VZCZCXRO6064
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #6228/01 3532055
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 192055Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9963
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RHMFIUU/CDR USNORTHCOM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 006228 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SNAR KCRM PINR MASS MX
SUBJECT: SUBJECT:  NARCO-KILLINGS CONTINUE 
 
REF: A. MEXICO 5401 
     ¶B. MEXICO 6196 
     ¶C. TIJUANA 1193 
     ¶D. MONTERREY 981 
 
-------- 
Summary 
-------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Although estimates of the total number of organized 
crime-related killings in the first 11 months of 2007 vary 
between GOM sources and newspaper tallies -- ranging between 
approximately 2,200 to 3,200 -- Mexico has witnessed more of 
these types of killings this year, compared to an estimated 
2120 for all of 2006.  According to Mexico City newspaper 
Diariomonitor, there were approximately 303 drug-related 
homicides in October and 289 in November.  While July 
registered the lowest number of deaths, May was the most 
violent month with 396 killings. (See reftel)  The majority 
of these killings continue to occur in traditional areas of 
illegal trafficking zones, such as Sinaloa, Baja California, 
Guerrero, Chihuahua, and Michoacan. Law enforcement officials 
continue to be targeted.  We estimate approximately 248 law 
enforcement officials and 22 soldiers have been murdered in 
the first 11 months of the year.  In spite of the unabated 
violence, GOM officials remain resolved to crack down on the 
cartels, scoring several key arrests and a record-breaking 
seizure. 
 
------------------------------- 
Sinaloa: The most violent state 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) In the month of November, Sinaloa once again topped 
the list of all Mexican states with 66 narco-related 
killings.  Sinaloa has suffered more homicides than any other 
state over the last three decades, with over 7,000 murdered 
over the last 10 years. According to a study conducted by the 
State Attorney General's Office, there were 588 murders 
linked to organized crime from January 2007 thru October 
¶2007.  The study also reports that 80% of the murders were 
committed with firearms, and 60% of those were high-power 
firearms (i.e. AK-47s, AR-15s, and machine guns).  Sinaloa is 
considered a strategic bridge for the trafficking of drugs to 
the U.S. and is the birthplace for the heads of Mexico's 
principal cartels. 
 
------------------------------ 
Police continue to be targeted 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) Police officers continue to figure prominently among 
homicide victims.  Mexican authorities have on occasion 
argued that the killings of law enforcement officers are the 
consequence of their taking the fight to the drug 
traffickers.  Since our last report (reftel) in October, 
approximately 30 current and former law enforcement officials 
and soldiers were killed.  Some of the more high-profile 
killings include: 
 
-- On November 24, two policemen were gunned down by 10 
heavily armed men in the southern state of Oaxaca. 
 
-- On December 4, only three days after he was named the new 
police commander of Tecate in the state of Baja California, 
Jose Juan Soriano Pereira -- was assassinated by a heavily 
armed gang that stormed his home and shot him 50 times while 
he lay in his bed.  Hours prior to his killing, Soriano had 
participated in a police raid that had detected a 
"narco-tunnel" leading to the U.S. 
 
-- On December 4, Juan Carlos Huerta Rodr!guez, the police 
commander of Cuitzeo in the state of Michoacan was killed 
only three days after the police commander of the town of 
Arteaga was killed. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Politicians and Musicians also targeted 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Local politicians have also been targeted by the drug 
gangs.  On November 30, Juan Antonio Guajardo Anzaldua, 
former PRD federal deputy and mayor of the border town Rio 
Bravo, and five others were shot dead in Rio Bravo's central 
plaza.  Days before his assassination, Guajardo complained 
 
MEXICO 00006228  002 OF 004 
 
 
that a group of armed men had intimidated him. 
 
¶5. (U) The cartels have also allegedly assassinated several 
musicians/vocalists of "grupero" music bands.  The death toll 
of these musicians has climbed to 13 over the past year and a 
half -- with the latest three this month.  On December 7, 
Mexican authorities reported the third murder of a musician 
in less than a week.  Sergio Gomez, vocalist for the 
top-selling group K-Paz de la Sierra, was killed in Michoacan 
on December 4.  A vocalist of another well-known band, Zayda 
Pena Arjona, was killed the same day in Matamoros, 
Tamaulipas.  Some analysts compare the way in which many of 
these entertainers have been killed with cartel-style 
killings, because most of them were excessively brutal with 
signs of torture.  Although there is no solid evidence that 
links these homicides to the cartels, the killings still 
contribute to a sense of public unease. 
 
------------ 
GOM response 
------------ 
 
¶6. (U) Since our last report (reftel), officials announced a 
number of high-profile arrests, convictions, and contraband 
seizures.  One of the most notable law enforcement actions 
was on October 30.  PGR and SEDENA scored the most noteworthy 
achievement when they made  the largest cocaine confiscation 
(23.5 metric tons) in Mexican and world history resulting 
from an intelligence-based anti-narcotics operation. 
 
