After a two-year trial, Judge Carol Amon found him guilty on these charges on 26 September 2019 and sentenced him to 20 years prison. #Ms: El enfrentamiento inici en el Sector Tres Ros, pero se ha extendido a otros puntos de #Culiacn. "It's worthwhile in order to build a free and safe country." Accounts on social networks by witnesses said Patrn offered resistance when he realized he was surrounded and troops called in an Apache helicopter. The two suspected drug dealers killed Thursday had apparently arrived at the beach in front of the Azul Beach Resort and the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun earlier in the day, claiming it was now their territory. WebA commando of drug gang gunmen on Thursday stormed ashore at a beach on Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coast in front of luxury hotels and executed two drug dealers That Cienfuegos has meanwhile escaped what looked to be an inevitable life sentence in the US, even as the Mexican authorities have moved against his political partner in crimehighlights the sheer power of the Mexican army. Drug cartels have hung the bodies of victims from overpasses before as a message to rivals or authorities, but seldom do so with members of law enforcement. Indeed, it is in some ways unsurprising that Cienfuegos would be connected with an organization based in Nayarit, where the unique dynamics of local politics, combined with the states low profile as a hub for trafficking, have long permitted a particular brand of what Benjamin Smith has termed narco-populism to flourish. Rather, it was an organization that not only controlled drug trafficking in Nayarit between 2011 and 2017, but also established close ties with much of the states political elite. Gunmen stop residents and demand their cell phones to look for information that could tie them to the other cartel. On October 15, Cienfuegos was detained in Los Angeles on charges including conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana in the United States, allegedly working on behalf of the Nayarit-based H-2 Cartel. Cienfuegos denied the charges against him, and after a month of behind-the-scenes wrangling, US attorney general William Barr decided that . But a resident from the same area had a different hope for peace: that one cartel wins soon. In these times, These kind of filth will will only end when EL PUEBLO (THE PEOPLE) stand up. The Yucatan Times' content is protected by intellectual property rights, its re-publication, distribution, or retransmission is prohibited without the company's prior authorization. Despite allegations of corruption and human rights abuses, the army has remained legally privileged, closed to all external scrutiny, and at the very heart of the current Mexican presidents nation-wide public security and policing strategy. "With the goal of safeguarding the well-being and tranquility of Culiacn society, officials in the security Cabinet decided to suspend the actions," he said. Among other things, the cartels are battling to control the most lucrative drug: fentanyl. But this fall, the arrest of Mexicos former secretary of defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, dragged this small and unassuming state into the spotlight. Gov. For the past month, a shot up pick-up truck has rested here. This region is difficult to access, sparsely populated, incredibly poor (even by Mexican standards), and predominantly populated by Indigenous Wixrika (Huichol) and Nayari (Cora) people. Mike Sington, a guest at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, wrote in his Twitter account that "Guests are telling me they were playing volleyball on the beach, gunman approached firing gun. He was the very image of a Mexican lawman, with a round, jowly face and thick mustache, a pistol shoved into his belt. While it is too early to know the full story, according to court documents Cienfuegos advised Patrn Snchez about US investigations into his activities; as alerted him to the presence of informants within his organization (which led Patrn Snchez to order at least one murder); and made sure his subordinates in the Mexican security forces refrained from interfering in the H-2 cartels operations, including kidnappings, torture, jail-breaks, the trafficking of drugs and weapons, and dozens of murders. After the brutal murder of his family ordered by his boss Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo, Palma engaged in a string of vicious crimes to That same year, the Beltrn Leyvas reached a deal with Los Zetas, El Chapos chief rivals and lords of the Gulf drug routes. All the businesses locked their doors, Garcia says. If Sinaloans dominated the higher echelons of the Nayarits drug trade, from the 1980s growing numbers of Nayarit natives also began to move from drug production into the more profitable business of trafficking. Durazo said the security forces took control of the house and found Guzmn, who is also known as "El Ratn," inside. Prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a suspect in that killing. A federal grand jury in New York City charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, import and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana between 2013 and 2017. The lack of control that the country is Really it is a nice blog, I would like to tell you that you have given me much knowledge about it. Some areas of Mexico have increased risk of crime and kidnapping. For the first time in years, the drug trade in Nayarit received global media attention. The difference between a state being a venue for drug production, trafficking, and conflicts between rival cartels, and one in which the cartels have actually taken control of the local authorities (or in which the authorities have in fact become narcos themselves), is an inherently political one. Staff hustled us into hidden rooms behind the kitchens. Rival cartels often kill another gang's street-level dealers in Mexico to eliminate competition and ensure their drugs are sold first. Str/AFP/Getty Images US authorities estimated he earned a total of $250 million from such illicit activities. The operation was a joint effort between Veytias police forces and the Navy, a surprising partnership given previous events. Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. Last month, a priest was killed in crossfire on the highway. WebIt is 10:00 am on Saturday, March 20, and in the tourist area of Rincn de Guayabitos, Nayarit, submachine guns are thundering. Media outlets in Mexico later reported that for government had released the fugitive. Just five weeks later, however, Veytia miscalculated or was perhaps himself betrayed and on one of his twice-monthly trips to San Diego to visit his family was detained at the US border. Durazo did not initially specify whether authorities arrested Guzmn or let him go. While some of the victims of Veytia and Sandovals reign of terror have recently been able to come forward with their stories of kidnappings, disappearances, and torture, such truth telling is cold comfort to those who have been affected by the even deadlier violence that has wracked Nayarit in the years since Veytias detention in the United States. He bought a bachelors in forensic science in Tepic, married into a local political family, bought a local transport franchise, and made friends with Roberto Sandoval, who appointed him as Director of Roads and Transit when he became Tepics municipal president in 2008. Resuelve los ltimos Crucigramas de Mambrino, Juega a nuestros Sudoku para Expertos y mejora da a da tu nivel, Juega a las nuevas Sopas de letras clsicas y temticas de EL PAS. The state prosecutors office said the shop specialized in repairing motorcycles. Further inland is Tepic, the states slightly gritty capital of 330,000, located in an altiplano zone of cane fields and coffee orchards towered over by huge volcanoes. "There was a lot of panic. In less than eight years, he went from self-proclaimed rags to being one of Nayarits richest men, or, to use a measure more in keeping with his cowboy image, from having two horses, [to] 800 pure-bred Andalusians, which he kept on a luxurious 17-hectare ranch complete with an artificial, palm-tree lined lake. Through the project Touring the Southeast. Some 200 armed men had just looted a gas station, according to a witness, and the shooting would continue for hours as an equal number from an opposing group confronted them. Zacatecas had it then too as cartels battled for control, but it was overshadowed. Since then, H-2 and his men had fought hard against El Chapos group to maintain control of Nayarit and found a vital ally in Veytia, who from 2011 helped them to locate and assassinate their rivals. Rarely seen in public without a sombrero and an embroidered Wixrika shoulder bag, Sandovals self-proclaimed peoples government undertook numerous eye-catching projects, such as building a public sports and concert arena (which soon flooded), huge water-capture tanks in the poor outskirts of Tepic (which were never connected to the local water supply), and a sports center shaped like a giant cowboy hat. Cristbal Castaeda, the public safety director for Sinaloa state, told Milenio television that people had been wounded in the firing, but gave no figures. He was the very image of a Mexican lawman, with a round, jowly face and thick mustache, a pistol shoved into his belt. Click here to receive our twice-monthly newsletter. Goods to stock store shelves and medical care frequently dont arrive for fear of cartel roadblocks. Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. It borders eight other states. It sits halfway up Mexicos Pacific coast, sandwiched between Sinaloa to the north and Jalisco to the south, while its mountainous interior also borders Durango and Zacatecas. The bullet-ridden bodies of the cartel members were discovered in the north-central state of Zacatecas. He used all of the forces at his command to give H-2 complete control of drug trafficking in the state: according to witnesses in Compostela, for example, every week Polica Nayarit officers would escort a truck full of H-2 gunmen into their town to help them to disappear people. Veytia also made sure that any H-2 members who were arrested were always quickly freed. They stayed only because there wasnt any way to go, nor any place.. He used all of the forces at his command to give H-2 complete control of drug trafficking in the state: according to witnesses in, In October 2013, Veytia even provided security at a wedding at Santa Mara del Oro lake, where Juan Francisco Patrn Snchez and Hctor Beltrn Leyva, were entertained by famous, Both sides gained from this partnership: Sandoval grew extremely rich, as did Veytia, who earned money from embezzlement, kidnapping, murder-for-hire, extorsion, and the seizure of peasants lands. WebMEXICO CITY Police have discovered at least 33 human skulls buried in western Mexico, authorities said on Tuesday, the latest