THE BORDER REPORT

Or they never left.

Los Numeros, the southern Sonora crew of narco-trafficking brothers who acted as the strong-arm of the Beltrán Leyva family, are back in action. That's the song the little birds are singing.

Also known as Los Güeritos after the original four brothers of the Enriquez Parra family for nearly a generation, the group has been among the strongest narco-trafficking families to ever work Arizona and Sonora. They faded from thought over the past couple years but appear to be making a comeback. Certain events lead me down this path of thinking.

First, Hugo David Castro, "El Once," accused for the murder of Sonora State Police Commander Juan Manuel Pavón Felíx, is due to be released from a Mexico City federal penitentary, I'm told.

Meanwhile, two more of his cohorts, I don't know their names, but they go by El Ocho y El  Trece, are on their way to Phoenix for a very interesting meet-up. Matter of fact, they should be somewhere around Tucson at the moment. You tell me how they crossed the port of entry.

And it appears, the Beltráns have finally succeeded in taking over Nogales, wresting the city away from the Sinaloa Federation's control. This is fascinating. It signals the first city that Joaquín Shorty Guzmán has ever had to surrender.

The freshest chisme, minutes old, is that Mochomo, Alfredo Beltrán Leyva is negotiating his release from Mexico's custody. If that one is true, it's going to infuriate the Americans because their extradition efforts are going to fly right out the door with him.

Finally, Nogales has a new police chief, Juan Manuel Portillo Guevara, the former Hermosillo police department's operations chief during the Enriquez Parra desmadres in that city four years ago.

Portillo was investigated by the Federal Attorney General's Office in 2004 and 2005 after Sonora newspaper, El Imparcial, discovered that his officers had detained, then released Daniel Irene Enriquez Parra, El Siete.

The cops claimed there were only three people arrested that day in 2004. Records showed there were four people in the car. The case came to be known as the case of El Cuarto Pasajero, The Fourth Passenger.

Portillo disappeared from the public eye then resurfaced in Obregón. Last week, he was appointed chief of police in Nogales after the former chief was forced to resign.