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.

The Sinaloa Federation - LCT Alliance

SITREP

Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo) has a long standing relationship with MEXGOV, but he paid off primarily SEGOB and SEDENA. He had Mexican Army liaisons with him almost all of the time and Gobernacion people with him some of the time to fend off unwanted inquiries. 

Times change and politics changes. Since Enrique Pena took office, there has been a systematic purge of the old guard at PRI and the young turks have replaced them. El Chapo is now going it alone without the top cover that he's grown accustomed to. 

El Chapo and his partner, Ismael Zambada (El Mayo) have split the sheets with Cartel Nueva Generacion Jalisco and El Mencho. The Sinaloa Federation is trimming down and is getting ready to operate under a new paradigm.

The New Sinaloa Federation

As part of the Sinaloa Federation's restructure, El Chapo has joined with Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) and is allied with key figures within Los Kaibiles de Guatemala (Guatemalan Special Forces). Thus, his strength in Southern Mexico is profound. Much of their methamphetamines and opiate products are now streaming into the marketplace (USA) by way of Canada. Chapo is proportionately as strong in Canada as he is along the US Border. The Arellano Felix Organization was folded completely into El Chapo's new Sinaloa Federation and he has a strong grip on the border from the Pacific Ocean to New Mexico.

MEXGOV Reaction

Because the rapprochement with the Sinaloa Federation has gone, MEXGOV wants to put pressure on them to crush them. 

Example of MANPAD damage to a
civilian aircraft.

El Chapo's Reaction to the MEXGOV Reaction

El Chapo has decided to up the ante. One of those moves is to provide the Sinaloa Federation with protection against MEXGOV rotorcraft and low flying aircraft. He turned to Guatemala (site of the shoot-out yesterday) to purchase Man Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) - surface to air missiles. He couldn't lay his hands on the latest generation of MANPAD, but the Chinese FN-6 is good enough to eliminate the threat that MEXGOV can present from the air to cartels operating in the field.

New MEXGOV Philosophy

For a very long time, the Mexican Government has been paid by drug cartels for the right to move narcotics through "plazas" as the drugs make their way to "the customer/consumer" - the USA. This resulted in unacceptable violence. Today MEXGOV plans to cut out the middle man and handle the business themselves. It brings more profit to PRI's new young turks and they can do it without encountering the problem of violence between competing cartels. Or at least that's the plan.

Gun Smuggling from Mexico to the US

Rev. Jesse Jackson (Famous American racial advocate) recently suggested on MSNBC that the 500+ murders in Chicago in 2012 were attributable to firearms smuggled 1,300 miles from Mexico to the Windy City.

Rev. Jackson: "These guns come from the suburbs and from Mexico." The advocates of gun control keep ranting about firearms being shipped wantonly from the US to Mexico.*

*While it has always been debatable how many of Mexico's weapons come from America, we do know that well over 2,000 were delivered to the drug cartels courtesy of the US Department of Justice through Operation Fast & Furious and that those firearms were the source of over 300 deaths in Mexico.

Officially, Mexico's homicide rate in 2008 was 2.4 times greater than that of the US.** Brazil's homicide rate is 4.2 times greater. However, those statistics are artificially lowered for the sake of reporting, because the real numbers would be shocking and would deter tourism. The body count from President Calderon's war on drugs that everybody in Mexico knows to have been an abject failure, is now estimated at 120,000. That's a far different number than the artificially low "official" number - 50,000.

**The homicide rates as reported in the 2011 Global Study on Homicide, conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime shows that the latest reportable numbers come from 2008.

However, there is cause for hope and change that will improve the Mexican economy yet again. Because of soaring firearms prices in the US due in large part to efforts by both President Obama and Vice President Biden to promote a 'run on firearms' in stores, many cartels are planning to ship firearms north. There is a market in the US now that was not there in the past. Both Los Caballeros Templarios and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion are in the process of buying more firearms from sources in the former Soviet Union and China principally with the intent to satisfy the demand generated by President Obama's policies.

Even though many Americans feel that tougher laws will prevent smuggling, the tough laws now in place don't stop thousands of TONS of methamphetamine and cocaine from being shipped from Mexico into the US today. If you can ship a ton of meth, you can ship a ton of AK-47's. Where many Americans would not purchase drugs, the lure of inexpensive (compared to prevailing rates in gun stores) firearms and 7.62x39 ammunition opens up an entirely new market.

