Borderland Beat

by Alex Marentes

  Within the group of protection that fell to the operation of the infantry of the Navy of Mexico, there were also active police officers who with the backing of their superior officers were directly responsible to provide protection to the houses of cartel members, to be bodyguards for cartel leaders or to be guides for different groups sicarios living in other states.

  The document details how the agents were paid 2,000 dollars a month and their mission was to report any operation against the cartel, rescue or assist those members of the cartel that might get arrested, to report all suspicious vehicles or even serve as a "wall of protection" in ensuring the success of actions perpetuated by sicarios or executioners of the organization.

  The large numbers of Halcones (lookouts) that dedicated itself to conducting runs throughout the state capital had private vehicles to carry out surveillance, while alone or in pairs and sometimes even in teams of four.

  The document revealed that the Halcones were usually equipped cell phones or radios, but were not armed. Their primary mission was to report the movements of the Army, federal and state police, in addition to the presence of suspicious vehicles in each of their perspective areas.

  The sicarios called Zafiros, who received the information from the Halcones, were in charged with alerting the cartel leaders of any threat.

  Arturo Beltran Leyva, who is best described by all his nicknames: "La Muerte," "El Barbas," "El jefe de jefes" or "El botas blancas" made the lists of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world for his power and influence stretching from Columbia to the United States.

  During his criminal career, he bought the same officials that were supposed to apprehend him and executed those who stood in the way of his operations.

  El Grande

  Sergio Enrique Villarreal Barragán, a.k.a. El Grande, is a former Mexican federal police officer who worked as a lieutenant for Arturo Beltrán Leyva of the criminal organization called the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO). He got his name El Grande ("The Big One") because he is 6 feet 7 inches tall.

  El Grande was born in Torreón, Coahuila on September 21, 1969. He began his criminal career as a car thief in the state of Coahuila, and in 1990 at age 20, he was joined the Coahuila Judicial Police. He later joined the Federal Police and was stationed at Nuevo Laredo. El Grande was also stationed in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, where he worked until 1996. There he established a relationship with the Juárez Cartel. Between the years 2007 and 2010, Villarreal Barragán left the Juárez cartel to work along with the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. He later joined the Sinaloa Cartel, commanding a criminal cell of the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO).

  The war started on a Monday, January 21, 2008. On board Hummer vehicles, and with heavy artillery, more than 300 elements of the Special Forces Aeromobile Group (GAFE) of the Mexican Army, positioned themselves in the area of a residence located in the Burócratas community in Culiacán. According to the Ministry of Defense, an anonymous call had told them that the youngest of the Beltrán brothers, Alfredo, alias El Mochomo, was waiting at that address for a shipment of money on an outstanding settlement from some of his Colombian associates. According to the statement from a drug trafficker known as El 19 - who had joined the witness protection program and went by the name of "Jennifer," the army had obtained the location of El Mochomo through confidential information from a soldier that had managed to infiltrate El Mochomo's inner circle, and who was known as El Chamaco. El Chamaco managed to call the GAFE to provide the exact location and minimal amount of security they had.

  The military had to postpone the operation for 10 hours, because they detected some men on the roof of the house. Near dawn, the gate opened. A white BMW van came out with four men on board. A team of elite military commandos blocked their way. The men in the vehicle surrendered without firing a single shot. Inside the house they recovered $900,000 in dollars, 11 expensive watches, an AK-47 and eight handguns. A narco corrido announced the event the following day:

  "El Mochomo was a man of confidence

  that the cartel needed

  but on January 21 his career was cut short."

  The news of the arrest of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, that was led by Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán and Ismael El Mayo Zambada, was presented as the most important arrest carried out by the government in the war against drug trafficking that Felipe Calderón had carried out. In the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, and specifically in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for Specialized Investigation in Organized Crime, SIEDO, this arrest caused immediate panic. The cartel cell led by the brothers of Héctor, Alfredo and Arturo Beltrán Leyva had corrupted the highest level of that federal institution by paying monthly bribes of between $150,000 and $450,000 in dollars, as it was later discovered through the Operation Cleanup: Officials of the highest level of the SIEDO carried out arrests, searches and provided leaks of sensitive information to the BLO.

