Borderland Beat

by Alex Marentes

  I feel comfortable when I say that the vast majority of illegal immigrants coming into the US are hardworking people with the only interest being to make a better life for themselves and their families. They, for the most part, are constructive members of society. There is a very small segment that have different motives.

  Most of the violence remains firmly on the Mexican side of the border, but there is some evidence of increasingly violent attacks on US border patrol agents by drug traffickers. There has also been a reported rise in drug-related shootings and kidnappings in some US cities and towns, especially in the south-west.

  A May 2010 report from the US National Drug Intelligence Center said that Mexican drug trafficking organizations "continue to represent the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States".

  American border towns have not seen anything remotely approaching the blood-stained carnage of some north Mexican cities where rival drug cartels are in a high-stakes war that has killed thousands of people every year in the last decade, but that may change if the problems in Mexico spirals out of control. The links that U. S. gangs have with the Mexican cartels should be a concern. Gangs already control the distribution of the majority of illicit drugs in the streets of the U.S. The drug lords to the south can easily tap this ready-made criminal infrastructure for a range of nefarious purposes. We better read the writing on the wall because it already has.

  American street gangs are known to have ties to Mexican cartels and help distribute drugs on streets. In Mexico drugs cartels, have been known to use street gangs to help them distribute drugs and be the street soldier.

  One example of gang street influence in the cartel structure is the Juárez Cartel recruiting members of Barrio Azteca while the Sinaloa Cartel recruiting rival gangs as the Artist Assassins (Double A’s) and Los Mexicles. A US Congress report drew on evidence from intelligence sources suggesting that Mexican cartels had forged closer links with established drug gangs inside the US. Gang members will do what is profitable. Hardened gangs are carving out turf on the border and beyond as part of a scramble to make money from the tons of illegal drugs pouring north from Mexico each month. There is an obstacle that traditional Mexican cartels have with the American street gangs.

  Trust.

  The cartels will deal with the U.S. gangs on some levels but there are clear lines in the sand. Business stays in the family.

  The gangs are a resource for the drug cartels but not their primary resource. The Mexican drug dealer is a very parochial individual. He would rather deal with a family member than someone just entering the business.

  For example, the Mexican drug lords will not entrust an American gang with the task of bringing large quantities of cash, the profits of their trade, back to Mexico. That means the cartels would have to have a Mexican presence in the US to coordinate and perform the more delicate operations of the drug trade.

  Not all U.S. gangs that the Mexican cartels have allied with are the same. But examining how Barrio Azteca operates offered an insight into how other gangs — like the Latin Kings, the Texas Syndicate, the Sureños, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and transnational street gangs like MS-13 — operate in alliance with the cartels. This all shows that there is some sort of association between the US gangs and the Mexican cartels, to what extent remained unclear.

  One thing is for certain, this alliance only makes things worst on both sides of the border. Despite efforts by both governments in the border to combat drug trafficking, it’s still a big problem. It is found all along all the US states along the Mexican border and beyond.

  Even in places like Albuquerque, New Mexico it is hard to gage the extent of the criminal level among the Mexican national community, primarily because many are afraid to report crime for fear of deportation.

  According to an intelligence report, Mexican drug recently sent a team of 15 heavily armed hit men into the United States. Their job? To protect the flow of drugs and human smugglers and kill anyone who gets in their way. This is a larger national security threat facing America than anywhere in Iraq or Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world. Mexican cartel violence has spread to U.S. cities and suburban communities, particularly in the Southwest.

  Mexican drug cartels are operating in more than 230 U.S. cities as they seek to spread their influence, a top State Department official said. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center estimates, criminals smuggle between $18 billion and $39 billion each year across the Southwest border alone. The cartels control the trafficking of drugs from South America to the US, a business that is worth an estimated $13 billion a year.

  The National Drug Intelligence Center listed the cartels with the widest influence in the United States. It said the Sinaloa cartel is operating in 75 cities, followed by the Gulf cartel in 37 cities, the Zetas in 37, the Juarez in 33, the Beltran Leyva Organization in 30, La Familia in 27 and the Tijuana cartel in 21.

  The Merida Initiative is a treaty under which the U.S. government pledged to contribute $1.5 billion, along with drug-fighting equipment and personnel, to Mexico.

  The Hometown Influence

  I was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A crossroad between two major drug routes (I40 and I25) and geographically, not far from the US-Mexican border. The Mexican cartel influence is very subtle, it’s does not stand out like in other border cities found in Texas and Arizona.

  But it does exist.

  Case and point; take just one incident that happened at the end of 2007 involving Danny Baca who was supposed to bring a load of drugs across the border for the Juarez cartel. He was to meet a connection in El Paso and go from there. But Baca instead decided to take the load to his hometown of Albuquerque and keep it for himself. He sold the load for $7,000. The cartel came looking for him. He was shot 22 times and his body left burning on the west side of Albuquerque in a place known as Pajarito Mesa. Cartels usually do not go to this extent for such small amount of money, but they seemed to think that a message had to be sent.

