Dave Contreras, a boss with the Gang Suppression Team of the San Diego PD, asked for CRIM Squads help with Operation Stampede, a massive, task-force takedown of the Southeast Locos. The bride, Karem Lizbeth Ypez Ortiz, was at the altar with her beau, himself an alleged narco named El Calamardo, when the shooting started at around 2.30 on Saturday. Any violation of immigration law could take killers off the streets at a moments notice. Case in point: their takedown of the Linda Vista-13. For most of the 1990s till the mid-to-late aughts, the AFO ran Tijuana, Mexico, like a Chicago slaughterhouse. It remains unclear if Poblete Ramos worked with a particular cartel. On evenings and weekends, hed prowl the web for open-source leads on fugitives. Above all, he learned that the great detectives arent solar-driven, i.e., arriving at nine and leaving at five. Shocking video shows Mexican cartel members lined up on their knees and taunted, moments before they are executed by a rival gang. 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Seven of us sit there, sipping Don Julio and recalling the demons of yore. The killings make the month the states most violent of 2018. Most victims' bodies were never found in a case that has haunted Mexico for seven years. But its also home to the busiest border crossing of any land-based port outside of China. The Mexican Drug War - a sustained, violent conflict between powerful drug cartels and the Mexican government - has claimed an estimated 164,000 lives over the past But those four years in uniform taught Vargas two things: The first was how to track men who wished to go unseen. He then threw her limbs into the fire. (AP Photo), The body of an alleged drug dealer is seen covered by a sheet after being shot to death in front of his house in Tijuana, Mexico, in this Sept. 6, 2009 file photo. By all objective measures, its a model metropolis. The only thing he could do was sign the proffer. Six people, including a teenage mother and her six-month-old baby boy, were the victims of a likely drug cartel attack in California, according to authorities. In a 2010 video, Guzmn used a chainsaw against Hugo Hernandez, reportedly to send a message indicating he would use aggression against anyone who involves law enforcement with the cartel's enterprises. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Authorities found the dead man beaten, naked and castrated, and have not identified him but believe he is Rogelio Sanchez, a Baja California state government official who went missing this week. Those mopes, as he calls them the hit men, kidnappers, bent cops, and smugglers were pawns in an industry with no way out, and whose wages were generally paid in blood. Better still, you could arrest perps without them even knowing that they were part of a larger sting. Lazcanowas reportedly felled in a 2012 shootout with Mexican military officials. The garbage that terrorized this beautiful city.. Pines and jacarandas shade the rutless roads that jog by ivy walls of gated enclaves. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Three generations of one family were killed in what is described as a "cartel-like execution" at a California residence known to police for drug-related activity. Ranked among Americas safest, cleanest towns, its praised for fiscal health by good-governance groups, and exalted for both its beaches and civic stability. While his friends and colleagues at the alphabet shops (the FBI, DEA, ATF, et al.) What he got was a small, stubby man in a faux-hawk, mouthing the standard mob subjunctives. Related This man worked us so hard, Id pull up at my house and just nod out in the front seat. I ended up divorced because of the hours, says Guru. Ivan Cornejo Goes Through Every Stage of Heartbreak on Ya Te Perdi, Cartels dont send many killers anymore; instead, they just send poison. All of which explains why the plaza of Tijuana is paved in blood and treasure. Rather than chase migrants, they chased menaces instead, and caught 300 felons in five years. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Till one drunken night in 2003, when a Palillo punched an AFO in-law. (AP Photo/Antonio Sierra), People stand next to a puddle of blood while peeking into a house where 15 suspected drug gang members died in a shootout with Mexican soldiers in Taxco June 15, 2010. It was a mic-drop moment, Vargas says. Brendan Fraser Loses Golden Globe for The Whale After Protesting Event Theyd earn it, and then some, in the months to come. Face peeling has become a common practice in the Mexican Drug War as an effective scare tactic to rivals and would-be informants. Back in the day, theyd been enforcers for the AFO, hurting anyone who crossed the brothers. We want to hear it. There are certain jokes you dont make, says Vargas. The mass killing is the latest in a They were pelted with bags and bottles of piss by gangsters standing on ladders at the fence. President Felipe Calderon's strategy of sending 7000 troops to Juarez has not mitigated the situation. He expected to track him down in weeks, if not days, because that was how it went with his bloodhound crew. One man was found tied by his feet while the other two were hung by the neck. The state prosecutor said the three men had escaped from a Morelos state prison last month. Mexico to Level Massive Fine Against Ticketmaster After Bad Bunny Ticket Disaster It killed and beheaded street cops, cooked the flesh of its rivals on flaming tires, and delivered bodies by the hundreds to a man it called El Pete. The homicide is characteristic of Mexico's brutal drug gangs, which often dump mutilated victims in public places. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Now, surveillance is not what youve seen onscreen: two cops hunkered in an unmarked car, chatting and wolfing fast food to fend off boredom. People from Iguala, here are all those who extorted money and who were killing innocent people and women, the man says. Este artculo fue escrito por Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon. This story has been shared 209,091 times. He was also bringing goodies to share with other teams that were chasing after cartel hit men. