However more often in these times we are hearing and reading that the government of Pena Nieto is enabling through the "absence of comprehensive strategy to combat organized crime and drug trafficking" the reestablishment or the growth of so-called "old" cartels, such as the CAF who the authorities have admitted since late last spring were restructuring their organization.
In our region, Zeta states that the authorities admit the homicides cannot be controlled in Tijuana, there is a regeneration of the CAF by the son of Ramon Arellano, the CJNG has allied with the CAF, and there is infighting between Sinaloa Cartel cells. Even Tijuana Police Chief Llares Valadares has admitted that one cannot deny there is a war going on right now as we speak and that there is an increase in crime and in the violence. Chief Llares said that before it was easier to stop or control these type of groups but now due to the involvement of so many different cell or organized groups, the task has become more difficult. Finally the authorities have admitted that the CJNG is here, and they might be here to stay. This could no longer be denied as we watched the numbers roll in of drug war related killings which Frontera categorized almost a week ago month by month since the beginning of the year up until 10/07/15. At that point, Tijuana checked in with 502 violent homicides since the beginning of the year which puts the city trailing the totals of 2008 and 2010, but exceeding 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. As of 10/08/15, Zeta puts Ensenada at 36 homicides and Mexicali at 89 homicides, Tecate at 14 homicides.
Although the authorities believe the crux of this war is centered in Tijuana and the Chiefs of Tecate and Rosarito Beach have minimized the war in their Municipalities; both Municipalities, particularly Rosarito Beach have seen sustained violence as far as executions including encobijados, public assassinations by heavily armed gunmen, police chases, kidnapping, and discharge of firearms in public places among the criminal activity. According to recent official statistics, Rosarito has seen 38 executions since the beginning of the year. These killings along with other criminal activities have left the population at large wondering to what extent the war in Tijuana will spread south, or if in fact it already has. It is difficult to imagine that the old playgrounds of the CAF would be unaffected by major territorial disputes. And, if you have watched Matthew Heinemen's "Cartel Land" you might even be wondering at this point who exactly is guarding the drug routes, even in our region.
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| Courtesy OEM:35 year old woman shot 3X Rosarito Beach 09/29/15 condition grave |
This is just one instance of the increase of women and children involved in drug trafficking activities in our region which is due to the lack of opportunities and social decay which exists in the society, according to Dr. Victor Clarke Alfaro. We'll see more examples in the current updates.
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THE UPDATES LAST TEN DAYS:
10/18:
- TIJUANA: We were hoping it would quiet down but that was not to be the case: shortly after midnight last night, Zeta reports one man located in a room in Sanchez Taboada shot twice, dead.
10/17:
- TIJUANA: Well, this is a game changer as far as the numbers: El Sol de Tijuana reports this morning an execution last Thursday in colonia Rinconada of a man located in front of a house. Add one more to the TIJ totals. I did not find this report anywhere else today, maybe tomorrow.
- ENSENADA: Zeta reports last night around 10pm a 5 year old wounded shot in the shoulder by gunfire during a shoot out at the entrance to the subdivsion San Sebastian. The child and a less than 3 year old baby who also suffered being tossed about were inside a vehicle in a chase pursued by van. At the entrance to San Sebastian the van opened fire with heavy weapons; it is unclear if gunfire was exchanged between the two vehicles during the chase. Maybe there might be more on this story throughout the day, maybe.
- MEXICALI: El Mexicano reports that a woman who was shot several times last night in the Mexicali II neighborhood died from her wounds early this morning. This will make the 22nd woman killed so far this year, just last week in Tijuana there was a demonstration against the femicides in our region.
- MEXICALI: Three men handcuffed presumably shot in their heads located in colonia Gabriela Mistral. El Mexicano notes that unofficially it was stated that the men were laying face down.
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| Courtesy El Mexicano |
UPDATE/EDIT 10/18: El Mexicano updates their report this morning with picture; the events of the three men who were executed mafia style and the one woman who died from her wounds took place yesterday 10/17. Zeta has also picked the story up this morning. Updated Report here.
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| Courtesy Lindero Norte |
- MEXICALI: Officially then, same story: These three executions took place yesterday afternoon in colonia Gabriela Mistral at an area known as Los Santorales. The bodies were face down on the road, all with hands and feet tied, and all shot in the head.
10/16:
- ROSARITO BEACH: Frontera reports the violence continues uncontrolled in RB; this afternoon in daylight around 3:00pm there was another assault on a business by armed men. This happened at the Baterias LTH store in colonia Colinas de Aragon when two men carrying shotgun type weapons entered the store and told the two employees that nothing would happen to them if they followed orders. They took the employees to the utility room, tied their hands and feet then robbed the store of thirty batteries and 8K pesos, the profits of the day. It is not clear if these are the same two men who have been involved in recent home, store and cargo robberies, or different individuals.
