POLICE CONNECT CARTEL TO ARMS SMUGGLING, AUTO THEFT RINGS; BARRIO TO NAME MURDER SUSPECTS

by Jeff Barnet, Staff Writer, and Michael S. Clifford, Managing Editor

Chihuahua state government officials responded to a month of intense drug-related violence in Ciudad Juárez by revealing the findings of police investigations that connected the city's drug cartel with arms smuggling and auto theft operations in El Paso, Texas, and promising to bring forth suspects believed to be responsible for murders throughout Juárez since August.

They made the announcements immediately after the assassinations of two federal police agents and a series of other shootings and torture-strangulations, including the discovery of a man and woman stuffed inside barrels near the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, border crossing, and the daytime AK-47 shootings of an El Paso man and a Juárez police officer in downtown Juárez January 28. The AK-47 murders resembled the August 3 Max-Fim massacre, police investigators said they suspected.

Ciudad Juárez has been the scene of more than 60 drug-related killings since the alleged death of cartel leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes July 4, according to an unofficial count in Diario de Juárez.

"New evidence points to the possibility that Amado Carrillo, leader of the Juárez Cartel, has been encountered alive, residing in Cuba," U.S. anti-narcotics officials told a reporter for Norte de Ciudad Juárez.

Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio promised that he would identify, in the first week of February, the names of suspects responsible for the many public slayings in August and for the kidnappings and torture-strangulations of nine people in December and January, in two separate press conferences, held January 19 and 27.

"These people are not our neighbors nor are they residents of our fair city," Barrio said, according to a report in the El Paso Times. "They come here to perform their horrible tasks and disappear. But next week, those individuals will be identified."

Barrio went on to say that a joint operation of state and federal police agents was preparing to arrest "the persons responsible" for several drug-related crimes. The El Paso Times also reported that Barrio claimed these persons were "hired by the Juárez cartel."

The Diario de Juárez report of the same January 19 speech did not quote this last statement. However, the paper did quote Chihuahua state attorney general Arturo Chávez Chávez as saying, that same day, that "there is an existing hypothesis of a war between the cartels of Juárez and Tijuana."

Spokesmen for Chávez Chávez' office (the PGJE) gave more specifics on the hypothesis on January 20. Armed commando units under the direction of Benjamín and Ramón Arellano Félix, leaders of the Tijuana cartel, were committing murders in Juárez, and were directly responsible for the assassination of federal judicial police (PJF) subcommander Héctor Mario Varela January 18, the spokesmen said.

The PGJE spokesmen were also quoted as saying that the Arellano Félix brothers are interested in taking possession of the Cartel de Juárez. The statement was unusual in its specificity, however, it was not unprecedented: Chávez Chávez stated August 6, 1997, that "it is a possibility" that the Max-Fim massacre was the work of the Arellano Félix brothers.

While authorities have not offered any conclusive explanation of the violence in Juárez, police investigations did reveal cartel connections to arms smuggling and auto theft operations in El Paso. These connections explain some killings in Juárez, including the seven people kidnapped and found tortured and strangled at the end of December and January, according to Chávez Chávez, speaking to reporters January 20.

"This most recent escalated and highly public violence is all due to a double cross or a narco debt. Right now we're just picking up the pieces from those deals gone bad," Chávez Chávez said.

"It seems as though the car thieves decided to dabble in drug trafficking, and they somehow lost a load and are now paying for it. Right now, we're looking at the depth of the operation. Our goal is to identify the players and work up the chain" Lt. Al Lowe of the El Paso County Auto Theft Task Force said.

One of the key auto theft gang leaders was found dead January 18 "near a posh neighborhood where several suspected drug traffickers have homes," an El Paso Times story said. Jorge "El Bimbo" Garcia Larralde, 25, leader of the notorious "Los Bimbos" gang, died of torture and strangulation, according to police detectives.

The alleged abduction of two El Paso brothers, Hugo and René Ambriz Duarte, from downtown Juárez, brought the arms smuggling connection to media attention. Details on the brothers' disappearance after driving their Ram Charger into Ciudad Juárez January 10 were not clear.

They were first believed to have been kidnapped--one eyewitness claimed they were abducted from the Kentucky Club bar on the city's tourist strip January 14. However, the Mexican federal police (PGR) announced January 15 that the brothers were in PGR custody in Mexico City, where they were taken after their January 10 arrest. PGR authorities said they arrested the brothers for weapons smuggling, and confessed to smuggling "more than 1,000 weapons into Juárez, including AK-47's."