The US could solve this budding problem by not artificially increasing the 'street price' of firearms, but the Obama Administration doesn't see it that way. Their concept of "gun free zones" is backfiring with unintended consequences. 

La Resistencia (Cárteles Unidos)

Juan Carlos Nava Valencia

Cárteles Unidos took a fairly big hit when  the Mexican Federal Police arrested Victor Manuel Torres Garcia (El Papirrin) in Michoacán almost two years ago now. At that time there were two branches of Cárteles Unidos. Victor Torres ran one branch and Juan Carlos Nava Valencia (El Tigre) ran the other. When the federal police arrested Ramiro Pozos Gonzales (El Molca) last September, it left Juan Carlos Nava in command.* 

*His brother, Oscar Orlando Nava Valencia (El Lobo) has been in US Custody in Texas for some time now.

Citizens of this municipality, you are notified that from 

this day forward los Caballeros Templarios are present in 

Jose Azueta (Zihuatanejo)... Establishing the people's order 

and tranquility. "Thank you"

The Apatzingan Plaza was disrupted by arrests two years ago, but the disruption was only temporary and cooperative efforts between Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) and La Resistencia/Cárteles Unidos got the plaza back on its feet quickly. At the time the LCT methamphetamine output was significant enough that they needed Cárteles Unidos to move at least a portion of it into the United States. 

Cárteles Unidos had/have clandestine methamphetamine laboratories of their own but arrests of leadership both in LCT/LFM and the occasional raid on labs that are not paying off sufficiently to the police (or are denounced by rival drug kingpins to the police/army) caused the cartels to cooperate in trafficking across Mexico and into the United States. Both cartels have significant holdings in Avocados and produce in the same region and worked together through the US Customs/CTPAT route discussed before on this blog.

Today La Resistencia exists because their methamphetamine labs and their distribution routes inside the US still exist. It's an odd mix of different cartels including the Millennium Cartel/Valencia Cartel and an assortment of outcasts from the Sinaloa Federation. With the leadership on the ropes, they have dropped below the radar to rebuild. Never fear, there are other actors in Mexico for MEXGOV and their American cousins to focus on. But they're not gone.

Victor Manuel Torres Garcia currently awaits his fate, wondering whether or not he'll do the rest of his life in a Mexican prison or a prison in the United States. The future is not bright, Victor.

Año Nuevo de la Segunda Guerra

Federación de Sinaloa Divide

If you thought that it was all love, unicorns and rainbows within the Sinaloa Federation Narcotics Cartel, you'd be wrong.  

The biggest personal loser for the New Year's Narco War might be Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza (Macho Prieto). His nephew, El Cholo was assassinated in Sinaloa, his brother was gunned down in Nogales and his cousin, El Celasar, was murdered in Sonorita, SON. Then again, he might not care much about the family. Gonzalo has always been a narcissist.

The Sinaloa Federation now has two factions at war with each other. And you can't tell the players without a program.

Faction #1 Leadership

Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo)

Ismael Zambada Garcia (El Mayo)

Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno (El Azul)

Allied with: 

Arellano Felix Organization, which the USGOV declared to be non-existent but just captured San Luis Rey de Colorado (across the US Border from Yuma) two days ago from Faction #2.

Los Caballeros Templarios, which used to be La Familia Michoacan, which MEXGOV declared to be non-existent but they've been marching steadily from Michoacan, through Colima and into Jalisco (headquarters of Faction #2). LCT has four thousand armed men in the field (trained to the spray and pray level), which isn't half bad for an organization that MEXGOV destroyed.

Faction #2 Leadership

Ruben Osegevera Cervantes (El Mencho)

Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza (Macho Prieto)

They don't seem to have many allies, but they are taking some key players from the old Sinaloa Federation including most of the Manuel Torres Felix's (M-1) organization. Torres is in custody, but you will recall that he worked for Macho Prieto so his people are expected to fall into line behind this cartel.

Where are La Gran Fuerzas de Mexico (Mexican Army)? Glad you asked. They seem to be sitting on the sidelines, eating chicharones, and waiting to see who wins. It's not a bad strategy.