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- NBC News is reporting El Chapo wounded as Marinos attempt to flush him out of his hiding place in the rugged mountains of Durango, but he escapes again. Just about every local news source down here is picking this story up:
NBC News
El Chapo on the Run: Mexican Drug Lord Has Leg, Face Injuries: Sources
by, Mark Potter
UPDATE: Excellent report from Deborah Bonello who is on the scene. Of course they wanted to kill him, he knows everything about everyone on the payroll, including US government operatives.
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- ROSARITO BEACH : A quick update - Mike was in RB this morning at Dr. Silva's to get baby Freidas adequan shot - then brought her home and went back in to pay electric and H20 bills. (We didn't want her to be in the car while he was doing other things) He said town was not crowded, quiet, no gringos or policia or Army spotted. Dr. Silva is Muffin's primary care doctor and Dr. Beth has been consulting with him. Dr. Silva is also having a rough time of it, his wife's cancer returned and their Doctor who he said was "keeping her alive" died. So, it's not good. He grabbed a Zeta - headlines this week are "Ciudad Sin Ley" (City Without Law - sounds like at 40's film noir which it is) referring of course to Tijuana, complete coverage of the Ojos Negros, Ensenada massacre and the dope connections. I'm going to add the policia report links at the bottom so you can look through them - there have been several arrests including a main operative of the CAF and three gang members from Barrio Logan arrested .
- ROSARITO BEACH: Reported this morning by Frontera.info and Zeta, incident took place last night around 10:30pm. After hearing gunshots, neighbors called police who located a man executed on the street in colonia Benito Juarez (ampliacion). Witnesses said the gunmen were aboard a van; 15 shell casings left at scene, 12 were from a .45 and 3 were from a .38 super. Zeta notes the victim sustained nine gun shots and was identified as Jorge Eduardo Soto Alvarez who served under former Mayor of RB, Tito Robles. Robles and his administration were criticized for inventing the department and post Soto Alvarez worked in and Soto Alvarez was involved in a bribery allegation involving 50K pesos and questionable permits selling alcohol in RB from a business in Tecate where his father worked. He was eventually removed from the post, unknown if the post and department which was created for him still exists. The article does not state if Soto Alvarez was convicted of anything.
- MEXICALI: El Mexicano reports an operation in progress in colonia Compuertas to locate bodies by agents of various agencies and specialists. Last weekend detectives used trained dogs in the east part of Mexicali searching for bodies. Today a back hoe is being used inside of a vacant house, the perimeter is being guarded by Municipal and Ministerial police. The PGJE has not released any details or information regarding these recent searches.
10/15 - 10/14:
- TIJUANA: Frontera and Zeta both reporting one man executed tonight in colonia Las Torres Parte Alta (Centenario). Frontera states the execution took place outside of a small grocery store. The Pegaso helicopter was on the scene, but gunman/men were not located.
Zetan notes that with this latest killing, there have been thirteen people killed this week, twenty three so far this month. This will bump the OEM stats up to 515 in Tijuana since the beginning of the year.
- ROSARITO BEACH: Frontera reports this morning in the lower part of colonia Constitucion on the corner of Campeche and Veracruz, a woman had just pulled into her garage and was getting out of her vehicle when she was assaulted at gunpoint by two men. They told her not to resist, threw her down to the floor, tied her hands, took her jewelry and other items from her purse and the keys to her 2011 Toyota Tacoma and fled. So far, no arrests. The woman was admitted to the General Hospital suffering a nervous breakdown.
- ENSENADA: Zeta reports gunfire in Ejido Urupan (where the old rustica hot springs are located) of Santo Tomas. First reports are that two people are injured, however this is not official yet.
- TIJUANA: El Sol reports we are up to 514 homicides/executions in Tijuana based on PGJE stats. Link may not come up do search for: Van 22 homicidios en quincena de octubre (Suman 514 en lo que va del ano). (Depending on what happens today, that number could increase)
- TIJUANA: CSSP who keep a close eye on the security situation remark that the violence is out of control along with an "alarming rise in addictions." Jonathan Diaz Castro believes Tijuana needs more police elements in addition to 200 elements of National Gendarmerie and/or Federal Police acting as reinforcements. He encourages the educational sector, the sport sector, and the health sector to be more involved in comprehensive strategies against drug addictions.
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| The New Recruits - 2015 |
- TIJUANA: Report from Dr. Victor Clarke Alfaro following the case of 14 year old Ulises Abraham for his ( alleged ) involvement in the murder of a man in the Zona Norte a few days previous 10/10. Ulises said he initially made contact with the solicitor of the murder plot through Facebook. He was told he would receive 3K dlls. for the killing; he was given the identification of the man to be killed, taken to the Zona Norte by taxi where he shot and killed the victim. The taxi was supposed to be in waiting to help Ulises escape, but it had vanished, and the boy was picked up by Municipal Police.
