THE BORDER REPORT

Manuel Clouthier Carrillo is fast becoming my favorite Mexican politician. The Sinaloan Congressman was the publisher of Noroeste newspaper until last spring when he resigned his position to run for Congress. His father, Manuel J. Clouthier, was the PAN candidate for the presidency in 1988 against the PRI's Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the PRD's Cuathemoc Cardenas, whom many in Mexico believed had actually won the presidency. He died in a car accident a year later.

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THE BORDER REPORT Vicente Zambada Niebla's extradition went off without a hitch through Brownsville-Matamoros, yesterday, surprising some of us that the son of El Mayo, Ismael Zambada Garcia would be tossed to the Americans so easily. But it's his charges that interest me. El Mayito is wanted in the United States in two separate federal court cases, one in Illinois, where he was sent yesterday; and the second in Washington D.C. That case is sealed but in short, it is the beginning of the case against the present-day Sinaloa Federation, Operation Trifecta. An old copy of the indictment in my files points to Niebla as a lieutenant for his father's smuggling enterprise; trafficking more than a ton of cocaine into New York and New Jersey in '01 and '02; 2.4 tons of cocaine into Chicago and 45 (!!) pounds to California. The Illinois case pegs him on two counts of trafficking "five or more kilograms" of cocaine on two separate occasions. Don't let the small numbers here fool ya'. American drug laws don't differentiate between five keys and five tons when it comes to possession with intent to distribute charges. Then there's the final charge in the Illinois indictment: a forfeiture allegation of half a billion dollars "representing the estimated proceeds of defendant Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla's narcotics distribution organization." I wonder if they really expect him to surrender that amount of money. When the Trifecta investigation first emerged, El Mayito was implicated in at least 15 murders in Mexico, including that of Alfredo de la Torre Marquez, Tijuana's police chief in February 2000. It is significant that up until Trifecta, everyone had presumed the  Arellano Felix family had ordered the chief's killing. The Trifecta operation started with the Macel tunaboat off the Pacific Coast, nine tons of cocaine in December 2001. It was the first time a connection had been established between the Norte del Valle Cartel in Colombia, controlled by Juan Diego Espinoza and his wife, the Sinaloan, Sandra Avila Beltrán. Both of them were arrested in late 2007. I wonder at times, if the birds aren't singing in prison. From what I understand, speaking to a colleague in Mexico City, the PGR is opposing Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and fighting her extradition to the U.S., a sealed case in Miami. Let's wait and see.

THE BORDER REPORT

Update: The tertiary chisme is that Miguel Treviño Morales, El Zeta 40, was captured in Reynosa. Don't know anything yet; just what's being said.

Another of these ... odd situations seems to be occurring in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in the past week. Rumors abound that 40 to 60 thugs were killed in a gunbattle with the Mexican Army that left an additional ten soldiers dead. News accounts published in Sonora newspaper, El Imparcial stated that six men total died in a gunbattle on Feb. 8. However, residents appear to be flooding the Internet with remarks about a much higher murder count. Additional commentary here at LaVidaMafiosa, (registration required).

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THE BORDER REPORT

Some of you may know the answer to this. In "Down by the River," Charles Bowden mentions a church in Ojinaga, Chihuahua, that Amado Carrillo built. Anyone know which church and what year that might have happened?

THE BORDER REPORT

Nogales, Sonora, is becoming the testing ground for our power restructuring theory in Mexico's cartel wars. The Sinaloans started making their move on the city Monday, amidst concentrated gunbattles and two grenade attacks that have left at least eight dead and 24 wounded. Will Chapo Guzmán be able to take the town?

Mexican law enforcement sources in Hermosillo say the Sinaloans have finally come north to take back a city they had held only tenuously for the past two years. They're using a local northern Sonora gang, Los Jabalí, to do it.

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