Yes the coffin and funeral business in Mexico is thriving.
It's clearly been a growth industry over the past six years.

The Mexican press is covering some of the major shoot outs, but they also miss some big ones. That may be because they don't have enough surviving journalists to cover it all because the war is widespread throughout Western and Northern Mexico. There was a two-hour gunfight between Faction #1 and Faction #2 yesterday in Cuidad Guzman, JAL and not a peep about it in the newspapers - not even in Zeta, and they're generally quite reliable.

Christmas LCT Narco Offensive

Ruben Osegevera Cervantes (El Mencho), leader of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) invited his bitter rivals from Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) (formerly La Familia Michoacan - allegedly destroyed by the Mexican Government) to a Christmas dinner in Jalisco. He hired a popular band and made arrangements with caterers for the huge fiesta. However as with these sorts of things, the word got out that he planned to assassinate his rivals after wining and dining them. 

LCT launched an offensive against CJNG in Colima, capturing the town of Villa de Juarez today (located near San Jose de Gracia) and possibly also the port city of Manzanillo, which has changed hands between drug organizations at least ten times in 2012. The Mexican Army (SEDENA) has sent a few desultory troops to observe. Most of them would really rather be in barracks over the holidays, drunk to the gills on old pop-skull.

NH-500 E2 from Fuerza Aérea Mexicana

It was a warm day for a fight today with a high of 91(F) and a low tonight of 57 (F). Scattered clouds made it possible for Fuerzas Aérea Mexicana, Fifth Air Group, flying Bell 212's to keep an eye on the drug war from above. High enough so that the narcos wouldn't take pot shots at their hueys and MD500's. (technically NH-500's, transferred from the Italian Air Force)

Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación

Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) is presently under attack in Colima State by the Mexican Army. At this point they have cleared Colima City, Tecoman of the Sinaloa Federation (CJNG) and Los Caballaros Templarios have moved in to fill the void. The Army also moved into Manzanillo, but not as hard and CJNG still retains a presence there.

Ruben Osegevera Cervantes (El Mencho) runs CJNG and his headquarters in the Autlan de Navarro and El Grullo area of southwestern Jalisco. It is also being heavily pressured by the Mexican Army (SEDENA). 

It's not really news to the people in Guadalajara where literally ALL of the narcos with any stroke at all left town about a month ago in anticipation of rough times. Some went to homes in San Antonio, Texas (where many of the Guadalajara narcos maintain residence), others with warrants for their arrest either went to Costa Rica or over the hills to Puerta Vallarta. They plan to return home after February when the Mexican Army will be discontinuing its offensive in that area.

There are two principal factions of the Sinaloa Federation in Guadalajara. CJNG is run by El Mencho. He's the one being hit. Ismael Zambada Garcia (El Mayo) is not being pressured. He is more closely allied with Joaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo) than El Mencho is.

Liquid Meth - in Tequila Bottles

No, you don't have to put your liquid methamphetamine in a tequila bottle to pass it through US Customs from Mexico, but if it's included in a larger shipment of tequila, the chances that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will pick up on it is minute because the factory-sealed bottle is proof against discovery. Even half a dozen bottles mixed in with a hundred tequila bottles improves the value of the imported goods many times. It's even more effective if it's being shipped from a "Trusted Facility" under the aegis of CTPAT.

The comparatively new liquid form of methamphetamine was first produced by Los Caballaros Templarios in Michoacan but it's now being produced nationwide since the 'cook was turned' by the Sinaloa Federation.

Oddly enough, it started as a project to supply methamphetamine to prisons (for profit and as a service to comrades behind bars). Even prisoners need a pick me up - and so do guards who are in need of taming. Letters were sent to Amaloya and other maximum security institutions wherein the paper inside of the envelopes were dosed in liquid meth. It didn't take long to get from there into the tequila bottles.

Liquid packages of meth are very easy to "kiester-stash" in the rectum of the transporter, and nearly impossible to detect. If the packaging fails, the transporter will immediately die, but most don't and they're packing upwards of two liters per passenger - pack the car six deep and do the math. CPB can put the dogs on the car and the people but the 'mules' usually make it through. From what I've heard, it's easier to body pack it than solid meth because it can be manipulated into the colon and/or vagina easier in its liquid form. Never having personally participated, I have to take people's word for it.

