El Blog del Narco

Blog del Narco -Michoacan Calls Military in to Stop Cartel Violence

2013-05-22T21:53:10+00:00

Army troops are being deployed in Michoacan to restore order in the western Mexican state, which has been rocked by a wave of drug-related violence, federal officials said. The operation, which is being mounted by federal security forces under a unified command, will continue until order is restored in the region and state authorities can take over law enforcement duties from federal forces, Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio said. The government will not make “a pact or a truce with crime,” Osorio said in a press conference Tuesday in Morelia, the capital of Michoacan. The federal government plans to provide the state government with resources and training for state law enforcement personnel, the government secretary said. The operation is being coordinated by Defense Secretary Salvador Cienfuegos, Osorio said without revealing the number of army troops and Federal Police officers taking part. The Caballeros Templarios, La Familia Michoacana and Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartels have been fighting for control of Michoacan. The gangs have been battling each other, as well as new armed vigilante groups, known as “community police” forces, in different cities. The Caballeros Templarios gang was founded in March 2011 by former members of La Familia Michoacana and deals in both synthetic drugs and natural drugs. The cartel has been fighting rival gangs for control of turf and smuggling routes in Guerrero and Michoacan states, both of which are on the Pacific. Michoacan’s forests and mountains are used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and produce synthetic drugs. Los Caballeros Templarios is suspected of carrying out murders, staging kidnappings and running extortion rackets that target business owners and transport companies in Michoacan’s 113 municipalities, officials said. French food giant Danone and Mexican pharmaceutical company Grupo Saba have decided to close their plants in Michoacan due to the high level of crime and move their operations to the less violent states of Queretaro and Jalisco, officials said. Snack food company Sabritas, a unit of U.S. soft drinks and snack foods giant PepsiCo, was the target of several attacks in Michoacan last year. The state has also been affected by a wave of protests staged by the CNTE teachers union and normal school students opposed to the educational reforms implemented in February by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Blog del Narco: General in Mexican Army takes Over Public Safety in Michoacan

2013-05-17T12:53:09+00:00

A general in the Mexican army was sworn-in Thursday as public safety secretary in the western state of Michoacan, which is home to several powerful criminal organizations and a growing vigilante movement. Maj. Gen. Alberto Reyes Vaca will have command of the state police and of federal security forces stationed in Michoacan. The state’s new public safety chief vowed to confront the challenges facing Michoacan and to ensure that the forces under his direction act within the law. He called on citizens to develop a culture of reporting crimes, insisting that the best mechanism “to inhibit crime is social rejection of illegality.” Besides better police, “security requires better parents, responsible teachers and honest citizens who put their trust in social co-responsibility,” Reyes Vaca said. Michoacan is wracked by clashes among criminal organizations and between the gangsters and armed self-defense groups.

Blog del Narco: Cartel Members Arrested for Official and Model’s Murders

2013-05-15T18:20:09+00:00

Four suspected Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartel members have been arrested for the March 9 murder of Jalisco Tourism Secretary Jose de Jesus Gallegos, Mexican prosecutors said. Juan Manuel Gonzalez Martinez, 29, and Julio Andres Vazquez Estrada, 36, were arrested five days after the killing and provided investigators with information that led to the capture of two other suspects, Jonathan Garcia and Carlos Ernesto Muñoz Morales, 25, Jalisco state Attorney General Luis Carlos Najera said. The four cartel members are also suspected of being involved in the murder of Venezuelan model Daisy Ferrer and at least three other people, the AG said. Gallegos was killed while driving in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. Ferrer was kidnapped and murdered in December 2012. Her body was found in Guadalajara, Jalisco’s capital, thanks to an anonymous tip. The model went missing on the night of Dec. 12 and no ransom demand was made prior to the discovery of the corpse, officials said. Ferrer lived in Zapopan, a city in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.