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. Back at the station, feds lined up in Vargas office. Those soldiers would eventually go rogue and form a rival cartel of their own (more on this later). Theyd think they were facing fed time for sneaking across the border with a gun and a fake ID. For six weeks, they surveilled gang addresses and caught them out with one thing or another. Hopelessly overmatched there was a machine gun mounted on the turret of the Hummer the agents fled in separate directions and called for backup, which never came. In February 2008, Furcio was drinking with some friends at a condo in the Camelot Apartments. Nota Editorial: Breitbart Texas viaj a los estados Mexicanos de Tamaulipas, Coahuila y Nuevo Len para reclutar a ciudadanos periodistas dispuestos a arriesgar sus vidas para exhibir a los carteles que amordazan a sus comunidades. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images), A soldier stands guard inside an apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. Another says Brito has has profited from construction projects that were awarded to him. So it goes for the best part of three hours. obsessed over the top-of-org-chart types the kingpins, lieutenants, and logistics wizards of the cartels Vargas went after their murderous gunsels on the streets of San Diego. We flipped on our wig-wags [dome lights] to tell them, Dont even try us tonight. The next thing Vargas heard was a fusillade of bullets blasting out the windows of his partners truck. Chris Selley: Harper misquote shows why regime change needed in some Canadian newsrooms, Its not safe at all: Iran harassing families of plane crash victims, sources say, We put Fables ceramic dishes, glassware and flatware to the test, Shania Twain, Ed Sheeran, Blink-182 and Depeche Mode are on sale now. Vargas, a hand-to-hand combatant of that war, is taking me on a tour of his biggest busts in San Diego. Authorities identified one of the four victims as Rey Jose Poblete Ramos, a man with a lengthy criminal history. Breitbarts Las Crnicas De Cartelessern publicadas tanto en ingls como en su contenido original deEspaol. They identified, by code, who was who in the zoo: the half-dozen or so narcos who spoke directly to Teo from either side of the border. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Young agents stopped them in the hallways: Holy shit! Hours before the video was released, a car with four corpses in the boot was dumped outside the mayor-elect's campaign office in Iguala. In light of their achievement, it seems like bad form to ask what all their labors had delivered. The assassins who carried out the savagery are believed to have come from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel led by the feared El Mencho. We were lucky enough to say, We caught the worst of the worst, says Sito. It would be years before they learned the value of what theyd found: the bodies that brought a SWAT team to Teos door. Theyd thought that was him in the Caddy. According to the army, two suspected hit men were killed during a shootout with soldiers along the highway to Reynosa after refusing to stop at a military checkpoint. Authorities identified one of the four victims as Rey Jose Poblete Ramos, a man with a lengthy criminal history. 2023 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. While sitting and drinking beer at the brothers house, the buyer remarked on the shrine theyd erected to their imprisoned Uncle Mayel, the cartel capo. (AP Photo), The bodies of two unidentified men hang from a road bridge in Cuernavaca, some 90 kms, 60 miles, south of Mexico City, early Friday, April 9, 2010. Furcio saw them and turtled in his seat. Next to the bodies, members of Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) left a poster board taking credit for the scene, labeling the victims kidnappers and rapists. The scariest of the bunch were Los Palillos, motivated by vengeance, not profit. But we were the first to say, Hey, there are cartel murderers here. Next to the bodies, that had their feet and hands tied and a plastic bag covering their heads, police also found a message allegedly from a drug cartel. At the bottom was a phone number. The madness of such doings in a setting this splendid is hard to reconcile. Suspected drug hitmen attacked soldiers who were intending to inspect a cartel safe house in the colonial town of Taxco southwest of Mexico City. Cinder blocks crashed through the windshields of their trucks as they prowled the frontage roads looking for smugglers. He was last seen in a bar, then taken, tortured, and dismembered. That put the clamps on narcotics coming in, so the gangs needed another source of income. Mexican businessmen were snatched for ransom in Tijuana and San Diego. Very Fast Beheading of Young Man by Mexican Cartel Meatpie Apr 24, 2020 beheading cartel beheading mexico cartel murder Dude had no time to react. He cant see the smoke but he can smell it, he says. Here, the American dream goes big a class of Mexican strivers who came, saw, and conquered for the right to be soccer moms. The video, posted to social media by members of Los Tlacos, shows about 20 doomed men who are purported members of La Bandera, part of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, according to El Pas, a Spanish language publication. A month later, his top lieutenants were caught in Baja. That kid they called Pelon? That night, after taking the long way home he always changed his route after a face-to-face with narcos Vargas got down on his knees and prayed. Too much time, too much manpower, too much money invested. In less than a week, they tracked it to an address. The biggest cheers went up from TJs cops, he adds. In the fall of 2003, one of their U.S. clients flew to Baja California to do a drug deal. The city of Cuernavaca has become a battle ground for control of the Beltran Levya drug cartel, whose leader was killed in a battle with marines in that city in last