Mexico Trucker Online Articles

Mother’s Day massacre in Cadereyta N.L leaves 49 dead. Toll could rise in coming days.

Mother's day dawns and with it, the discovery of 49 bodies dumped at the entrance to San Juan NL

Sunday morning, Mother’s Day in the US, 49 bodies, most decapitated, some missing limbs and others in an advanced state of decomposition, were found on a highway east of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, according to various news sources.

The grisly find was made at Kilometer 47 on Mexico Federal Highway 40,which leads to Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Police were dispatched to the area based on a telephone call. Mexican Policia Federal agents were the first on the scene and found several black garbage bags containing the remains of 49 individuals. The actual location is 10 kilometers east of Cadereyta, near the village of San Juan. Cadereyta itself is about seven kilometers east of Monterrey.

It is being reported that six women and 43 men were among the dead. Some reports have said a narcomanta was left at the scene but had been removed, reportedly said “100 percent Zetas”

At this point in time, authorities still don’t know who the victims are and rumors are flying. Some are saying that the victims were migrants heading to the United States because some of the victims had the facial features of individuals from South America. The report also said the narcomanta had the symbol of Los Zetas only, probably the letter Z, suggesting Los Zetas likely committed the crime.

Jorge Domene, spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state Secretaria de Seguridad Pública (SSP)

Jorge Domene, spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state Secretaria de Seguridad Pública (SSP), also that some of the victims had gang tattoos, suggesting the deaths were a settling of accounts between gangs. He also said that most of the victims had been killed two days prior to their discovery. Due to the arrangement of the bodies, it appears the bodies were transported and dumped by a large dump truck in the early dawn hours when traffic was light.

Mexico Highway 40 is the “free road” used by motorist and truckers that want to avoid the toll road between Monterrey and Reynosa.

Let’s keep in mind as we explore this story, that very little official information is forthcoming from the agencies investigating this crime due to the blackout on releases from government agencies during the 90 days prior to the voting July 1, for Mexico’s next President. However, due to the nature of this crime, the large number of victims, some in government are ignoring the mandate of Article 41, and speaking out, such as Jorge DOmene. Last night, the government of Mexico announced a $30,000,000.00 mxn reward for information leading to the capture of those responsible. In US dollars, that comes to $2,201,446.12. (Hell for that amount of money, I’d turn my own mother in and give them a map showing where she’s buried.)

Anyone having information on this crime and possible claim the reward can do so by calling 01 800 831 3196 or by email  denunciapgr@pgr.gob.mx 

People are assuming that members of Los Zetas are responsible for this because of grafitti featuring the letter “Z” found on the gateway into the city and the narco banners which were removed. Others are saying the victims are in fact members of Los Zetas, murdered by the Sinoloa TCO. And some are also saying it could be retaliation against the government for their recent arrest of Marco Jesus Hernandez Rodriguez aka Jesus Ruiz Marcos Rodriguez, nicknamed “El Chilango”, jefe of sicarios (boss of Zetas’s assassins), who is credited with masterminding the kidnapping, torture and killing at least four Mexican Marines on April 18, 2012. For those of you who are not aware, Mexican Marines are the baddest of the bad in this country, and like our Special Forces troops, they take care of their own.

Personally, I think the scenario that this was a planned statement by Los Zetas for Mother’s Day is more believable as reported by Borderland Beat.

It just makes sense. Whatever it is, it’s a scouring of the gene pool from the bottom up.

There’s several reasons I’m writing this on a blog that generally has to do with trucking. First of all, James P. Hoffa’s Teamsters are using this as yet another reason that Mexican trucks should not be allowed into the US. Although no American’s were involved nor truckers, either Mexican or US, the truth doesn’t matter to Hoffa in the least.

In an article titled “49 more reasons not to open the border to Mexican trucks” an unidentified Teamster, thought to be Hoffa himself writes;

Trade deals are supposed to be two-way streets. The U.S. is supposed to give Mexican truckers access to our highways, Mexico is supposed to give U.S. truckers access to its highways.

But if the Mexican government can’t guarantee the safety of U.S. citizens, then Mexico isn’t giving the U.S. equal access to its highways. Mexico isn’t living up to its part of the deal.

