Frontera NorteSur
September-October 2003

October 14, 2003
Mexican Feds say Sonora and Gulf of California Gain in Importance for Drug Cartels

A new report issued by Mexico's Federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) states that the Sonora border with the US has the most aviation-based drug trafficking of any area in the nation. 

Drugs from the interior of Mexico are flown to Nogales, Agua Prieta and San Luis Río Colorado, according to the PGR report. From these Sonoran border cities, drug traffickers attempt to move the narcotics into the US. 

The PGR report states that two groups control drug flows through the Sonora-Arizona border region: the Carrillo Fuentes cartel and the organization of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. 

The report also states that the Gulf of California is where most maritime drug movements take place in Mexico. One frequent route is from the coasts of Sinaloa and Nayarit across the Gulf to Baja California Sur. Small drug-loaded planes also follow this path, the PGR report noted. 

According to the PGR, the Gulf routes are under the control of the Carrillo Fuentes, Guzmán and the Arellano Félix organization.

The PGR also noted that, for the most part, maritime drug shipments have ended in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Source: El Imparcial (Hermosillo), October 14, 2003.

Two men received jail sentences after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit unlawful imprisonment. The sentences are in relationship to the men's alleged detainment and gunpoint handcuffing of two Mexican women, a minor and three children on the Arizona-Sonora border. Human rights groups and Mexican officials praised the sentences as a warning to vigilantes. Vigilante groups said the men's arrest and sentences have only won them new members and increased their resolve. 

A Yuma County judge sentenced Matthew Paul Hoffman, age 23, to 120 days in jail and Alexander David Dumas, 26, to 30 days in jail. Both received three years probation and 360 hours of community service. Charges are still pending against Martin Hoffman Jr., the other man allegedly involved in stopping the undocumented migrants on the border. 

The detentions took place on July 31, 2003 in Gadsden, Arizona, a town just across the Colorado River from Mexico near Yuma, Arizona and San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora. The three men allegedly held the group of six Mexicans until Border Patrol arrived. For a previous FNS report on the event go to:  http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/aug03/Mexicalinews.html

Reverend Robin Hoover, president of Humane Borders which puts water in the desert to help immigrants in need, said about the jail time that the men received "It sends the right message . . .  that this kind of behavior won't be tolerated."

A spokesperson for the Mexican consulate in Yuma, Beatriz Chavez, approved of the sentences against Hoffman and Dumas, saying "To see someone pointing a gun at you is very scary, and they were really defenseless because they were just women and children."

Chris Simcox, founder of Civil Homeland Defense, a group that opposes illegal immigration to the US, told the Arizona Republic that he is currently training more than 100 Yuma residents who were united by the charges against the three men. Simcox said over the past year his group has stopped more than 2,000 undocumented immigrants and held them until the arrival of the Border Patrol. 

"Something is just not right with this situation," said Simcox, "The only thing I think they went too overboard was on the handcuffing." Simcox added, "They potentially saved the lives of those kids, and they were only doing what our president has asked us, which is to be vigilant and to report suspicious illegal activities to the proper authorities."

Source: Arizona Republic, October 9, 2003. Article by Daniel González. 

October 1, 2003
Dengue Outbreak Strikes Sonora, Baja California Sur and Sinaloa

A nine-year old girl in the Sonora state capital of Hermosillo has died from Dengue hemorrhagic fever. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is a more severe form of dengue, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The mosquito-transmitted disease has also appeared in Baja California Sur and Sinaloa. 

Francisco Muro Dávila, assistant director of Health Services in Sonora, said that the state has had 167 confirmed cases of dengue this year and 15 of theses cases were dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). 

Baja California Sur has reported 1,319 suspected cases of dengue of which 147 are DHF. Officials there say the outbreak would have been worse if not for the intervention of more than 1,000 members of the armed forces and healthcare workers. Rainy weather is too blame for much of the disease's spread.

Although no figures on the extent of the outbreak in Sinaloa were provided in an article in the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario, it is stated that five people sick with DHF are being hidden in a room or wing in Mazatlán's General Hospital. According to the article, these five patients do not appear among official disease statistics provided by Sinaloa's Secretariat of Health. 