December. ________________________________________ He made things bad for business everyones business.. But in the meantime, he had to earn a living in San Diego; reports cropped up about people being plucked off the streets by men in a panel van. Timmy poured his heart out at the Group One off-site. Vargas wasnt told what crimes the brothers copped to, but he does know a couple of salient facts. They never told us more than we had to know.. It is where Chapo commissioned his first tunnels, baiting the AFO into a gunfight. Cardenas was arrested in 2003 and is currently serving 25 years in jail in the US. Police found later a message written on a wall in downtown Ciudad Juarez, allegedly from the Juarez drug cartel, claiming responsibility for the murder. We wiped em off the face of the Earth, says Sito. On K Street stands the complex where the brothers were hiding. Formed in about 2010, the Jalisco cartel is the strongest and most aggressive competitor to the Sinaloa. It was released as a warning on social media by Los Tlacos, who claimed they were cleaning up the city after the other mob robbed and killed innocent civilians. The hooded man also accuses Iguala's new mayor David Gama Prez of having close links to La Bandera kingpin Jess "Chucho" Brito. I asked God, Please! One of Mexicos most violent organizations claimed credit for the gory crime scene, saying the victims were rapists and kidnappersalleging the murders were part of a cleanup.. By early 2009, Vargas was getting calls from the other top outfits in town. As drug cartels have been fighting over ever lucrative drug corridors along the United States border, the murder rate in Juarez has risen to 173 slayings for every 100,000 residents. #OJO #Tepalcatepec #MichoacnAs qued Mara Guadalupe Lpez Esquivel La Catrina" Ex Integrante del Crtel Jalisco Nueva Generacin #CJNG ,la catrina junto a otros sicarios son los responsables de la emboscada a 14 policas de Michoacn (14/10/2019) pic.twitter.com/QvmPiDoB3X. The bride was also the sister of Jos Antonio Ypez Ortiz, alias El Marro, who leads the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, which is embroiled in a long-running feud with El Menchos CJNG. They have wives, they have kids; someone loves them. (Vargas at the insistence of his wife and children asked that I change his name. A Mexican navy official said that alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva and three members of his organization were slain Wednesday inside the apartment during a shootout with sailors. One of them was a capo called Timmy. He lived part time in San Diego, worked in Tijuana and killed several TJ cops on Teos behalf. It was the bust of the decade in San Diego, wiping the Southeast Locos off the gangland map and liberating the blocks theyd held by force. Of the 14-year-old sicario who beheaded another kid, then casually confessed to the cops, Vargas winces, saying, I talked to his mother. Mexicos CJNG is currently making a series of territorial incursions around the country to take control of key fuel theft, drug trafficking, and human smuggling regions. Her husband-to-be was then kidnapped by cartel hitmen who sped away in vans. Vargas got there just as the backup roared up. Gloria Trevi Sex Cult Claims Revived in New Lawsuit A BRUTAL drug runner dubbed Cartel Queen has been captured by the Mexican army after allegedly kidnapping five people. No suspects were named. Toothpicks were their calling card. (Palillo, of course, is toothpick in Spanish.). She pointed to the poster on the wall behind her. So, too, did the other cops on his squad who spoke to me for this story, out of concerns for their safety and that of their loved ones. The Mexican cartels that rose to meet the demand might be new, but they are undeniably vicious. (AP Photo/Antonio Sierra), Mexican forensic experts examine the body of 14 year-old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca under the Paso Del Norte border bridge in the city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Monday June 7, 2010. In his confession, Yeyo admitted to heinous acts with deadpan indifference. cartel members rape women and children, extort and brutalize the weak, and leave helpless migrants to die in the desert or suffocate in tractor trailers. In exchange, Timmy got the Sammy the Bull [Gravano] deal, as Vargas calls it, sneering. One of Vargas neighbors was targeted by the Palillos. They forever changed the game there, then went their separate ways. Each morning dawned on fresh atrocities: corpses hung from the balustrades of bridges; cops beheaded and their bodies arrayed to spell out Teos nickname: 3L. TikToks True Crime Community Is Turning on Idaho Murder Survivors. Three new beauty products we tried this week. In 2017, the Mexican government extradited Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn, a known member of the Sinaloa cartel, to the US. The other three men are still unidentified. Umpteen murders and no time served. Vargas first heard of Furcio in the fall of 2007. That stonewall was standard procedure, says Herrod. He violently grabs their hair and points a gun at their faces while interrogating them, asking their names and other information. A completely innocent civilian who just happened to be near the church at the wrong moment was also killed, hit by a bullet as he rode on his motorcycle. The grim scene, shocking even by recent standards in the crime-battered country, played out at Our Lady of San Juan church in Celaya in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, the Sun and Daily Mail report. The 100 Best Albums of 2022. Heriberto Lazcano, also known as "Z-3" andEl Lazca, allegedly fed his enemies to his exotic pets - lions and tigers. The only gang I respect is Sombra Negra. The brothers froze; one of them shrieked as men in balaclavas dragged them off. (AP Photo/Carlos Jasso), Police examine the body of a police officer that was slain after unknown gunmen opened fire in the city of Puebla, Mexico Tuesday Oct. 27, 2009. Eight men in armor poured out of a van with rifles. Anyone could be found, once you knew where to look. On