The good news is that only a handful of Mexican carriers are allowed to travel beyond the border zone as part of the second cross-border trucking pilot program. And even fewer trucks are actually using our highways.

How sad is it that people like James P. Hoffa feel the need to use the deaths of 49 individual human beings to continue to push their isolationist agenda.

Units from Mexico Federal Police seal of crime scene where 49 bodies were discovered outside of Cadereyta, Nuevo Leon

The second and perhaps most important reason, for me anyhow, is that this story is being picked up internationally, and some in the mainstream media, thousands of miles from Mexico continue to portray Mexico as a crime ridden wild west 24/7 shootout which of course it’s not. Only a small fractions of Mexico’s municipalites (counties) have been effected by the ongoing was between the TCO’s (Trans-National Criminal Organizations) And civilians for the most part, are not the targets. Most of the victims in this period of violence have been found to have some connection, however minor to the bad guys.

A heightened presence of military units is seen in Cadereyta after the Mother's Day massacre that claimed 49 lives

People in the locales where the violence has been occurring continue with their lives as usual. What else is there to do. In Cadereyta, where the latest occurred, people haven’t lost faith in the military or the belief that their city and country will return to the safety it has known in the past.

One day after the slaughter which shocked this town and the nation, the main square of Cadereyta lived another day.

The park opposite the town hall was full of people, couples with their children enjoying a snack from street vendors or just talking.

Street vendors, clothing store owners, elderly people and even the street sweepers talk of the fear they feel about the violence.

Still others said nothing, just calmly observing the movement of people and vehicles around the main square of Cadereyta.

Because of this latest incident and others, the army has stepped up its presence in and around Cadereyta, with military patrols more frequently patroling the outskirts of the city.

And on Monday, the military took up positions opposite the town hall and around the square, watching and giving the citizens a feeling of security with their presence

Some of the troops got down from from their units and entered some of the businesses to interact with the owners and make purchases. Just another day as life continues in Mexico as it has for a 1000 years.

Mexican Federal Police Bust Drugs, Guns in Reynosa House

PFP seizes weapons in Reynosa imported from the US

REYNOSA, Mexico – Federal police in Reynosa made a bust at home and now several hundred pounds of drugs and lots of guns are in their custody.

An anonymous tip led authorities to the house. No one was home at the time of the raid. But police did find 10 packages of marijuana and several automatic assault rifles.

They also took into custody a Dodge truck with Mexican plates and over 30 bullet holes. No arrests have been made in this case.

There is a 95-percent chance those assault rifles in Reynosa were bought in the U.S. That’s according to new information being released this morning by the ATF and the FBI.

They’re in El Paso at the 5th Annual Border Security Conference. Officials from both sides of the border say they are getting lots of results from Project Gunrunner, where U.S. and Mexican authorities share information and can track individual guns.

The director of the FBI also says they are working with Mexican officials as part of an anti-kidnapping effort in Laredo.

Lucano Bus crashes, 2 dead, 10 injured south of Nuevo Laredo

A bus owned by Autobuses Lucano of Dallas Texas, traveling from San Luis Patosi, SLP to Houston Texas crashed 35 miles south of Nuevo Laredo Thursday morning, killing 2, including a pregnant 19 year old woman whose body was found under the bus and injuring 10.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Sabinas Hidalgo NL and Cruz Roja in Nuevo Laredo.

Juan Carlos Flores Sanchez, Commandander of Federal Police Highways, reported initial investigation and interviews with passengers suggested the driver fell asleep at the wheel shortly before the bus left the highway and overturned.

The driver left the scene and a warrant was issued with the Nuevo Leon State Police for his arrest and detention.
Read more

Up in Smoke – 4 tons of drugs and pirated CD’s destroyed by Federal Authorities

Nuevo Laredo. – More than 4 tons of marijuana in addition to other drugs and pirated CD’s,were destroyed yesterday by personnel of the Army in the presence of federal, state and municipal authorities.

Operativo Permanente, has resulted in the seizure of enormous amounts of narcotics in Nuevo Laredo, Nuevo Guerrero, Cd. Mier, Miguel Alemán, Díaz Ordaz y Camargo, according to spokesmen from the First Motorized Cavalry regiment, headquartered in Nuevo Laredo.

