Frontera NorteSur May 2000

PGJE Declares Itself "Incompetent"

The state of Chihuahua has washed its hands of dozens of investigations into drug trafficking-related killings and turned the burden of solving the crimes over to the federal attorney general's office (PGR).

The attorney general of the state of Chihuahua, Arturo González Rascon, declared March 22 that his office, the PGJE, was officially "incompetent" of investigating a series of execution-style killings dating back to March 1999. Basing his decision on the Federal Firearm and Criminal Organization Law, the attorney general asked federal officials to take responsibility for investigating crimes which are related to drug-trafficking organizations.

"If we have a bird that walks like a duck, has the color of a duck and quacks like a duck, the best thing to say is that it is a duck," said González. "Therefore, if we have a body that has been struck by bullets from an AK-47 or a 9 millimeter gun, it is evident that this weapon was used and as of today those weapons are used exclusively by the army. The possession [of these weapons] is a federal crime."

The PGR immediately took over the  investigations of three specific cases cited by González: the March 1999 executions of José Rizzo Ceja, a former agent in the Federal Judicial Police (PJF), and Raúl Iglesias Olivas, and the June 1999 slaying of Héctor Manuel Meléndez. In the latter case, the victim was shot to death while driving a pick-up truck loaded with marijuana. In all three cases, said the PGJE, there were clear violations of federal law, putting investigations beyond its jurisdiction.

With the help of Governor Patricio Martinez, the state was quickly relieved of scores of other cases. Although Martínez had been one of many outspoken critics of the PGR only a week earlier (see feature story, "Critics Attack Failed Security Measures"), the governor announced April 4 that he had asked Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar to assume responsibility for solving 30 executions committed in the state of Chihuahua dating back to 1997. By April 10, the number of cases turned over to the feds had increased to 35, including 15 executions that occurred in Ciudad Juárez. In addition, the office of the state police (PJE) announced that it was "incapable" of solving the 18 executions committed in Ciudad Juárez in the new year as of April 8.

Martinez said that Madrazo assured him that the criteria for evaluating executions will be made "more flexible" so that more of the crimes will fall under federal competency. In addition, the PGR dispatched ten more federal investigators to Chihuahua to help integrate the Federal Public Ministry's Mixed Agency groups.

Juárez 2000 Execution Total Now At 19

Seven more people were executed in Ciudad Juárez in the 30 days since March 15, bringing the total of executions in the city during the year 2000 to 19 (see list of executions and related crimes below). Police investigators stated that six of the last seven murders were definitely connected to "criminal organizations." Two of the six were also called "adjustments of accounts." Four men were slain in two double executions, March 29 and April 7--one pair was found strangled to death inside a car, the other two victims--one a former city police officer--were shot to death inside the ex-agent's house. State police said they thought at least three of the executions might be related.

However, in none of the seven recent slayings did police ascertain a motive nor did they apprehend any suspects. Only one curious detail surfaced in three executions and one attempted execution: the four victims were said by police to be used car salesmen. Two of the alleged used car salesmen were also said to be "fruit growers" from a small Chihuahuan village.

While the seven executions and a handful of high-profile attempted executions continued to keep city newspapers, officials, business leaders, and citizens in an uproar over the lack of public security, the violence in Ciudad Juárez this past month was light compared to sensational atrocities committed in México City and Tijuana. In the capital, the federal official believed to be responsible for the successful arrest of Jesús Labra, a high-ranking member of the Arellano-Felix Cartel, was ambushed at the restaurant of the Hotel Imperial. The official, Cuauhtémoc Herrera Suástegui, formerly head of the Special Unit Against Organized Crime (UEDO) and currently an investigator for the PGR's Special Task Force On Crimes Against the Public Health (FEADS), was wounded in the attack. Three of his companions were also wounded, two fatally. A report filed by Notimex said that the attack was "related to the 'Cancun Case' investigation" into the activities of the Carrillo Cartel, alleged to be based in Ciudad Juárez.