this side, the ones who worked their tails off after school; on that side, the ones who flaked in 10th grade and wound up on the yard. The worst of said butchers was the monster called El Teo. Murders came down big- time, says one agent. In exchange for a stipend and a new place to live, hed help them locate Teo and his lieutenants. Vargas checked in with his cartel sources: There were three kidnap crews in San Diego. No official information from the Guadalajara police has being released yet on the case. With one note of grace that bears mentioning here: Nearly everyone is brown. Called the SIG Academy, it was mandatory coursework for Border Patrol investigators in San Diego. Contreras, the task-force chief, wrote CRIM Squad commendations; he calls them the best federal unit Ive ever worked with. That fall, they won the top state honor for cops who bring trafficking cases: the California Narcotics Officers Award. Dial it, said Nikki. Mr Gama Prez has not commented on the video, which was posted online on Wednesday night, hours before he was sworn in as mayor yesterday. La Bandera is a cell of the notorious Guerreros Unidos syndicate, which was behind the kidnap and murder of 43 teaching students in 2014. Not an ounce of remorse: just an evil little shit who made my skin crawl, says Vargas. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Cartel gunmen kidnapped, castrated, and murdered a group of men who are believed to be their rivals. Real Executions Downplayed in Film and TV, Execution and Infamy in 18th Century Britain, The Most Brutal Execution Methods Reportedly Used By Mexican Cartels. EL PASO A Mexican national was sentenced today to life in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine for his role in the Sinaloa Cartels operations. CRIM Squad found little to rejoice in Teos fall. Vargas got a tip from a friend at ATF; he sent Guru to sit on the address. Back at the precinct, Vargas walked in and wasted no time on the niceties. Well put trackers on your moms car and tail her to church, if thats what it takes to find you., For months, CRIM Squad members worked lead after lead, sitting on addresses from East Lake to Poway on tips from Vargas informants. The assassins who undertook the savagery are believed to have come from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) led by feared boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a former policeman known as El Mencho, who has overtaken the jailed Joaquin El Chapo Guzman as Mexicos main criminal bogeyman. It is a curious spot for federal drug cops to dine: a high-end Hooters knockoff catering to narco-juniors and the surgically souped-up women they prefer. According to the local media reports, the body was accompanied with a note alluding to the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas. They do what youd call enhanced interrogations, which may or may not feature a shaken can of Coke sprayed up the nostrils of detainees. A brazen ambush by cartel gunmen in central Mexico killed 13 state police officers in a case that has sparked outrage among officials. But make em tell it backwards and you find the holes. I brought in CRIM Squad cause those guys were regulators. From those patterns and a set of underutilized laws Vargas built a web to catch cartel killers before they killed again, in the U.S. A Mexican brides happiest day turned into her last, after the gang rivals of her brother burst into her wedding and shot her dead. My next-door neighbors a failed nation, he says. We were soldiers bagging soldiers. She and her team were hunting El Teo and his merry band of sadists in Tijuana. Youre attached to details with a bunch of shirt-and-tie guys; when that clock hits five oclock, theyre like, Seeya! says Sito. Lists about punishments, penalties, systemic harm, and execution methods used then, now, here, and all around the world. Guzmn faces charges of murder and laundering funds. They went at him good and hard, but couldnt break him, either. Furcio pulled off at the H Street exit and stopped at the AmPm mart. Homicide 11 hours ago. Its an article of faith among the men and women who patrol our southwest flank: What happens in Mexico doesnt stay there. A BRUTAL drug runner dubbed Cartel Queen has been captured by the Mexican army after allegedly kidnapping five people. Terry Glavin: Theres a revolution going on in the Mideast. He crumpled, agreeing to spill his guts. For the next four years, the Palillos terrorized that town, snatching AFO associates, holding them hostage, and, when they felt like it, returning them alive. After the AFO trials, theyd made it pretty clear they were sick of trying cartel cases, he says. The honor that mattered most, though, came from CBP: It founded a weeklong school in CRIM Squad tactics. Five of the Locos were charged with murder. That shit, Vargas learned in his four years watching the line, was the basic working condition for uniformed Border Patrol agents. All Rights reserved. For five years, these men had been part of something rare: an elite unit led by a brilliant cop who got complete buy-in from his squad. CRIM Squad sifted through their intel cross-checks, searched every alias linked to Tigre, and found a car connected to a name. A Mexican navy official said that alleged drug cartel chief Arturo Beltran Leyva and three members of his cartel were slain Wednesday inside the apartment during a shootout with sailors. We dont do like the FBI, where theyre up on a wire forever, says Sito. The ferocity of their mission; the foxhole esprit de corps; that sense of doing truly important work for half a decade, these men fell in love with their jobs and, to no small degree, with one another. Finally, that November, they caught up with Furcio, after a yearlong manhunt. There were Border Patrol detectives whod used TECS to look out for returned felons wife beaters, child molesters, that kind of thing, says Vargas. At the height of Mexicos drug war, cartel assassins roamed our streets. Vargas tracked Yeyo to an exs in south L.A., then handed him off to the Mexican police. The country has been plagued by gang violence, with more than 300,000 murders since 2006. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. REUTERS/Kristian Lopez, Forensic experts carry a stretcher with the allegedly mutilated body of a drug gang member wrapped in a blanket after it was found in Tlajomulco on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, Friday, May 28, 2010. The key was sifting through traces, then putting in the time, sitting vigil on suspects houses after-hours. This execution style entails taking live victims and putting them in a 55-gallon drum. The footage of the massacre was released Wednesday and is part of the increasing violence in the southern Mexican state of Geurrero, reports said. The footage shows a masked man taunting the doomed men, who are cuffed behind their backs. Dozens of men in armor crashed his door; Blackhawk gunships circled overhead, anticipating a shootout with his men. The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, it is said, was formed to fight back against El Mencho. One of the brothers answered when they knocked politely; as they cuffed him, the other brother pulled up. Soldiers returned fire, killing the assailants in a 40-minute gunfight, the defense ministry said in a statement. July 18, 2010. That was all they told me, along with a name. The men also had their hands severed and appeared to tortured to death. Wed all done the cowboy stuff, chasing FTYs on I-5, says Sito, the youngest and most fearless of the CRIM Squad agents, having served a brutal tour in Afghanistan. El Teos hit squad was coming north. 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Nowhere is that riddle harder to solve than in greater San Diego. First: The brothers got decades in prison. They all spoke fluent Spanish and could pass for sicarios minus the gold Breitlings and Jesus pieces. From that day forward, the streets ran dark with blood. 19 Mar 2021 0. Cartel leader massacres eight people because rival made him look 'like a dumb*ss' Mexico's most bloodthirsty cartel has more than 150 dirty cops on the payroll. Not that Im blaming the job for that. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias), Police and army soldiers inspect the site where a dead man hangs from his wrists handcuffed to a fence in a night club parking lot in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, late Monday, Aug. 31, 2009. Authorities believe Morales is responsible for at least 72 slayingsin the 2010 San Fernando massacre. We had a cop stop him for a traffic violation; we didnt want him knowing what was up, says Vargas. Then Morales would either boil them or douse them in a flammable liquid and set them afire. At the wheel of his seven-seat Escalade a car that drives like an opium dream and is fancied equally by narco bosses and the retired federal agents who chased them Vargas speaks of the Camacho-Higuera brothers like promising kids who made a rash mistake. When the killing went over the top [in 2007], Mexico sent the army to Tijuana, says Duncan, the task force leader working the AFO. Theyd found the elephant gun allegedly used on kidnap victims, plus his .45, false IDs, and fake-cop get-ups. Backed by a tactical unit, Vargas squad approached the door. The other feds moved on to fresher cases. Tigre eyed her: Why should I ever trust you? Reportedly, US officials seized a shipment of narcotics, and Chano sought retribution against the man for failure to pay for the lost goods. These guys were at my wedding, so she knew what she was in for. The Squadders drew so close, theyd spend their free time together. Usually, Vargas crew could take a nickname and get rolling, but Furcio was on no ones radar screen. Teo told me this Teo told me that. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano all visited Mexico on March 23 for discussions centered on Mexico's endemic drug-related violence. Poblete was part of a three-man crew for Los Zetas who grabbed a worker from Mexicos state-owned oil company Pemex as the man was coming leaving a bar in Coatzacoalcos. Thousands murdered since 2007; dozens of cops assassinated by his goons; Mexican-army checkpoints in every barrio. Instead, its one investigator in the back seat of his car, laying under a sheet perfectly still. I had just put my sunshade up for [a long surveil] when here came Furcio walking toward him. We've received your submission. We taught everything from intel to mobile surveillance. To be sure, those are givens of investigative policing but till CRIM Squad, no one did that at CBP. He had a story for everything. According to the police a message to an alleged rival gang was found next to the body. We were together so much, we turned the office into our dungeon. According to the spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office, five men were riding in a car when gunmen drove up beside them and opened fire. The Mexican cops wouldnt help us out unless we showed them an actual indictment. But everyone in TJ helped out Vargas. WITH APOLOGIES TO Narcos and the countless films and series sipping from the goblet of cartel content, theres little or no profit rehashing the narco feuds that have exacted a hellish toll, making life all but lawless for our southern neighbors. Nine people, including waitresses, were slaughtered in an apparent cartel-related attack at a Mexico bar Wednesday night and the killers left behind chilling notes warning their rivals to With a disguised voice, a man leading the interrogation grabs each man in turn, demanding to know their names, gang nicknames, and their role in the gang. We loop back down to the suburbs of National City, where the CRIM Squad cornered the Camacho-Higuera brothers. I brought in CRIM Squad cause those guys were regulators. Mexican authorities recovered the soccer ball from the footsteps of city hall in Ciudad Juarez. Alma Antonia Caldern Garca, who is the wife of a leader in one The Juarez Cartel wanted the Sinaloa Cartel off its turf, General Homero Mendoza said. The AFO didnt invent those horrors, but it certainly seemed to take more relish than most in its merry disembowelment of the dead. Youre the guys that sacked Furcio! But Vargas made the collar, so he went into the interrogation room first. There were drunken Friday dinners at Vargas house, the wives inside at the kitchen table, the cops on the patio, laughing their way through cases of Tecates. Harrison Tenpas. Vasquez, an alleged hitman for the Los Zetas cartel, was involved in the 2013 kidnapping of a former drug trafficking associate. (AP Photo), Crime scene investigators and a Mexican army soldier stand over the body of a fallen federal policeman after an ambush on a patrol of federal agents near the town of Zitacuaro, Mexico Monday June 14, 2010. Because we were on wires, we knew when a hit was coming: We stopped at least 20 murders from taking place, says Contreras. Cartel violence in the Mexican border state of Sonora continues to escalate. 