Frontera NorteSur April 2001

According to José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, head of the Fiscalía Especializada para la Atención de Delitos contra la Salud (Anti-Drug Special Task Force, FEADS) the four men have agreed to participate in a witness protection program.

Mexican officials said that one of the men, Luis Aguilar Cota, will reveal the location, names and details of the relationship between the Colombian guerrillas and the Tijuana cartel.

The FEAD's Santiago Vasconcelos said at a press conference that the Mexico City cell is allegedly responsible for taking the FARC to Tijuana to organize FARC cocaine movements.

When the four men were arrested law-enforcement agents found 35 weapons, 2,830 bullets, 52 long bullet clips, 24 short clips, bullet-proof vests and uniforms from the Policía Federal Preventiva (Federal Anti-Crime Police, PFP). The date of the arrest was not indicated.

Source: El Diario, March 27, 2001.

Federal Crime-Prevention Police Director Favors Drug Legalization

Miguel Angel de la Torre, general director of tactical support for the Federal Crime-Prevention Police (Policía Federal Preventiva, PFP), said that he is in favor of legalizing drugs in Mexico as he believes that it is the only possible solution to end drug trafficking.

"It seems that it is the only solution, although utopian, for combating drug trafficking because of the tremendous corruptive power of drug money and the fact that money is more important than moral principles," stated De la Torre.

The PFP official said that drugs would have to be legalized throughout the world to achieve the desired results. He added that the legalization of drugs would result in the collapse of the world economy.

De la Torre also said that he agreed with the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes that a generation of youth would be lost to drug legalization. However, De la Torre believes that future generations would be saved because drug use would no longer be attractive and there would no longer be a profit motive involved in selling drugs.

The PFP currently has over 10,000 agents in Mexico dedicated to "guarding the lives and rights of citizens, preventing crime and preserving civil liberties, order and public peace," according to its mission statement.

In a separate story, in Tijuana's Frontera newspaper [no relation to FNS], the PFP said that drug traffickers are now using small boats to move marijuana to the Tijuana-San Diego border from growing regions in Sinaloa and Michoacán, both states on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Sources: Norte, March, 16, 2001. Frontera, March 19, 2001. Article by Jorge Morales and Ernesto Alvarez.

Matamoros Journalist Murdered

Just five weeks after a journalist was murdered in Ojinaga, Chihuahua for allegedly revealing the location of drug warehouse near Chihuahua City, Saúl Antonio Martínez Gutiérrez, the assistant director of the Matamoros, Tamaulipas newspaper El Imparcial was kidnapped, tortured and killed. Police believe that Martínez was murdered by drug traffickers because of the manner in which he was killed and because of evidence found at the scene of the murder.

Martínez disappeared Friday afternoon March 23 and was found dead in his SUV at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 24. The journalist apparently suffered brutal torture according to a police doctor who said that the head and throat of the victim showed signs of having been beaten with a blunt object. Martínez died from four gun shots to the head from a 9mm pistol.

Matamoros news organizations have demanded via press, radio and television that the Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office quickly resolve the case so that the killers do not remain unpunished. They have also demanded that the state guarantee that they will be able to safely perform their work in the future.

Source: El Diario, March 27, 2001.

Juárez Law Enforcement: Federal Crime-Prevention Police Drive Stolen Cars, Man Escapes from Police Offices

When more Federal Crime-Prevention Police (Policía Federal Preventiva, PFP) officers arrived in Ciudad Juárez than expected the Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de Justicia en el Estado, PGJE) did not have enough vehicles for them. To make up for the shortage the PGJE took cars away from its administrative employees and when that measure proved insufficient the office allowed the PFP to borrow 17 stolen vehicles that had been previously recovered by the PGJE.

According to El Diario the stolen vehicles belong to State Farm as the insurance company had previously paid policy holders for the loss of their vehicles. El Norte reports that the PGJE has said that it will be responsible for any damage to the vehicles. As part of an agreement with law-enforcement officials that gives them temporary use of the car, the article also states that insurers have begun the paperwork necessary to get their vehicles returned to them. This process can take as long as a few weeks or a year, said a PGJE spokesperson.

The interpretation of the results of the PFP presence in Cd. Juárez is mixed. One front-page El Diario headline reads, "PFP Statistics: Day 8, Results 0." In that article the newspaper mentions statistics showing that nearly twice as many crimes were reported for this past week, March 21-27, as were reported last year during the same seven-day period (110 crimes vs. 64).

