VZCZCXRO9001
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHMC #0818/01 2482032
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 052032Z SEP 07
FM AMCONSUL MONTERREY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2403
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 3221
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUEABND/DEA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHMC/AMCONSUL MONTERREY 7682

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTERREY 000818 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR DS/IP/ITA AND DS/IP/WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KCRM ASEC KCOR KHLS KJUS PINS CASC MX
SUBJECT: MONTERREY LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE: AUGUST 2007 
 
REF: MONTERREY 800 
 
MONTERREY 00000818  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY.  Monterrey's law enforcement agencies 
remained busy during the month of August.  In a victory against 
narco-traffickers, a Monterrey Special Agent assisted in placing 
three known Gulf Cartel kingpins on the U.S. Consolidated 
Priority Organizational Target list.  Post continued its 
outreach with local and Federal law enforcement officials, which 
helped secure the arrest of a former regional AFI (FBI 
equivalent) agent wanted on money laundering charges.  A Post 
law enforcement agent helped debrief Juan Carlos de la Cruz 
Reyna, the boss of the Gulf Cartel's Tampico, Tamaulipas 
"plaza", after his high-profile August 28 arrest.  Monterrey DEA 
agents worked with local authorities to secure the arrest of a 
fugitive wanted in Texas on drug-trafficking charges. 
Monterrey's law enforcement offices worked together to recover a 
vehicle stolen from a Texas car dealership on August 31. 
Finally, RSO, DHS-ICE, and FBI Monterrey worked with their U.S. 
counterparts to secure the transport and arrest of an American 
Citizen with outstanding arrest warrants as he traveled back to 
Laredo, Texas.  While an apparent truce between rival drug 
cartels continued to curb the number of narco-related 
assassinations, Nuevo Leon witnessed a spike in the number of 
kidnappings.  There were four drug-related killings in August, 
bringing the number of such murders in the state to 89 for 2007 
(twenty-nine of which were active-duty police officers), 
compared to 55 for all of 2006.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  In a demonstration of Post's excellent working 
relationship with local law enforcement, Monterrey's DHS-ICE 
agents worked with DHS McAllen and with the Mexican Attorney 
General's office to secure the arrest of Adrian Echeverria 
Rodriguez, the former regional AFI director in Veracruz, on 
August 24.  Echeverria was originally wanted by Mexican 
Authorities for his alleged involvement with the Gulf Cartel and 
for avoiding Mexican Law Enforcement since abandoning his post 
in Veracruz several months ago.  While DHS McAllen reported that 
Mexico's PGR Attache in San Antonio had stated that Echeverria 
did not have any active warrants in Mexico, Monterrey's DHS-ICE 
agents worked with the Director of the Narcotics Division for 
the newly created Mexican Federal Police to ascertain 
Echeverria's true status.  Monterrey's Assistant ICE Attache 
learned that Echeverria was wanted in Mexico on money laundering 
charges.  DHS-CBP denied Echeverria entry into McAllen and 
walked him back into Mexico where members of AFI's vetted unit 
took him into Mexican custody as he crossed the Hidalgo Bridge. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  On August 29, two of Monterrey's DEA Special Agents 
met with AFI agents and representatives from the Mexican 
Attorney General's Office of Organized Crime (SIEDO) to share 
intelligence about the whereabouts of known drug traffickers. 
As a result of this intelligence-sharing, Mexican authorities 
were able to arrest a DEA fugitive out of Dallas who had been 
wanted on drug trafficking charges since 2003.  Mexican 
authorities arrested the fugitive in Nuevo Laredo and seized a 
large weapons cache that included semiautomatic weapons, 
handguns, and a large assortment of ammunition.  Also found in 
the suspect's car was a money-counting machine, a testimony to 
the large sums of money with which he operated on a daily basis. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  On August 31, Monterrey's law enforcement officials 
received information from the DHS-ICE in Corpus Christi that 
vehicles that had been stolen from a Texas car dealership had 
been located via On-Star in Reynosa, Mexico.  Monterrey's RSO, 
DHS-ICE, FBI, and DEA offices worked together with local Mexican 
authorities to pinpoint the exact location of one of the 
vehicles.  When Mexican police arrived at the location, they 
were able to recover the car.  Leads from the recovery will aid 
local police in locating the other stolen vehicles. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  American Citizen Rudy Alejandro Norman came to the 
Consulate on August 31 and told the American Citizens Services 
section that he was the victim of a robbery and that all of his 
possessions had been stolen the previous day at a Monterrey bus 
station.  After conducting preliminary checks, the ACS Chief and 
RSO office ascertained that Norman had a criminal history and 
that he had outstanding arrest warrants in Texas.  Monterrey's 
RSO, DHS-ICE, and FBI Special Agents then worked together to 
provide Norman with public transportation back to Laredo, Texas, 
and to facilitate his arrest at the U.S.-Mexico border. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  A Monterrey Special Agent represented AmConGen 
Monterrey's LegAtt office at an interagency meeting on the 
Consolidated Priority Organizational Target list (CPOT), which 
was held at DEA headquarters in Washington, DC on August 13. 
Representatives from DEA and DOJ were also in attendance.  The 
 
MONTERREY 00000818  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
interagency group agreed to add three Gulf Cartel kingpins onto 
the national CPOT list. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  There were four drug-related killings in Nuevo Leon 
in August, bringing the number of drug-related executions in 
Nuevo Leon to 89 for the year, compared with the 55 who were 
killed in all of 2006.  Of that 89, 29 were active duty police 
officers.  While the apparent "truce" between rival drug cartels 
continued to curb the number of assassinations, Nuevo Leon 
witnessed a spike in narco-kidnappings (reftel).  So far, there 
have been 78 kidnappings in the state in 2007, compared with 35 
for all of 2006.  On August 7, there was an attempted kidnapping 
of the 16 year old daughter of a former Mexican congressman in 
San Pedro, the Monterrey suburb where all Consulate families 
reside.  On August 16, two AFI officials were kidnapped and 
killed.  Two days later four additional AFI agents were 
kidnapped in Santa Catarina and were found a day later nude, 
bound, and blindfolded, but still alive.  On August 20, two 
transit police and one PFP agent were also kidnapped in Santa 
Catarina.  A day later, an armed commando group entered a local 
police station in San Nicolas, forced the police to open a jail 
cell, and kidnapped a prisoner who was later found dead from a 
bullet wound to the head.  Interestingly, the City of San 
Nicolas has officially denied that the incident took place, 
despite media reports that detailed the kidnapping.  Consulate 
law enforcement sources have stated that the police station 
kidnapping did, in fact, take place.  Similarly, on August 29, 
local police in Garcia, another Monterrey suburb, were 
transferring a prisoner when their police vehicle was 
intercepted by "sicarios" (drug cartel hitmen).  A gun fight 
ensued, but police were able to get the prisoner out of harm's 
way.  Finally, on August 31, a man was kidnapped from his 
vehicle in Monterrey after he had been pursued by an armed 
commando group. 
WILLIAMSON