The contraband was turned over to the Military and State and local authorities by the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), after being used as evidence in administrative and legal proceedings

The contraband was incinerated at Cuarentenaria Station, located on the Ribereña Highway, between Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa.

The destruction of the goodies was overseen by members of the local Subdelegation of the PGR, of the Federal Agency of Investigations (AFI), the Army, the Preventive Federal Police (PFP) and the Municipal Police.

Among the items destroyed were various chemicals from a clandestine laboratory in the Municipality of Miguel Aleman that were part of a meth lab.

Also destroyed were more than 50,000 pirated CD’s seized in raids around the city.

This is more evidence of President Calderon’s ongoing effort to fight organized crime and corruption in Mexico.

Mexico deserves and needs the $1.4 billion dollar aid package recently approved by Congress to fight the cartels. Mexico does not need US interference or boots on the ground however. Calderon is quite capable of turning this country around.

Mexico’s besieged police put to the test

Calderon vows to press war on cartels despite the body count

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s security forces have been swept into the eye of the storm since President Felipe Calderon decided to get tough on the country’s drug-smuggling gangs.

Once-untouchable federal officials have been assassinated in the streets. Out-gunned soldiers and police have battled gangsters armed with grenades and bazookas. Local police chiefs have resigned, a few fleeing to the United States for safety. Hundreds of police and soldiers have been sent early to their graves.

Amid a fierce counteroffensive by the drug cartels, the question becomes: How long can, or will, Mexico’s thin police line hold?

Calderon and his top assistants say the security forces are up to the task. The gunfights and killings, including the assassinations this month of four top police officials, are signs of success rather than defeat, they say.

“This reaction is precisely a desperate act to weaken the federal police,” Calderon said, defending his policies and trying to rally the public to support them. “The effectiveness of a new, cleaned-up police force was hitting the criminals. We’re going to continue this frontal attack.”

But Bush administration officials, pushing Congress to approve a $1.4 billion, three-year package of equipment and training for Mexico’s security forces, warn that Calderon’s campaign will founder without the aid.

Analysts on both sides of the border worry that Mexico’s underequipped and poorly trained police forces — with long histories of ineffectiveness and corruption — will come up short.

“There comes a moment when the imbalance in resources reverses the relationship between government and cartels,” George Friedman, founder of Strategic Forecasting, an Austin political risk firm, wrote in a report on Mexico’s drug war this week.

“Government officials, seeing the futility of resistance, effectively become tools of the cartels.”

A relatively new twist
Other analysts point out that many Mexican policemen and officials have long been at the cartels’ service. They argue that much of today’s sustained violence against police — a relatively new twist in the country’s decades-long dance with the drug trade — arises from a fragmentation of a protection system that existed for decades.

Hundreds of dedicated police and soldiers have been killed over the years in the line of duty. But for much of the past, authorities and gangsters preferred their relationships to be defined by business rather than bloodshed.

Officials were killed if they welched on a deal with the criminals. They rarely were targeted for simply doing their jobs.

“They didn’t have to kill the police before, because the agreements were clear, and the limits were well defined,” said Ernesto Lopez Portillo, president of a Mexico City think tank that studies police and public security.

That has changed since the presidential elections of 2000 ended seven decades of one-party rule and shook the protection that it afforded the country’s gangsters, Lopez Portillo said.

Political power, and the cover it can provide drug traffickers, has splintered among the federal, state and local governments.

At the same time, a reorganization of the federal security forces, including the replacement of the notoriously corrupt Federal Judicial Police with a quasi-military force, has made enforcement more effective. Narcotics use has ballooned in Mexico, while smuggling organizations grew more powerful and more competitive with one another.

Now, each cartel has its own protection system, often based on the guns of local and state police. Many crime bosses also employ gunmen who until recently were active-duty soldiers.

Gangs’ firepower and vendettas have multiplied. Police have been caught in the crossfire. Chaos reigns.

“All the old alliances have broken down,” said Bruce Bagley, a University of Miami political scientist who specializes in the Latin American drug trade. “And they are striking back against cops, many of whom are dirty. The whole process has been thrown into flux.”

Calderon has ordered nearly 30,000 soldiers and quasi-military police into the fight against the cartels. The offensive has proved ineffective in stopping the trafficking of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin to American consumers. But more than 3,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in the 18 months since Calderon became president.

