Two civilian volunteers with the Mexican military were kidnapped by a commando and a third escaped in the hills west of the Mariposa port of entry Monday, El Imparcial reported. The volunteers, part of a citizen’s watch group, were kidnapped by a commando after they detained a suspicious individual out near the cattle export station west of the shipping port. The area is rife with border bandits, narcos and gnarly cops with itchy trigger fingers. The third man, a former Grupo Beta agent, ran into the hills and called for help. One source I spoke with in Nogales last night finds it … interesting … how fast police responded to the kidnapping. I’m not terribly surprised, but if local cops are hitting at the Mexican Army, we’re in for some frenetic times in Nogales.
(No, nobody’s going to kidnap a gringo on the way to the dentist, but if they do, give me a call.)
Meanwhile, in Agua Prieta, the Mexican Feds have apparently stopped searching for a city police officer who was kidnapped last week in the downtown area. And across the border, there is still no explanation for that private plane that came in from Chihuahua and landed at the Douglas International Airport with no clearance. From what I understand, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rolled up soon thereafter but the woman who disembarked was whisked away far ahead of their arrival.
And in Ciudad Juárez, police recovered the bodies of three men found murdered in different parts of the sprawling city in under an hour, El Diario reports. Juárez and Tijuana are averaging two narco-hits a day this month and one a day since the year started.
Whatever fragile peace once existed between the Juárez Cartel’s Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and the Sinaloa syndicate’s Shorty Guzmán appears to have been shattered. The Sinaloans are making a move to grasp away the Juárez/El Paso corridor and that’s got some of my federal agent’ sources worried.
Last week, the Sinaloan’s launched a media campaign against the Juárez Cartel via YouTube. The 9:34 long video was a particular shot against Vicente Carrillo’s top strategist, a guy the Feds know only by his moniker, Jota Ele. Check it out at 8:15, they actually post the guy’s address and the names of the police loyal to him and Vicente.
The Sinaloan’s do raise a good philosophical point in all this though. At 9:04, they blast the Juárez mayor for telling the media that the recent cop murders in his city are the result of the president’s crackdown on the narco-traffickers “cuando todos los policias ministeriales, municipales y cipoles que an ejecutado son policias corruptos involucrados con el narco-trafico.” – when all these state, city and federal cops are corrupt cops involved in narco-trafficking.
An excellent point and one worth keeping in mind when you hear about these maneuverings along the border.