THE BORDER REPORT

Dirty, dirty and that's the way we like it here at BorderReporter.com, que nó? This is one of those weird little tales where I gotta  protect the guilty – for now.

In late August, three people were arrested in Baltimore on cocaine-trafficking charges; nobody particularly special – low-end movers running 300 pounds through Baltimore from Arizona. The arrest was part of Operation Xcellerator, that massive DEA sweep of 755 members of the Sinaloa Cartel that went down across the nation last summer. Feds had seized some $59 million in cash along with the 755 arrests and and somewhere around 27,000 pounds of cocaine. If you recall, we never got a whole lot of names of the defendants in Xcellerator, a move that myself and others were questioning at the time. And I'm beginning to see why we weren't getting those names.

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THE BORDER REPORT

The circulated rumor now appears to be true. Teodoro García Simental, El Teo, was reportedly captured in La Paz, Baja California Sur at about 6 a.m. this morning. Due credit to El Mexicano newspaper in BC who reported the information first this morning and to reader Omar for bringing it to my attention.

THE BORDER REPORT

This morning, they killed the mother of the Special Forces trooper who died in the gunbattle with Arturo Beltrán Leyva. Killed her while she slept along with three others, all familymembers of Melquisedec Angulo Córdova.

This is the Beltrán Leyva legacy. No intelligence, no networks, pure violence. Mr. Angulo's name was one of the only ones published in the media as being one of the men who went after Beltrán. That must be how they got his name or they would have targeted someone who actually posed a threat, say, the commanding officer who organized the attack. Angulo didn't have a vendetta, he was serving his country when he went up against them.

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THE BORDER REPORT Arturo Beltran Leyva, the charismatic rising cartel figure of Mexico's narco wars was killed a few minutes ago in a gunbattle with the Mexican Navy in Cuernavaca. Reports from sources within the Mexican Federal Attorney General's Office state that El Barbie, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, had been arrested at the scene. Those reports are now unconfirmed. Also the rumor that Beltran's brother, Mario, was one of those killed tonight. A third had allegedly committed suicide. Milenio is reporting seven dead total. The power move in northern Mexico sounds like it's already begun. Nogales erupted about 11:10 tonight with at least ten gunshots throughout the city. NOTE, another source is telling me it's a celebration not a gunfight. Chapo's people, I presume. "A stray bullet injured a little girl but it's all about the celebration," a friend said. "It's a posada, man." Sources at Justice say that Arturo was almost captured at a party a few nights ago when the Navy arrested Ramon Ayala. No idea if Arturo had been at the party but my guys at Justice insist he left shortly ahead of the Navy's arrival. Also of interest; the Navy. Where's the Army in all this? Why is the Marina moving on Arturo Beltran and not SEDENA? Locally, along the Arizona border, this has just created a power vacuum in Sonoyta, Nogales and Agua Prieta. Nationally, the Juarez Cartel and the Zetas in Tamaulipas and Coahuila just lost their most powerful ally and we all know what means: Shorty Guzmán's back in charge, no doubt celebrating in a hot tub somewhere. Just in time for his birthday, too.

THE BORDER REPORT

With the finding of six bodies in a dirt lot yesterday afternoon, about twenty people have now been murdered along the Arizona-Sonora border since last Tuesday. The bodies were found in Nogales, Sonora, and were presumed to have been there some three to five days, a timeline that matches up nicely with the start of this current conflict. Still don't know who the man was that was killed in Agua Prieta last week; nobody's saying so you know it's good (regionally interesting, probably not national). But a source in the area says Mexican Feds were in a meeting with the gringos on the Arizona side when they got the call and went running back into Mexico to deal with this. The latest conflict appears to be a group of Nuevo Zetas moving against the powerhouses of the Arizona border (and it ain't DHS). Meanwhile, the Mexican Army exercised an extreme case of ineptitude when a soldier was shot in a crossfire in Agua Prieta last Thursday. Seems the Army had surrounded a stash house when two traffickers in a Pontiac Grand Am raced out. A desmadre ensued when the soldiers unloaded on the car, hitting the car but also shooting at each other. The narcos got away. I thought training was a big part of the Merida money ... pero bueno. In light of this latest ordeal, Sonora Gov. Guillermo Padrés is asking Mexico City for one thousand more federales to be brought up into Sonora (mas ratas pal pozo ... ) And, up north of me, one of Arturo Beltrán Leyva's people was indicted on cocaine trafficking and money laundering charges in Phoenix. Misael Beltrán Cital and seven other people were indicted on the charges after the State Department issued him a visa to come to the U.S. Total setup and he fell for it, oops. We'll see what happens next.