occurred.
Nogales, Sonora - Adalberto Padilla Molina and his bodyguard, Iván Sepúlveda Espino, were driving in a minivan in central Nogales on Periférico Luis Donaldo Colosio and El Greco Boulevard when three people in a gray Ford pickup truck opened fire with AK-47s, said Jose Larrinaga, a spokesman for the Sonora prosecutor's office.
The shooting occurred at 9:45 p.m. near a shopping center parking lot located about three miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. A 17-year-old boy who standing outside of a nearby funeral home was injured as he tried to avoid the gunfire and is in stable condition, Larrinaga said.
Padilla and his bodyguard didn't have a chance to shoot back or avoid the attack, Larrinaga said. Padilla, who has a military background, took over as assistant police chief on Dec. 3.
Adalberto Padilla Molina, the deputy police chief in Nogales, Sonora., and his body guard were killed Thursday night in an ambush.
He is the second high-ranking law enforcement officer killed in Sonora in the past two years in Nogales, Sonora.
On Nov. 3, 2008, gunmen ambushed the director of Sonora's state police, Juan Manuel Pavón Félix, with guns and grenades as he entered his hotel in central Nogales alongside his bodyguard and other law-enforcement officials.
Deputy Chief Adalberto Padilla Molina.
The Sheriff of Santa Cruz County said the murder of the deputy police chief of Nogales, Mexico, and his body guard Thursday night is very disturbing.
Sheriff Tony Estrada told The Associated Press Friday it's also troubling that drug cartels are targeting Mexican police command staff.
Body Guard Iván Sepúlveda Espino.