  That day of El Mochomo arrest, several public officials were very nervous. They had received reports that El Mochomo was going to be arrested, but in the SIEDO they could do nothing to avoid it. They expected the leadership of Arturo Beltrán to call them to explained why Alfredo was arrested.

  Hector Beltra leyva alias "El Hache," a top capo of the BLO, was upset with El Grande over the arrest of his brother Alfredo Beltran Leyva.

  Although El Grande was not directly responsible for the security of El Mochomo, he was in charge of the cartel relationship with the federal government and the arrest caused suspicion for El Grande.

  Hector Beltran was resting at his home in Morelos when he was told about the arrest of Alfredo Beltran and became so upset that he took out a firearm from inside his waist and started shooting up to the ceiling while his escort looked on very nervous. He smashed a bottle of wine that was on top of a table against a European table that had been a gift from the Panista governor Marco Antonio Adame Castillo. Hector Beltran requested the immediate presence of his most trusted man, El Grande. He was brought in all the way from Puebla in a helicopter from the state police of Morelos.

  With his eyes red from anger and anguish, Hector Beltran Leyva requested a quick explanation why his brother was arrested. He reminded El Grande about the millions of dollars in bribes that the cartel paid to ensure the protection of his family from many levels of the government. There was a clear understanding that his family would not be touched. Hector Beltran requested that El Grande conduct a complete thorough investigation to find out who they have to kill.

  The meeting lasted about ten minutes.

  El Grande started making phone calls to his contacts with the PGR. It was later learned that he spoke with the Captain Fernando Rivera of the PGR. He arranged for a meeting in the city of Mexico to get the information on the arrest Alfredo Beltran Leyva in Culiacan. According to a statement from Rivera that was given at a later date when he became a protected witness, under the name of "Moisés," El Grande told them that Arturo Beltrán Leyva was pissed. Captain Rivera promised to give him a detailed report of the operation no later than the next day.

  The next day the Captain Rivera met with El Grande in a restaurant on Avenida Reforma and the captain was also in company of commanders Menton Silia and Roberto Garcia, who Rivera ordered to gather the information immediately in less than 24 hours.

  El Grande immediately got the names of the “snitches.” It turned out to be two agents of the ministerial police of Sinaloa. Their prompt death was surely assured.

  Rivera told El Grande that from 11 o'clock onwards, the special forces of the army would no longer be present, and that only 11 agents of the Federal Investigation Agency, AFI, would remain on scene to provide security. He told El Grande that with the delivery of one million pesos for the AFIS, as well as three million that would be to pay off Fernando Rivera and his people, it would be possible to get the cooperation of the security detail and allow an armored truck to break in to the gate to give them access to the SIEDO facility.
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br />   After El Grande gave the information to his boss, about the progress of his investigation, Hector Beltran ordered El Grande to take immediate action to rescue his detained brother. El Grande gathered about 100 men, that came from different parts of the country to the city of Mexico, to carry out an assault of the headquarters of SIEDO. The then allied leaders of the Beltran Leyva clan; Joaquin Guzman Loera, El Chapo and Ismael El Mayo Zambada refused to cooperate in the rescue attempt. The assault was planned for midnight on January 24th but in the end, it did not take place because El Mochomo was transferred 7 days before to the federal prison Puente Grande.

  The refusal of El Chapo and El Mayo to help secure the freedom of Alfredo Beltran prompted bad blood between the Beltran brothers. This caused the breakup of the two factions. This would be the start of the war between the Beltran Leyva Organization and the Sinaloa Cartel. Hector Beltran broke the alliance with the Sinaloa cartel that for many years had remained intact in the world of narco trafficking. Hector Beltran Layva never forgave El Grande that had allowed the arrest of his younger brother. Hector Beltran brought it up every time they saw each other. That is when El Grande brought up the notion that perhaps the people responsible for the arrest of El Chomo was attributed to El Chapo Guzman and Mayo Zambada.