The dead include about 300 federal, state and local police. Some have been killed by rivals of the gangsters who employed them. Many others were slain doing their jobs.

“There have been, obviously, very lamentable losses on our side,” Calderon told reporters this week. “But fortunately Mexico has many patriots like them.”

Calderon insists he is determined to press the crackdown, regardless of the body count. He has asked Congress for a five-fold increase in the budget of the federal police, to be used in large part to build new regional bases across the country.

“We will continue building a better federal police, which this country has severely needed,” Calderon said. “We’re not going to add to the abandonment, the cowardice or the complicity that allowed Mexico to arrive at this situation.”
Read more in the Houston Chronicle

Mexico’s top cop blames organized crime for killings

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s top security official blamed organized crime for the brazen killing of an acting federal police chief, saying today his death shows a nationwide crackdown is hurting gangs.

Public Safety Secretary General Garcia Luna said authorities would not be deterred by an onslaught of attacks against police as he presided over the funeral of Edgar Gomez Millan and two other federal officers killed this week.

Millan, 41, was shot 10 times early Thursday by gunmen who waited for him inside the courtyard of his Mexico City apartment complex. His two bodyguards were wounded.

The two other officers were killed Wednesday in a shootout with suspected drug traffickers in southern Morelos state.

The “attacks by organized crime against federal police in the last few days are in response to their interests being affected,” Garcia Luna said as he stood near the three coffins guarded by heavily armed agents wearing bulletproof vests. “But we will not be intimidated.”

President Felipe Calderon attended the funeral, hugging Millan’s sobbing wife and handing her a folded Mexican flag. He did not speak publicly.

Millan was responsible for coordinating operations — many of them targeting drugs — between federal police and the army. He was named acting chief March 1 after his superior was promoted to a deputy Cabinet position.

On May 1, he announced the arrest of 12 suspected hit men tied to the Sinaloa cartel.

Hours later, a federal intelligence analyst was killed in Mexico City by assailants who tried to steal his car, and a federal commander was gunned down the next day.

Police would not comment on whether the Sinaloa cartel was behind Millan’s killing, but said they were investigating possible drug links. Police were interrogating two suspects, including one of the alleged gunmen.

Since taking office in 2006, Calderon has sent more than 25,000 troops to drug hotspots. Cartels have responded with unprecedented violence, beheading police and killing soldiers. Drug-related violence killed more than 2,500 people last year alone.

In Washington, Thomas Shannon, the U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, urged Congress to approve the Merida Initiative, a US$1.4 billion (euro0.91 billion) proposal to help fight drug crime in Mexico and Central America. The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush wants Congress to approve US$550 million (euro355 million) of the package, the majority of which would go to Mexico.

“Central America and Mexico are facing public security threats of tremendous proportions,” Shannon told the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “The leaders of the region have shown that they are committed to working together to put an end to the growing violence and crime, but their resources are limited.”

Acting head of Mexico’s federal police shot to death

The acting chief of Mexico’s federal police was shot dead early today outside his home in the capital.

The Public Safety Department said Edgar Millan Gomez was shot 10 times and died hours later in a hospital. Two of his bodyguards were wounded.

A police official, who was not authorized to give his name, said Millan had been temporarily heading the federal police since his superior was promoted to a deputy Cabinet position on March 1.

Police have arrested a suspect with a record of car theft but have not yet determined a motive for the pre-dawn attack today. The official said police were investigating possible drug links.

Mexico has suffered a wave of organized crime and drug-related violence in which more than 2,500 people died last year alone.

Millan was in charge of coordinating drug operations with the military. Since taking office in 2006, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 24,000 troops to drug hot spots. Cartels have lashed back, killing soldiers and federal police.

Millan was the second top federal police official killed in less than a week in Mexico City. A Mexican federal police intelligence analyst was killed on May 2 in an apparent armed robbery attempt outside his home.

In January, police in Mexico City arrested three men armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers who were allegedly planning to assassinate Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a top prosecutor who oversees the extradition of drug traffickers.

Calderon condemned the attack on Millan.

“The government of Mexico expresses its deepest sympathy in light of this cowardly killing of an exemplary official, committed to the safety of Mexican families,” Calderon’s office said in a statement.