Best of all, liquid meth is considerably "stronger" than crystals. Well, that's what they say. However 96% pure crystal meth is likely about as potent as the crystals in solution. The quality of the acid-washed crystal meth coming out of Mexico is very pure and it's 'crystal clear'. It can be injected or simply consumed orally. Both will give you a considerable punch. If the process doesn't include an acid injection process, the solution will be amber...the color of much of the tequila that you'll find in your local market.

Hecho en Mexico!

I hear your question. "How can US Customs determine whether the bottle contains pure liquid methamphetamine or tequila?" 

The obvious answer is that they need to break the seals (and ruin) every bottle crossing the border. With the North American Freed Trade Act (NAFTA) in place, that's not practical. And the lawsuits which surely result if they don't find what they are looking for... 

Please don't think that Mexico only supplies the US with liquid meth. Tequila exports from Mexico to Spain are up 500% in the last six years.

But it's really even better than that for the business of narcotrafficking. On January 17, 2006, in Washington DC, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) - Ambassador Rob Portman and Mexico’s Secretary of Economy Sergio Garcia de Alba signed an historic agreement on cross-border trade in tequila. This signing ceremony was the culmination of two years and 10 rounds of negotiations between the United States and Mexico.

Tequila is an alcohol beverage distilled from the agave plant and has been given worldwide recognition as a distinctive product of Mexico. As such, while ‘Tequila’ can only be produced in Mexico, bulk shipments of finished tequila, destined for bottling abroad, had been allowed. In August 2003, the Mexican Standards Bureau announced a proposal that the official standard for tequila would be amended to require that all tequila be ‘bottled at source’, in order to be labeled as tequila. This would have created a de facto ban on exports of bulk tequila.

If the draft standard had been adopted, it would have threatened the huge investments U.S. companies have made to build bottling plants and develop brands in the United States. Prompt action by the USTR and the cooperation of Mexican officials allowed tequila to flow uninterrupted for two years during the negotiations. In addition, during the signing ceremony, Ambassador Portman stated, "I want to thank the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau of the Department of Treasury, as well as the Departments of State and Commerce, for their invaluable assistance in these negotiations."

The U.S.-Mexico tequila agreement will ensure that bulk exports of tequila from Mexico to the United States, valued at $400 million per year, continue without interruption. The U.S. is Mexico’s largest export market for tequila, accounting for 50 percent of Mexico’s total production.

If you have any questions regarding this agreement please contact the International Trade Division, US Department of the Treasury, Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau. (MOU between Mexico and the US)

ABC News Report on a recent arrest 

Alcalde Maria Santos Gorrostieta

Dr. Maria Santos Gorrostieta MD, age 36, was a former mayor of the small Mexican town of Tiquicheo (2008-2012) and became famous for her refusal to be cowed by the drug gangs battling for control of the western state of Michoacan. Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT) abducted the mayor in front of her young daughter, they tortured and eventually murdered her and the LCT Cartel dumped her mutilated body by the side of the road as a message to any future politician who would stand up to them.

Did their tactics work? The answer is a resounding YES!

During her term as mayor, she survived at least two assassination attempts, including one that killed her husband Jose and another that left her body peppered with bullet holes and scars.

Although Mexico has been a producer of, and transit route for, illegal drugs for decades, in recent years the country has found itself caught up in violent turf wars between powerful and well-financed cartels. In 2006 Mexico’s newly-elected President Felipe Calderon launched a military assault on the gangs. But although some key players have been killed or captured, the carnage has continued. Indeed some claim it has got worse, due to splits between formerly allied cartels. Official estimates say 50,000 people have been killed since the crackdown began, but others put the toll at twice that. (Daily Mail)

The unassuming hamlet where Dr. Santos presided sits on the smuggling route between the Port of Lazaro Cardenas and the Mexican interior. Most Cocaine and methamphetamine precursors that land on Mexico's West Coast pass through the ports of Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas. LCT controls Lazaro Cardenas and jealously guards it's transportation corridors.

In October 2009 a group of gunmen shot her at least seven times in an ambush in which her husband was killed. Three months later, another armed gang opened fire on her brother’s car while she was in the passenger seat. Shortly afterwards she made the front pages after she went public with photographs of her wounds in Tiquicheo’s municipal newsletter. “I wanted to show you my wounded, mutilated body,” she wrote, “because I’m not ashamed of it. It’s living testimony that I am a strong and righteous woman, and despite my wounds, I’m still on my feet.”

