Borderland Beat
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Cartel del Poniente: A place of the Sinaloa cartel usually found in Durango and Gomez Palacios C.D.G.: Gulf Drug Cartel
CECJUDE: Centro de Ejecución de las Consecuencias Jurídicas del Delito.
Chapos or Chaparrines: The troops of Joaquin Guzmán Loera's Sinaloa Cartel. Derived from Guzmán's nick name of "El Chapo."
Charoliar: Pretending to belong to a cartel and having a lot of inside knowledge of cartel activities.
CNDH: Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos.
C.J.N.G: Enforcer group, Jalisco Cartel New Generation aka GN or GNX
C.N.G.T.: Cartel New Generation Tijuana, is an allied group with members of CAF and CJNG. The alliance was created to establish control of Baja and quell the Sinaloa Cartel, after CAF became weakened.
C.O.: Organized crime group
Coddehum: la Comisión de Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Chihuahua).
Cortar cartuchos: armatillar. Ready to fire. to cock a weapon.
Cuerno de chivo: AK-47, the preferred weapon of drug cartels. Some (e.g. Roberto Saviano) have claimed that the AK-47 has been used to kill more people than any other weapon. 90% of arms used in Mexico originate from the United States and arms dealers in Arizona and Texas.
DTO: Drug trafficking organization.
El Señor de los Cielos: Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Lord of the Skies who helped consolidate the Juárez cartel. He died in 1997 undergoing plastic surgery in Mexico City (Polanco).
Encajuelados: Victims found in the trunks of cars.
Encintados: Vicitims found bound and blindfolded with tape.
Encobijado: a common way that sicarios dispose of bodies — wrapped in a blanket, rug, or tarpaulin and taped.
Estacas: 3 or more armed persons in a vehicle patrolling their territory
Familia (also LFM or LF): 'de Michoacan'. DTO that specializes in synthetic drugs (crystal) and with a religious code. Extremely violent and unpredictable.
FFL: US legal term for federal firearms licensees. Approximately 6700 operate in American Southwest.
Foco: crystal meth.
Fuero (el): (jurisdicción) jurisdiction (privilegio, derecho) privilege;
GATE, GAFE, GOES: Are acronyms for Special State Police, names vary with states
Gente nueva (la): Chapo Guzman sicarios (Chihuahua).
Guachicol: oil product stolen from PEMEX and then sold back to business under duress. A practice common in Tamaulipas.
Halcon (los): There are two meanings here. In the border area, "halcones" are lookouts and street level informants (falcons) who warn the drug cartels about intrusions from other DTO's, police or army manoeuvers. Halcones are also an elite squad of commandos that have a notorious reputation for violation of civil rights and abuse.
Hormiga (el correo de..): an ant run. Big result of lots of little additions and purchases.
ICESI: Instituto ciudadano de estudios sobre la inseguridad.
IOI: US DOJ-ATF agents investigating gun movement. Industry Operations Investigators.
Jefe de Jefes: Capo de Capos. The name applied to the most prominent drug chief in Mexico. Most frequently is associated with Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. Popular corrido of Los Tigres del Norte, although Miguel Felix Gallardo denies that the song is about him.
La Última Letra: Los Zetas (Last Letter)
Levantón (m): Abduction. Term used in northwest Mexico to describe forced seizure of a person. Most of the time, the "levantado" is never seen alive again. Secuestro is the term used more often to describe kidnapping.
Linces (los): a unit of sicarios employed by "El Viceroy" Vicente Carrilo-Fuentes and the Juárez cartel. May have evolved from "La Linea". This group is apparently composed of military deserters (like the Zetas) who are well trained, use military ordnance, uniforms and vehicles. The Mexican military argues that this group is responsible for most human right violations in Chihuahua. linea (la): sicarios in employ of Juarez DTO.
Los Viagras: Michocan cartel founded in 2014 by the Sierra Santana brothers. The first splinter group of Caballeros Templarios. Alliances are with Cartel Jalisco New Generation headed by El Mencho. Viagras were responsible for the creation of the H3 (Buenavista) the "fake" autodefensa group, headed by "El Americano".
Matapolicia (f): bullets of heavy calibre that can penetrate vests. Police killers — ordnance used when attacking police or members of the military.
