THE BORDER REPORT

Asi dicen las fuentes. The murdered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, Jaime Zapata, from Laredo, was temporarily assigned to Mexico. Somehow along the way, up that Highway 57 towards Monterrey. Lots of narco-bloqueos on that highway these days.

Still, the questions linger. Back in late 2010, the Hermosillo Consulate issued a travel warning for consulate employees. They mandated, nobody travels at night, or past Navojoa, Sonora, without an armored car.

Vehicles of State Department employees in Mexico all have State Department plates. Can we assume que viajaban en carro blindado? I think so. It’s assumption only, at this point.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The following script is presumably the communications dispatch of what happened the night U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered. I say “presumably” because neither the Border Patrol nor the FBI will confirm (or deny) the dispatch is true. I warn you, take this with a grain of salt. I can tell you I received it from a credible source. However, I’m merely providing it as a pretext for a discussion into what happened the night of Dec. 14. In the interest of fairness to Border Patrol agents, I’ve chosen to remove their last names from this document. When I receive an official account of what happened that night, I’ll post that.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The old rival to the Sinaloans, wanted in the U.S. on drug trafficking charges for nearly three decades, is apparently setting up shop in Agua Prieta these days. Local chisme has him working for the Sinaloans which opens up a whole new dynamic in Sonoran/Arizona drug trade politics.

Freddy, I understand, is still working Navojoa.

THE BORDER REPORT

The Mexican press is eagerly awaiting news from Wikileaks dissemination of U.S. government dispatches about the drug war. Speaking candidly about his expectations, Javier Moreno, publisher of Spain’s El País newspaper, said 2,285 dispatches about Mexico will be included in the Wikileaks file dump, a number that gives me some hope. From the Wikileaks site, their appear to be 2,836 cables to be published.

But my expectations are not high; El Imparcial in Hermosillo notes this morning that those 2,285 of the messages (e-mails, presumably), originated in Mexico City, 159 out of Monterrey, 78 from Nogales, 32 from Guadalajara, 27 from Tijuana, 19 from Hermosillo, 19 from Ciudad Juárez, 7 from Matamoros, 5 from Nuevo Laredo and three out of Mérida.

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THE BORDER REPORT

This rumor comes straight out of Culiacán. It seems Ismael El Mayo Zambada knows perfectly well who kidnapped his cousin and two nieces – El Osama and Fernando El Ingeniero Sanchez Arellano. The Mexican Army apparently rescued the ladies already and I’m awaiting confirmation on the chisme. This leads to a few questions. UPDATE: The freshest rumor to come out of Sinaloa is that the kidnap was a $30 million ransom. At what point did someone think kidnapping El Mayo’s family for $10 bills each was a good idea? Vamos a ver.

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