Miguel Trevino Morales - We got another cartel member

Miguel Trevino Morales "40"

American Justice can be slow but it has perseverance.  I have said this before but the war on the Mexican Drug Cartels is very similar to the war on the Colombian drug cartels in the 80's.  The following is an article from the Washington Times about "40"- Miguel Morales.














 Link to the article http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/16/los-zetas-drug-cartel-boss-trevino-morales-capture/?page=all#pagebreak it is by Jerry Seper

Los Zetas’ drug cartel boss, Trevino Morales, captured in Nuevo Laredo near border

The notoriously violent leader of the Mexico-based drug cartel known as Los Zetas, whose bloodletting and butchery had become its trademark, was captured Monday by Mexican marines near the border city of Nuevo Laredo, intercepted in a pickup truck containing more than $2 million in cash.

Miguel Trevino Morales, 40, was taken into custody in a pre-dawn raid along a dirt road when a marine helicopter halted the truck just outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo, which has long been the headquarters of Los Zetas.

Trevino Morales, also known as “Zeta 40,” was arrested with two companions, a bodyguard and an accountant, and Mexican authorities seized eight weapons from the vehicle, according to Mexican government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez.

In a statement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration congratulated the Mexican government on the Trevino Morales arrest, noting that the drug boss had been wanted for years.

“His ruthless leadership has now come to an end,” the DEA said. “Thanks to the brave men and women of the Government of Mexico, Trevino Morales will now be held accountable for his alleged crimes.”

The statement described Trevino Morales as of one of the “most significant Mexican cartel leaders to be apprehended in several years” and pledged to continue to support the Mexican government “as it forges ahead in disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking organizations.”

Recent law enforcement intelligence bulletins said Los Zetas had expanded its operations into the U.S., recruiting American prison and street gangs, and non-Mexicans, for its drug trafficking operations in Mexico and the U.S.

An FBI intelligence bulletin noted that “multiple sources” reported the shift in Los Zetas recruiting. The cartel sought to maintain a highly disciplined and structured hierarchy by recruiting members with specialized training, such as former military and law enforcement officers.

Trevino Morales is fluent in Spanish and English, and had established what U.S. authorities described as criminal contacts on both sides of the border.

The expansion of Los Zetas operations across the southwestern border has long been a concern of U.S. authorities. Trained as an elite band of Mexican anti-drug commandos, Los Zetas evolved into mercenaries for the infamous Gulf Cartel, unleashing a wave of brutality in Mexico’s drug wars.

Violence continues to be Los Zetas’ trademark.

“See. Hear. Shut up, if you want to stay alive,” read a note written in block letters on blood-splattered poster board after a December 2009 killing spree in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas.

Los Zetas has used beheadings and dismemberments to punish rivals or betrayers, establish turf, terrorize citizens against testifying and press political leaders to collaborate. Many of the gang’s targets have been Mexican military and police personnel, but U.S. law enforcement authorities also have come under attack.

As early as 2008, the FBI warned U.S. authorities that Los Zetas was attempting to gain control of drug routes into America and had ordered its members to use violence against U.S. law enforcement officers to protect their operations.

Los Zetas also has pushed its way into legal and illegal businesses by killing, kidnapping or extorting those in control. According to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence reports, gang members use their massive supply of weapons and high-tech equipment to instill fear to take over businesses.

Seeking to grab a larger portion of the $25 billion cocaine, heroin and marijuana market in the United States, Los Zetas is estimated to have between 1,000 and 3,000 hard-core members and 10,000 loyalists across Mexico, Central America and the United States.

A 2009 indictment handed up in federal court in Washington said Trevino Morales was actively involved in managing the activities of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, including the coordination of cocaine and marijuana shipments into the U.S. and the receipt of bulk cash shipments into Mexico from the United States.

Mexican Drug Cartels-making insane decisions.

Mexican authorities have found 59 bodies on a remote ranch in the La Joya farming village.  This occurred in the same area where they had found 72 bodies less than a year ago.

The news link from Yahoo


The story

At least 59 bodies found on Mexico ranch

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (AFP) – At least 59 bodies have been found on a ranch in Mexico's northern state of Tamaulipas, on the US border, authorities said Wednesday, warning that the grim toll could rise.

The Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office said 11 people had been arrested and another five kidnapping victims had been set free in the same operation on Wednesday.

Police and military staff learned March 25 that several buses had disappeared in the area, leading to their investigation which turned up a grisly find: eight mass graves in the La Joya farming village, in the town of San Fernando, the prosecutor's office said.

"With our work that is under way, we are trying to establish if the remains are those of the people who went missing on the buses," the prosecutor's statement said.

Authorities said they feared the number of dead would rise as the remains had only been counted in three of eight mass graves. A military patrol located the mass grave, the source added.