Matazetas (los): a name used by a group that has executed members of Los Zetas. It's most likely that the matazetas are members of a rival cartel, but it's possible that they are actually an independent group.
Maña: a local name for cartels in Tamaulipas, most often used to refer to Los Zetas or other sicarios working for Gulf cartel.
Mota (f): marijuana.
Narco: General term for drug trafficker
Narcobloqueo: A barricade in the streets with vehicles that are carjacked to delay the arrival of the police or military.
Narcocorrido: a version of a corrido that deals with a drug theme. Some narcocorridos are commissioned by the drug dealers in order to "sing their praises", but others share much in common with morality plays because they sing about the negative consequences of drug dealing. See the excellent book by Elijah Wald describing narcocorridos.
Narcofosa: narco cemetery; body disposal place, usually clandestine and used for a period of time. Have been found in at least 8 Mexican states.
Narcomanta (f): a banner or a poster placed in a prominent location with a message. Most frequently, the messages seem to originate with the drug organizations, but the message may also be aimed at the drug trafficking organizations.
Narco tienditas or picaderos: Businesses where they traffic drugs.
Operation Coronado: The code term for the DEA/FBI/ICE coordinated arrest of La Famila de Michoacana members on Oct. 24 2009.
Pelones (los): sicarios that were originally assembled by the Beltran Leyva brothers for the Sinaloa Federation.
Perico (m): cocaine. A parrot. Nickname based on the idea that it "goes up the nose".
Pez gordo (m.): big fish, big boss.
PGR: La Procuraduria General de la Republica. The institutional agency of the Mexican Attorney General.
Pista (f): the 'game'. Literally, 'the track' as in racing. Refers to the business at hand.
Plaza (f): Territory, turf. Can also refer to the product being moved or in dispute. P.M.: Military Police.
Polizetas: Policemen at the service of the narcos. It originated from Nuevo leon, Tamaulipas region where the Zetas were deeply embedded with the Zetas.
Pozolero: A person within the cartel who has a knowledge of chemistry and disposes bodies.
PROCAMPO: Federal program to provide financial support for farmers and ejiditarios. Recent revelations indicate that it has been a cash-cow for agribusiness and PRI party members. Little of the original program (to provide irrigation etc.) has benefitted the poorest farmers.
Project Gunrunner: US DOJ and ATF plan to disrupt illegal flow of guns from US into Mexico.
Rematar: literally "to re-kill". the prefix re is used to indicate "once again" when it precedes a verb. rematar is used when a means of execution is especially brutal, and also used to mean "slaughter", "finish off."
S.D.R: Situation at Risk (violence erupted)
P.S.D.R. Possible situation at risk
Sicario (m): the word used to describe an "assassin" or hitman for the cartels. The word has roots back to Roman times. Sicarios are sometimes young and "throw-away" bodies recruited by the cartels, but can also be well-trained military deserters or police (e.g. Los Zetas).
Sistema SNSP: Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública.
SSP: Secretaria de Seguridad Publica.
Straw purchasers: surrogate purchasers of guns— someone who is licensed to purchase a gun but does so on behalf of someone who is not. Cartel sicarios have a system of straw purchasers.
T.C.O.: Transnational Criminal Organization Tiendita: Excact location where drugs are sold.<
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UIFA: Unidad de Inspección Fiscal y Aduanera.
WATCHIVATO: Mexican "narco artist" who has produced iconic images of Jesus Malverde. Artist images can be seen on BB.
Wathivato (El): Mexican artist famous for narco images — especially iconic images of Jesus Malverde. Artist on BBC site Narco Mexico.
Zetas, (los): now la Compañía. Paramilitary force formed by Gulf Cartel and now independent. Deserters from Mexican army GAFE unit; highly trained anti-terrorist unit.
Events of Organized Crime
2006
November 25 - Popular singer Valentín Elizalde is gunned down along with his manager (and best friend) Mario Mendoza Grajeda, and driver Reynaldo Ballesteros. In an ambush after a concert in the border city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas in an apparent gangland style hit.
December 1 - President Felipe Calderón assumed office and declared war on drug traffickers. He also imposed a cap on salaries of high-ranking public servants and ordered a raise on the salaries of the Federal Police and the Mexican armed forces.
