Four Killed in a 150-Mile Gunbattle
May 6th, 2008 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News, Organized Crime, Politics
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THE BORDER REPORT
All photos courtesy of Nuevo Día newspaper
Clearly, mi estimado lector, someone had insisted on murder.
Four people died in a sporadic gunbattle that stretched for more than 150 miles, ending in Hermosillo, Sonora, yesterday. An entire family was targeted, heavies from Sinaloa that’ve been working the Arizona-Sonora-Sinaloa corridor for years.
El Imparcial was reporting four dead, including a Sinaloa man gunned down with AK-47s. The battle started in Nogales. Two U.S. citizens, one, the Arizona brother of a high level trafficker for the Sinaloan cartel boss, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, were arrested. The second was driving a Kansas City licensed Ford Explorer.
One police officer died in the attack, though I don’t yet know the level of his involvement.
Alejandro López Martínez is the brother of Luis López, El Topo, The Mole. Known for his narco-tunnels that ran under the U.S. port of entry at Nogales, El Topo was taken out in late ‘04, a shot to the head in a crowded restaurant. Wanted in the U.S., his case was closed six months after his murder, several-ton coke trafficking charges.
Here’s another tie of the fibers:
Nuevo Día is reporting that the target was Oscar Jaime Valenzuela, alias El Empanada. Valenzuela served as bodyguard to Francisco Labastida, the former PRI governor of Sinaloa.
And, the paper reports, one of the wounded gunmen is the brother of a high-level Federal Preventive Police official.
Twists and turns and more twists this morning.
Here’s another, just a tickler from the files to think about. There’s another “El Empanada,” whose name bears a striking resemblance to that of Oscar; his name is Jaime Palma Valenzuela. Pesadito, pesadito, that one.
Back in the day, he and the Beltrán brothers were running a group of renegade soldiers from the Mexican Army’s Guamúchil base in northern Sinaloa. Like, back when Labastida was governor. An exposed narco-battalion caused an uproar back in ‘02 in Guamúchil when soldiers were discovered to be flying dope for the Beltráns and Palma Valenzuela. It’ll be interesting to see if the hunch is sound and it’s the same guy taken out in Hermosillo yesterday.
Called down to a favorite guy in Hermosillo a few moments ago and he’s cleared something up for me. Jaime, the right one or otherwise, was murdered in Nogales. His son was wounded in the Hermosillo attack; a 33-year-old pregnant woman riding in his car was shot and killed.
El Imparcial is now reporting the armaments, typical stuff and lots of it, five AK-47s, two AR-15s, a host of frag grenades and .45s.
What’s really interesting is the whereabouts of El Barbas, Arturo Beltrán Leyva.
His brother, Alfredo, was arrested in Culiacán last January at the hands of 300 soldiers.
As a reader points out, last Friday, Beltrán Leyva sent a message to the military and police in Culiacán:
“I am the boss of the plaza and this is only the beginning. There is this and there will be more for what happened to El Mochomo.”
A second: “Little lead soldiers, federale straw-men, this is the territory of Arturo Beltrán Levya.”
Makes me wonder if he reads T.S. Elliott; you know, that poem, “The Hollow Men”:
We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men/ Leaning together / Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! …
– Michel Marizco
It amazes me that nothing about these happening shows up in the Arizona’s or National news sources. I did computer searches on Arturo Beltrán Leyva and only
Mexican sources show up and they are all old stories.
It is certainly nice to be able to read news that is current and timely!
Susi
You’d be surprised what doesn’t make it to the press … especially in southern AZ. I see things happen, hear things over the police frequencies and from credible people and it is never covered. In Douglas I can understand it because the local newspaper, “The Douglas Daily Dispatch” is published by 4th graders (well, if you read it you would think so — hence my name). The Tucson news occasionally reports on these items, but usually it’s an AZ Daily Star article by Michael. Some may disagree.
Or it is out of fear. Just look at the reports we read here about the journalists in Mexico.
Thanks Disgrace, but I haven’t worked at the Star in years. Their reporter is Brady McCombs.
Sadly, he’s one of the last newspaper reporters covering the Arizona border.
When I moved to Tucson in 2003, there were seven border reporters at Arizona’s four major dailies.
Now there’s two.
There’s McCombs at the Star and Sean Holstege at the Republic – except they have him based 2.5 hours away in Phoenix.
Ha, see how bad it is? I still think Michael is writing for the AZ Star. Actually I do read your articles that are archived all over the internet. Bottom line is there needs to be more reporting down here.
Does it surprise you that the US gov is sweeping this under the media rug? Our government is tired of explaining their failed drug policy’s and their failure to stop American weapons that’s arming the cartels. Until the US agrees that this war is both ours and the Mexicans, the Mexicans will not be able to stop the cartels. Truthfully, even w the full power of our government brought to bear on the cartels, the war on drugs is not going to succeed. Example Escobar, we took him out and the Cali Cartel took over. The cartels are like hydras, cut off one head and two grow back.