The Mexico City Daily has also said that there were at least two other assassination attempts that she never reported.

On November 12, according to the newspaper El Universal, Maria Santos Gorrostieta was driving her young daughter to school in the city of Morelia when she was ambushed by a gang of armed men who pulled her from her car and beat her up in full view of passers-by. Witnessess described how she begged the men to leave her child alone and then got into her abductors’ car, leaving her daughter, screaming but unharmed, in the road.

Five days later the badly mutilated body of a woman, who had evidently been tortured before she was killed, was found dumped by a roadside. It was later identified as Maria Santos Gorrostieta.

"Her brave defiance may have cost the mother-of-three her life. The official cause of death was a blow to the head but she had been stabbed, her legs and hands had been bound and her waist and chest were covered in burns, suggesting she had been tortured." (Gateway Pundit)

Granularity-

I have asked people who I know in LCT why they (the cartel) tortured and murdered Alcalde Dr. Santos, who was the mayor when they abducted, tortured and murdered her. (There are accounts out there that she was a former mayor and that's not the case) The simple reply was, "She didn't agree to play ball. We offered her money and she refused. We didn't treat her any worse than we treated anyone else who didn't go along with the reality. We tried to explain it to her again and again. Finally we did what we had to do."

Over the next while, I'm going to see what else I can find about the motivation for this murder, but I think that I understand why LCT had to eliminate her. Cartels rule (particularly in Michoacan and Gurrero) through fear. If somebody, particularly a woman, stands up against them, and prevails, their grip on the area vanishes. MEXGOV has boasted that La Familia Michoacan has been eliminated, but it's obvious that LFM, and it's child, LCT, has not. LCT can put between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters in the field on short notice, carrying a mixture of military and civilian weapons. They know Michoacan and they are very difficult to eradicate.

It's also possible that Dr. Santos' murder was somehow approved (US Military Slang: Fragged) by the local MEXGOV people in Michoacan who had been taking pay-offs from LCT all along. Dr. Santos made them look bad. If that's true, don't hold your breath for a resolution to the kidnap-torture-Murder.

The Methamphetamine Market in France

Mexican Methamphetamine

Mexican methamphetamine has a clearer, glassier appearance than more crudely produced formulas and often resembles ice fragments, usually with a clear or bluish-white color. It often has a smell people compare to ammonia, cat urine or even burning plastic. There was a time when the Mexican cartels had to import meth into Europe, but that is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

La Familia Michoacan/Los Caballeros Templarios cook in Africa (in five locations) and ship to France, Spain, The Netherlands and Great Britain. The Sinaloa Federation (El Mencho Faction) has done that one better by setting up clandestine laboratories in Europe to service the European market. France is home to some of the larger and more sophisticated cooking operations. I do understand that the French may be insulted by this revelation, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the case.

Having been to Interpol Headquarters (Lyon, France) as a guest on more than one occasion, I understand that France together with The Netherlands (Europol) hosts the international crime fighting efforts against such things. The Mexicans, with a substantial bankroll to back up their expansion, sought out the most corrupt and likely unemployed segment of French society to help them with both security and distribution. Yes, the French Muslim Community was and remains committed to the cause. The vast sea of unemployed inner city youths are both willing and able to help the Mexican drug cartels.

France has a well established, well trained, well paid, and highly professional police force. And if you ask them how all of the methamphetamine (90%+ purity) arrived in their nation, many would tell you that it's smuggled in. That may have been true once. Not so much these days.

The marketing format follows a well-established pattern. By simultaneously increasing the purity and cutting the price, the cartels get people hooked and create a new customer base. By including the locals in the profit making, they expand by forming alliances, taking advantage of existing distribution networks.

El Cid rides again! With Los Caballeros Templarios...

(Historical Context) Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador ("The lord-master of military arts"), was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat. He was the subject of the oldest extant Spanish epic poem Cantar de Mio Cid. 

