http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impr ... abla=miami

Influx of hired killers fuels border turf war

According to protected witnesses, the battle for control of this city began in 2003.
BY FRANCISCO GÓMEZ/EL UNIVERSAL
June 26, 2005

NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas According to federal prosecutors, the rising crescendo of violence afflicting this border city has its roots in a 2003 decision by the Sinaloa Cartel to forcefully wrest lucrative drug-smuggling routes from the formerly dominant Gulf Cartel.

According to testimonies from protected witnesses obtained by EL UNIVERSAL, the Sinaloa group headed by JoaquÃÂ*n 'El Chapo' Guzmán and the Beltrán Leyva brothers initially sent 200 gunmen recruited from Jalisco and Sinaloa to the city.

One informant was paid by the cartel to rent over a dozen houses in Nuevo Laredo for all the trained assassins. "The war has begun," the informant recalled hearing Arturo Beltrán Leyva saying in 2003.

More mercenaries have arrived every month since then, sparking the bloody battle with the Gulf Cartel that has left over 70 dead here this year alone.

One of the men hired by the Sinaloa Cartel and detained by federal agents said, "They told me the job consisted of taking control of Nuevo Laredo from the Zetas."

"They said we were going in there to blow away anyone who messed with us," he said.

The Gulf Cartel, controlled by the jailed capo Osiel Cárdenas, employs the 'Zetas' to do its dirty work. The Zetas were formerly an elite military unit that was trained to combat drug-traffickers, but have since joined the cartels.

The recent spike in killings here and elsewhere in Mexico spurred federal authorities to launch "Operation Safe Mexico" earlier this month. Federal police and military have been deployed in hard-hit areas such as Nuevo Laredo, but the killings have continued.