In this report, Dr. Victor Clarke Alfaro cites one 2013 study of children who have become sicarios. He believes this is the new "Lost Generation" coming from severely dysfunctional families and having no family ties at all, they are easily influenced and used by the cartels and highly disposable. It is no surprise then that since their mentors are narcos, many of these street children are addicted to drugs. He feels that because of the abundance of drugs on the street, an ineffectiveness to end organized crime and a failure in prevention policies, the problem is manifest.
Several years ago, Molly Malloy wrote a book on the case of a child sicario I believe from Ciudad Juarez. At that time, there was interest from the USMSM which has faltered over the years, no one seems to care anymore - almost like the drug war and all of its nuances are passe except for the most fetching headlines, i.e. El Chapo (or perhaps this non reporting is planned to protect US government, promoters and business interests in Mexico). In the earlier years of the drug war here there were some programs initiated for troubled children but we really don't hear about those programs anymore. I remember using the same picture above from a blog back in 2009 entitled, "The New Recruits" - oh well, pretty soon I'll get those old blogs back up.
- ROSARITO BEACH: Primo Tapia: Two employees driving a truck for Comercial del Noroeste, SA blocked, threatened and robbed by armed gunmen. The victims hands were tied with duct tape and faces covered. No arrests. Primo Tapia / Los Arenalas area is where US citizen Jake Merendino was located murdered 05/03/15 - body dumped in a barranca.
10/13 - 10/10:
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| Courtesy Frontera.info |
- TIJUANA: In Otay one man gunned down while filling his vehicle with gas at gas station by two men on foot - pure daylight. What followed was a shoot out between police who were in the vicinity and the attackers leaving one of the criminals wounded the other detained. Frontera notes this shoot out took place close to ITT and two schools. Frontera has the video.
- TIJUANA: Young man attacked at the OXXO en Soler sustains multiple gunshot wounds to face, shoulders and chest. Is able to admit himself to the IMSS, condition is guarded.
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| Courtesy OEM Rosarito Beach |
- ROSARITO BEACH: Over the weekend, two are dead and four are seriously injured from attacks:
Sunday: One man stabbed in head and body. One man located hands tied behind back stabbed in neck, dead. Colonia Reformacion one man located in street shot eight times, dead.
Saturday: One minor attacked and stabbed in neck,this was in Plan Libertador. Two more people beaten in same location. In colonia Aztlan two trailers and vehicle burned.
- TIJUANA: A young man executed, his body located Sunday night in a barranca of colonia Canadas del Florido.
- TIJUANA: Two reported; on Friday night in ejido Chipancigo one man gunned down in a drive by. Then on Saturday early in Rivera del Bosque one man located stabbed to death, apparently he had been cuffed.
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| Courtesy Zeta |
- ENSENADA: Ojos Negros- Four people including two aged 12 and 17 massacred while sitting and chatting between their two trucks. In the middle of the the town almost across the street from the police station, another vehicle approached them and opened fire leaving 50 shell casings at the scene. People on the street panicked and fell to the ground when the gunfire broke out. Zeta reports that one of the victims who had a 9mm on his lap is believed to have been involved in drug dealing at some level, and also points out that Ojos Negros is not only renown for it's famous cheese, but for its many clandestine marijuana fields. Zeta has indicated that this is part of a long standing dispute between cells of the Sinaloa cartel.
Zeta follow up report on the Ojos-Negros massacre which some authority figures are calling an "isolated incident." The reality is that this dispute between groups of El Mayo (Sinaloa cartel ) has been ongoing for at least two years with killings and forced disappearances.
10/09:
- ROSARITO BEACH: In colonia Constitucion one man shot in head and body on 10/08 by gunmen aboard van, no arrests and no word on the victims condition.
- TIJUANA: In ejido Chilpancingo one man executed while riding his bicycle on Blvd. Gato Bronco.
- TIJUANA: One elderly man stabbed and killed, his body located in a box wrapped in a blanket in the back of a pickup truck. The driver eventually admitted to the murder - for a drug debt.
- ROSARITO BEACH: In the Gusher Pharmacy parking lot, right off of Benito Juarez, the Director of the Instituto Municipal de Planeacion vehicles window was smashed out (cristalazo), computer and other material stolen. Frontera calls him a victim of the insecurity plaguing the streets of Rosarito Beach. This was the second time he had been robbed in Rosarito Beach, he had been robbed once before in Tijuana.
- TIJUANA: Returning from Ensenada and parking his vehicle at his home in Villas del Real (La Presa) Jose Ramon Sanchez Zaizar, a Public Defender for the PGR shot repeatedly. He had been threatened previously for pursuing a robbery at his house, and even advised on an official level to just let it go. By all accounts, Sanchez Zaizar was clean.
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| Courtesy Frontera |
- ROSARITO BEACH: BTW, at the end of September the Police in Rosarito Beach were out on Benito Juarez handing out information leaflets to citizens on security reminders.
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Policia Links - You can check out the arrests and seizures:
Frontera
Zeta
AFN (go to security section)
El Mexicano
El Sol de Tijuana
I have some recent reports on the Jornaleros - will be back at some point with those.
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