Assist to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

This is a very brief investigative primer for any Canadian authorities who are looking for Mexican cartel operators within their country. I doubt that any RCMP types will read this blog, but if they do, they can consider this.

Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo) is running the majority of the Canadian Traffic from the Mexican side of things. There were cells of Los Caballeros Templario (based in Washington State, US) but now that they're allies, I'm lumping them into one big pot.

This is important to know, because Chapo is a micromanager. He didn't last as long as he has nor grow in both personal wealth and power through the hemisphere by being stupid. Which means that they won't be making mistakes that the bush league narcos make. 

If you're accustomed to working on Asian targets (who almost religiously follow the same low key profile), you're going to feel at home working on these cartels.

Automobiles - Don't expect to see these guys driving around in Ferraris. The vehicle of choice for running around and being cool is usually the pick-up truck. They will also drive nondescript sedans simply because they don't attract attention. However, because they're from Sinaloa for the most part, you will see "Sinaloa Crap" on the cars. Stickers, Virgin of Guadalupe or Santa Muerte statues. You need to learn the difference between the two. Regular Catholic Mexicans usually have the Virgin of Guadalupe icons on their dash. If you find anything to do with Senora de los Sombras, Nino Negro Santa or the Holy Death (Santa Muerte) (different names for the same saint), you have a narco on your hands.

Restaurants - Everyone wants food and culture that reminds them of home close at hand. They need a place to hide in plain sight and the leaders want to hold court. So you'll find some really good Mexican restaurants popping up. Remember, it doesn't need to be a hole in the wall because these cartels have a lot of money to spend. Look for Sinaloa, Jalisco or Michoacan style cooking. If you can't tell the difference between Sonora, Quintana Roo and Jalisco style cooking - do your homework. They will hang out where they are comfortable.

Homes - They will live well and they will live on land with a buffer around it. They will have ranches and those ranches will have runways cut on them. Expect over ten ranches in any area where the narcos are active. They'll set them up with equipment, barns, sorting pens for livestock, etc. and they will leave them dormant until they're needed. Usually one one will be active at a time. That's just how they roll. It's a shell game.

Clothing - The well healed narcos will dress 'Mexican upscale casual' - short hair, expensive dress shirt, usually worn outside (not tucked in), nice slacks and nice shoes. The Sinaloa Cowboys, who work on the ranches (bottom feeders) will dress the way that they did when they were home. Do some homework on those dress patterns. These guys won't deviate from what they are comfortable wearing.

Family Life - Most wealthy Mexican men have more than one wife. The wealthier and more powerful, the more wives. It's not uncommon for a narco to have one Casa Grande (the first wife) and half a dozen Casa Chicas (the subsequent girlfriend). Mexicans don't wear condoms so those women all have children. Alert your family support people to keep a sharp eye out for women from Mexico who apply for welfare benefits and aid for their children. They almost all will. Narcos have money but they are cheap in terms of spending that money on the Casa Chicas. This information can be exploited and it's possibly the best single method of finding out who the narcos are. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Mexican Weddings - Track them, cover them, photograph the people who show up, collect license plate numbers. They are political affairs within the community and they are LARGE. It will help you to understand who is there. The important people will usually travel in Humvees or Suburbans. Some may be armored - but I'm not sure that they have a lot of armored vehicles in Canada. If you find one, the occupant is important.

Good Luck

If anyone wants more they can e-mail me. If you do e-mail me, please provide your RCMP/Law Enforcement affiliation because I will vet you before I contact you.

Legalized Marijuana in US States and the Cartels

Fox News posited this question: Will change in state pot lawschange how drug cartels do business?

Pot-supporting crowds cheered on election night as Colorado and Washington State voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Many expected Mexican drug cartels, who earn billions of dollars a year by smuggling marijuana into the United States, to be in a state of panic – but one expert said they will carry on just fine if pot is legalized.

“The cartel is going to likely adapt to that situation and move other types of drugs into those two particular states,” said Alex del Carmen, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas-Arlington.

Del Carmen said if marijuana laws in the United States change, the cartels will adjust and likely concentrate on harder drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine.

“You look at what we’ve done on the border by adding more agents, by being able to improve our technological devices," he said. "And the cartel has always managed to get drugs to the U.S. in spite of our efforts.” (Fox News)

Though I am not the voice of Mexican Drug Cartels, I can answer the question better by reporting that President-elect Pena Nieto is pushing both houses of the Mexican Legislature to ratify a bill that makes it legal to use Marijuana 'recreationally'. So Mexico may beat the US to the punch. Let me also say that if the drug cartels were not fine with this, it would not pass into law. But I predict that it will do just that.

The domestic producers in California and the chronic growers in Canada will feel the economic pinch from legalized pot. There are regions of California that depend on the cash crop that Marijuana brings them (most are on welfare while they grow) who will have to survive ONLY on their welfare money from the State of California -- and it will devastate Mendocino County, Humboldt County, etc.