grisly find in a region that has suffered Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com, Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the, The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star On 9 February, Patrn Snchez and seven of his men were killed in a joint operation in suburban Tepic. He says everyone dropped to the floor for cover, and eventually the staff herded all the customers into the kitchen. WebA bullet-ridden sport utility vehicle was taken away after a gun battle with Mexican marines in which an alleged regional drug cartel leader was killed in Nayarit state. Instead, they changed form, as murders, disappearances, abduction, extorsion and land thefts were carried out en masse by a united front of state officials, police officers, cartel gunmen, andas US allegations against General Cienfuegos attestmembers of the military. [1] With any case against Cienfuegos now reliant on the information available to the Mexican prosecutors officewhich, just days before Cienfuegos release, issued an arrest warrant for a former governor of Nayarit also accused of cooperation with the H-2 Cartelit would seem that the Narco-Nayarit connection has never been more worthy of serious analysis. In Nayarit, he declared, there was no room for organized crime. Homicides fell 75 percent in four years. Public shoot-outs between rival cartel gunmen grew rarer, and by 2016, Nayarit ranked at No 2 on the Mexico Peace Index, and was lauded by President Pea Nieto as an example of PRIista policy success. The other was killed on the beach. Smoke from burning cars rises in Culiacn, Mexico, on Thursday, after an intense gunfight between security forces and gunmen linked to the Sinaloa drug cartel. Jose Garcia works at the taxi stand out front, hailing cabs and helping people with their shopping bags. When he took office in 2012, Mexicos President Enrique Pea Nieto drew up a list of 122 drug cartel leaders, making their capture a priority. Last Wednesday, he announced a special strategy to address the cities with the most murders, among them Fresnillo: more military presence and more social development. More than halfway through his term and with violence reaching new peaks, Calderon said the drug war won't be easy or quick, but he said it's a war that "we will win. Ramon Perez, a retired teacher, says the governor did the right thing in closing the schools. The gun battle went on for at least 20 minutes. horrible. For Guadalajara-based Sinaloan capos like Ruperto Beltrn Monzn in the 1960s, Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo in the 1980s, and Hctor El Gero Palma in the early 1990s, maintaining control over Nayarit, whose roads connected their native state with their new homes, was therefore doubly important. From having the second-lowest crime rate in Mexico during the first two months of 2017, Although explicit drug war violence such as inter-cartel warfare and gunfights between soldiers and traffickersdeclined during Veytias time as Nayarits security chief, crime and violence did not in themselves disappear. The larger currents of the international drug trade engulfing these Zacatecan communities may not be clear to their residents, but the impact is inescapable. the victims were just trying to make a living, working in what was available. They included two German men and a Dutch woman. Zacatecas, once dominated by the old Zetas cartel, has been the scene of turf battles between a number of cartels. The administration of President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has pinned its hopes on the so-called Maya Riviera, where it has announced plans to build an international airport and a stop for the Maya train, which will run in a loop around the Yucatan peninsula. Arturo Nahle, Zacatecas former attorney general and current state supreme court president, said those policies could be right, but will take years to bear fruit. TIJUANA.- Mnica Jimnez, a member of the Coastal Zone Citizen Security Committee, denounces that the assaults on the Tijuana-Rosarito scenic federal highway, such as those that happened recently, are not a new matter, and that every year there is a season in which they happen. By 2010, Tepic had a murder rate of 229 for every 100,000 inhabitants, and was ranked the thirteenth most dangerous city in the world. The battle for control of Guanajuato, an industrial and farming hub, have continued despite increased efforts by police and the National Guard to contain the fighting. [46] Edgar Valdez Villarreal, the leader of Los Negros cartel enforcement, was arrested on August 30, 2010 outside Mexico City. More troops would be welcome in Zacatecas, though the effectiveness of their patrols is debated. Last week, the assistant director of the local prison was gunned down -- along with his wife and his bodyguard -- as he dropped his kids off at a school. Nayarit rarely makes the headlines in Mexico, far less in the rest of the world. The battle for Zacatecas is part of the larger war to dominate the fentanyl market, which is the largest source of money for the cartels in the United States, said Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The minimum tariff for the release of a loved one abducted by Veytias forces was set at 300,000 pesos (approximately $15,000 USD), although sometimes Veytia also demanded property. Cartel del Golfo The Gulf Cartel and Cartel del Noreste known as Los Zetas by many people, Jones told Fox. The legacy of this political history and the facts of geography together define Nayarits place in the modern Mexican drug trade. But shootings like this have become common as the Sinaloa cartel fights members of the Beltran-Leyva organization for control of Tepic. On The Trail Of Mexico's Vicious Sinaloa Cartel. Eduardo Verdugo/AP Ultimately, Veytias incomplete attempt to deliver the state directly into the hands of the CJNG unleashed a new wave of local violence. 