THE BORDER REPORT

HERMOSILLO, SONORA - Thinking he was about to die, Hermosillo police officer Jorge Alberto Lizarraga used the blood leaking from his upper chest to write a message.

"Marmolejo policia estatal mató." "Marmolejo, state policeman killed (me)." The hit happened late Tuesday night in Hermosillo; the crime scene now stretches all over the city, its viscuous threads reaching back in time to the siege of Cananea two weeks ago, and beyond. Miraculously, Lizarraga, 28, survived the hit; his bulletproof vest saved him. He was shot twice in the right side of the neck, two more rounds missed. He managed to radio for help, then used his finger to scrawl the bloody message into the dirt on the ground. Meanwhile, State Preventative Police officer Alberto Flores Marmolejo, 29, is being held for questioning. Investigators say both men worked for remnants of the narco-traffickers, Sonora-based Los Numeros. Lizarraga has become Sonora's most literary policeman, penning one note after another, a trail that will lead us I don't know where. After the hit, Lizarraga was taken to a public hospital in downtown Hermosillo. On Thursday, he asked to be transferred to a private hospital. He penned another note, this time an order absolving the hospital of all responsiblity related to his care. Maybe he had good reason for disappearing; an orange Dodge Neon with Tamaulipas license plates and a gray pickup truck with no plates or VIN were found parked at the public hospital late last night. But some time this morning, Lizarraga checked out of the private hospital; he didn't leave a note this time, just disappeared. The official word is that Lizarraga was charged with several counts of abusing his powers; a relative charge in Mexico; I can't tell you how often police officers have pulled me over on trumped-up traffic infractions, asking me for $20 to take care of it. (The best thing to do if you ask me is to call their bluff, the've always backed down. It's best not to perpetuate these things). Now then, I'm told that both Marmolejeo and Lizarraga worked for Antonio Montoya Garcia, a 33-year-old enforcer for Los Numeros. Montoya was a state police officer from 1993 to 1997. Montoya was gunned down late last year, ten bullets, while he visited a cellphone store in Hermosillo. Los Numeros – and I'll get around to making a chart of all these ties – was the narco-family that Francisco Hernandez Garcia, aka El 2000, worked for before betraying the family two years ago and setting out on his own.