December 11 - Operation Michoacan is launched.
2007
January 2 - Operation Baja California is launched.
April 3 - Police arrest suspected drug lord Victor Magno Escobar in Tijuana.
March 17 - Zhenli Ye Gon, relieved of $213 million USD in Mexico City.
May 14 - Jorge Altriste, head of operations for Mexico's elite police force in Tijuana, was murdered.
May 16 - May 18: Battles in Cananea, Sonora, kill 15 gang members, five policemen, and two civilians.
August 26 - Trigo de Jesús son (and manager) of Popular singer Joan Sebastian is shot in the back of the head after one of Joan Sebastian's concert in Texas. Trigo was transported to the McAllen Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
December 2 - Popular singer Sergio Gómez is kidnapped and killed.
December 8 - Gerardo García Pimentel, a crime reporter, was killed.
December 29 - The entire police force in the town of Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, is disarmed from their weapons after suspicion of collaborating with drug cartels.
2008
January 21 - Mexican security forces capture drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva.
April 26 - 15 people are killed in a gun battle between the Arellano-Félix cartel and a rival gang.
May 8 - National Police Chief Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez was gunned down in Mexico City. He was the highest-ranking Mexican official to be killed.
May 9 - Esteban Robles Espinosa, the commander of Mexico's investigative police force, was shot dead on a street in Mexico City.
May 17 - Presumed members of the Sinaloa Cartel attacked Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua, and killed the police chief, two officers, and three civilians, and kidnapped at least 10 additional people.
May 28 - Seven federal police agents die in a shootout in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
May 31 - The United States announces it is using a drug trafficking law to impose financial sanctions on Mexican drugs cartels, along with other non-state actors.
June 26 - Police commander Igor Labastida is shot dead in a restaurant in Mexico City.
August 27 - Police find three headless bodies in a rubbish dump in Tijuana, killed by drug cartels.
September 15 - 2008 Morelia grenade attacks: Grenades killed eight civilians and injured more than 100 in Morelia, Michoacán.
September 17 - Over 200 people across Mexico, Guatemala, Italy and the United States, including members of the Gulf cartel and the 'Ndrangheta are arrested in a major anti-drug trafficking operation, Operation Solare.
October 22 - Police capture boss Jesus Zambada of the Sinaloa cartel after a shootout in Mexico City.
October 24 - Mexican criminal investigator Andres Dimitriadis is shot dead by drug traffickers in his car on his way home.
October 26 - Colombian police seize a shipment of cocaine worth US$200m en route to Mexico.
October 26 - The Mexican army captures drug lord Eduardo Arellano Félix after a shootout in Tijuana.
November 2 - Senior Mexican police officer Víctor Gerardo Garay resigns amidst claims one of his aides was on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel.
November 4 - 2008 Mexico City plane crash: Juan Camilo Mouriño, Secretary of the Interior of President
Felipe Calderón, dies when his Learjet crashes in Mexico City. Fourteen others die, including José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the former assistant attorney general. Authorities said there was no evidence of foul play, as both Mouriño and Vasconcelos were key figures in the drug war, and that the accident was caused by wake turbulence.
November 7 - The Policia Federal arrested Jaime González Durán in Tamaulipas who was a founding member of the original Los Zetas
November 19 - Mexican Interpol chief Ricardo Gutiérrez Vargas is arrested on suspicion of links with drug traffickers.
November 21 - Noé Ramírez Mandujano, ex-head of Mexico's anti-organized crime agency, is arrested on suspicion of links with drug traffickers.
November 28: Gunmen in Ciudad Juárez killed eight people at a restaurant.
November 30: Guatemalan and Mexican drug gangs clash on the two country's border, leaving 18 dead.
December 4: 13 bodies are found near a dirt road in Sinaloa.
December 8 - Ten suspected drug traffickers and one soldier are killed in a shootout in Guerrero, while another six people are killed when fire is opened on a pool hall in Ciudad Juárez.
December 10: Felix Batista, an American anti-kidnapping expert was kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila.
December 21: Seven off-duty soldiers and one police commander were kidnapped, tortured and decapitated.[34] Their heads were left at a shopping center with a threat note to the military.