Hugo, 26, was a student at El Paso Community College, and René, 24, a business administration major at the University of Texas-El Paso.

PGR agents went on to say narcotraffickers receive arms from the United States through a well-established route. El Paso smugglers pick up high-powered rifles and other assault weapons in Austin, Texas. The arms are then packed inside refrigerators and cross into Juárez on commercial trucks, and are distributed throughout Mexico to various cartels, according to a PGR spokesman.

Officials from the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau (ATF) corroborated the PGR claim, saying they were establishing a continuing investigation into the arms smuggling gangs.

PGR investigations have also suggested that corruption is rampant in Ciudad Juárez. In his press conference of January 19, Governor Barrio announced PGR allegations that "bankers, journalists, and police officials are being corrupted by narco-trafficking bribes."

Barrio quoted PGR reports that said over $200 million (U.S.) of drug-trafficking money passes through Juárez in a week, or $10 billion (U.S.) in a year. The PGR estimated that 30 to 40 percent of cartel profits (said to be approximately $25 billion per year) were paid out in bribes.

"Juárez is not the point in the Republic where the most drugs cross through. More drugs cross through Tijuana and Tamaupilas, by the routes of the Cartel de Tijuana and the Cartel del Golfo," Barrio went on to mention.

The assassinations of two federal agents--Varela on January 18 and PGR agent Rodolfo Camargo García on January 20--created much speculation in the Juárez newspapers.

PJF subcommander Varela, gunned down by AK-47 toting assassins who fired through the windshield of his Jeep Cherokee after cutting him off in traffic on a busy downtown street, was rumored to have been part of the group of men in PJF uniforms who abducted five people from the SpaceBurger restaurant August 17. Camargo, found off the Parral-Chihuahua highway with several gunshot wounds to the head, was said to be "a bother" to the Arellano Félix brothers.

Sources: Diario de Juárez, Norte de Ciudad Juárez, El Paso Times

The following is a chronology of significant drug-related stories reported during January:

Fri., Jan. 30: Reward Offered for Shooters, Victim Linked to Drug Trade

The General Directorate of Police offered a 250,000 peso reward Thursday for information leading to the capture of those responsible for the Wednesday killings of a Juárez municipal police officer and an El Paso man, according to Diario de Juárez.

The El Pasoan, Francisco Alberto Alanís Talamantes, had no criminal record in El Paso or Juárez, but U.S. officials were investigating him for possible connections with the Juárez cartel, U.S. federal officials told Diario. Alanís Talamantes was 28, the El Paso Times reported today. Yesterday, Diario listed him as 30.

Although different guns were used to kill the police officer, Jorge Humberto Frías Orozco, and Alanís Talamantes, authorities believed the same killers were responsible in both cases, state judicial police told Diario. Investigators also suspect the killers in this case could be the same as those in the August, 1997, Max fim and Geronimo's killings in Juárez. Both the method and physical descriptions of the shooters led to that conclusion, invetigators told Diario.

Sources: Diario de Juárez, El Paso Times

Thurs., Jan. 29: One Day, Three Shootouts, Two Deaths, One Injured, None Arrested

An El Paso man and a Juárez municipal police officer died after separate, but apparently related, shootouts in Juárez Wednesday, both Diario de Juárez and the El Paso Times reported.

Another, apparently innocent victim, was wounded in one of the shootouts, according to Diario.

Men armed with "goat horns" ("cuernos de chivos") as AK-47 assault rifles are known, attacked Francisco Alberto Alanís Talamantes, 30, of El Paso, Texas, from a black Chevrolet Suburban around 12:15 p.m. Juárez time Monday, Diario reported. Alanís Talamantes drove a blue1996 Chevrolet Blazer into a row of wooden pylons when he lost consciousness, according to the Times. He was pronounced dead on the scene with multiple gunshot wounds, police told the Times.

Although the assailants used AK-47 rifles, according to Diario, at least one bullet from a .45-caliber handgun hit Alanís Talamantes, preliminary medical reports referred to by the Times said.

Within minutes of the attack on Alanís Talamantes, a man jumped from a Volkswagen pulled over for speeding and started firing at Juárez municipal police officer Jorge Frías Orozco, 35, and his partner, according to police. The partner managed to escape harm underneath the dashboard of the police cruiser, but Frías Orozco received several .45-caliber handgun bullet wounds and died while receiving care at Centro Médico de Especialidades at 4:10 p.m.

