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Will border violence ever stop?

Web Posted: 06/04/2006 12:00 AM CDT
Mariano Castillo
Express-News Border Bureau

UEVO LAREDO, Mexico — The mysterious machinations of a drug kingpin serving time in a Mexico City prison cell could have an unlikely effect, federal officials say: peace along the border.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who is believed to run Mexico's violent Gulf Cartel from prison, orchestrating from afar much of the drug war that has claimed 120 lives here this year alone, is trying to oust one of his deputies, U.S. law officers say.

And the infighting his efforts have caused could radically alter the deadly dynamics between the cartel and its archrival, the Sinaloa Cartel, possibly quelling their bloody war over drug-smuggling routes and eventually bringing an end to the killing.

The rift is centered over control of the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros but apparently also pits cartel leaders willing to cooperate with the rival Sinaloa Cartel against hardliners who will tolerate no such truce.

If the hardliners lose, and new leaders reach a deal with the Sinaloans, one result could be an end to the killings that have plagued Nuevo Laredo for 21/2 years.

There are no signs of a slowdown in the battle for Nuevo Laredo. Mexican Gen. Alvaro Moreno, who previously oversaw all law enforcement operations here, repeatedly during his tenure attributed many of the executions to infighting between bands loyal to the Gulf Cartel.

But for this beleaguered city, the possibility of a future truce is a sliver of light in the darkness.

The Gulf Cartel is led by Cardenas, who was arrested in 2003 but continues to give orders from his cell in the maximum-security Las Palmas prison outside Mexico City, officials believe.

Mexican officials refuse to discuss the drug cartel violence on the record for fear of retribution. The Mexican attorney general's office referred all questions about the cartels to Deputy Attorney General Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, who wasn't available.

But federal officials on both sides of the border say they have intelligence dating to December or earlier pointing to a shake-up in the upper echelons of the Matamoros-based Gulf Cartel.

A number of incidents since then have emerged as evidence that an internal dispute still is playing out, U.S. officials said.

The rift stems from Cardenas' desire to oust one of his deputies, Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, said one knowledgeable U.S. law enforcement investigator based on the border who spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic concerns.

Sauceda, nicknamed "El Goyo," oversees Gulf Cartel operations in Reynosa and Matamoros. A known alcoholic and drug user who may be dying of cancer, Sauceda was "losing sight of the business," the investigator said.

Tapped to take over Sauceda's role is a man known as "El Humme," Jaime González Durán, the U.S. investigator said. González's background doesn't appear to make him an advocate for peace, but as a loyal follower of Cardenas, who would focus on making money instead of body counts for his boss.

González is reputed to be the second-in-command of the "Zetas," a group formed by Mexican army deserters that functions as the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel. According to documents from Mexico's Secretariat of Defense, González deserted the army in late 1998 or early 1999.

In contrast to Sauceda, the U.S. investigator compared González to Al Pacino's hard-hearted character in the film "Scarface."

"Hummer would be ruthless enough not to lose control," he said.

The first round between González and Sauceda may have been fought Dec. 13. Veteran Mexican journalist Alberto Nájar reported in the newspaper La Jornada that a grenade exploded that day in a Reynosa drug house run by Sauceda. Men working for González tossed it, Nájar reported.

The General Bravo six

The town of General Bravo sits on one of the tributaries that feeds El Cuchillo reservoir in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, just off a major highway that connects Reynosa and Monterrey.
A second U.S. law enforcement officer said the first clue of an organizational split came with a grisly discovery there March 26.

Authorities found six men — bound, blindfolded and shot to death — in a pickup, the engine still running. Five of the bodies were tossed in the truck bed.

The sixth was in the cab, and a sheet of paper on the dashboard had a note: "This is a message for those in the Gulf Cartel, traitorous pals."

The killings didn't have the markings of a usual cartel hit, and the investigation itself took a strange but revealing turn.

According to reports published in El Norte, a prominent Monterrey newspaper that followed the incident closely, four of the six victims were from Sinaloa, the home state of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's cartel.

They were all cousins, and their leader, Lamberto Torres Ochoa, moved large quantities of drugs from Saltillo to Reynosa, Mexican authorities told the newspaper.

Initially, investigators assumed the Sinaloans were killed for working for the rival Gulf Cartel.