Blog del Narco: Gunmen Ambush Mayor in Oaxaca

2013-05-15T01:55:27+00:00

The mayor of Santiago Amoltepec, a small town in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, was ambushed by gunmen and shot over the weekend, media reports said Monday. Luis Jimenez is listed in serious condition with gunshot wounds, Milenio television reported. The mayor was ambushed by several armed subjects on Sunday night. Jimenez was attacked while driving on a rural road in Santiago Amoltepec. The mayor had received death threats recently over a land dispute in the town, Milenio said. Jimenez was airlifted to Oaxaca city, where he is being treated at a hospital for his wounds. Oaxaca’s Sierra Sur mountains, where Santiago Amoltepec is located, have long been known for violent land disputes among its Indian communities. In March 2009, Santiago Amoltepec and neighboring Textitlan signed a treaty ending a 20-year land dispute that claimed more than 200 lives. The inhabitants of both communities depend on agriculture for their survival, a fact that fueled the quarrel over a parcel of 200 hectares (494 acres) located between the settlements. More than half the residents of Santiago Amoltepec and Textitlan speak an indigenous language. Most of Mexico’s roughly 11 million Indians - representing just over 10 percent of the country’s population - are concentrated in southern states such as Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas and Guerrero. Sixteen of Mexico’s 62 surviving indigenous languages are spoken in Oaxaca.

BLOG DEL NARCO: Austin Businessmen Convicted of Money Laundering for Los Zetas Narcos

2013-05-13T16:24:28+00:00

Four Austin businessmen have been convicted of conspiring to laundering narco money for the vicious Mexican cartel Los Zetas. Jose Trevino Morales, 46, Francisco Colorado Cessa, 52, Fernando Solis Garcia, 30, and Eusevio Maldonado Hiutron, 49, were convicted of washing Los Zeta money by operating a prestigous American quarter horse business in Oklahoma and Texas. Jose Trevino Morales, the ringleader, is the brother of Los Zeta leaders: Miguel Trevino Morales and Oscar Omar Trevino Morales. The case highlighted the infiltration of Mexican cartels in the U.S. Los Zeta drug profits were used to purchase, train, breed and race American quarter horses throughout the U.S. with much success. The illegal quarter horse operation known as Tremor Enterprises conducted millions of dollars in horse sale transactions often hiding the true ownership of the horses. In addition the Trevino operation won over $2.5 million in prize money for their quarter horses in just three years of showing them. The U.S. government seized over 500 prized horses when Trevino Morales and his group were arrested in June 2012. The government thus far has sold 400 quarter horses for nearly $9 million. Other assets including prize horses are due to be auctioned later this summer. “This trial documented the violence, brutality, and corruption generated by Mexican drug cartels—in this case the particularly ruthless Los Zetas. The government was able to show how the corrupting influence of drug cartels has extended into the United States with cartel bosses using an otherwise legitimate domestic industry to launder proceeds from drug trafficking and other crimes,” stated U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman.

Blog del Narco: DEA/FBI Update Major Traffickers Wanted Poster

2013-05-08T01:47:50+00:00

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), has published a poster advertising major drug traffickers, operating in San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. It has been four years since the DEA Updated this Poster. Cartels continue to be in an intense struggle for power over territory and drug trafficking rights in Mexico. The warning sign includes Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Ismael El Mayo Zambada and Engineer Fernando Sanchez Arellano.The poster also includes photographs of Alfonzo Arzate Garcia, René Arzate Garcia and Jose Antonio Soto Gastelum. The poster published in conjunction with the FBI, will be exhibited at the San Diego border crossings, and in many other border crossings and police stations. U.S. authorities continue to offer large amounts of money for information that helps locate major traffickers. Read more in Spanish Here Read more Narco News here

Blog del Narco: Journalist Escapes Unharmed After Execution Attempt in Colombia

2013-05-04T02:11:09+00:00

A prominent Colombian investigative journalist emerged unhurt after two gunmen fired shots at his car, the editor of newsweekly Semana said Thursday. Ricardo Calderon “emerged completely unhurt, thanks to the fact that he managed to throw himself, in the middle of the night, to the side of the highway, while these assassins fired at the vehicle and left five bullet holes,” Alejandro Santos said. The attack was staged on Wednesday night when Calderon stopped at a highway toll gate, some 64 kilometers (40 miles) from the capital, after having spoken with sources as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the management of a military fort. Before the attack, Calderon noticed that he was clearly “being followed,” Santos told Blu Radio. When he stopped at the toll gate a gray vehicle with tinted windows blocked his way, according to what Calderon told the authorities. “Two individuals got out, they called him by his name and just after he answered they began firing,” Santos added. “It’s an issue that not only affects Ricardo, whom we defend and support, as a person, it’s an attack on freedom of the press and the critical spirit of investigation,” Santos said. The editor’s uncle, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, commented on the attack via Twitter, saying: “I asked the Director of Police (Jose Roberto Leon Riaño) to personally take charge of the investigation to find those responsible for the offensive deed.” Calderon uncovered illegal government surveillance and wiretapping of journalists, judges and opposition politicians during the 2002-2010 administration of President Alvaro Uribe.