06/26/2021. Nayarits transformation to an , Rarely seen in public without a sombrero and an embroidered Wixrika shoulder bag, Sandovals self-proclaimed peoples government undertook numerous eye-catching projects, such as building a public sports and concert arena (which soon flooded), huge water-capture tanks in the poor outskirts of Tepic (which were never connected to the local water supply), and a sports center shaped like a giant cowboy hat. The dramatic shooting attack sent tourists scrambling for cover at the resort Nayarits hugely important agricultural sector has made the state a natural stronghold of the PRI, and in particular of PRI strongmen of a particularly brash and populist bent; only two non-PRI governors have ever run the state (once between 1999-2005, while in 2017 the state flipped to current president Lpez Obradors insurgent MORENA party), while the PRIs stranglehold on municipal-level politics has been even more complete. If we dont manage to pacify Mexico, regardless of what has been done, we are not going to be able to historically prove our administration, the president said earlier this month. Montes de Oca said they fled in a boat after the attack. He specializes in modern Mexican history, and is currently studying the connections between the Mexican Revolution of 1910-140, and the Drug War wracking the country today. [5] Authors own fieldnotes from the Sierra de Nayarit. hide caption. What makes Zacatecas worth fighting for is its location. When they did, they found 18 bodies in San Juan Capistrano, a small community in Valparaso, Zacatecas. Indeed, it is in some ways unsurprising that Cienfuegos would be connected with an organization based in Nayarit, where the unique dynamics of local politics, combined with the states low profile as a hub for trafficking, have long permitted a particular brand of what Benjamin Smith has termed narco-populism to flourish. And he said to give up in the drug war would be to abandon Mexico and leave it in the hands of organized criminals. From having the second-lowest crime rate in Mexico during the first two months of 2017, Nayarit was soon the setting for public shoot-outs between Beltrn Leyva remnants and the invading CJNG, the latter now backed by Veytias successor as state attorney general, Javier Herrera Valle. Some people were locked in the supermarket for more than a hour. In November, a shootout on the beach of Puerto Morelos left two suspected drug dealers dead. To order Since 1970, eighty percent of Mexican tobacco has been grown in the vast plantations of the Nayarit coast, pulling in migrant workers from across central and western Mexico. With a total area of a little under 30,000 km2, Nayarit is roughly the size of Massachusetts, and 23rd out of Mexicos 32 federal entities in terms of size. Web(Video) Suspected Members of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) Carried Out a Shooting Attack on a Tourist Police Patrol, Guayabitos, Nayarit, Mexico 04 January "It's worth the effort to continue on with this fight," Calderon said. The gunfire from what appeared to be sniper rifles and truck-mounted machine guns sent residents of the western city scrambling for cover. Others just stayed inside. WebOn June 6, 2021, a series of confrontations between alleged members of organized crime and members of the National Guard in the Tepic area of Nayarit state left at least three 7. Hector Parra/AP But there is more to the story. In recent months, the Jalisco cartel kidnapped several members of an elite state police force, tortured them to obtain names and addresses of fellow officers and began hunting down and killing police at their homes, on their days off, in front of their families. A detective who apparently was investigating the shootout and was pulled out of Valparaso for his safety was later killed. And as once the state provided a stronghold from which Patrn Snchez was able to expand his influence over the entire Beltrn Leyva organization, it is rumored that Nayarit is today the headquarters of Audias Flores Silva, alias El Jardinero, widely seen to be the second-in-command of the Jalisco-based organization. To the east sits San Luis Potosi, a logistics hub filled with shipping companies that can move the tiny pills north. WebThe killings in Zacatecas came one day after prosecutors in Mexicos most violent state, Guanajuato, reported seven men were shot to death at a mechanics shop. Outbursts of gunfire are common. As frustration with the drug war grows, Calderon this week tried to rally the Mexican people behind the effort. An employee who answered the phone at the hotel said the shooting occurred on the beach near the facility. Two suspected drug dealers were killed after gunmen from competing gangs staged a dramatic shootout near upscale hotels that sent foreign tourists scrambling for cover. President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador accused. In the tourist town of Taxco, south of Mexico City, soldiers fought a 40-minute gun battle with alleged cartel hitmen that left 15 people dead.