But the probe revealed the men were held, tortured and executed in Reynosa before being driven to General Bravo, sources told El Norte. Police found an additional 80 bullet casings where the truck was found.

The second U.S. investigator said members of the Sinaloa Cartel — possibly including the General Bravo six — apparently were working in Matamoros and Reynosa, which couldn't happen without the blessing of some in the Gulf Cartel.

"Some (Gulf Cartel leaders) want to work with the Alliance," the investigator said, referring to a loose coalition of drug gangs that's helping the Sinaloa Cartel battle for control of Nuevo Laredo.

Others in the Gulf leadership disagreed and made an example of the Sinaloans for the edification of the opposing Gulf faction, the U.S. official speculated.

The conflict is developing in Reynosa and Matamoros, but it could reshape what is happening in Nuevo Laredo, the epicenter of border drug violence, if a faction willing to seek a truce grabs the Gulf Cartel's reins.

Even the narcos are becoming fatigued with the endless killings, the federal investigator said.

Going public?

The most recent sign of a cartel rift may have been an interview with drug traffickers that aired on KRGV-TV in the Rio Grande Valley last week, officials said.
Two men who identified themselves as Zetas met with reporter Tony Castelan for a 20-minute interview at a cheap motel in the Valley.

The men, who were not named and whose faces were obscured for the broadcast, said they came forward because they were tired of the Gulf Cartel's excesses and carelessness that had claimed the lives of innocent bystanders, including children.

They detailed how the Zetas kidnap and kill their enemies — claiming they sometimes feed victims to a tiger — and said the group currently is based in Ciudad Camargo, across from Rio Grande City.

The men also said there were Zeta cells in Texas — in Mission, Rio Grande City and Roma.

"I realized there were a lot of injustices they were committing," one of the men said in the interview.

It was the first known news interview with Zetas — members of a group that has a history of silencing and censoring journalists through intimidation — on either side of the border.

"That in itself is suspect, that the Zetas would even allow someone to speak to the press," said Jorge Cisneros, an FBI special agent based in McAllen.

Cisneros reserved judgment on the authenticity of the interview subjects. But some sources speculate that the supposed Zetas who appeared in the video are involved in the power struggle.

Narco PR

If so, did they break a cardinal rule of the Zetas and speak to a reporter to draw negative attention to cells loyal to "El Goyo" Sauceda?
"In the intel community it remains to be seen whether this is the actual truth," Cisneros said.

But U.S. officials agreed much of the information in the KRGV interview was "on the mark," as one of them put it.

It once would have been considered bizarre, but the Zeta interview is among a recent spate of apparent public relations efforts by drug cartel leaders.

Days after the KRGV interview, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel who is leading his organization's push to take over Nuevo Laredo, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, released an open letter to the next president of Mexico through a newspaper advertisement.

The Laredo-born Valdez, known as "La Barbe," blamed the Zetas for killings in Nuevo Leon state that had been pinned on him.

The letter accused the Zetas of having the Mexican government's anti-organized-crime office in their pocket, and it asked whoever is elected President Vicente Fox's successor on July 2 to apply the law "in an equal manner."

"I don't intend to make myself look like a white dove, or to clean my image, as I am aware of what I have done and of what I am responsible," the letter read in part. "I'm just alerting (about the) great cancer that the Zetas represent."

In another well-publicized move, huge celebrations of National Children's Day held in Reynosa and Piedras Negras last month, featuring free food, toys and entertainment, were publicly credited to Cardenas, the imprisoned leader of the Gulf Cartel.

"It's not very common for them to be so public," said Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City-based political scientist and expert on organized crime.

He surmised that Cardenas' and the KRGV interview had to do more with psychology than strategy.

"Maybe it was a way to clear their conscience," Chabat said.

Who's Who in the Struggle
Osiel Cardenas Guillen, head of the Matamoras-based Gulf Cartel, who continues to run the organization from his cell in Las Palmas prison near Mexico City. He wants to oust one of his deputies ...

Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, who oversees Gulf Cartel operations in Reynosa and Matamoras. Cardenas wants to replace him with ...

Jaime González Durán, who's reputed to be second in command of the Zetas, a group formed by Mexican army deserters that functions as the cartel's enforcement arm. A U.S. investigator compared González to Al Pacino's hard-hearted character in the film 'Scarface.'

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mcastillo@express-news.net