Blog del Narco: Official Confirmation El Chapo’s Father in-Law in Custody

2013-05-01T20:32:37+00:00

The Mexican government confirmed that Ines Coronel Barreras, the father-in-law of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, was arrested in an operation with no shots fired. The 45-year-old Coronel Barreras was captured at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday by the Federal Police along with four other people, including his 25-year-old son, Ines Jr., Deputy Government Secretary for Media Affairs Eduardo Sanchez said. Coronel Barreras, one of Guzman’s most trusted associates, was arrested in Agua Prieta, a city in the northern state of Sonora, and taken to Mexico City, Sanchez said. He was in charge of growing and storing marijuana in the Sierra de Durango, a mountain range in northwestern Mexico, and later smuggling the illegal drug from Sonora into Arizona, Sanchez said. Investigators began tracking the drug trafficker in January, the deputy government secretary said. “This arrest was made without one shot being fired,” Sanchez said. Ines Coronel Barreras is the father of Emma Coronel Aispuro, who married Guzman in 2007 in La Angostura, Durango, and gave birth to twin girls on Aug. 15, 2011, at a hospital in Southern California, Sanchez said. The former beauty queen gave birth at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California, and left the father’s name blank on the girls’ birth certificates. Coronel, who is a U.S. citizen, was not arrested because she faces no charges in the United States, U.S. officials said. The young woman returned to Mexico after giving birth to her daughters. The U.S. Treasury Department included Coronel Barreras on list in January of individuals whose assets were subject to seizure and banned all commercial and financial transactions with him because of his ties to Guzman’s transnational criminal organization. Mexican government intelligence reports, as well as DEA, CIA and FBI reports, have concluded that the Sinaloa cartel is the largest exporter of illegal drugs to both the United States and countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The United States offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Guzman, who is considered extremely dangerous, in 2004, while the Mexican government put a price of 30 million pesos (about $2.4 million) on the drug lord’s head. Durango, which forms Mexico’s so-called “Golden Triangle” of the narcotics trade with Chihuahua and Sinaloa states, is considered one of the likely hiding places of Guzman, who was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and pulled off a Hollywood-style jailbreak when he escaped from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in the western state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001.

Blog del Narco: U.S. Offered to Capture Chapo Guzman, Journalist Says

2013-05-01T00:17:58+00:00

The United States offered to capture drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in a “simple, fast and surgical” operation that would take 15 minutes, but the Mexican military opposed the plan, journalist Jesus Esquivel said in an interview with Efe. “The U.S. intelligence services have located him, they know where he is and are ready to trap him,” Esquivel said. Esquivel, Proceso magazine’s correspondent in Washington, is promoting his book “La DEA en Mexico.” President Felipe Calderon, who governed Mexico from 2006 to 2012, wanted the United States to capture the top boss of the Sinaloa drug cartel, but the Mexican army and navy “were opposed and stopped the operation” because only U.S. personnel would take part, Esquivel said. Esquivel interviewed Drug Enforcement Administration agent Jose Baeza, who told him the DEA provided the Mexican government on two occasions with all the information it needed to capture Guzman, but the drug lord got away both times in four-wheel drive vehicles in the mountains. The Mexican government knows where Guzman is hiding because it has received intelligence reports from the DEA and other agencies, as well as information from its own military and civilian intelligence services, and officials have a list of the drug lord’s properties, Esquivel said. The Pentagon prepared a plan to capture Guzman in an operation similar to the one that ended with the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Esquivel said. “Washington has not discarded the plan” and will propose it to Enrique Peña Nieto, who became Mexico’s president on Dec. 1, the journalist said. “The capture of this drug trafficker, if the Mexicans allow it, would be as easy as taking candy from a baby,” Esquivel said. The United States considers this mission a “priority” because Guzman is the leader of the world’s most powerful criminal organization, Esquivel said, citing a U.S. Treasury Department analysis. Mexican government intelligence reports, as well as DEA, CIA and FBI reports, have concluded that the Sinaloa cartel is the largest exporter of illegal drugs to both the United States and countries in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The United States offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the arrest of Guzman, who is considered extremely dangerous, in 2004, while the Mexican government put a price of 30 million pesos (about $2.4 million) on the drug lord’s head. Durango, which forms Mexico’s so-called “Golden Triangle” of the narcotics trade with Chihuahua and Sinaloa states, is considered one of the likely hiding places of Guzman, who was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and pulled off a Hollywood-style jailbreak when he escaped from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in the western state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001.