Consider this: Who owns most of the resorts in Mexico? And what do they grow? And what would be a the biggest incentive to get (drug fogged) Gringos to come to Mexico on vacation? Why WOULDN'T the drug cartels be in favor of legalization. It's good for business.

The Colima Bay Cafe

Context and Precedence

Manzanillo is the busiest port in Mexico, as measured by total tonnage and volume of containerized cargo. In 2007, the port moved 1.4 million TEU's and 18.0 million tons of total cargo. Ferromex rail lines connect the port with the rest of Mexico. 

Manzanillo is  home to Fuerza Naval del Pacífico (Mexican Navy's Pacific Fleet). Manzanillo also hosts the most efficient port for tuna landings in Mexico. It handles exports like fish, corn, copra, wine, lemons, bananas, canned foods, lumber, and minerals.

Despite the city's bucolic existence, it's a huge port city and thus it's a hub of the narcotics trade. Everyone who is anyone in the Mexican narco world has their representatives present and active. 

Colima Bay Cafe

The Colima Bay Cafe - Manzanillo

Tourist Information: This was once part of the Carlos and Charlie's it is still owned and operated by the original manger and owner. The food is very good Mexican style and the service is professional. A fun place and late at night the DJ cranks up the volume so if you want to go for conversation go early or even better go for lunch. This place is right on the beach and cooled by ocean breezes a perfect place for a great lunch.

I don't know which son, but one of Chapo Guzman's sons has been frequenting the Colima Bay Cafe, Blvd Costero Miguel De La Madrid 921 28218 Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. He is there at least four times per week. The boy runs the Sinaloa Federation - Chapo Faction's interests in Manzanillo and has been under surveillance by Los Caballeros Templario (LCT). The son drives a new model black Chevrolet Silverado pick-up and always has one bodyguard with him in the truck. He is accompanied by two Chevrolet Suburbans with four to five bodyguards in each vehicle.

Decapitation Count in Mexico (2008-2012)

>> WARNING <<    

Some people may find this disturbing.

Before

The US policy that pushes that the drug war be fought (down there) to the last Mexican, has been disastrous and it will be felt in the new Mexican policy toward the United States. 

The United States fueled the fire through their Operation Gunwalker Scandal. We now know that the Obama Administration plans to keep Attorney General Eric Holder, architect of the Gunwalker Scandal wherein USGOV agents sold firearms through straw buyers to drug cartels without tracking them. Arming the cartels directly may not play on MSNBC, but the Mexicans take note.

After

There may be more this year so these are not final numbers, but you can use them as a fair guess. These numbers do not include decapitations where the heads were NOT displayed to the public for public relations value.

During the first five years of the Calderon administration, 1,443 decapitation cases were reported. 

Between January and November 2011, 493 cases were reported. 

-Chihuahua leads the pack with 171 reported decapitations since the start of the Calderon administration 

-Guerrero comes in second at 140. 

-Tamaulipas with 119 reported cases since the start of the Calderon administration  

-Durango almost tied for third with 115 reported decapitations. 

-Sinaloa came in fifth, which may surprise some people, with a mere 89 reported decapitations. (What happened to Sinaloa? There were a lot of murders in Sinaloa, but it would seem that the people in that area are less inclined to decapitate their victims.)

-Mexico State, Baja California Norte, Jalisco, Coahuila and Veracruz finished behind the pack.

The cost of Mexican President's US-Sponsored and funded drug war can be balanced by the embarrassingly low number of decapitations before he and his American allies "got the heads lopping". 

There were only 37 reported decapitations in all of Mexico in 2007.

During the first three years of the Calderon administration, 10.3 large-scale massacres were reported per month. During the second three years, an average of 23 were reported on a monthly basis. 

English Source: US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration
Spanish Source: El Universal

Beltran Leyva Organization

As I discussed in the previous blog post (Renovatio), organizational names tend to come and go in Mexico.  For example, the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) still call themselves by that name, with some pride. The US Government refers to it as Cártel del Pacífico Sur, the South Pacific Cartel. As far as I know, only the USGOV uses that name.

Wikipedia has this to say about the The South Pacific Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Pacífico Sur), is a Mexican organized crime group composed of the remnants of the Beltran-Leyva Cartel. It is based in the Mexican state of Morelos. (Wikipedia)

The source cited by Wikipedia is misleading: The BLO have very little presence in Morelos, though you could say that at one point in time, they had a greater presence there. The BLO still retains a presence in Cuernavaca, Morelos and still has political stroke there. 

Today Hector Beltran Leyva makes his home in Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit (The Mexican State of Nayarit) and he oversees another cell in Northern Sinaloa (Guassave and Batamote) that is managed by Chuy Gonzales. Yes, it's true that Fausto Isidro Meza used to be the boss but he was displaced from that roll about a month ago. Today the combined strength in Sinaloa is no more than 600 fighters, down from several times that number six months ago.

Courtesy: STRATFOR - Circa July 2012

Though the bulk of the map above portrays wildly inaccurate information, the general territory (orange) that they lay out for the BLO is generally well done.