Summary: For 2008 a record of 5,630 deaths was reached.
2009
January 2 - Mexican authorities arrested Alberto Espinoza Barrón (known as “La Fresa”), who is presumed to be one of the leaders of the Michoacán Drug Cartel (La Familia Michoacana).
January 6: Gunmen fired on and threw grenades at the Televisa TV station in Monterrey during a nightly newscast, causing no injuries. A note left on the scene read: "Stop reporting just on us. Report on the narco's political leaders."
January 19 - 21 police officers in Tijuana are arrested on suspicion of collaborating with drug cartels.
January 22 - Police arrest Santiago Meza, a man who allegedly dissolved 300 bodies of rival drug traffickers for his boss Teodoro García Simental, after he split from the Arellano Félix cartel.
February 3 - The body of retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñónez, who had been appointed a special drugs consultant to the Benito Juárez municipality mayor, was found near Cancún along with the bodies of his aide and a driver.
February 5 - Police capture drug dealer Gerónimo Gámez García in Mexico City.
February 10 - Troops descended upon a police station in Cancún in connection with the torture and murder of former general Mauro Enrique Tello, who led an elite anti-drugs squad.
February 10 - Assailants kidnapped 9 people in Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua. They were then pursued by the Mexican military to a ranch located 12 km south of the Garita de Samalayuca, where at least 21 people were killed. The fatalities included one soldier, 6 of the 9 prisoners and 14 assailants that were killed by The Mexican army. This event shares much with the attack of May 17, 2008, and it is presumed that the attackers were members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
February 12 - Octavio Almanza, alleged head of Los Zetas in Cancún, is arrested.
February 12 - Gunmen assassinate Detective Ramón Jasso Rodríguez, the chief in charge of the homicide division for the state police of Nuevo León.
February 13 - A police patrol was ambushed in a grenade attack in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Two municipality police officers were injured and evacuated to the hospital, they were reported to be in stable condition.
February 14 - In the municipality of Villa Ahumada, 1
25 kilometers south of Ciudad Juárez. troops on patrol fought a gun battle with cartel gunmen, leaving three assailants dead.
February 15 - Five people were killed by alleged narco assailants in Gómez Palacio, Durango.
The Mexican Navy, with the help of the United States Coast Guard, confiscated 7 tons of cocaine being transported on a fishing vessel in international waters in the Pacific Ocean.
Gunmen in Tabasco kill a policeman, ten members of his family, and another person.
February 16 - Seven people were killed by alleged narco assailants in Jalisco.
February 17 - A multiple-hour running gun battle between elements of the Mexican Army and unknown attackers (sicarios) has resulted in five dead soldiers and five dead assailants in a shopping district and several residential neighborhoods of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Approximately 20 additional people were injured by gunfire and grenades.
February 20 - Ciudad Juárez Police Chief Robert Orduna announced his resignation after two police officers are killed. Drug traffickers had threatened to kill a police officer every 48 hours until the chief resigned.
February 22 - Five assailants attacked the convoy of Chihuahua governor, José Reyes Baeza, killing a bodyguard.
February 24 - Mexican authorities extradited Miguel Ángel Caro Quintero (the brother of Rafael Caro Quintero) to the U.S.
Heavily armed gunmen assassinated the Vista Hermosa Mayor in Michoacán.
February 25 - assailants attacked a police patrol with gunfire and fragmentation grenades in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, killing four police officers.
American raids code-named Operation Xcellerator on the Sinaloa cartel in California, Minnesota and Maryland lead to 755 arrests, the discovery of a 'super meth lab' and laboratory equipment capable of producing 12,000 ecstasy pills an hour.
February 28 - Close to 1,800 Mexican troops arrived in Ciudad Juárez as part of a contingent of 5,000 Federal Police and troops.
March 4: 2009 Mexico prison riot leaves 20 dead.
March 9: French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets President Felipe Calderón in Mexico. Sarkozy discussed with his counterpart the fate of French national Florence Cassez who was sentenced to a 60-year jail term for being involved in kidnappings in Mexico. Cassez may ask to be returned to France to finish her sentence in her home country.