Missing Young Mexican Photojournalist Found Dismembered in Saltillo, Mexico

2013-04-26T14:48:52+00:00

The mutilated body of Daniel Alejandro Martinez, a photographer for Mexico’s La Vanguardia newspaper, was found along with that of another young man in the northern city of Saltillo, the daily reported Thursday. The dismembered bodies of the 22-year-old Martinez and 23-year-old Julian Alejandro Zamora Gracia were found Wednesday in Los Arcos, a neighborhood in the southern section of Saltillo, the Coahuila state Attorney General’s Office said. The victims’ identification was missing when the bodies were discovered in Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila, the AG’s office said. Martinez worked for the society pages of La Vanguardia and had been hired just a month ago, last reporting on Tuesday to get his assignments, the newspaper said. The photojournalist failed to show up on Tuesday afternoon to cover a story he had been assigned, prompting “company personnel to try, unsuccessfully, to locate him with the assistance of relatives and friends,” La Vanguardia said in a front-page story. The AG’s office identified the two young men “as members of an organized group” because it “irresponsibly” interpreted some messages left by the presumed killers with the bodies, La Vanguardia said. An International Press Institute, or IPI, and World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, delegation visited Mexico in February and called for more protection for journalists. Both the IPI and Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, ranked Mexico as the fourth most dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2012, trailing only Syria, Somalia and Pakistan. More than 80 journalists have been murdered and 18 others have been reported missing since 2005 in Mexico, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, said in a report released in December. Some 658 complaints were received from members of the news media from Jan. 1, 2005, to Nov. 30, 2012, the rights body said. The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say.

Blog del Narco: Narco-Corrido Singer Found Shot in Texas Orchard

2013-04-25T17:15:27+00:00

Mission, Texas authorities are investigating the death of narco-corrido singer, Chuy Quintanilla, whose body was found with two bullet wounds to the head in a local orchard. This morning local police were called to investigate a body found at a grapefruit orchard north of Mission. The body, later to be identified as singer Chuy Quintanilla, was found next to a Chevy Tahoe in a pool of blood. Quintanilla, a resident of Palmview, was a popular regional musician often singing songs in praise of the Gulf Cartel leaders, such as “La Mera Lay del Corrido”. Quintanilla shared his passion for music with his narco-corrido singing brother Beto Quintanilla who records some 47 albums including a corrido about Los Zetas “El Corrido de los Zetas”. Beto died of a heart attack in 2007 having survived numerous threats to his life around his music. Mission, Texas sits nearly 13 miles away from the Texas-Mexico border.

“Queen of the Pacific” Pleads Guilty to Drug Charge

2013-04-25T16:03:54+00:00

Femme fatale and female narco honcho, Sandra Avila Beltran, has pled guilty to drug charges. Now facing up to 15 year in U.S. prison, the “Queen of the Pacific” pled guilty to being an accessory after the fact to a drug trafficking organization once led by her ex-boyfriend, Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez. Avila Beltran, 52, known as much for her love of cosmetic procedures as for dominance over Pacific coast drug routes, has been housed at the Miami Correctional Facility. Last year Beltran entered a not guilty plea on charges of conspiracy to import cocaine and conspiracy to distribute at least 100 kilograms of cocaine in the United States. The alleged Mexican drug trafficker was extradited to the U.S. in early August and has since been detained in a federal prison in downtown Miami. Avila Beltran, niece of Mexican drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested in Mexico in 2007 when she was enjoying a coffee in a restaurant and has always claimed her innocence insisting she makes her living from selling clothes. Her trial began last month and in a statement filed in federal court, Avila Beltran admitted to giving Espinosa Ramirez money between 2002 and 2004 “with the intention of preventing or hindering his arrest for his drug trafficking crimes.” She is believed to have transported at least nine tons of coke from Colombia to Mexico and is the highest-profile woman linked to the Mexican drug trade. She is largely credited with helping connect Colombia’s Norte del Valle drug cartel with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.

