THE BORDER REPORT

No les digo, pues? Mexico has begun the process to extradite Edgar La Barbie Valdez Villarreal to the U.S. to stand trial. In September, when I first wrote about this, I spent a few days looking over his indictments in U.S. District Court. Based on that, and then an interview with an attorney familiar with his case, it was determined that Barbie Valdez would not stand trial for murder in Mexico but instead face drug-trafficking charges in the U.S. You can see that story, here. In short, court documents showed that 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. The next day, Aug. 17, Ramos called to arrange a meeting in the parking lot of a closed warehouse in Atlanta. At 7:30 p.m., he pulled his semi-truck in and met with two men, Joe Lopez and Luis Trevino, who arrived in a white Nissan Maxima. Trevino and Ramos loaded three Navy duffel bags stuffed with $2,533,635 into the cab of Ramos’ truck. Trevino and Lopez drove off and Ramos pulled away. On Aug. 18, the Georgia State Patrol stopped Ramos’ truck on I-85 south of Atlanta and seized the cash. Ramos initially denied knowing anything about the bags of money. On June 11, a U.S. federal judge unsealed an indictment against Edgar La Barbie Valdez Villareal and five other men. According to the Feds: they gathered evidence during a January 2008 wiretap-based trial fingering La Barbie as the source of tons cocaine imported into Atlanta from 2004 to 2006. Evidence at the trial, the Feds say, demonstrated La Barbie’s people were moving about 200 pounds of coke a week during the summer and fall of 2005. All that, they said, came up by semi-truck to Atlanta after crossing through Laredo, Texas. Still more trucks were used to run millions in cash back to Mexico. And then, on  June 18, a week after the U.S. put the heat on La Barbie, Ramos signed the plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, admitting to the initial allegations. A copy of his plea agreement shows he agreed to cooperate. Shortly after Barbie's arrest, a lawyer with a heavy investment in Mexico's organized crime syndicates reported Barbie had turned himself in, in exchange for avoiding murder charges in Mexico and doing easier time in the U.S. on this cocaine charge. La Barbie waged war on the Sinaloa Cartel's behalf in Nuevo Laredo since late 2004. He flipped with Arturo Beltrán shortly after Mochomo went down in January 2008. The wars continued, even after Arturo's hit in December 2009. How many deaths was Barbie responsible for in Mexico? Few hundred? Few thousand? No tengo la menor puta idea, but plenty. And he turns himself in. Worse, the governments of both countries are going to let it happen. That's the business.

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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. Does that explain the drug rehab hit, 13 muertos, in Tijuana last week? The Tijuana city government has been trying to rebrand its image using the likes of Al Gore, The New Yorker and Carlos Slim. Then the kidnappings went down and suddenly the old capo's eyes are settling on an arch-nemesis, the Arellanos. I don't know about you, but I allowed myself to forget that old rivalry. Suddenly, perhaps, it's back, and in full force. The question is, why? Why would the Arellanos move against Mayo's family just as they were beginning to take control of their own city? Y que pedo con El Osama? What's his story?

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I've been dedicating my time over the past few weeks to a new career as the Tucson correspondent for KJZZ, the NPR affiliate in Phoenix, Ariz., so I haven't given this story the attention it merits. However, I am in Tucson, after all, and not Phoenix, so I don't know why this story didn't get that city's attention. And perhaps, it should have. It's been nearly three weeks since cops found Martin Alejandro Cota, his severed head lying next to the rest of his body. They're calling it a drug hit and a message.

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Legit? Or no?

Assassins Sent to “Take Out” Bandits in Vekol Valley

On May 13th, 2010 the Department of Homeland Security sent out an email to several law enforcement agencies regarding intelligence information they had developed. The information was not disseminated to the general public as it was deemed “law enforcement sensitive.” On October 14th, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by a local news entity that had the information contained in the email regarding “assassins being sent to take out bandits in Vekol Valley” which is located in western Pinal County. The news entity had confirmed the information through other law enforcement agencies both on a local and federal level. Below is the information we are sending out in an effort to inform the public about the dangers associated with the drug cartels operating in Pinal County. “We just received information from a proven credible confidential source who reported that last weekend, a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco in which every smuggling organization who utilized the Vekol Valley was told to attend. This included rival groups within the Guzman cartel. It was decided that the cartel would send a group of fifteen, very well equipped and armed sicarios complete with bullet proof vests, into the Vekol Valley. The Cartel has a map of where the most bandit activity has been occurring. The group will walk into the valley taking four days to get into LPOP positions and communicate back to Penasco. Penasco will then send groups of simulated backpackers carrying empty boxes covered with burlap into the Vekol Valley to draw out the bandits. Once the bandits have been identified, the sicarios will take out the bandits. Incidentally, the night of the Vekol Valley shooting, we received information from a source who reported that the scouts in the valley (the Cartel has 23 scout locations with rolling encryption) were reporting that bandits had shot two sheriff’s deputies and the area was covered with cops.” The above paragraph was referring to April 30th when Deputy Louie Puroll was ambushed in Vekol Valley by armed smugglers. Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “This information came from Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano’s office. She knows exactly what the citizens of Arizona are faced with yet she continues to publicly state how much safer we all are. I once again ask her to please put politics aside and secure the border or give us the resources we need so that we can protect our Arizona families.”

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Some of you did, anyway. El resto pueden quemarse en el infierno. Culeros. How's everyone been? I'm back, though sporadically. More later, I'm headed for the bar, but I wanted to say hi.