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. She was then filmed being carried by a soldier to a waiting helicopter, but later died of her wounds. But Furcio went to ground after the botched hit, and the trail promptly stopped cold. So when he was promoted, in 2004, to a plainclothes desk job at a station near San Diego, the first thing he did was attach himself to investigators in the Anti-Smuggling Unit of CBP. He committed the cardinal sin of narco bosses, says David Herrod, the case agent for the Group One Task Force. In 2021, 107,000 Americans died of overdoses, two-thirds of which were caused by synthetics, according to a high-ranking official with the DEA, who, for political reasons, asked that I not name him. Please try again. When CRIM Squad caught up to him in 2010, he was laying low in Eastlake with two very attractive sisters, living the throuple high life in a McMansion. We were soldiers bagging soldiers, he says. In 2013, Mexican Marines apprehended Miguel ngel Trevio Morales, the alleged cartel leader of Los Zetas. Vargas shows me the place on Brandywine Street where the Palillos ditched a van stacked with corpses. Six people, including mother and baby, killed in Tulare County; drug cartel suspected. One of the other collars was a kid they called Pelon, a.k.a. One of the La Bandera mobsters is seen on camera apparently admitting Brito has a direct "line" with the mayor's office. Next thing he knows, hes chained up to a sink, with a big red welt on his ass. The welt, said Vargas source, was from an elephant gun the kind used at zoos to dart big game. We caughtthe worst of the worst. The AFO retaliated by kidnapping and torturing a Palillo leader. Los escritores recibiran una muerte segura a manos de los carteles que operan en esas reas incluyendo a el Cartel Del Golfo y Los Zetas si no usaran un seudnimo. Meanwhile, under the border, dozens of narco tunnels link warehouse districts on either side of the fence. He had all the leverage you could ask for with a perp. That list includes Carlos and Ismael Camacho-Higuera, the hothead brothers whom Vargas squad collared in the spring of 2006. Hours before the video, gang members left four bodies in front of Mayor-Elect David Gamas home, the report said. Rather than make Pelon stew, however, Escobar-Luna stored his remains in a freezer. Afterward, the alleged Sinaloa cartel leader removed Hernandezs face. They were narco-juniors working their way up the line: moving loads across for AFO, Vargas says. During the attack, which came right as the wedding ceremony was about to wrap up, Mexican site La Silla Rota reported that armed men arrived in vans at the church door, unleashing a hail of bullets. Four of the dead men - including a wanted murder suspect - were dumped outside the new mayor's campaign office in Iguala, in Mexico's south-western Guerrero province. But Vargas had no use for parochial nonsense and would help anyone who helped him. While El Mencho operates in three-quarters of Mexican states and oversees a drugs empire spanning the Americas and Europe, El Marros upstart Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel is mostly involved in the theft of fuel from local pipelines in Guanajuato. His name rang a bell; he was connected to Los Palillos, the gang that was shooting up San Diego. A 10-month-old baby and his 16-year-old mother have been identified among the six victims shot dead in a cartel -style execution in a home in Goshen, California. When the stench summoned the cops, they found the van full of cash; there were toothpicks strewn across the victims corpses. Guru called Vargas. Drive-by shooter empties shotgun at British funeral mourners; girls, 7 and 12, among six wounded. The tragic episode marks the deadly presence of Mexican drug cartel violence that has begun to spill over the border along with the flood of migrants into the United States. The assassins who undertook the savagery are believed to have come from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) led by feared boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, a former policeman The victims werent gangsters, just random civilians held for sums in the low five figures. Secret lair holding clues was uncovered in case linked to JonBent, Author's husband wanted her to stop writing before 'faking her death for years', Putin readying 700k troops for new offensive in weeks to cut off Ukraine', Baby among 6 festival-goers sliced to death by glass-encrusted kite strings, 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Twenty alleged La Bandera cartel members are lined up to be executed, Video was posted online as a warning by rival gang Los Tlacos, Footage shows the mobsters being forced to identify themselves at gunpoint, A voice says the cartel members are 'trash that terrorised this beautiful city', Mexican drug cartel threatens to kill TV anchor over 'unfair' coverage. I speak to Vargas shortly after the Tijuana burnings. Over there, off H Street, is the mini mart where Vargas CRIM Squad ambushed Furcio and a woman. Nikki had a name for Vargas to chase: Tigre, Teos leg man in the States. The body was found in the same place where eight others were executed a few weeks ago. The second was that he never again