Police Officer Pledges Love to Alleged Assassin of Police Chief

In Tijuana, citizens were treated to the spectacle of a uniformed state police officer, female, yelling to one of the six men charged with the February 27 murder of the city's police chief that she loved him and would do anything to help him. The police officer declared her affection for the alleged assassin from one police car to another as authorities were transporting the suspects through city streets. Shortly thereafter, the officer, Miriam Marmolejo Ortega, who was in charge of the Baja California state police's sexual crimes division, was fired and and has since been missing, according to an April 8 story filed by the Associated Press. The same source also reported that investigators "have not ruled out the possibility" that the slain police chief, Alfredo de la Torre, was on the payroll of the drug-trafficking organization that presumably ordered his assassination.

In addition, three PJF agents were killed outside Tijuana April 12 in a triple-homicide staged as a car crash. Finally, a former Tijuana police chief was also assassinated. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) pulled its agents out of the city on April 15, after posting a $2 million (U.S.) reward to anyone who offered information leading to the arrest of either Ramón or Benjamin Arellano Félix, two of the five brothers believed to be leading the Tijuana-based cartel. The Méxican military arrested one of cartel's top capos, Ismael Higueura, alias "El Mayel," in Sinloa on April 3.

In addition, just as Frontera NorteSur was posted last month on the Internet, the chief of investigations for the state police of Sinaloa in Culiacán, Williams Alfredo Roman Garcia, was executed April 28 by AK-47 wielding assassins who fired more than 100 bullets in an attack outside of his home.

A report in the San Diego Union-Tribune asserted that the violence in Tijuana is the result of in-fighting between two major drug cartels. Quoting anonymous sources in the DEA, the report said the warring cartels were the Arellano-Félix Cartel and the Vicente Zambada Niebla Cartel, allegedly based in Sinoloa. Last month, three major Mexican newspapers claimed that the Arellano-Félix Cartel and the Carrillo Cartel (with offices in Ciudad Juárez) were at war over drugtrafficking routes, a theory reported in the April 2000 FNS.

State Police Capture "Most Wanted Man" On the Border

Although police investigators were unable to solve any of the executions in Juárez this month, law enforcement scored a major public relations victory with the capture of a local gangster they called "The Most Wanted Man On The Border:" José Raul Ortiz, alias "El Quincy." The Juárez gang leader was arrested without incident in the El Paso home of one of his relatives, April 4.

The PJE announced that El Quincy was the border's "most wanted man" on March 20, three days after he had alledgedly shot a man to death outside of a Juárez corner grocery. Ortiz, leader of the notorious "Los Ortizes" gang, was also wanted for four other execution-style killings, including the murder of his cousin and former Los Ortizes leader Arturo Ortiz Holgúin, alias "El Padrino."

State police said El Quincy had killed the men in his drive to become leader of the gang, which they said was one of the first local gangs to "specialize in dealing drugs and running guns." By the mid-1990s, Los Ortizes began working as assassins and debt collectors for drug sales.

His arrest was carried out by a joint task force made up of agents from the FBI, the El Paso County Sheriff's Department,  the U.S. Border Patrol, and the El Paso Police. According to authorities, his extradition to México is underway.

Diario Interviews Former Cocaine Trafficker

A 51-year-old man who said he was a top associate of the infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar granted El Diario an exclusive interview in which he claimed that during the entire decade (the 1970s) he trafficked cocaine he was "addicted to alcohol, drugs, sex, and power."

The man, Pablo Maria, was in Chihuahua on behalf of a Catholic anti-drug task force. After eleven years of trafficking cocaine and living a life "of unlimited power and pleasure," Maria said he had a suicidal breakdown in 1981 on a beach in Miami, Florida, where he sliced both of his wrists. Surviving the attempt, Maria said he converted to Catholicism, then spent five years in drug rehabilitation, then ten more years living with Trappist Monks.