Millan helped capture one of Mexico’s most feared kidnappers, Andres Caletri, in 2000, and helped disband two notorious abduction rings. In 2001, he was named head of anti-kidnapping operations for the Federal Agency of Investigation, Mexico’s version of the FBI.

U.S. soldier arrested in Mexico with several weapons in car

A teary-eyed American soldier accused of illegally driving guns and ammunition into Mexico said Tuesday he was just looking for a place to park so he could walk into Mexico for breakfast after a long night of driving.

Instead, Army Spc. Richard R. Medina Torres steered his 1999 Honda Prelude off Interstate 10, over an international bridge, and into Mexico.

“It was just an accident, I didn’t mean to drive over here,” Torres said Tuesday afternoon standing in a hallway of the Mexican federal building where he has been jailed since Monday morning.

Torres, an Iraq war veteran who was heading to his mother’s house in Fresno, Calif., said after driving all night from Fort Hood he planned to park his car at the border and walk into Juarez for breakfast. But he misunderstood directions from an El Paso gas station attendant, took the wrong exit, and wound up in Mexico.

“When I saw where I was, I started asking people at the front gate ‘where can I turn around at?’,” Torres said.

A Mexican border guard told him to make a U-turn several hundred feet past the border, Torres said. But within seconds of leaving the inspection station, Mexican federal authorities stopped his car.

Torres, who doesn’t speak any Spanish, said they started asking if he had drugs or guns. He said he immediately told them he was traveling with an AR-15 assault rifle and a .45-caliber handgun.

After searching his car, Mexican authorities took Torres into custody, and began questioning him, he said. He has not yet been charged with any crime.

It is illegal to bring guns or ammunition and some types of knives into Mexico and weapons offenses can result in lengthy prison sentences. Torres also had 171 rounds of ammunition and three knives.

Roads leading to the border are dotted with clearly marked signs directing drivers to Mexico. Many of those signs include a picture with a revolver in a red circle with a line through it. Other markers are more direct, warning drivers that it is illegal to carry guns or ammunition into Mexico.

“Penalty-Prison,” a sign posted above a road leading directly to the border says in bold, red letters.

Torres said he wasn’t paying attention to the signs, instead focusing his attention on looking for a parking lot.

“I wasn’t even aware I was driving into Mexico,” until seeing the sign welcoming him to Mexico, Torres said. He was driving to California to drop off his car before deploying to Honduras for a year.

Mexican authorities said Tuesday that Torres stopped at the border to ask where he could park his car and was directed to make a U-turn to go back to the U.S. When he stopped again to ask federal authorities working nearby where to park, the agents started questioning him and were told about his weapons.

Torres said he was being treated well, though when he wasn’t being questioned or speaking with U.S. Consulate officials he was being kept in a small, private cell with a bed, shower and toilet.

He said he’s met with a lawyer and hopes to see a judge in the next few days.

Torres’ mother, Gloria Medina, said she was told about her son’s situation Tuesday morning by his commanding officer at Fort Hood. She spoke to her son about an hour later and now just hopes for his quick release.

“I’m worried … I think about him quite often,” Medina said. “I do have my faith and that’s keeping me strong. I feel that he’s going to come out of this ordeal fine, and I’m hoping that it will be soon.”

UPDATE
Spc. Richard Raymond Medina Torres was charged by Mexican authorities with smuggling (punishable by five to 30 years in prison); weapons importation (punishable by three to 10 years in prison); and possession of ammunition reserved for the military (punishable by two to six years in prison), said Angel Torres, spokesman for the Mexican Attorney General.

Medina Torres was transferred to the Cereso prison around noon Wednesday.

Torres said Medina Torres’ case is now in the hands of a federal judge who has 72 hours to decide whether to free him or sentence him to prison time.
Asked whether the U.S. State Department has planned any diplomatic intervention, an official in Washington, D.C., declined to comment.

However, he said consular officials were available to provide legal references and other information if Medina Torres needed it. They also will follow the case as it moves through the legal process.

Under the federal Mexican judicial system, Medina Torres will not have an oral trial or oral hearings in a courtroom. Instead, attorneys for both sides typically file written statements for a judge to read and make a decision.

Yeah, and Santy Claus wear pink panties on Christmas eve also. The roads leading to the International Bridges are well marked and there are public parking lots around the bridge and very evident.