  Then Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said that Baca "signed his own death warrant." when he and another man chose to betray a powerful cartel.

  Three cartel-affiliated men -- Jaime Valeta, 25, and 26-year-old Mario Talavera and an unknown Hispanic male -- and another man, Gerardo Nunez, 27, had kidnapped Baca from his East Mountains after he refused to return the drugs or the car. That's the last time Baca was seen alive.

  Nunez was taken in custody on charges of kidnapping, aggravated burglary evidence tampering and conspiracy. His bond was set at $1 million cash only. Valeta and Talavera face the same. Mario Talavera who is a US citizen was tracked down by US Marshals in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico. Talavera was deported by Mexican authorities and brought back to New Mexico to face federal charges of drug trafficking, murder and kidnapping.

  Although the cartels have not declared open war on each other on the U.S. side of the border, they do have influence here, which often comes in the form of murders and bribing law enforcement. In 2007, the FBI discovered collaborators inside the drug task force. New Mexico State Police Officer Keith Salazar and former San Juan County Sheriff’s Deputy Levi Countryman were feeding information to a drug cartel. Borderland Beat typically does not focus too much attention of what is happening in the US related to Mexican cartels, mostly because BB focuses on activities that are not being reported in the US, coming out of Mexico. If you look closely, you will find plenty of news related to Mexican cartels having direct influence in US soil.

  As I mentioned previously, sicarios in Mexico most of the time are well trained men and are usually well armed with heavy weapons. Sicarios are paid professional men who many times are former or current police officers or men that have deserted from the military for better pay. We see this play out in Mexico every day, sometimes they are fighting other sicarios from rival cartels or fighting the federal police or Mexican military. Not a lot of spill over in to the US, but it does happen. We have seen sicarios in US soil protecting loads of narcotics
entering the US or settling of scores from someone that "talked," or betrayed the organization.

  An example of sicarios operating in the US was the incident that happened on November 2011 where a tractor trailer that was carrying a load of marijuana through the state of Texas. This was more than just the trafficking of drugs. Undercover officers were attempting to make a "controlled delivery," where they allow the drugs to reach their destination while covertly tracking (shadowing) the truck from a distance. While passing through the area of Harris County three sport utility vehicles intercepted the truck. They sprayed the truck with heavy gunfire, killing the driver, Lawrence Chapa, who was an informant.

  A firefight ensued between the gunmen and lawmen. One gunman was killed while three were arrested. One sheriff deputy was wounded on the leg and made a full recovery.

  The three gunmen that were captured had military style haircuts, no tattoos and seem to be able to use good tactics during the firefight. They were sicarios for the Zetas.

  It seemed like a scene that takes place in Mexico every day where cartels regularly engage in firefights with military and federal police. The truck was carrying a load of 300 pounds of weed, not enough for a cartel to take such bold action on US soil.

  Through the interrogation of the sicarios it was not clear on the motive of the attack. Some sicarios confessed that it was a hit on the driver, as they had learned he was an informant. But it was also thought that perhaps it was an attack to rip off the load thinking it was carrying more marijuana than it actually had. The motive is irrelevant, what is relevant is that such an attack by sicarios would take place on US soil.

  When I had mentioned that Mexican cartels had the means to reach out and touch anyone in the US, it seemed incredible to some. After all, we had not seen the spillover from Mexico into the US at the level that we had seen in Mexico. In Mexico sicarios are heavily armed with high caliber weapons and kill with impunity. It happens regularly, on a daily basis, every day. We don’t see the daily violence from Mexican cartels here in the US. So why would we think Mexican cartels would be operating in the US at the same level as in Mexico. People would simple suggest I was paranoid when I was concern about safety from cartel in the US. I was reminded, “it’s just not happening here.” But although in the surface it all seems normal, upon closer examination you can see cartel activity alive and well in the US and has the potential to rival the brutal violence seen in Mexico.

  Take for instance an incident that happened in Albuquerque, my home of residence. In 2018 Bernalillo county deputies (BCSO) initiated a routine traffic stop of a vehicle that matched the description of one involved in a domestic disturbance call. The vehicle was pulled over after it swerved out of its lane of travel. There were three occupants inside the vehicle. Two of them were Mexican nationals and the other man, the driver, was native of Albuquerque, NM. What happened next was something that should give law enforcement reason to be concerned.

  The deputy noticed that one of the men appeared to be wearing body armor, saw what appeared to be large amounts currency in the center console and upon further examination, noticed a large number of weapons in the back floorboard.

  The deputies would eventually find eight rifles, six handguns, night vision goggles, multiple sets of body armor, ballistic helmets, more than $33,000 in cash, and a small amount of cocaine in the vehicle.

  Looking at the equipment, these men were ready to engage other armed targets, while travelling within the US. These types of traffic stops are common and routinely seen in Mexico.

  These men were better equipped than the patrol deputies that stopped them at the scene and could have caused some heavy damage if they had chosen to engage the deputies. For the most part US patrol officers only carry side arms on them when conducting routine traffic stops and the long rifles found in the vehicle of the suspects could easily penetrate the soft ballistic armor worn by patrol officers in the course of their duty.