"The life of a narco is very difficult," he told El Diario. "One is aware that at any moment he could be killed."

Maria said while working for Escobar--whom he called a "good man"--he was almost constantly addicted. In addition to indulging in an endless supply of drugs and alcohol, Maria said he had sex with countless prostitutes.

When asked if he had ever killed anyone, Maria said "we will not talk of that."

The ex-drug trafficker said that of his former associates, "seventy percent are dead and ten percent are in prison."

A picture of Maria in El Diario showed the man as tall, thin, balding, sporting a close-cropped beard, and wearing a giant cross around his neck.

Execution-Style Killings and Related Crimes, March 16-April 17

April 16 -- Manfredo Guzmán Cruz, 30, was shot seven times and killed as he was leaving his house at the corner of Techuacán and Toluca, Industrial sector, Ciudad Juárez. The victim's wife, who heard the shots from inside the house at 7:50 a.m., told state police that her husband said he owed money to a man called "El Chapo" and was on his way out to exchange a 200 peso bill ($20 U.S.). Investigators said Guzmán's wife did not know who "El Chapo" was nor did she know exactly what activities her husband did with his circle of friends. Police authorities stated that they did not know who killed Guzmán or what the killers' motive or motives might have been.

Guzmán was the third person executed in the Industrial sector of Juárez in 18 days. According to El Diario, he was also the 19th person to be killed in an execution-style slaying in the city in the year 2000.

April 15 -- Attempted execution: Salvador Pacheco de la Mora, former safety police agent, shot four times by two men using 9mm handguns as he was leaving his house, Avenida Cinco de Mayo, Ciudad Juárez. One of the bullets hit the victim in an artery near his heart. However, within two days of the shooting, Pacheco de la Mora was in stable condition in an intensive care unit. Police said none of the family had any idea who the attackers might have been. They told police that the victim "did not have any problems with anybody." Pacheco had been a safety officer for ten years before retiring to go into business for himself as a buyer and seller of used cars.

However, the victim's sister-in-law, Maria Luisa Rosa, informed police that Pacheco's 16-year-old son, Salvador Pacheco Rosas, had been shot in the leg about a year ago by José Rául Ortiz Holguin, alias "El Quincy," the border's "most wanted man" who was captured April 4.

April 14 -- Attempted execution: Miguel Angel Montana Chácon, 38, shot eight times by 9mm and AK-47 fire during a high-speed chase, Boulevard Cuatro Siglos and Calzado de Río, Ciudad Juárez. Police arrested Víctor Rodríguez Rodríguez, 40, of Ciudad Juárez and charged him with attempted homicide. The alleged would-be assassin claimed the shooting was in revenge for "a road accident" in which he said Montana Chácon damaged his vehicle. During Rodríguez' initial court appearance, it was learned that he had been previously arrested and convicted for possession of 470 kilograms of marijuana in November 1998. However, Rodríguez was "inexplicably" released from prison January 15, 1999, according to officials from the Public Ministry. Montana Chácon, shot several times in the chest, was listed in stable condition as of April 16. Chácon's car was hit by bullets 20 times.

April 7 -- Double execution: Oscar and Antonio Pérez Arroyo, 28 and 24 respectively, found dead and wrapped in blankets and left in the interior of an abandoned gray 1994 Cherokee, San Angel neighborhood, Ciudad Juárez. The hands and feet of both men were bound, and autopsy reports indicated that they had been tortured and strangled to death. In addition, both men had been shot, one in the head and the other in the neck. The victims were brothers and were originally from Bachíniva, Chihuahua, according to state police authorities. Relatives of the victims told police that the brothers were both "dedicated fruit growers." As of April 9, state police said they did not know why the two fruit growers were in the border region. However, police later said that the two brothers apparently "sold used cars" in Juárez. Although police said they had not established a motive for the murders, "one of the lines of investigation indicates that [the crime] is related to a criminal organization."