BLOG DEL NARCO: 6 Bodies Dumped at Community Bus Stop in Zacatecas, Mexico

2013-04-23T21:39:24+00:00

Six bodies were found by police Tuesday in a community outside General Enrique Estrada, a city in the north-central Mexican state of Zacatecas, state officials said. “It was learned that members of a criminal organization left six dead bodies in the community of Felix Uresti Gomez,” the Zacatecas state government said. State police heading to the city of Rio Grande, where a law enforcement operation was planned, made the grisly discovery. The bodies were dumped by the bus stop in the community, which is on Federal Highway 45 on the way from Fresnillo to Zacatecas city. The victims - five men and a woman - have not been identified, officials said. “A message was left along with the bodies, noting the fight between two rival criminal groups with a presence in the state,” the state government said. Zacatecas, like other states in northern Mexico, has been affected by a turf war between the Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels. After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent criminal organization, went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories. The criminal organizations have been fighting for control of smuggling routes into the United States since 2010. The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say. Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels.

Blog del Narco: At Least 8 Bodies Found Buried in Juarez, Nuevo Leon

2013-04-18T01:58:37+00:00

At least eight bodies have been found in clandestine graves in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, where two drug cartels have been fighting a turf war for more than three years, authorities said Tuesday. An official with Nuevo Leon state police investigators said a passer-by reported two bodies dumped along a riverbank in the town of Juarez, which is a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city. Police arrived at the scene late Monday and discovered several clandestine graves in the area containing at least five other bodies and several body parts, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case. The causes of death have not been determined, he said. Read more at Blog del Narco in Spanish Read more Narco News here

Seven Strangled Bodies Found in Resort Town of Cancun

2013-04-15T17:24:01+00:00

The bodies of seven people who had been strangled to death were found at a house in the Mexican Caribbean resort city of Cancun, officials said. The bodies were found Sunday by police officers responding to a tip from an anonymous caller, Cancun police chief Arturo Olivarez Mendiola said. The victims - five men and two women - were bound and blindfolded, but the bodies did not have gunshot wounds, the police chief said. “We have two young girls of around 20 and the rest are older ... All of them were in the yard, in the back of the house,” Olivarez Mendiola said. Investigators took statements from seven people, including the house’s owner, the police chief said. The killings may be drug-related, officials said. The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say. Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels. President Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins.

Sinaloa Cartel Honcho Javier Torres Felix Extradited to Mexico from U.S.

2013-04-12T21:44:27+00:00

Javier Torres Felix, a Sinaloa cartel honcho, has been extradited to Mexico from the U.S. after having completed his jail sentence on drug trafficking charges. Felix, known in Mexico narco circles as “El JT”, was in a West Virgina federal prison for his leadership role with El Chapo Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel. Felix worked directly with Guzman’s number two man Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. Felix was wanted in Mexico for participating in a gun battle with the Mexican Army in 2004 in Culiacan, Sinaloa. He was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2004, spent two years in a Mexican prison then sent to the U.S. after his sentence was suspended by Mexican authorities. Torres Felix comes from a family of legendary narcos. His brother Jose Manuel Torres Felix worked with Chapo’s son until he was killed by the Mexican army in 2012. Meanwhile, Jose Manuel’s son, Anatasio, was killed by a Sinaloa cartel rival.

Blog del Narco: Five Men Executed in Guerrero- Left with Narcomessage (Photo Warning)

2013-04-12T01:52:02+00:00

Five men were killed in Chilpancingo at dawn on Wednesday. Next to their bodies two messages were left on cards that have not been disclosed by authorities. The bodies were as yet unidentified. According to police reports, the bodies were discovered at 05:40am under the bridge between the colony Ayutla Bella Vista and Progreso, on the north side of South Boulevard. When Police arrived at the scene they discovered the bodies of five men with multiple gunshot wounds. . One of the victims was still alive and taken to a hospital. Unfortunately he died in the hospital due to the severity of his injuries. The 5 unknown victims hands were tied in their back with plastic and dozens of shell casings caliber 45 and 9mm were located on the scene. The bodies showed signs of having been beaten as well. Read more in Spanish at Blog del Narco Read more Narco News Here

Blog del Narco: Criminals Break Into A.G.‘s Office to Steal Vehicles and Credit Card DuplicatorVIDEO

2013-04-11T01:47:27+00:00

An armed group of bandits stormed a storage yard of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), in the city of Chihuahua. Thieves took two Humvees and equipment to clone credit cards. The complaint filed by federal employees and two private guards, who were at the facility stated that at least three heavily armed men stormed the yard, and immediately covered their faces with black hoods. The men were left also tied up in their office. In addition to vehicles the thieves also stole sophisticated office equipment to clone credit cards for documentation fraud. The robbery occurred early Monday. The goods seized in Chihuahua where being stored at the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Administration and Property Disposal (SAE). Read more at Blog del Narco in spanish here Read more Narco News here