The shootings may be connected, police told the papers. "We believe that these gunmen switched cars after murdering Mr. Alanís Talamantes," Jorge Lopez Molinar, assistant Chihuahua state attorney general in Juárez told the Times. Juárez was "virtually under siege by security forces," while they searched for the suspects, according to Diario. During the search, municipal agents exchanged shots with alleged car thieves, but no one was reported hurt during the incident.

Federal, state and municipal police agencies stood guard at the international bridges, at the junction of the Panamerican and Casas Grandes highways, at bus and railroad stations and at the airport, in an effort to detain the shooters, according to Diario. They also checked hotels and motels in the city, but reported no positive results of their search by Wednesday afternoon, the paper said.

U.S. and Mexican authorities connected Wednesday's shootings with a conflict between car theft rings and the Juárez drug cartel, who had been working together, according to the Times.

Sources: Diario de Juárez, El Paso Times

Wed., Jan. 28: DEA to Open Juárez Office

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will soon open an office in Juárez, Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas told Diario de Juárez Tuesday.

Two DEA attachés will work out of an office in the American Consulate in Juárez, with accreditation from the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Relations, according to gubernatorial spokesman Eloy Morales.

"The real enemy is drug trafficking, and we must work against it," the governor told Diario during an interview. North Mexico is a troubled area, and the point of passage of drugs to their consumer market, the United States, he also said. That status means constant conflict between different cartels, Barrio Terrazas added.

Along with the DEA, the FBI and El Paso, Texas, authorities will work together with Chihuahua and Juárez officials against crime, according to Barrio Terrazas.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Mon., Jan. 26: Bodies Found in Barrels Near Border Crossing

Passers-by found the bodies of a man and a woman stuffed inside two barrels of lime about 10 miles into Mexico from the Santa Teresa, N.M. border crossing Sunday, police officials told Diario de Juárez.

The man, between 30 and 35, had sustained blows to the face, and the woman, about 20, was found with packets of cocaine in her bra and purse. Coroners were not yet able to determine the identities or causes of death of the two, one told Diario, but full autopsies were planned for Monday. In an initial examination, investigators found a bloody hole in the chest of the woman and friction marks under one of her arms, as well as bruises on the man's face.

The bodies of three doctors who allegedly performed surgery during which the head of the Juárez drug cartel, Amado Carillo Fuentes, died, were also found in barrels in southern Mexico in 1997. The body of a Juárez nightclub owner turned up in June, 1996, in a barrel filled with chemicals to accelerate its decompostion, according to Diario.

The lime used in the latest case preserved the bodies and in no way accelerated their decomposition, but was used to keep the bodies from giving off bad odors, coroner Silva Pérez told Diario.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Thurs., Jan. 22: Senator Pushes for More Border Money While Problems Continue

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, unveiled a two-year, $275.5 million plan to make crossing the border quicker and smuggling drugs across it harder Wednesday in El Paso, while incidents at border bridges underscored the problems in those areas.

Customs agents stopped a17-year-old El Paso girl from allegedly speeding across the Bridge of the Americas with 200 pounds of marijuana Tuesday, officials told the El Paso Times. Meanwhile, drivers on the Mexican side of the free bridge were getting used to a reduced number of lanes and their potentially dangerous arrangement, according to Norte de Ciudad Juárez. Trucks had a hard time staying out of other lanes because of a partially blind curve in their lanes, Norte reported.

The Mexican side of the bridge is undergoing the final phase of construction, forcing the temporary changes in lanes, according to the paper.

The money from Gramm's plan would help hire 1,705 new customs employees and buy $56 million of equipment all along the U.S. side of the 2,000 mile border with Mexico, Gramm told the Times. El Paso's 600 current port employees would receive 132 new co-workers and about $8.4 million for high-tech anti-drug equipment at border crossings.

Sources: El Paso Times, Norte de Ciudad Juárez

Wed., Jan. 21: Another Federal Agent Murdered in Juárez

Federal Agent Rodolfo Camargo García was murdered Tuesday in Hidalgo de Parral, Chihuahua. Camargo García, 21, received six gunshots in his head and one in his left hand according to Mexican Federal Police. His body was found in a rural route 30 kilometers from the Parral-Chihuahua highway.