wanted to wait around for his target to come at him. It is where the AFO, a clan of seven brothers, killed anyone else who trucked product through their streets without kicking up to the family. The Mexican drug cartels have killed more Americans than any terrorist group in historyand the death toll is rising every day. That set was out of control, just stone-cold killers: five bodies in 15 months in Lincoln Park, says Contreras, whos now retired but working a cold case in Los Angeles. Fifteen gang members got jail time, then were deported back to Mexico for good. The kidnap wasnt the story, but its punchline was: The victim wound up captive in Tijuana. And then there was El Chan, the notorious cop turned capo who had made his bones whacking Chapos henchmen. In the process, Vargas flipped the role of Border Patrol agents: He turned them into bloodhounds for other feds. Read More Related He lived in an alley behind Lincoln High School and sold meth and semi-autos to minors. Raised in a barrio east of Los Angeles, Vargas saw how thin the line was for brown-skinned boys. Whatm I gonna do, bro its Teo. The perp was some dude called Furcio.. The narrator accuses the incoming mayor of Iguala of having connections to Guerreros Unidos, a cartel believed to be tied to the 2014 kidnapping of Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, El Pas said. The United States attorney in the Southern District of California failed to indict Teo for mass murder. Navy marines stormed an upscale apartment complex and killed Leyva along six members of his organization in a two-hour gun battle. His whole business model was hurting kids, says Guru. One day that fall, Vargas got a call from a DEA agent with the Group One Task Force whom Ill call Nikki. GOP House Oversight Chair Can't Explain Why He's Investigating Biden Classified Docs But Not Trump's The courts convicted him on 10 counts, including murder and drug trafficking. Vargas called in backup, but they were 20 minutes south in traffic, so Guru tailed Furcio in his Cadillac with blacked-out rims. Vargas, who retired last summer as a special agent with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, doesnt despise the cartels or demonize the killers who did their grunt work. The best bunch of hunters you ever saw., For that op, the hunt was tracking killers for months, then bagging them up just hours before a murder. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias), A forensic expert examines the body of a man that was killed by unknown gunmen near the international bridge in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday, May 28, 2010. As they got in the car, a van pulled up. And he goes, Yeah but I only held the camera!. He looked stunned when they pulled him from the Caddy and cuffed him he surely assumed he was about to be killed. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. There, on the third rung, was Tigres name and photo. He wasnt just friending cops and fishing for cases. You pull in at 5 a.m. and lay there till nine, not moving while you piss in a bottle, says Guru. But with Vargas, it was all about the intel-building. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias), A man looks at a body of an unidentified man who found dead with his arms and legs tied together by the side of a dirt road in Zapopan, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico Monday, May 24, 2010. They could reach out and touch anyone on this side. Texas law enforcement apprehended Marciano Chano Millan Vasquez in 2015. The biggest cheers were from Tijuanas cops: He killed 60, 70 police in two years., 1,000 Dogs Are Put Down Every Day. The police there play by different rules, says Vargas. Among those goodies was something called TECS an exclusive database of every person, vehicle, boat, plane, or shipment entering the United States through a port of entry. Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in a hate crime targeting people of Mexican descent at a Walmart store in Theyll still be fighting that one when the sea floods San Diego, and the waves raise all the dead in Mexicali. The associate later testified against Vasquez, claiming the cartel assassin took him to an undisclosed location where Vasquez was also keeping a family of three. I guess thats what [sicarios] do for therapy.. Anyone can tell a lie start to finish, he says. In 2010,Guzmn,orEl Chapo, recorded a video of him removing Hugo Hernandez's head with a chainsaw. Instead, they put in 90-hour weeks, flushing out narcos who had sneaked across the border to kill or kidnap targets in San Diego. That isnt, strictly speaking, the official view. A man narrating the disturbing footage says, This plaza already has an owner, El Pas reported. Three generations of one family were killed in what is described as a "cartel-like execution" at a California residence known to police for drug-related activity. Federal agents relayed Lopezs acid bath method: The procedure to dispose of the corpses was to fill a drum with 200 liters of water and then put two sacks of caustic soda, put it over a fire and when it started to boil, put in the bodies. 10 San Fernando Massacres. No one knew Timmy was on U.S. soil till Vargas called his sources in Mexico. (AP Photo/Antonio Sierra), A wall with bullet holes is seen next to photos and other things sitting on a bed in an apartment in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. Four police officers were killed and two other people were injured in the incident. Then we found the ledgers at his place.. One of the friends fell dead. El Teo after the CRIM Squads work led to the cartel leaders arrest in 2010. Hed spent years going down there on his own dime to liaise with the state and city police and to train up street cops in intel tactics. Alma Antonia Caldern Garca, who is the wife of a leader in one The border city of Juarez, Mexico has been racked by violent drug related crime recently and has quickly become one of the most dangerous cities in the world to live. My kids know:If something happens to me, the first call isto these guys. They were