The gruesome find was in the same town of San Fernando where 72 migrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador and Brazil were killed in August 2010 for refusing to work for drug traffickers.

Meanwhile thousands of outraged citizens took to the streets of 38 Mexican cities on Wednesday, venting anger over widespread violence linked to the country's illegal drug trade.

The protest marches were organized following the murder of a well-known author's son along with four close friends and two others on March 28.

Javier Sicilia, a poet and columnist for the daily La Jornada and the weekly Proceso -- two of the country's leading publications -- called for the protests following the killing of his son Juan Francisco, 24, near Cuernavaca, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Mexico City.

Seven major drug gangs are operating in Mexico whose bloody clashes have left over 34,600 people dead since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon's government launched a military crackdown that has so far failed to stem the violence.

Authorities said Saturday that 20 people were killed in under 24 hours in Mexico's most violent city, Ciudad Juarez, which borders the US state of Texas.

Ciudad Juarez is considered the most violent city in Mexico, with more than 3,100 homicides in 2010. Most of the violence is blamed on drug cartels who fight for control of lucrative drug routes into the United States.

Just on Monday the United States boosted security at its consulate in Mexico's drug war-rocked northern city of Monterrey, where it built a second protective ring wall.

Two other US consulates on the Mexican side of the shared border were temporarily closed last year. Security concerns forced the office in Ciudad Juarez to close for several days, while another in Nuevo Laredo was closed after an explosive device attack.

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__My thoughts______________________________________

One of the core principles in illicit drug investigations is to approach the enterprise as a business entity and not as a criminal conspiracy.  You either attack the supply line or the financial line.  It is simple logistics, they have to move product in through a distribution network to their retail outlets and take out their profits, after paying the bills, usually through a different network.  They have personnel and raw material costs, banking/financing costs etc.  You attack one side or the other and work your way back.  It is a logical though criminal system.  The violence that a criminal enterprise generates can even be viewed in two ways:  one as an internal ( but extremely draconian) self correcting/disciplinary function or a method to gain market dominance.

However these mass killings do not make any business sense and I am having trouble placing them into prospective.  I understand that violence can streamline and prevent governmental/law enforcement interference by keeping information under control and increasing local populations participation in the criminal enterprise and decreasing its participation with law enforcement.   Further it can create a political climate that is conducive to their criminal activities, but that is usually achieved through different levels and types of corruption (See Chicago, New Orleans).  But the caveat to the use of violence to achieve financial ends is that once a certain threshold is reached and maintained the citizenry will rise up and fight back (See Columbia 1990's).

The cartels control almost all aspects of local Mexican governmental bodies.  They have almost total "buy-in" from the peasant class.  The terror they generate from killing criminal participants within and without their cartels is almost total for the population and sapped the majority of the will to combat illicit drug sales and distribution.  These mass killing gain the cartels almost nothing, in fact it is starting to raise resistance.  They do not make sense from a money making prospective.  It even allows further enticement for the American's to demand  and President Calderon to allow, American military cross boarder sorties against the cartels.

So what is this?  I can think of only three possibilities.  1st, there is an enforcer for a cartel that really is a serial killer that found his/her ultimate dream job.  2nd, it is another voodoo drug cult like the one where they discovered (04-11-1989) had murdered the 12 American college students in the Mexican city of Matamoros or 3rd some of the cartels have become terrorist groups that have both broad political and and financial goals ( example: al qaeda selling heroin).

I am waiting and watching for the answer.

1 Kings 18:4
While Jezebel was killing off the LORD’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)

The Mexican Cartels Strike Back-Los Zetas Cartel

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I try to keep track of the Mexican drug wars and the American Law Enforcement response.

Up till now there have been some unwritten rules that the cartels followed, mainly to keep from having a full Mexican military intervention into their actions and to keep the Mexican position of no significant American forces operating in their country intact.



The Rules:
 1.  No cartel involved violence in/near major tourist sites.
 2.  American diplomats are not to be targeted
 3.  Hit just the target and not have huge civilian causalities

Well recent history has shown that number 3 has been abandoned since they are no longer content in grabbing their target, torturing him/her and dumping the body but instead lobing grenades at discos and shooting up parties.

Rule number one has fallen with the attacks on Americans/Europeans in and around tourist destinations.

Rule number two has just fallen.  On February 15, 2011 two ICE agents were ambushed in their armored car by  (logical guess) members of the Los Zetas*, with the result of one killed and one gravely wounded.  Reading the different news articles the attacks were specifically targeting American officials.  I am watching and waiting for the American response.  So far a couple of department heads but not the President have condemned the action but no follow up actions have been remunerated.  My belief is if the Obama administration only gives speeches (which so far is the case) and does not follow up with actions, then attacks like these will increase in number until all American law enforcement currently in Mexico are returned home.  If a major joint operation is conducted aside the government-loyal Mexican military, then this attack will be an anomaly.

