THE BORDER REPORT

This story took me the better part of the night to root out from federal court cases but I like it. It’s easy to jump to conclusions but more importantly, it’s interesting to see what’s revealed about the intel that led to the fall of La Barbie.

On an August afternoon in 2005, Jesus  Ramos, a truckdriver, was driving south to Atlanta and called Romero Roel Martinez, the Sinaloa Federation’s cocaine distributor for that region. Ramos told him he would meet Martinez and run a load of cash proceeds down to Texas.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The dynamics of this arrest are interesting. But is he important? Other than being the sole (known) Anglo, is Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez Villarreal as important a catch as the Mexican government and the American federal agencies will make him out to be?

Resilient, yes he was, on the move since the late 1990s, indicted on a $3 million pot trafficking charge out of federal court in Louisiana in 2003, I believe. He and Arturo were credited with helping Joaquin El Chapo Guzman recover from a bout of alcoholism following the Puente Grande escape of 2001. By 2006, he’d lost Nuevo Laredo to the Gulf Cartel, and by 2008, he and Beltran had gone to war with the Sinaloa Federation. All told, a decade running before his arrest today in Morelos.

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THE BORDER REPORT

So, so far we’re up to 72 people in that mass grave near Matamoros; then two car-bombs in Cd. Victoria, then the killing of the ministerio publico into the murders. He was found on the highway.

Still want to tell me it’s the Zetas?

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THE BORDER REPORT

Keep an eye on Hiram Francisco Quiñonez, Nacho Coronel’s main man. He was Coronel’s private secretary and from all accounts, not a narco but a businessman. The Americans are expecting he’ll break early. I’m thinking, even sooner than that. He’s already been turned over to the PGR from SEDENA. They’re done with him, meaning he’s soon to disappear into the Kafka-esque cellars of the Mexican judicial system. It is telling that he was fingered as a sicario, and not as a contadór, by the Mexican Feds.

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THE BORDER REPORT

UPDATE: A good friend in Sasabe, Ariz., tells me the Americans closed the port of entry there early citing bad weather …

That port is only open until 8 p.m., and they closed at about 7:30, she says, but the unexpected closure leaves about 20 people stranded in Sasabe tonight. It’s a town with a population of 25 people, it’s not like there’s a hotel for them to drive to and Tucson’s an hour away. I could be wrong but I’ve never heard of the Americans closing the port because of weather conditions; frankly, I wonder if it wasn’t because of the fight last night in Saric pero quien sabe.

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