THE BORDER REPORT

These incidents, first in Michoacán, then Guerrero, now Acapulco, seem to have La Barbie, Edgar Valdez's signature all over them, yes?

THE BORDER REPORT

Is a founder of the Juarez Cartel now in talks with the Sinaloa Federation to take over Ciudad Juarez? It's a chisme that's come across my desk recently, and if true, opens the way for some fascinating negotiations for the border city.

Gilberto Greñas Ontiveros was released from Jalisco's Puente Grande prison in 2007 and since that time, hasn't been the least bit shy in making his new-found freedom known to the world. After his release from prison he immediately returned to El Paso and Juarez, successfully suing the city of Juarez for the return of one of his properties. It had been appropriated after his arrest in 1986 and sits between a woman's hospital and the Hotel Lucerna, about five minutes from the border. Inept American law enforcement agencies don't seem to realize he's been walking free for the past three years, of course. This is their latest information on him: "Presently incarcerated in Mexico, allegedly due to be released at an unknown time." Sweet Tapdancing Christ, either update your information or pick up a Mexican paper. With his mop of hair, he looked like what an old FBI source used to call "one of those ranchero fucks" but he also had a penchant for the high end lifestyle in Juarez, keeping a Rolls Royce in the garage of his mansion and a tigress named Viviana. He kept a lion as a pet in prison, the stories go, scaring holy hell out of the cellblock's other occupants. Maybe just one of those tales that persist about some of Mexico's older drug figures, maybe not. (Photo courtesy, DOJ.) Like so many of his successors, Greñas fell because he let his temper grab hold and brought unwanted attention onto himself (he did that by threatening to shoot an El Paso newspaper photographer then kidnapping the guy and beating him for ten hours ... ) I don't know how close Amado Carrillo Fuentes and Greñas were but it doesn't appear he and Vicente Carrillo held much mutual affection. Last year, Ontiveros' son was found murdered, floating in a canal in Juarez. It is said that Los Aztecas murdered the young man because he'd been passing information to the Sinaloa Federation. If that ends up being true, it would explain much behind this latest rumor. I can almost hear the corrido now: La Revancha del Viejo, perhaps? If Greñas is indeed being considered to take over Juarez for the Sinaloans, he'd actually make a great transition. His two ex-wives continue living in the area and he lived most of his life in Chihuahua; this suggests a strong familial connection with the state's authorities. And as a founder of the Juarez Cartel, this is a man who proved himself capable of maintaining the city's drug trafficking infrastructure. Was having a cup of coffee with an old Customs Enforcement source who used to work in El Paso in the nineties and brought up the possibility of Greñas as Juarez's new border dawg. "I like that......he would be a good choice," he says. We will see.

THE BORDER REPORT

Border law enforcement sources continue to insist that the Mexican Navy has Nacho Coronel in custody. What I'm told is that SEMAR is trying to extract his Army connections and that's why the detention is being quelled in the press, a point that is admittedly vague but all I have for now. Simply put, they haven't admitted to it yet. I'm also being told that his arrest is connected to former PAN presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos' kidnapping. The disappearance was reported May 15, Thursday. De Cevallos' truck was found Friday night in the state of Querétaro. Nacho Coronel was allegedly arrested Thursday evening or Friday morning in Guadalajara. I do wonder if the Sinaloans didn't sell him out; but if they did, that's treachery on the highest levels. Writing about Griselda Lopez's arrest/liberation, Malcolm Beith reminds us that the last time Joaquín Chapo Guzmán sold someone out – early 2008 when he gave up Alfredo Mochomo Beltrán Leyva – was reportedly done so to free his son, Ivan Archivaldo from prison.

THE BORDER REPORT

Border law enforcement sources are reporting that Nacho Coronel Villarreal was captured last night in Guadalajara. The 56 year old drug lord is one of the ranking leaders of the Sinaloa Federation. They're also reporting that his nephew Martin Beltran Coronel, was arrested with him. Once again, I'm told, the Mexican Navy did the job, not the Army. Their arrests come two days after one of Joaquin Chapo Guzman's wives was arrested in Culiacan. Griselda Lopez was later released after giving a statement. It's key that she had been picked up after police in Sinaloa raided six or seven homes. Is the Mexican government finally moving against Sinaloa? We shall see. I'm out on an assignment today, and Internet access is scarce but if I'm able to update later, I will.

THE BORDER REPORT

Sure seemed that way anyway, last week after I covered two arrests for the Nogales International. Fifty-five people in all, all low-level dope smugglers from Patagonia, Sonoita, and Naco, Sonora. Feds alleged the Naco ring moved some 40,000 pounds of pot across the border and annoyed the Christ out of me when they kept referring to this group of low-life smugglers as a "Cartel." Holding up mugshots of the gordito leader of the gang, the Feds made it sound like they'd popped Shorty Guzmán, himself. The Arizona Republic's reporter stopped the press conference and asked, "wait a minute, was this a cartel or a group of smugglers?" "Oh, it was a Cartel," said one of the seven federal officials standing before the room. You could hear the capital C in her use of the word. "Well, which Cartel?" I asked them. Keep in mind, you had Elizabeth Kempshall, DEA Administrator for Arizona, Dennis Burke, U.S. Attorney for Arizona, and Matt Allen, Special Agent in Charge for ICE in Arizona, all up in front of the room. Seven seconds of silence. "We prefer to only say it was a Sinaloa cartel," Kempshall finally says. Does the obvious doubt cast on the significance of this drug crew stop the news reporters from playing it up? Fook no. Here's Tucson's KOLD: "Investigators on Mexican Cartel: We Broke It's Back" Way to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," there, you jagoffs. Now wipe your chin. The ringleader, Ignacio Alfredo Erives Martinez, it turns out, works for Marco Antonio Paredes Machado, head of the Agua Prieta narco-syndicate. I only got that because a Fed, a good one, slipped it to me later that day. Next up, the U.S. Attorney. "This was a sophisticated crew," Burke tells us. What made them sophisticated, you ask? Good question. "They used truck ramps as well as hidden compartments to breach our borders," he says. "They used counter-surveillance and two-way radios to monitor law enforcement in Cochise County." Two-way radios? You don't say. As opposed to one-way? The most interesting part of the story, the fact that these Naco narquitos had compromised the secretary of the Cochise County Attorney office's drug unit, Angelica Borquez, was limited. They tried to minimize her presence so much, they didn't even bring her charging documents to the press conference. I asked Allen, Kempshall, and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard what her name was and none of them knew. Finally got it from Cochise County Attorney Ed Reinhammer. Keep in mind these people drove two hours down from Phoenix for this press conference and they didn't know the name of the most interesting person arrested in this fiasco. Borquez, I'm told later, was the girlfriend of the lead smuggler's nephew. Charging documents filed in federal court show her using Erives' cellphone to call the U.S. Border Patrol and asking if there were any public listing of people deported. Officials downplayed her involvement, saying she was merely support staff. She was not support staff; she was the Secretary. Of. The. Drug. Unit. Let's not make her out to be an elite drug mole/moll here, either. She proved equally inept. The Arizona Attorney General's Office popped her on a wiretap and worked with her bosses to make sure she only had access to  irrelevant information. About the only honest man in the room that day was Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever. Asked whether these arrests changed anything in regards to trafficking in Cochise, he simply responds, "no. "They adapt and adjust very quickly and additionally, we don’t. We’re very predictable; they are not.” Anyway.