  Another version points out that Arturo Beltrán met with El Chapo Guzmán and El Mayo Zambada to ask them to help him rescue his brother. The leaders of the Sinaloa cartel asked him for more time, but in a second meeting they explained that the conditions were not right for a rescue attempt. They explained that Mochomo would have to be sacrificed.

  It is believed that in the drug trafficking business where there is a blood alliance, it is virtually indestructible. El Mochomo was married to a cousin of El Chapo. Arturo Beltrán, however, left that meeting with the idea that the blood alliance had been broken. From now on he was going to have to be killed or arrested, for he did not care anymore of the consequences. El Chapo and El Mayo knew that this would result in a war with the Beltran clan but they accepted the risk. They just wanted to move on and allow things to remain the way they were without intervention from the powerful Sinaloa cartel. They either did not want to bring heat from the federal government or perhaps they were working another angle with the top levels of the federal government, or both.

  Then, there was the rumor that the El Chapo had made a deal with the highest levels of the federal government that he would deliver El Mochomo in exchange for the release of his son, El Chapito.

  At the end of April 2008, the same month that El Chapito was released, a shootout occurred in Culiacán. A house which allegedly belonged to the children of Arturo Beltrán, was targeted by elements of the Federal Police, supported by municipal police. Five sicarios and two ministerial police agents were killed during a fierce battle. Arturo Beltrán accused the feds of serving as an armed wing for El Chapo and ordered his people to kill any police officer wherever they may be found. He placed narcomantas in which he wrote: "Policemen, soldiers, so that it is clear to you, El Mochomo continues to reign. Atte. Arturo Beltrán Leyva." And also: "Warrying Soldiers, little federal police forces, this place is the territory of Arturo Beltrán."

  One day after the shooting in Culiacán where Arturo Beltran lost five of his sicarios, four officers of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) were killed when they were patrolling downtown Culiacán. In Imala, two municipal police officers were executed. All across the city, attacks against local police were taking place. The PFP gathered about 800 police elements to reinforce the Plaza of Sinaloa.

  By the end of April of 2008 there was blood running down the street of Culiacan after the demons were unleashed, causing a string of confrontations that in that month alone resulted in 1,156 executions.

  On May 7, 2008 a Federal Police checkpoint was installed at kilometer 95 of the highway del Sol. The PFP had just received information leaked by El Mayo Zambada. A convoy where Arturo Beltrán was traveling would cross at any time through that location. The official in charge of coordinating the capture was the regional director of the PFP, Édgar Eusebio Millán. The tip that had been provided by Zambada was good. Five suspicious luxurious SUVs left the motel Rosales, where Arturo Beltrán had just had a meeting. The police agents attempted to make a traffic stop. The sicarios from the convoy responded by opening fire. This started a pursuit that ended in Xoxocotla, with several cars destroyed and the arrest of nine sicarios along with two federal police agents killed. The truck in which Arturo Beltrán was traveling managed to evade the siege: one of his escorts crashed his vehicle in to a patrol car to make way for his boss.

  Mayo Zambada, however, had contemplated the possibility that Arturo Beltran might escape capture. The information that had been leaked to the PFP also included addresses in the state of Morelos where Beltrán Leyva might seek refuge. The inspector of operations Edgar Enrique Bayardo, who was the official who had received the information and had direct contact with El Mayo relayed the information to the PFP. He had made contact with the anti-drug chief of the agency, Gerardo Garay. He told Garay that they had located several addresses in Morelos where Arturo might be located. Bayardo told Garay that they were in place and ready to make entry.

  Chief Garay stopped the whole operation dead in its tracks, he instructed them to stop everything and return to Mexico City immediately.