In contrast to the previous take on the effectiveness of the PFP presence, El Diario also reports that an internet document sent out yesterday, March 28, by the Federal Secretary of Public Security (SSP) claims that the PFP presence in Cd. Juárez has brought the crime rate to zero for the first time in ten years. No attempt was made to explain this claim.

Finally, Suly Ponce Prieto, the Special Investigator into Crimes Against Women, is again being criticized in the Cd. Juárez press because a man brought in for questioning to the state police offices escaped by climbing out a window. The man had been brought to the police station in connection to a case of revenge in which a five-year old girl was abducted and severely beaten so as to send a message to her family not to inform again on alleged drug traffickers.

As the man was not a suspect in the case he had not been handcuffed or immobilized in any way. Since his escape the man has been charged with damaging the state police offices and there is a warrant out for his arrest. The police have yet to locate the man.

Sources: El Diario, March 24, 28 & 29. Articles by A. Rodríguez, C. Ruiz, L. Sosa & A. Quintero. El Norte, March 27, 2001. Article by S. Castro.

Army Has New Nuevo Laredo Phone Number to Inform on Narcotraffickers

General Rafael de Jesús Ballesteros Topete has announced the creation of a new telephone number, 712-90-08, by which Nuevo Laredo citizens can inform the Army about narcotrafficking.

Ballesteros, the new commander of the Nuevo Laredo garrison Guarnición de la Plaza, was interviewed two days after taking over his new job and announced the existence of the new phone number which is dedicated 24 hours a day to receiving calls related to drug trafficking in the area.

"It's a public service," the general said about the new number. "Many citizens do not know which part of government to turn to when they want to inform on drug trafficking. We want them to know that they can call the Guarnición."

Ballesteros says that he prefers that people identify themselves when they call but understands that some may need to remain anonymous so as to protect themselves.

"We do not investigate, rather we let the right authorities know about the case," the general stated.

"The Mexican Army has always fought the drug trade," said Ballesteros. "The difference now is that the city's people can now use this telephone number so that their complaints can be heard 365 days a year, 24 hours a day."

Source: El Mañana (Nuevo Laredo), March 22, 2001. Article by Silvia Alvarez.

Traffickers Arrested for Using and Renting Children to Move People and Drugs Across Border

The Reynosa, Tamaulipas newspaper El Mañana reports that the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has arrested four parents for allegedly renting their children to human and drug traffickers. Two men were arrested for human and drug trafficking as well. The six are part of a ring of Hondurans that allegedly have been operating for three years in Matamoros, Brownsville, Harlingen, Corpus Christi and Houston.

The traffickers were allegedly paying parents between US$200 and US$500 to use their young children to cross drugs and people into the US. This practice has been growing in recent years on the border because traffickers believe that children will not be prosecuted to the same extent as adults if at all. However, this case shows that the INS is now pursuing the adults behind such cases.
One child involved in the case was only seven-months old when her mother allegedly rented her to a trafficker for US$200.

Source: El Mañana de Reynosa, March 12, 2001.

Marijuana Arrest on Isla de Cedros

Two men were arrested by local police on the Isla de Cedros for possession of nearly one kilo of marijuana. The men were then transferred via plane to the Federal Attorney General's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) in Ensenada, Baja California.

Police captain Juan Bosco said that he did not know if the drug was for personal consumption or if the men were drug traffickers.

The men were arrested at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 20.

Isla de Cedros is an island off of the Pacific coast of Baja California.

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), March 22, 2001. Article by Magdalena López Cerecer.

Parents Along Border Fear Children Are Being Photographed

In the final months of the year 2000 in Ciudad Juárez, newspapers focused much media attention on the subject of children being photographed while on school playgrounds. A number of adults were arrested for taking pictures, some from inside vans with mirrored windows. Pornography found in one van led police to believe that there may have been a link to child pornography. Parents across Cd. Juárez feared not just unauthorized picture taking but also began to worry that the photography was a prelude to kidnapping.

Now, unauthorized picture taking of children and the resultant parental fear is being reported on in the Méxicali press as well.

Méxicali's La Crónica reported that parents in a city neighborhood are complaining that a man in a white van with mirrored windows is taking photos of girls as they go to school.

Francisco Martínez, the city coordinator of school security for the State Education System (Sistema Educativo Estatal, SEE), said that he has already asked the director of city law enforcement, Francisco Iribe, to provide greater protection to prevent the kidnapping of children.

Parents have also complained that a van similar to the one described above was dropping off two young women in neighborhoods to offer free photo sessions to parents without identifying for whom they work. They have also said that the women have given them false addresses for the business.

Source: La Crónica, March 20, 2001. Article by Magdalena López Cereer.