The last dengue outbreak was in 1997 when 4,000 cases were registered. However, only five of them were DHF. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, "the principal symptoms of dengue are high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains, nausea and vomiting, eye pain, and rash. Generally, younger children have a milder illness than older children and adults."

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is described by the CDC as, "a fever that lasts from 2 to 7 days, with general signs and symptoms that could occur with many other illnesses (e.g., nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and headache). This stage is followed by hemorrhagic manifestations, tendency to bruise easily or other types of skin hemorrhages, bleeding nose or gums, and possibly internal bleeding. The smallest blood vessels (capillaries) become excessively permeable (“leaky”), allowing the fluid component to escape from the blood vessels. This may lead to failure of the circulatory system and shock, followed by death, if circulatory failure is not corrected."

With good medical care, the mortality rate for DHF can be held to less than 1%, according to the CDC. 

A vaccine for the disease is seen to be 5-10 years away. 

Sources: El Diario (Cd. Juárez), October 1, 2003.  http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/dengue/index.htm

September 16, 2003
Tunnel Found Under Mexicali-Calexico Border

A 150-yard long tunnel that crosses under the Mexicali-Calexico border was discovered late last week. A sophisticated ventilation system, electric lights, and two small carts with metal wheels were some of the elements found in or near the tunnel. Mexico's Attorney General's Office said that an unknown drug organization spent US$400,000 on its construction. 

While September 16 reports about the tunnel from Mexicali's La Crónica newspaper state that the project was still under construction and had not yet entered use, the initial September 12 story on the tunnel said that it had been in use smuggling drugs and people across the border for the past eight to ten months. 

According to the September 12 story, Calexico sewer workers reported the tunnel to US officials. US officials later contacted Mexican authorities who went to the source of the tunnel and detained four people. 

One of the men that was detained told Mexican law enforcement that the tunnel had been in use eight to ten months. He said it was used to move drugs and people to the US. 

The FBI said that it was investigating on the US side of the tunnel but had arrested no one. 

By September 16, the story had changed and the tunnel was said to still be under construction. It was also mentioned that the men detained near the tunnel on September 12 had not been charged with any crimes but were placed under house arrest. Under Mexican law, the men can be held for 30 days in this manner. 

La Crónica also reported that the tunnel is Mexicali's first although it is the fifth in Baja California.. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), September 12 & 16, 2003. Articles by Samuel Murillo, José Manuel Yépiz, and Ernesto Alvarez. 

September 8, 2003
Mexico Tightens Mexicali Airport Security

Since September 11, 2001, Mexican authorities have performed closer screenings of airline passengers and strengthened their inspections of aircraft, says Pablo Rivera Cordero, an official with the Federal Preventative Police's intelligence branch. 

Rivera told the Mexicali newspaper La Crónica that in recent days he has received no official orders to heighten the alert status at the Mexicali airport. However, a source at the Mexicali airport told the newspaper that twelve federal law-enforcement agents arrived to the facility on Friday, September 5, 2003. The agents' duty is to help improve the inspection of planes, the newspaper's source stated. 

According to La Crónica, federal agents were dispatched to Mexicali because of a Thursday, September 4, 2003 Department of Homeland Security advisory.  

Although the US advisory does not mention Mexico by name, it does state the following: "A growing body of credible intelligence indicates Al-Qaeda continues to develop plans for multiple attacks against targets in the US involving commercial aircraft, with some plans calling for hijacking airliners transiting near or flying over the continental United States - but not destined to land at US airports. Operatives have been studying countries to determine which have the least stringent requirements for entry (visas or other documentation). Identifying which countries have the least restrictive requirements for entry may also tell terrorist operatives which airline flights would be easiest to board and take control in order to crash into targets in the US during over flight."

According to La Crónica, Mexicali currently has no direct flights to US cities. Mexicana airline used to have flights to the US from Mexicali but the route was unprofitable and therefore abandoned. 

The major Mexicali air routes are Mexicali-Mexico City and Mexicali-Guadalajara on Mexicana and Aeroméxico airlines. 

Source: La Crónica (Mexicali), September 8, 2003.