After his death, but still during the siege of Valencia, legend holds that Jimena, his wife, ordered that the corpse of El Cid be fitted with his armor and set atop his horse Babieca, to bolster the morale of his troops. In several variations of the story, the dead Rodrigo and his knights win a thundering charge against Valencia's besiegers, resulting in a war-is-lost-but-battle-is-won catharsis for generations of Christian Spaniards to follow.

Nazario Moreno Gonzalez

If you were to ask any of the members of Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT), they would tell you that they follow the LIVING Nazario Moreno Gonzalez (El Chayo, El Mas Loco) despite the fact that the Mexican government killed him on Decamber 9, 2010. In much the way that Elvis sightings are common, LCT members are constantly reporting that they - and more likely others have claimed to them that they've seen El Chayo at various occasions since his death.

I've spoken to a number of hard core LCT people to include port and plaza managers and they all affirm that El Chayo is alive and well. For all I know, he is. I didn't see his corpse. LCT essentially treats El Chayo the way the Christian Spaniards did with El Cid...

La Tuta is only one of the old leaders who is still running around and can be seen here and there. Servando Gomez Martinez is very thin and doesn't look well these days. 

LCT has been buying up every round of .38 Super ammunition that they can get their hands on. In fact, I have a suspicion that since the only place .38 Super is popular is in Mexico, most of that ammunition made in the US makes its way eventually into Mexico. (due to the way that the law is written, .38 is the largest caliber allowed to be held by non-Mexican Military inside of Mexico)

I personally believe that the incoming Pena Nieto Administration will leave LCT alone so long as they stay in Michoacan and parts of Colima. A friend of mine in LCT said, "Good luck with that." However there is a certain pragmatism that comes with the changing Mexican view of the drug war and I feel that pragmatism will win out. They'll still cook methamphetamine for destinations in the United States - but it will work out better for them if they're unmolested and they 'stay on the reservation'. LCT, as with LFM before it, is a regional cartel and a mafia that has very strong local roots, unlike the Sinaloa Federation.

Moving Drugs Down-Under for Fun and Profit

The Australians and New Zealanders seem to have a craving for methamphetamine that has been well established, but now, there's heroin. And it's not the good (and comparatively expensive) China White (#4 Heroin) that's hitting the streets. Mexican Black Tar (#3 Heroin) is making its inexpensive appearance in the slums and among the motorcycle gangs in Australia. Armani Stelio - on behalf of her brother, Sam Ibrahim - founder of Notorious (original gangster), just placed a large order from Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT), grown in Gurrero, refined in Michoacan. Their motto is "Only the dead see the end of war" but #3 heroin will certainly hasten the journey. One would have thought that he'd reach out to his shirt-tail cousins in the Middle East for heroin, but the Mexican version is less expensive and there is a lot less scrutiny at the point of export.

LCT now has a representative cell in Sydney handling the orders so it makes the matter of requesting methamphetamine (ice) or heroin much simpler from Mexican suppliers than it was in the past. Rumors being what they are, Notorious has an interest in selling (not merely using) to boost their profits, to enrich their membership and to expand their reach. Somebody needs to reach out to Detective Tim Chao and let him know that Notorious also plans to expand their sales operation into New Zealand.

Primer on Heroin Manufacture (Appendix: White Powder)

Heroin is derived from the fruit/flower of the opium poppy. In Southeast Asia, the growing season begins in autumn and about 120 days later harvesting can begin (in the spring). Papaver somniferum is one of the few species of poppy that produces opium. The flowers are colorful and vary in hue. Once they fall away, a green pod remains, which continues to grow. Opium alkaloid is only produced during the terminal ripening process, which lasts about two weeks.

While the fruit is still on the stem, incisions are made in the sides of the pod. Common practice requires the sap to seep out of the pod overnight for collection each morning for (roughly) the ensuing week.

Raw opium is converted to morphine base through boiling. The raw sap that was collected from the plant pod dissolves in boiling water and any obvious impurities such as plant fibers are scooped from the liquid opium. Quicklime is mixed with water and is then added to the boiling liquid opium. The morphine alkaloid reacts with the lime and impurities precipitate to the bottom of the pot. The liquid is poured through a filter into another container and ammonia is added and the mixture is heated. As it heats, the morphine solidifies and precipitates to the bottom of the pot. The liquid is separated off from the solid and what remains is #1 Heroin or morphine base. 

