THE BORDER REPORT

During last week's shootout in Cananea, a significant, but very quiet arrest was made. According to my sources, the brother of Dos Mil, Francisco Hernandez Garcia, was popped by state and federal police in Cananea. "El Prieto," Jose Manuel Hernandez Garcia, was arrested in a shootout with a Sinaloan trafficker in the area. He's being held in Hermosillo and will be transferred under heavily-armed guard to Mexico City for interrogation. But what's interesting is the man's brother. I wonder if the Mexican Feds aren't holding Prieto in order to force Dos Mil out into the open. Dos Mil has been hiding out in Tucson or Phoenix for quite some time now; his brother may be the pawn that forces him to step up, I don't yet know. I'm told that Saturday night, Sonoran state police stopped an armed convoy of gunmen who were rolling in to rescue him from where he was being held at the Hotel del Sol in Hermosillo. An anonymous tipster called in the convoy to state police and police stopped the 11 men in three Dodge Durangos and Nissan pick-up, all 2005s. Inside the trucks, police found five AR-15s, seven clips, 270 rounds, three Super .38s, a .45 and a frag grenade. They wore uniforms of the Federal Investigations Agency, the Mexican FBI and shirts with insignia of the now-defunct State Judicial Police (the name was changed to State Investigative Police last March). By all accounts, that was the rescue team. Like most good stories in Mexico, this one's full of holes. Nobody can tell me how the state police were able to pull the team over and disarm it without a single shot fired. They simply surrendered. The lines are intricate and I'll try to keep it as simple as possible but basically, Dos Mil, who allegedly cut an arms import deal with the Sonoran government, is no longer wanted in the area. About two months ago, the Sinaloan traffickers and the Gulf Cartel signed El Pacto. The plazas were re-adjusted; the Gulf Cartel would keep the routes leading into Texas; the Sinaloans would dominate this corridor into Arizona. The Juárez Cartel, long the weakest of the cartels would keep Juárez (the love many of the bosses had for the kingpin, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, still runs deep. Many believe it's the only reason Vicente Carrillo is still alive, let alone working). The Sinaloans would take over Mexicali and Tijuana now that the Arellanos have been eliminated. Dos Mil had aligned himself with the Gulf Cartel after a falling out with the Sonorans late last year. He has been implicated in the attacks on Cananea May 16 and in the killing of the Agua Prieta Police Chief Ramon Tacho Verdugo last winter. Somewhere, his agreements with corrupt officials soured, probably because of the Cananea attack. Whatever the case, he's become the point of concession for the Gulf Cartel; the Sinaloans would not agree to a truce until the Gulf Cartel eliminated him. In turn, the Sinaloans have to eliminate "La Barbie," Edgar Valdéz Villarreal, the Texas-born enforcer of the Sinaloans.

Now, I'm told, both men are being hunted down. In Dos Mil's case, he's got the Sinaloans after him, the Gulf Cartel chasing him, a pissed-off Sonoran government and the Mexican Feds. That's quite a list of opposition for one man – and somewhat unlikely. There's no way a single, regional trafficker can hold out against that opposition. Not without help from someone. A peace treaty was signed by the top drug lords in Latin America and it all depends on Dos Mil's head. Yet, somehow, nobody can seem able to catch him.