Blog del Narco: Blog Author Reveals She is a Single Women Who Loves Mexico

2013-04-05T14:50:29+00:00

For the past three years this blog has chronicled Mexico’s drug war with images and stories that few others dare show. Attracting millions of readers, with both positive and negative reviews but also a great deal of speculation about its author’s identity. Hispanically Speaking News is an exclusive partner offering news of the cartels and their violence from Blog del Narco in English to the US Market. Blog del Narco – has become a must-read for authorities, drug gangs and ordinary people because it lays tells the stories in a truthful and honest manner. Not one to censor as most media outlets insist, the pictures are often gruesome and unaltered. The anonymous author has been a source of mystery. People wonder who he is, how he comes into possession of these pictures and what is his motivation is for such risky reporting. Now, in the first major interview since launching the blog, the author has spoken to the Guardian and the Texas Observer – and revealed that she is in fact a young woman. “I don’t think people ever imagined it was a woman doing this,” said the blogger, who asked to use the pseudonym Lucy to protect her identity. “Who am I? I’m in my mid-20s, I live in northern Mexico, and I’m a journalist. I’m a woman, I’m single, and I have no children. And I love Mexico.” The telephone interview is the first time Lucy has spoken directly about her motivations for running a blog that could cost her life. In the early days, her male colleague who manages the technical side engaged in a few short, anonymous email exchanges with reporters, but neither has spoken out since. “I’m in love with my culture, with my country, despite all that’s going on. Because we’re not all bad. We’re not all narcos. We’re not all murderers. We are well educated, even if many [foreign] people think otherwise,” she said. Read more Narco News here

Blog del Narco Publishes Their Story in “Dying for the Truth”

2013-04-05T02:17:03+00:00

On March 2, 2010 Blog del Narco decide to begin reporting what was really happening in their beloved Mexico. The drug war was raging in the country causing terrible instability. The authorities and traditional media wanted to believe that nothing was happening while things were in crisis. The general public was being affected by the battle that was happening in their streets, often in broad daylight. This has been a painful and distressing time when many innocent people were affected. Yet the violence grew, seeming to be unstoppable. Blog del Narco has been a window to let people know the violent events that occur daily in Mexico. Blog del Narco’s new book, “To die for the truth” published by Feral House, is a testament to what we have suffered for years in Mexico, days of the drug war. We decided to write it because we do not know what will happen tomorrow, but we know that there is now a book; there are letters that tell the cruel and sad truth that our country has lived for years. We hope you have a chance to delve into the stories that have been reflected in “Dying for the truth.” “To die for the truth” (version in English and Spanish) is available; clicking the following link can purchase it: Read more in Spanish at Blog del Narco Read more Narco News here

Blog del Narco: Five Members of One Family Killed in Sinaloa

2013-04-04T01:42:48+00:00

The victims include two women and three men who received multiple gunshot wounds in Mazatlan, Sinaloa. - At least five people have been reported as shot by the ministerial authorities in the community of The Chapalota, in the town of Mazatlan. Authorities believe it may be a clash between rival cartels. Police authorities report that a criminal group consisting of 30 hooded individuals arrived in town to attack the family. Deceased are Jesus Valenzuela, 28, Pattern Geovanny Valenzuela, 26; Cross Pattern Colio, 48; Colio Skipper Martin, 46 years and Guadalupe Patron, 58, who were shot to death. After the discovery of the bodies in the city, police forces mounted an operation to move to the hills of La Noria in a journey of at least two hours. Read more in Spanish at Blog del Narco Read more Narco news here