  This was similar to an event five months earlier. The PFP, through Director Roberto Velasco, had intercepted a telephone conversation where they had found the location of Arturo Beltrán in a mansion in Pedregal de San Ángel.

  Velasco told chief Garay that he had agents already in place along strategic points and requested the green light to start the operation for an arrest. Garay refused to give the order by telling them to stand fast and wait for another time.

  According a testimony from a protected witness, Fidel Hernández, who was a former agent of the Anti-Drug Division, said that the motives of Garay were criticized by his subordinates. They plead with him that they had evidence of the whereabouts of Arturo Beltrán, but Garay ordered them to dismantle the operation.

  Édgar Millán, the same man who had previously attempted to apprehend Arturo Beltrán on the road to Xoxocotla, was executed hours after that operation. Millán was ambushed and killed when he arrived at his parents' house in a building located in a community in Guerrero. Although only a handful of people had access to the itinerary of Millán, the information was leaked from within the PFP to the BLO. Police agent José Antonio Montes Garfias gave the information of the location of Millán to the Beltran clan. Arturo Beltran did not hesitate to give the order to eliminate Millán at any cost. Millán had also been instrumental in the arrest of Alfredo Beltran.

  Agent Montes Garfias removed a pair of keys from the drawer to Millán's desk and made a duplicate key. The keys were of the house where the parents of Millan lived. Garfias turned over the duplicate of the keys, 40,000 pesos and 75 grams of cocaine to a low-level gunman, Alejandro Ramírez Báez, who had a commando made up of five people. The sicarios waited for Millán in the garage of the building. They had turned off the lights. When Millán crossed the gate on foot of the courtyard, he took 11 direct gun shots to his body. The alleged shooter, Ramírez Báez, was subdued by Millán's escorts, and the federal authorities managed to get a confession of the plot.

  The real revenge of Arturo Beltrán came 24 hours after the shooting in Xoxocotla. It happened on the other side of the country, on May 8, 2008. That night five SUVs loaded with sicarios surrounded the vehicle carrying Edgar Guzman, another son of El Chapo, in a parking lot in the of Culiacán, Sinaloa.

  Edgar Guzman was executed. Five hundred gunshots were fired along with a grenade deployed from a grenade launcher. The burst of gun fire destroyed walls, glass and vehicles. In addition to the execution of El Chapo's son, a nephew of the drug trafficker, César Loera, was also killed.

  In Culiacán the evil rage was unleashed. The local media did not dare to report the news. They only did it two days later, attr
ibuting the information to newspapers and news agencies in Mexico City. Borderland Beat was the place where some information could be obtained. The blood of the son of El Chapo was still fresh on the ground when the cries from the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel pledged that he would erase the name of Arturo Beltrán from the face of the earth.

  In less than a month, however, El Chapo took two more blows. Filtrations from the BLO intelligence led to the arrest of one of his cousins, Alfonso Gutiérrez, and of a nephew, Isaí Martínez after a bloody shooting in a community of Culiacán.

  The murder of El Chapo's son was part of the same MO that killed the police chiefs Millán and Velasco.

  Millan, the commander that was executed while trying to visit his parents, had been the "brain" of the secretary of Public Security, Genaro García Luna, in many anti-drug operations. His death caused a change in the upper level of the structure of the PFP. Genaro García Luna replaced Millan with an old friend and companion of the Cisen, with whom he had collaborated closely while working with the AFI, it was Gerardo Garay, the anti-drug chief who had stopped two operations to capture Beltrán Leyva.

  But as things happen in Mexico at the time, Garay only lasted a few months in that position.

  Commissioner Garay was accused of serving two masters: the Beltrán Cartel and that of El Mayo Zambada. A judge ordered him to be formally apprehended in October 2008.

  Inspector Edgar Enrique Bayardo was killed at a Starbucks in Mexico City after he had confessed of colluding with organized crime by allow infiltrations to the agency, tapping telephone calls to benefit particular cartels, allowing cartel operators to interrogate captured adversaries, and then presenting the arrestees as "as achievements of the PFP."