April 6 -- Jesús Chávez Schafino, 38,  a resident of El Paso, Texas, was shot four times and killed while driving his car near the intersection of the Calles Bocoyna and Carlos Adame, Anáhuac neighborhood, Ciudad Juárez. The victim of the night-time execution was originally from Meoqui, Chihuahua. According to a source with the state police (PJE), the victim was a used car salesman, but also was allegedly an established drug trafficker. Police found $3,170 (U.S.) on the victim's person, in addition to "many pieces of gold jewelry." The state police has asked U.S. authorities for their help in capturing Chávez' assassin. Police also said that the killing was an "adjustment of accounts."

April 4 -- Attempted murder: Convicted drugtrafficker Carlos Hernández Quiñones, alias El Fleca, was attacked by four alleged assassins inside the Juárez city jail, Cereso. Hernández was a high-profile drugtrafficker in the 1980s, when he was a leiutenant in the service of Gilberto Ontiveros Lucero, alias "El Greñas." Cereso guards intervened in the attack and rushed the bleeding and badly wounded Hernández to General Hospital. El Norte alleged that another jailed drugtrafficker, Isaías Gómez Ortiz, was responsible for the attack. According to the report, El Fleca owed Gómez a thousand pesos ($100 U.S.).

March 31 -- Attempted execution: An "agricultural grower" originally from Navojoa, Sonora, was pursued by an armed commando in a high-speed car chase through the streets of Chihuahua City but escaped unharmed. According to El Diario, the attempted execution was successfully frustrated by municipal and state police with help from a state helicopter.

March 30 -- Alfredo González, 25, shot six times and killed, Calles de Niños Héroes y Rubén Dário, Melchor Ocampo neighborhood, Ciudad Juárez, while he was working at "Autoservice OK." The Homicide Group of the state police said the possible motive for the murder was "an adjustment of accounts between people involved in drugtrafficking." PJE agents also said the execution may be related to the March 29 double-execution in the Industrial sector. El Norte commented that González was "the newest victim of the impunity with which criminal organizations operate in Ciudad Juárez."

March 29 -- Double execution: Oscar Mendez, 20, and Margarito Hernández González, 27, executed by gunshots, Calle Guaymas 4039, Industrial sector, Ciudad Juárez. According to the state police (PJE), Hernández Gonzalez was a former agent of the Municipal Police. Authorities believed the executions were drug-related because cocaine was found on the person of the former police agent. State police also alleged that both men were drug salesmen.

Mayra Virginia Falcón Frescas, 20, was also injured in the attack, but survived. PJE said she was Hernández' live-in companion. Shot in the abdomen and in the back, the survivor told police that at midnight on Tuesday a man with a white complexion, wearing a black t-shirt, and of about 20 years of age, entered the house with a pistol and commenced to shoot all three of the victims. The gunman did not say a word, and fled on foot immediately after the executions, according to her testimony.

Hernández was shot five times, including once in the head. Mendez was shot three times. According to medical experts who performed the autotopsy, Mendez died of shock.

March 28 -- Faustino Ruiz Merino, 30, found dead with two gunshot wounds to the head, Valley of Juárez. The decomposed body of the victim was found approximately 48 hours after he was killed, according to police. He was found by a person who was walking in the rough, desert area. According to police, the victim was found wrapped in a bedspread and 50 meters below a precipice. Agents from the state police Department of Homicides said they did not want to comment on the activities "to which the victim dedicated himself" as that would "obstruct investigations."

March 28 -- The corpses of two men, brothers from Chihuahua City, were found decomposed in an apartment in Gómez Palacio, Durango. They were identified as Elu Deyanira García Domínguez, 24, and his older brother Juan Manuel, 26. According to police, Elu suffered a fractured skull and Juan Manuel had been shot once in the head. According to neighbors, the two brothers had recently taken up residence in the city. They had last been seen together on March 24.

Sources: El Diario, El Norte, El Paso Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Associated Press