  Two of the rifles, including one fully automatic “machine gun” were confirmed to be stolen. The driver, Jesus Samaniego-Villa, and his two passengers were charged with possession of stolen firearms in state court, but the case was quickly handed over to federal prosecutors to avoid being botched up by the seemingly incompetent New Mexico state court system.

  Federal prosecutors would eventually brought up charges against Daniel Landeros-Garcia, Sergio Samaniego-Villa, Jesus Samaniego-Villa, Jessica Moya and Christian Meza-Samaniego.

  Jesus Samaniego-Villa and the two passengers were identified as belonging to a criminal organization ran by Jesus’ brother, Sergio Samaniego-Villa, who the FBI had been buying heroin and crack from through informants to build a case against the group. It was said that they had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel.

  Sergio was deported back in 2012 while facing pending drug charges. He and his wife were arrested again for drug trafficking in 2018, but posted bail and fled the state to California, where he continued to run the organization back in Albuquerque through surrogates like his brother Jesus.

  This illustrates a small portion of what American law enforcement should expect to confront when coming in contact with Mexican cartel operatives and their drug trafficking activities in US soil. The Mexican drug cartels go through extensive means to protect their operations and sometimes will resort to violent means when they feel trapped in an attempt to escape justice.

  One Last Incident

  Back around 1992 or so I use to work the graveyard shift for the Albuquerque Police Department. I was assigned as a field Investigator. My job required me to be in uniform driving a marked police car, but my primary duty was forensics, which is the collections of physical evidence in the field. Most of my job consisted of lifting latent prints, collecting trace evidence, tagging items from crime scenes and taking photographs of crime scenes or events of significance importance. The job description required me to work in the field among the patrol officers and provide them support. I would assist the officer in the field by providing backup on calls or helping in situations where multiple officers were needed.

  During this time there use to be a Mexican style nightclub called, I believe, the “Copa Cabana.” It was on Central Avenue and catered to mostly Mexican clientele. Police would be called there often, and I would be called to assist for translation purposes. I got to know the club's owners, Alonso and Rosalba Ibarra. I also got to know the security guard working there, as I had to talk to him numerous times.

  One day, as I was driving my unit in front of the club, the security guard flagged me down. He told me that there was a man who was trying to leave the parking lot in his truck and was extremely intoxicated. He pointed out a new silver Chevrolet truck that appeared to have a dead battery, as the vehicle was refusing to start. I noticed that it had a Texas license plate. I called it out and dispatch advised me that they would get me a backup as soon as one became available.

  I made contact with the driver who attempting to start the truck. He was wearing a black cowboy hat and seem to be around 25 to 30 years of age. In Spanish, I instructed him to step out of the truck. The area where he was parked was dark and I was having a hard time looking inside the vehicle, even with my flashlight. He told me to fuck off and that he was one I should not fuck with. The security guard came around to the passenger side and was looking in through the open passenger window. I became firmer in my commands and ordered him to place his hands on the steering wheel where I could see them, and to step out of the vehicle. He refused my instructions and was cursing at me. Later I found out he initially thought I was a security guard, as we both had dark uniforms.

  I then noticed that the driver of the truck was attempting to reach behind his back to get something out. I continued to give him commands to put his hands on the steering wheel. Suddenly, the security guard yelled that the driver was trying to pull out a gun.

  The man had a semi-automatic handgun inside the rear area of the waistband of his pants. He was having a hard time pulling the gun out because he was dru
nk, his pants were tight and he was pressing against the truck's seat. I pulled out my gun and placed it to his head, reminding him that I knew he had a handgun and not to pull it out. He continued to curse and attempt to pull the gun out. I had not actually seen the gun and was not ready to use lethal force on him, but I was very close. I thought to myself, “He knows that I know he has a gun and he was still trying to get it out, despite the fact that I just placed my gun to the side of his head.”

  I realized that this man intended to kill me. I then decide to pull hard on his left arm, which caused him to fall out of the truck. As he was falling, his gun came out and the security guard snatched it from his hand. After realizing that the driver no longer had his gun, I got into a struggle with him in an attempt to get him into custody. While fighting with him, his front shirt pocket tore off and money flew to the ground. I was able to get him secured and he was charged with felony aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon.

  I later found out that the passenger door of his pickup truck had numerous bullet holes, shot from inside out. He had three driver’s licenses from New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, all with the exact same personal information. When we towed his truck, we found three unopened boxes of clear zipper bags. A few day later I attended his arraignment and found out he had an attorney from Texas. He was released after paying a bond. I never heard from him or the case ever again.

  I spoke with Alonso afterwards, and he told me that he knew the man from his hometown of Sinaloa and that he belonged to a Mexican cartel (most likely the Sinaloa cartel). Alonso had told me that the man had been buying drinks for everyone at the club and was asked to leave after he started a fight with another costumer. He said that this man had a reputation for killing cops in Mexico, and he told me he was glad nothing had happened to me.