Only time will tell.

Our prayers go out to the agents involved and their families.

* The Los Zetas Cartel was founded by Mexican Army Special Forces deserters who were recruited by the Gulf Cartel as a security force (assassinations, money and drug couriers, security).  The Cartel has since split into two factions, one loyal to the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels and the other to ABL.  In reality they are playing both sides to increase their share of the international drug trade.

The Article


Two ICE Agents Shot, 1 Killed inside Mexico

Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot in the line of duty today approximately 100 miles outside Mexico City Tuesday.

One of the officers has died from his wounds, reports the Associated Press, quoting an anonymous official.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Mexico City tells CBS News the two agents were shot while driving from Mexico City to Monterey by unknown assailants.

"ICE is working with the U.S. State Department, Mexican authorities and other U.S. law enforcement partners to investigate the shooting. Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues," ICE officials said in a statement this afternoon.

Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano condemned the attacks.

"Let me be clear: any act of violence against our ICE personnel - or any DHS personnel - is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety," Napolitano said. "We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico's efforts to combat violence within its borders."

The two agents were driving in the northern state of San Luis Potosi when they were stopped at what appeared to be a military checkpoint, said one Mexican official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

After they stopped, someone opened fire on them, the official said.

San Luis Potosi police said gunmen attacked two people a blue Suburban on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey, near the town of Santa Maria Del Rio, at about 2:30 p.m.

Police said one person was killed and another was flown to a Mexico City hospital, though they couldn't confirm the victims were the ICE agents.

Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan spoke with ICE chief John Morton to express Mexico's condolences, according to a spokesman.

"This is a difficult time for ICE and especially for the families and loved ones of our agents. Our hearts and prayers go out to them. This tragedy is a stark reminder of the risks confronted and the sacrifices made by our men and women every day," Morton said in a statement.

Though Mexico is seeing record rates of violence from warring drug cartels and a crackdown on organized crime, it is rare for U.S. officials to be attacked. The U.S. government, however, has become increasingly concerned about the safety of its employees in Mexico amid the escalating violence.

In March, a U.S. employee of a consulate, her husband and a Mexican tied to the American consulate were killed when drug gang members fired on their cars as they left a children's party in Ciudad Juarez, the city across from El Paso, Texas.

The U.S. State Department has taken several measures over the past year to protect consulate employees and their families. It has at times authorized the departure of relatives of U.S. government employees in northern Mexican cities.

In July, it temporarily closed the consulate in Ciudad Juarez after receiving unspecified threats.

In a famous case, in 1985 U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena Salazar was tortured and killed in Mexico. Mexican trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero is serving a 40-year prison term for Camarena's slaying.

ICE, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government, enforced immigration laws and is primarily responsible for arresting, detaining and deporting people who are in the U.S. illegally. It also investigates drug cases in the U.S. and Mexico and other types of trafficking.

It was created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and has more than 20,000 employees in offices in all 50 states and 47 foreign countries.In December, U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry was shot and killed just north of the Arizona-Mexico as he tried to catch bandits suspected of targeting illegal immigrants.

As CBS News reported last week, violence has been escalating in Mexican border towns. In Juarez, Mexico, nearly seven people a day have died this year.

Nationwide, almost 35,000 people have been killed in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against drug trafficking shortly after taking office in December 2006.

Psalm 116:2-4

² Because he turned his ear to me,
   I will call on him as long as I live.
 ³ The cords of death entangled me,
   the anguish of the grave came over me;
   I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
⁴ Then I called on the name of the LORD:
   “LORD, save me!”

Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla

The Mexican Cartel Drug Wars rarely touch the Midwest where I live, in any significant way other than their products are consumed and injected on our streets and byways.   However, when I ran across an article about jesus vicente zambada niebla being in federal custody in our local paper I thought it was cool but not earth shattering till I did some research. He really popped up.  I have a rule, in hard news the more outlets propagate a story the more significant it becomes in my mind.  Here is a list and a couple lines from that day from the different news sources that I encountered, starting from Chicago where he ended up and then pulling out.  30 is a big fish for a change.

1.  Son of Mexican drug kingpin pleads not guilty in US court

(AFP) – 2 days ago

CHICAGO — A leading Mexican drug figure suspected of plotting attacks on government buildings in the United States and Mexico pleaded not guilty in a US court Tuesday to trafficking charges.

Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla is the son of one of Mexico's top drug lords, Sinaloa cartel chief Ismael "el Mayo" Zambada-Garcia, and led its operations, logistics and security, Mexican officials said following his March arrest.