Blog del Narco: Nine Dismembered Bodies in SUV Found in Tamaulipas, Mexico

2013-04-02T16:07:40+00:00

Nine bodies, the majority of them dismembered, were found inside an SUV with Texas tags in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, state officials said. The grisly discovery was made Sunday night in the community of Santa Clara, the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office and the Public Safety Secretariat said in a joint statement. The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States. Police received a tip from a caller that the bodies were inside a GMC Yukon SUV, the state agencies said. “The remains of nine unidentified males, the majority of them dismembered, were found inside the vehicle,” the AG’s office and the secretariat said. The bodies were taken to the morgue, where specialists will try to identify them. A Mexico City newspaper reported Monday that 1,025 people died in drug-related violence in March, making it the deadliest month since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office. A total of 3,919 people have been killed in drug-related incidents since Dec. 1, 2012, the day Peña Nieto took office, the Milenio newspaper said. The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say. Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels. Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins. The grisly discovery was made Sunday night in the community of Santa Clara, the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office and the Public Safety Secretariat said in a joint statement. The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States. Police received a tip from a caller that the bodies were inside a GMC Yukon SUV, the state agencies said. “The remains of nine unidentified males, the majority of them dismembered, were found inside the vehicle,” the AG’s office and the secretariat said. The bodies were taken to the morgue, where specialists will try to identify them. A Mexico City newspaper reported Monday that 1,025 people died in drug-related violence in March, making it the deadliest month since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office. A total of 3,919 people have been killed in drug-related incidents since Dec. 1, 2012, the day Peña Nieto took office, the Milenio newspaper said. The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say. Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels. Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins.

Blog del Narco: Attacks on Local Guadalajara Bars Leaves 4 Dead and 17 Wounded

2013-04-02T04:20:11+00:00

Four people, including a U.S. citizen, were killed and 17 others wounded in attacks staged by gunmen on two bars in Guadalajara, the capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, state officials said Monday. The first attack occurred Sunday night when a gunman fired shots and threw a grenade into the Ruta 66 bar in Guadalajara’s Cristobal de Oñate district, the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. The Gol bar in the San Jacinto neighborhood was attacked about 15 minutes later, the AG’s office said without specifying whether the incidents were related. Hugo Rodriguez Espinoza, a 28-year-old customer, and Vicente Rojas Valdivia, a 30-year-old employee, died in the attack on Ruta 66. Jeff Lydell Comer, a 45-year-old American, and Julio Cesar Chavez Gonzalez, 20, were killed in the attack on the Gol bar, the AG’s office said. Authorities closed the bars, both located on the east side of Guadalajara, so investigators could gather evidence. No arrests have been reported. A Mexico City newspaper reported Monday that 1,025 people died in drug-related violence in March, making it the deadliest month since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office. A total of 3,919 people have been killed in drug-related incidents since Dec. 1, 2012, the day Peña Nieto took office, the Milenio newspaper said. The death toll was 982 in December, 956 in January and 956 in February, the newspaper said. An average of nearly 33 people a day died in drug-related violence in March, Milenio said. Chihuahua was once again Mexico’s most violent state, with 186 murders, followed by Sinaloa, with 108, and Mexico state, with 86. A total of 29 security forces members, including 15 municipal police officers, seven Federal Police officers, four soldiers and three state police officers, were killed last month. The war on drugs launched by former President Felipe Calderon, who was in office from 2006 to 2012, left about 70,000 people dead, or an average of 32 per day, in Mexico, officials say. Calderon, of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, deployed thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to fight drug cartels. Peña Nieto, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has continued the strategy implemented by Calderon of taking on the cartels, but he has also called for bolstering intelligence capabilities and attacking criminal organizations’ entire structures, not just kingpins.

Blog del Narco: Remains of a Woman Decapitated, Burnt in Nuevo Leon

2013-03-30T01:41:21+00:00

With the capture of several criminals, the State Investigation Agency discovered the body of a woman who had been decapitated and burnt in Linares. Last night, detainees led the Ministerial Police agents to a divide near Cerro Prieto dam. After digging in the location that the criminals had selected, the remains of a woman who worked in a bar named Viviana. The woman was killed, because according to the criminals she was a friend of a rival criminal group. They took her to the spot where they decapitated her, threw the remains in a well, set fire to the corpse, and covered it with stones and soil. Read more in Spanish at Blog del Narco Read more Narco News here

Blog del Narco: Authorities Uncover Drug Grave in Southern Mexico

2013-03-29T01:30:55+00:00

The bodies of four people, three men and a woman, in various stages of decomposition were found yesterday morning in Guerrero State in a narcofosa (drug grave). According to reports, an anonymous call tipped off police as to the location of the bodies. Both police and military personnel removed the bodies. Two of the male bodies and one female body showed signs of decomposition within 5 to 8 days. The last victim was buried about 20 days before the discovery. Given the state in which they were found authorities were not able to determine if they were shot. Read more in Spanish at Blog del Narco Read more Narco News here