the best and worst years of my life, says Sito. Four of the dead men - including a wanted murder suspect - were dumped outside the new mayor's campaign office in Iguala, in Levantan a 2 y ejecutaron a otros 2, al novio y presuntamente la hermana de Jos Antonio Yepes Ortiz El marro pic.twitter.com/dhmmpbgnzc. Back at the office, Im filing my assault-on-a-federal-officer [report], and the supes like, Whatever. Tijuanas economy roared back, and so did its nightlife: People werent so scared of being shot, he says. There used to be a gate there called Whiskey Two: a door in the wall that only the feds could unlock. Even if they had a legal right to be here, we had tools to take them off the chessboard. New York prosecutors have evidence against the alleged cartel leader, including YouTube videos in which Guzmn systematically harmed and then removed the heads ofrival gang members. When a guy like that goes quiet, the first thing you think is: His teeth are in a barrel on someones ranch., IN THE MICRO-CULTURE OF COP LAND, word gets around when you catch a couple of high-end bad guys. When the beer ran low, he sent the friends for more, tossing them the keys to his Cadillac. A recent banner or narcomanta reportedly left by the group in Salamanca, Guanajuato is said to have ordered the president to take his security forces out of the area, or else innocent people would die. El Marro denied placing the banner, InSight Crime reports, and instead blamed El Menchos crew for setting up the stunt to make him look bad. Then his cellphone rang: It was Teo. Often, they got their ransom but killed the captive; they murdered 14 people in two states. Because we were quote-unquote Immigration, we could sack up bad guys no one else could touch, he says. He killed doctors and the middle class, even when they paid the ransom, says a Mexican official well call Seven. Iguala's then mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, was accused of masterminding the mass kidnap, and was jailed along with his wife. OU NEVER FORGET your first murderer, they say though few cops recall the killers they caught as charitably as Vargas does. Nor could Vargas charge him on behalf of kidnap victims: None of them came forward to accuse him. Editors picks Police say they found Another was abducted. In dramatic videos posted to social media, La Catrina could be seen badly wounded after being shot in the neck, sitting in the dust gasping for air as a soldier told her to stay calm. A rift between drug gangs near the U.S. border is terrifying Mexico's richest city Monterrey, once a poster child of development, forcing a quarter of its export factories to freeze investment. The body of an unidentified man hangs from an overpass in the city of Cuernavaca, some 90 km., 60 miles, south of Mexico City, early Tuesday, July 13, 2010. Nor did their non-cartel status lead their captors to spare them brutalities: They chopped off the fingers of a man and sent them to his loved ones as proof of their bad intentions. Even killers with forged IDs left footprints to follow: a time stamp of arrival; an alias to cross-check; a set of known associates to surveil. . Chilling footage of cartel interrogating cop before body found chopped up in bags. Seventy thousand vehicles travel north each day, as do 20,000 workers walking in from Tijuana. He killed 60, 70 police in two years.. Chapo held the plaza following the fall of the AFO, but his capture in 2016 put the town up for grabs and narcos, like nature, abhor a vacuum. Having abandoned her family to go and live with the CJNG in 2017, she had commanded her own squad of assassins and regularly posted photographs to Instagram that showed off her cartel lifestyle. Big Love in Spanish Grande Amor! CRIM Squad revoked Chans B-1 visa and pushed him through the gate at Whiskey Two. His killer, an AFO lieutenant named Victor Escobar-Luna, had a compelling motive. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time But Furcio, a short, slight man in his thirties, didnt even blink through rounds of grilling. A scene from near Saturdays wedding shooting in which a bride was killed at the altar. He was on his way over to burn down the house of a rival gangster. A lackey who killed his way up the ladder as an enforcer for the AFO, he rose to lieutenant, then broke with the AFO when the last brother fell in 2008. Based in El Salvador, a paramilitary vigilante group of ex military and police, killing and torturing gang members in the name of social justice because the Video was posted online as a warning by rival gang Los Tlacos. Whenever [Escobar-Luna] moped about his brother, says Duncan, hed go and open the freezer. Reportedly, he then affixed the victim's face to a soccer ball to add to his warning intended for the Juarez cartel. Either shoot them on the street or bring them south.. Man jailed for cocaine shipment worth 30m sent to him from Mexican cartel. Hed go on to make CRIM Squad in his image: six guys whod show up, no questions asked, to tail a narcos car at 3 a.m. Once across the border, its a straight shot up I-5 to the distribution hub of Los Angeles. Ponciano Frausto-Lopez. Then, one of their members stabbed a Border Patrol agent; Vargas and his men were summoned. The other No one told them how those captures linked to El Teo or his enemy, Fernandito, of the AFO. Only Vargas kept a burner lit for Furcio while he and his squad were out chasing narcos. Long after the failures of intelligence sharing that helped lead to 9/11, the three-letter law-enforcement agencies dont play nicely together, guarding their territory fiercely. jacqueline tortorice sacks, andrew holness parents, raspberry hill farm penfield ny, ys sharmila husbands, mylacounty paystub viewer, chris kempczinski leadership style, rogers ignite flex 10 channel list, redis mset vs set performance, chocolate smash box melbourne, goro akechi quotes, matchbox cars worth money, wvu mechanical engineering research, boxing ring dimensions, st michael's junior secondary school dundee, robert morgan funeral home,
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