The next step in the purification process necessary to create a usable narcotic requires acetic acid to combine with the morphine base. The mixture is heated to 85 degrees centigrade for two hours. This process chemically binds the morphine to the acid and creates chemical heroin.

Water is added to the chemical heroin and since heroin is water-soluble it becomes a solution. Common sodium carbonate is added to the heroin solution and the precipitate is taken from the bottom of the pot. That is #2 Heroin or heroin base.

From heroin base the manufacturer can make #3 Heroin (20 to 30 percent pure), often called brown heroin or smoking heroin. It has the general granular consistency and color of (unrefined) brown sugar. To make #3 Heroin, hydrochloric acid and caffeine are mixed with the heroin base and stirred until it dries. Mexican Heroin, also referred to as “black tar heroin” is essentially crude #3 Heroin with more impurities in it than is typically found in #3 Heroin. The impurities make the drug more toxic but occasionally add a more potent effect (depending on who made it). (Emphasis added)

In order to make #4 Heroin from heroin base, hydrochloric acid and ether are added. The process is complex, toxic and hazardous because of explosive fumes. Once the heroin base passes through this process, it’s usually around 90 per cent pure and is referred to as China White. China White (or #4) Heroin is a fine white odorless and colorless powder.

Strategic Sahuayo, Michoacan

Historical Reference - for context and precedence

Vincente y Marta

A brief retrospective view of the narco connections during Presidente Vincente Fox's term in office has to include his present change from PAN to PRI. You may recall that Presidente Fox was the very first Panista to become president of the Mexican Republic. I don't know that his change of affiliation has anything to do with the drug trade. Likely it does not. I'm simply trying to keep the context going.

In the Fox Presidency, Marta Sahagun Jimenez (Mrs. Vincente Fox) provided the discrete connection to the narcotics cartels. After the election, Francisco Sahagun Vera (Marta's cousin) joined with Marta Sahagun's children to sell plazas. They had a solid connection to Presidente Fox, but enough distance to insure some degree of insulation if a scandal developed (and it never really did).

Arturo Durazo Moreno

Francisco Sahagun Vera used his father's juice with various cartels to represent MEXGOV interests in the plaza trade and of course, he kicked back some of the profits to his father and his father's patrons.

Francisco Sahagun Vaca (or alternatively, Baca), father to Francisco Shagun Vera, served as 'the right hand' to General Arturo Durazo (El Negro) Moreno. El Negro Durazo was the only five-star Mexican general in history. During the LOPEZ PORTILLO presidency, El Negro Durazo was Director of Public Security for the State of Mexico. El Negro Durazo want to prison for a few years because he was a drug dealer/kingpin but Francisco Sahagun Vaca never did. 

Where is Francisco (Pancho) Sahagun Vaca today?

The empty tomb in Sahuayo

Francisco Sahagun Vaca "owns" the city of Sahuayo, Michoacan. The city earned a reputation for many years as "Bermuda Triangle" because containers on trucks shipped from the Port of Manzanillo to Mexico City had to pass through that area on the highway. Containers with valuable cargo entered but never left. That's not quite the case anymore, but Francisco Sahagun Vaca still runs the town and is very rich. He's also a wanted criminal and nobody has ever arrested him. He set up a mausoleum in the local graveyard for himself (and for his son whose demise is recorded below). Allegedly Francisco Sr. is dead - but if you ask around you'll find that he's very much alive and well, still in the drug trade but flying below the radar (except for the odd blog) these days.

There has been occasional speculation as to Francisco Sahagun Vaca's cartel affiliations**. I doubt that he pays tribute to any individual cartel. His position in the strategically critical Sahuayo, Michoacan makes him a force to be reckoned with. He needs to maintain friendly relations with LCT/LFM. But he's a lot like an old snake, guarding treasure in a cave.

**MEXGOV announced that La Familia Michoacan is dead, though it isn't. There are still some cells of LFM around even though most of them have reaffiliated with Los Caballeros Templarios, now run by Servando (La Tuta) Gomez Martinez. La Tuta has not been well and while usually thin, he's lost weight and is even thinner than he's been in the past. I don't know if it's something fatal or if the lifestyle is simply weighing on him.

Where is Francisco Sahagun Vera today?

As with many Mexican narcos, he's six feet under in the cemetery. Maybe he's interred in his father's vault?