US Woman Arrested for Child Trafficking in Tijuana

Tijuana city police arrested a US citizen found near the San Ysidro international port of entry with a four-year old Mexican boy. The woman told police that she was going to cross with her son into California but officers did not believe the woman's story because she is "blond with white skin" and the boy whom she said was her son looked "hispanic." Police continued questioning the woman and she admitted that the boy was not her son and that she had been hired to get him into the US and take him to his parents that live in Los Angeles.

Among the woman's belongings police found a number of birth certificates, and vaccination and school records. Police believe that this means the woman has previously engaged in such activities.

Tijuana Asks Radio Stations to Not Play Narco-Corridos

The Tijuana city council has asked local radio stations not to play songs known as "narco-corridos" which are songs played in the traditional corrido style but with lyrics that they say deify drug traffickers and justify drug running.

Catalino Zavala Márquez, of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), backed the voluntary ban of the songs that "lead to violence and illegal actions."

Zavala also stated that the city council unanimously supported the measure to approach the radio stations on the subject because, "it is currently necessary to develop a law-abiding culture among youth and to get youth to comply with the law as a means of combating violence."

Tijuana Mayor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid said that he is confident that the radio stations will go along with the council's request because the iniciative seeks to find healthier activities for youth and because narco-corridos only confuse the value systems of the youth.

Organized Contraband Examined by Juárez Press

The issue of contraband imports into Ciudad Juárez from El Paso has been receiving front-page headlines in El Diario for the past week. The newspaper states that informants have told Mexican law-enforcement officials that there is a battle going on between the two Cd. Juárez families that control regional contraband imports. Apparently the two sides have been informing on each other's truck loads and this accounts for recent seizures.

A March 22, 2001 article from El Diario states that US customs brokers, Mexican federal, state and local law enforcement agents and Mexican customs officials are involved in the movement of contraband.

The illegal importation of goods allegedly begins with US-based customs brokers undervaluing truckloads of material on importation documents. Then Mexican customs officials (Aduana) allegedly share up to US$4,800 for each truck that they help cross into the Mexican interior. El Diario also states that informants claim that the Unidad de Apoyo de la Inspección Fiscal Aduanera (Customs Inspection Support Unit) also receives up to US$1,200 per trailer.

Once the trucks have crossed into Cd. Juárez they must pass through the federal inspection point on the highway out of the city at the 30 kilometer marker. Informants state that it is usually easy to arrange for the passage of material through this check station. However, when there is extra attention being given to contraband by either the government and/or the press then truck drivers can take goods around the kilometer 30 station by using side roads and ditches to move their material.

With the recent arrival of hundreds of Federal Crime-Prevention Police (Policía Federal Preventiva, PFP) to the city, many of whom are involved in looking for contraband, it is believed that this is one of the times when contraband truck loads of goods leave the main highways to avoid detection.

The PFP is to remain in Cd. Juárez for 15 days to help stop contraband and drug trafficking and to fulfill previously ignored federal arrest warrants.

Chihuahua governor Patricio Martínez has requested that the 600 PFP agents that have come to the state this week be stationed permanently in Chihuahua. The federal government has yet to make a reply to his request.

Source: El Diario, March 19, 22, & 23. Articles by Armando Rodríguez, Rosario Reyes & Ramón Chaparro.

PFP Agents Arrive in Cd. Juárez at State's Request

Federal Crime-Prevention Police (Policía Federal Preventiva, PFP) agents arrived to Ciudad Juárez on March 20, 2001 at the request of Chihuahua state officials. Coming into the city on 15 trucks and 3 vans, the approximately 300 agents will attend to problems such as drug trafficking, immigration and contraband.

A separate group reportedly comprised of intelligence agents and special forces arrived to Cd. Juárez via airplane. According to PFP official General Francisco Arellano Noblecía these agents will help resolve the case of the shooting of Chihuahua governor Patricio Martínez.

The agents form part of the contingent of 600 PFP elements that have been promised to the state of Chihuahua by federal authorities.

In Cd. Juárez many of the agents will dedicate their time to filling previously languishing arrest warrants, according to Arellano.

The PFP currently has over 10,000 agents in Mexico dedicated to "guarding the lives and rights of citizens, preventing crime and preserving civil liberties, order and public peace," according to its mission statement.

When a similarly sized group of PFP agents arrived in Tijuana in late January, FNS reported that human-rights officials were worried about the possible abuse of citizens' rights and were shocked at what they saw as excess force. To see the article go to http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/dec00/Tijuananews.html and scroll down to Jan. 23, 2001.

Source: El Diario, March 21, 2001.