Shackled at the ankles and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, Zambada-Niebla stood quietly with his hands clasped behind his back as his lawyer entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf and an interpreter translated the brief proceedings.

First Link

2.  Mexico to Chicago: Cartel leader extradited (Chicago Examiner)

In what has been heralded as a significant step forward in the war on drugs, a high ranking member of the Sinaloan drug cartel has been extradited to Chicago from Mexico. Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla is described as a second generation cartel leader that was responsible for the import of over $50,000,000.00 worth of Cocaine into the United States with Chicago being the hub of the operation.

Second Link

3. Alleged Sinaloa drug cartel leader denies Chicago charges (Chicago Sun Times)

A man described by authorities as a high-ranking leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel pleaded not guilty today in federal court in Chicago to wide-spread drug conspiracy charges that accuse him and others of bringing massive amounts of cocaine and heroin in to Chicago.

Third Link

4. Alleged Mexican cartel figure pleads not guilty (The Washington Post)

By MIKE ROBINSONThe Associated Press
Tuesday, February 23, 2010; 3:51 PM
CHICAGO -- A man accused of being one of the leaders of a powerful Mexican drug cartel pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he conspired to import and sell large amounts of cocaine and heroin in the United States.

4th Link

5. Mexico: Alleged "narco-junior" Vicente Zambada extradited to the U.S. (Los Angeles Times)

Vicente Zambada, son of one of Mexico's top drug kingpins and allegedly a major operator in his own right, was extradited Thursday to the United States, where he will stand trial on federal trafficking charges, authorities in both countries said.

Zambada, 34, was flown to Chicago and will be arraigned on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo.

5th Link

Ok you get the idea

2 Kings 15:9

He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.

More Cartel Violence

Non-serial killer, sensation /gruesome homicide is used primarily as warning, punishment and to build fear. The murders is Mexico are getting more and more ghastly because a simple multiple homicide does not garnish the attention desired by the cartel in question. Thus over time they get more brutal, more torturous and more macabre in order to rise about the other piles of rotting bodies. Here is another example from a growing and troubling trend. A sign of the future for America if we ever let the cartels truly set up their power base on our soil.


Mexico man's face skinned and stitched onto a soccer ball in Sinaloa in threat to Juarez drug cartel
By Soraya Roberts

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, January 9th 2010, 5:54 PM

In a new incident of grisly drug war violence, a man's face was skinned and stitched onto a soccer ball as a threat to members of Mexico's Juarez drug cartel.

The unknown assailants cut up the body of Hugo Hernandez into seven pieces and left him on a street in the northern city of Los Mochis, a spokesman for Sinaloa prosecutors, Martin Robles, told the Associated Press.

Hernandez's torso was found in a plastic container in a separate location from another box that contained his arms, legs and skull. The macabre soccer ball was discovered a plastic bag near Los Mochis' City Hall in Sinaloa.

The gruesome discovery included a note, which read, "Happy New Year, because this will be your last."

Hernandez, 26, was kidnapped from Sonora on Jan. 2 and taken to the neigboring state of Sinaloa. The motive for his abduction remains unclear but Sonora is known for its marijuana farms, Robles said.

Sinaloa state is the hometown of the bosses from four of the six major drug cartels in Mexico.

While tortures and beheadings have become a familiar sight since President Felipe Calderon started his crackdown on drugs three years ago, Hernandez's murder was particularly grisly.
More than 15,000 people have been killed in the drug war, many of them in the border cities of Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana. At least 17 journalists have been killed since 1992 after reporting on the local drug community, which has spurred some of the country's newspapers to stop covering violence to avoid more deaths.

Members of the cartels often torture and mutilate their victims in order to intimidate the people who threaten them.

With News Wire Services.

Drug War

I am often asked if I think that law enforcement ever has any meaningful successes when dealing with the distribution and sale of illicit narcotics.  I usually say we have a limited affect, primarily due to the copious amounts of drugs coming in and the huge profits being made.

I need to reevaluate this position.  We are having a profound effect when viewed with the drug war going on in Mexico.  Mexico is in danger of becoming a failed state due to the cartel's (Los Zetas, Gulf, Sinaloa Cartel) influences in all aspects of Mexican life.  While we are not stopping drug violence nor stemming the flow of drugs into this country or the currency from the sales from flowing out, what we are doing is keeping the drug organizations from becoming the single biggest bastion of power in American society.  It’s a nice starting point.

Case in point 
At Arturo Beltrán Leyva (ABL) grave a head just showed up to make a point.  Since severed heads are becoming the norm they decided to engage in some Feng shui and balance the floral arrangement by placing one in his ear.  Don't ever forget it really is a war.