The death of Camargo García came only two days after the slaying of Federal Agent subcommander Héctor Mario Varela Mendoza in Juárez. The two murders may have been related, unofficial sources told Diario de Juarez. Varela Mendoza could have been executed by members of the Tijuana drug cartel trying to take the place of the Juárez drug cartel, the Chihuahua state Attorney General's Office told Diario.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Tues., Jan. 20: Governor Says Killers are Known

Special operatives were preparing to arrest those responsible for several of the execution-style murders in Juárez since last August, Chihuahua Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas told Diario de Juárez Monday.

Barrio Terrazas said he planned "joint operations to proceed with the apprehension of these people,"with Mexico's Attorney General, Jorge Madrazo Cuéllar. Chihuahua state Attorney General Arturo Chávez Chávez also attended the meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to go over the cases and make decisions on the joint operations, as well as look at information obtained by the attorney general's (PGR) intelligence services. Officials had precise, concrete information to search out and detain those allegedly responsible for the crimes, Barrio Terrazas told Diario.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Fri., Jan. 16: Multi-Million Dollar Heroin Bust at Border

U.S. Customs agents seized an estimated $12 million worth of black tar heroin Thursday morning at the Santa Fe/ Paso Del Norte Bridge, the biggest El Paso heroin seizure in a decade, officials told the El Paso Times.

"Normally we just get quanties of grams. Half a pound here, a pound there," Manuel Alvarez, chief inspector at the bridge told the Times. Agents took 23.3 pounds or 20.5 kilograms Thursday from a 28-year-old man from Chihuauhua City who was acting "extremely nervous" as he drove a 1978 Ford LTD across the bridge, according to Customs officials. Drug-sniffing dogs helped locate eight bundles of the contraband behind the back seat in the car.

The amount seized was too big to be destined only for El Paso, a local drug abuse clinician told the Times.

Sources: El Paso Times, Diario de Juárez

Tues., Jan. 13: Some 'Kidnapping' Victims Found - In Custody

The Mexican federal police (PGR) revealed Monday they had located six of the nine people who disappeared in Juárez over the weekend, according to Diario de Juárez.

Among those located were brothers René and Hugo Ambriz. PGR agents detained them and flew them to Mexico City, the paper said. The brothers have been identified as students from El Paso. The federal agents did not notify local authorities of the operation to capture the brothers, according to Diario.

Unofficially, police officials told the paper the brothers were accused of trafficking in firearms and selling them to an armed group in southern Mexico.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Mon., Jan. 12: Eight Kidnapped, One Executed

Armed commandos kidnapped at least eight people from different parts of Juárez Saturday night and Sunday morning, and the bound, gagged and tortured body of another was found Sunday, according to Diario de Juárez.

Two of the "levantados," or kidnapping victims, were students from El Paso, brothers René Ambriz, 24, and Hugo Ambriz, 26, the newspaper said.

Officials could not identify the dead man because he had no documents.

State Judicial Police were investigating the possibility that the kidnappings were linked to the kidnappings and executions of five men last December 28, according to Diario.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Fri., Jan. 9: No Plans for Army to Help Fight Drugs on Border, Officials Say

There are no immediate plans to ask for help from the Army in the fight against drug trafficking in El Paso, including the construction and rehabilitation of roads, Border Patrol officials told Diario de Juárez yesterday.

Nevertheless, the officials did not rule out the possiblility of such help in the future, according to the paper.

The Army will renew its involvement in the border later this month, helping build and repair roads that are inaccesible on the banks of the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande, Maureen Bosch, spokeswoman of Joint Task Force 6, headquartered at Fort Bliss in El Paso, told Diario. The military will work in the Laredo, Carrizo Springs and Marfa districts, but not in the city of El Paso, according to Bosch.

There is no need for military help in an urban area like El Paso, Bosch told the paper.

Task Force Six suspended its operations on May 20, 1997, after Marines helping the Border Patrol in Marfa, Texas, shot to death a Redford, Texas 18-year-old.

Source: Diario de Juárez

Wed., Jan. 7: Customs Officers Plant Drugs to Train Dogs

U.S. Customs Service inspectors are asking drivers and pedestrians to carry drugs over international bridges to test the effectiveness of their drug-sniffing dogs, according to Diario de Juarez.

"Señorita, permit us to hide a little bit of drugs in your vehicle to see if the dogs are sniffing well," one official asked María Terrazas Peña of Juárez this week, she told the paper.

On occasion, inspectors ask some pedestrians waiting in lines to cross into the U.S. if they will carry drugs in their purses or briefcases, according to Customs spokeswoman Lisa Sambrano.

Source: Diario de Juárez