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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Parral for the Block: Los Zetas move to Southern Chihuahua |
| 2011-06-05 |
| For a map, click here. by Chris Covert Last Thursday morning the residents of Parral, Chihuahua woke up to find two messages painted on walls announcing the arrival of the Los Zetas cartel in Parral within 15 days. Already with the reputation as one of the most vicious drug gangs in Mexico, the announcement further stated their alliance with La Linea, the Juarez cartel's armed/enforcement wing. Such messages, known colloquially as narcopintas, are common in Mexico. For La Linea they are the primary means of mass communication. For all the specter of terror they may imply, the messages are often just bluster. But events that began with the start of a Mexican Federal counternarcotics campaign last month, and the formal announcement of an alliance between the Gulf Cartel, remnants of La Familia Michoacana and the Sinaloa Cartel, including a formal name for the alliance, suggests Los Zetas move into Parral may really be happening. On December 17th, 2010 a car bomb was detonated in Zuazua, Nuevo Leon near northern Monterrey, which did some physical damage to a police station and wounded two police officers. What made the bomb unique was that it was the first car bomb detonated in Nuevo Leon. Two other bombs were detonated in neighboring Tamaulipas the previous summer and fall, neither of which did more than damage buildings and cars. To read the Rantburg report on the Zuazua, Nuevo Leon car bomb click here That evening, a number of Mexican national publications were the recipients of a fax that suggested a formal alliance between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels and stated that 11 more car bombs were readied if security forces did not deal with Los Zetas. But only Proceso, the Mexican independent leftist weekly reported on the fax. To read the Rantburg report on the fax indicating the alliance between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, click here At issue were 1,000 hostages allegedly held by Los Zetas. Although the fax emphatically stated that 1,000 hostages were bring held in Nuevo Leon, the parallels between that fax and what we now know about the San Fernando, Tamaulipas mass murders are chilling. To read the Rantburg report on the mass murders in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, click here At the time, this writer could not credit the report and inasmuch as a number of media outlets may have received the fax, no other news outlet in Mexico reported being the recipient of the message. As reported before informal message such as these are often bluster without much of a basis, but every once in a while they are not. In late March, 2011, a much more concrete if official indication of an alliance surfaced with an international bust involving Mexican Policia Federal and Ecuadoran Policia Nacional which detained Victor Manuel Felix Felix, the brother in law of Sinaloa drug cartel head Joaquin Loera Guzman, AKA El Chapo. Felix Felix was not only a top accountant for the Sinaloa cartel; he was head of the Pacifico cartel as well. Among the documents found in the bust were suggestions that not only was an alliance between the two cartels formalized, but that the Sinaloa cartel was moving some operations to Mexico's east coast. To read the Rantburg reprot on the arrest of Manual Felix Felix, click here Such an alliance would definitely put a crimp in Los Zetas operations, as Los Zetas compete directly with both cartels for drug shipment routes and growing areas, and in local organized crime operations. Security for Gulf and Sinaloa cartels operations was probably the main reason for the alliance. On the west coast at least, Los Zetas encountered Sinaloa shooters, and in at least two instances Los Zetas defeated them with deaths well into a double digits. For all the bluster the international press places on how cheap life is in Mexico, at least 40 shooters in two encounters is a heavy blow to any organization. To read a brief overview of the Sonora shootouts, click here A number of other encounters have taken place as well in the mountains of Mexico's Sierra Madres between Sinaloa cartel shooters and Los Zetas, particularly in remote mountain municipalities where local indigenous Indian populations are forced to grow drugs for Mexican organized crime. To read the Rantburg reprot on the Sierra Madres attacks click here nnd here None of the above encounters have been officially indicated to be specifically between Los Zetas and the Sinaloa drug cartel, but with the La Familia Michoacana officially out of business, the only competition with the Sinaloa drug cartel in the west are Los Zetas. Several events have transpired since March which suggests Los Zetas may have suffered setbacks in the general area of Jalisco state and Zacatecas. Starting May 21st and concluding May 28th Mexican security forces including Mexican Army and Policia Fereal conducted two major counternarcotics offensives which has yielded several large hauls of drugs and guns, including 656 kilograms of marijuana and 4.5 metric tons of chemicals for manufacturing methampetimine. The seizures took place in the Tamazula de Gordiano, Tecalitlan, Zapopan and Ciudad Guzman municipality, except for Zapopan all in the southern region of the state. But a major shootout in Zacatecas and a large subsequent arrest of drug gang suspects suggest that Los Zetas may not be just fighting the Sinaloa and Gulf cartel for control of the region, but also fighting smaller groups aligned with them such as the Milenio cartel, aligned with Sinaloa and Gulf. The shooutout in Florencia de Benito Juarez municipality May 18th in far southern Zacatecas has taken an uncharacteristically heavy toll on Los Zetas with 20 dead. With the Los Zetas practice of clearing a shootout of their dead, the death toll could well be higher. That shootout took place May 18th and forced drug gangsters south into Jalisco where the Mexican Army was just preparing their new counternarcotics offensive. That confrontation in Florencia de Benito Juärez was apparently the first encounter between Los Zetas and the new alliance dubbed Carteles Unidos. Until May 18th the existence of the alliance was only apparent by name in narcopintas placed in Guadalajara over the last several months. It is impossible to know how hard Los Zetas got hit, hut with 20 dead it is easy to surmise they did take a heavy hit. In another blow to Los Zetas, another shootout took place in San Cristobal de la Barranca municipality in Jaliso May 22nd between Los Zetas and Los Valencias cartel, which is aligned with the Gulf cartel where five men were killed. Following that shootout, 20 Los Zetas operatives were arrested by Jalisco state police. Since this writer has been covering the Mexican drug war news, one of the constants in Chihuahua state (especially Juarez) drug murders has been the death match between the Sinaloa drug cartel organization in Chihuahua state and the Juarez drug cartel in the form of their armed/enforcement wing La Linea. Both sides in this conflict are so sensitive to differentiating treatment by state and local officials, they will find some low level government element to kill as a deterrence to further treatment. It seems even in the shooting gallery that Chihuahua has become, drug gangsters expect equal treatment under the law. So, when the national Los Zetas organization starts to experience pressure from the alliances of other cartels, a countering move makes sense. Allying with the Juarez cartel make a lot of sense. Los Zetas have access through alliances to two of 11 US border crossings (Tijuana and Juarez), control of one (Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas) and are contesting two (Reynosa and Matamoros, Tamaulipas). The Sinaloa cartel before their new alliance with the Gulf Cartel, had nominal control of one border crossing ( Nogales, Sonora ) and were contesting two (Tijuana, Baja California and Juarez,Chihuahua) Renewed pressure in Juarez could well cost the Sinaloa gang in the long run if the new move into Parral is true. Parral is one of two main highways from the south into Chihuahua. Los Zetas control of that area will most certainly make business harder for the Sinaloa drug cartel. |
| Posted by:badanov |