¶7. (U) Other noteworthy blows since our last report (reftel) 
include: 
 
-- On Nov. 8, Mexican police, working in conjunction with 
U.S. authorities, captured Pedro Alatorre Damy, the alleged 
head of finances for the huge Sinaloa drug cartel. 
 
-- On December 2, SSP announced that as part of Joint 
Operation La Laguna, police arrested nine members of a 
kidnapping ring linked to the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. 
 
-- On December 10, SSP Undersecretary of Police Strategy and 
Intelligence Patricio Patino Arias announced that 11 
suspected Zetas were arrested in Campeche State's Cuidad del 
Carmen. 
 
-- On December 12, Mexican Army elements detained one of the 
top leaders of the Gulf Cartel along with three of his 
subordinates in an operation in the state of Tamaulipas. 
Marco Antonio Ramirez, aka "Tony la Palma" reportedly ran 
large-scale operations in the states of San Luis Potosi, 
Tamaulipas, Queretero, Hidalgo and Mexico.  Mexico's Defense 
Secretariat said he had recently taken over for another major 
 
SIPDIS 
Gulf Cartel leader taken down last June, Luis Reyes Enriquez, 
aka "El Rex." 
 
-- On December 16, federal police officers arrested eight 
members of a gang linked to the Gulf drug cartel following a 
chase in the border city of Reynosa. Authorities seized five 
vehicles, 14 rifles, 9 pistols of different calibers, 9 
grenades, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and 21 
radios from the suspects.   The gang operated in the northern 
cities of Monterrey and Torreon, working with the Gulf 
cartel's armed wing, known as Los Zetas, the secretariat said. 
 
¶8. (U) In sum, during the period January 1 to November 30, 
the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) reported the 
following confiscations and arrests:  48.6 metric tons of 
cocaine, 1.94 metric tons of marijuana, 35.7 tons of 
precursor chemicals for methamphetamines, 688,635 rounds of 
ammunition, 537 grenades, 7,456 weapons (over 3,500 of which 
were long arms), 100 boats, and 51 airplanes.  During this 
period 13,918 individuals were prosecuted for drug-related 
offenses and 15 "capos" and deputy "capos" were captured. 
 
------------------- 
Record Extraditions 
------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) Mexico has also extradited 80 fugitives to the U.S. in 
the course of 2007, the overwhelming majority of which were 
Mexican nationals, far exceeding the total number of 
extraditions any other year in history, including the 
previous record of 63 in 2006.  Of the 80 surrendered in 
2007, over one-third were wanted in the U.S. for drug 
 
MEXICO 00006228  003 OF 004 
 
 
trafficking offenses and included major cartel leaders, 
including Gulf leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen.  An even 
greater number of U.S. citizen fugitives, including drug 
traffickers, were returned by deportation to face justice in 
the U.S. 
 
¶10. (U) As part of a longer term strategy, the GOM has 
legislation pending in Congress that would render Mexico's 
justice system more transparent and give law enforcement 
authorities more tools to prosecute organized crime cases 
(see reftel B). 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
GOM's counter-narcotics (CN) operations press-on 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶11. (U) Meanwhile, the GOM continues to send federal forces 
into various states.  After the November 30 execution of 
former Tamaulipas mayor Guajardo, amidst continued violence 
in the region, President Calderon acknowledged that 
traffickers  had infiltrated politics and increased the 
number of troops (on December 5) deployed to the state of 
Tamaulipas on Mexico's northeastern border with the U.S. 
 
------------------------------ 
Criticism of the GOM's CN ops 
------------------------------ 
 
¶12. (SBU) Calderon's CN counternarcotic efforts are not 
without their critics.  On November 20, Sonora Governor 
Eduardo Bours Castelo public demanded the withdrawal of all 
Federal Investigative Agency (AFI) personnel from the state, 
after AFI personnel raided the home of Bours Castelo's 
bodyguard (on November 19), which Sonora officials say was 
groundless.  Governor Bours Castelo said that fighting 
organized crime requires commitment and coordination, which 
he feels is absent among the federal agents.  Bours' decision 
was supported by Governor of Coahuila Humberto Moreira.  Both 
PRI governors said there should be more coordination between 
state and federal police, though Moreira said that he had no 
problem with the AFI's behavior in Coahuila. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Although most security analysts believe the massive 
presence of military soldiers in the border region has helped 
reduce criminal operations, they also cautiously reference 
similarities to Fox's "Operation Safe Mexico" in 2004.  Based 
on this experience, some analysts hypothesize that everything 
will return to its previous "narco-equilibrium" as soon as 
the army's special mobilization ends and the support 
contingents from other military zones withdraw. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Others continue to voice concern conveyed by human 
rights groups concern about the militarization of Mexico's 
public security efforts and increased risk for human rights 
abuses.  In their view, the military is assuming too much of 
an active role in the daily lives of the local communities. 
Besides patrolling the streets, soldiers are guarding 
international bridges and highway access to different towns. 
 
¶15. (U) Meanwhile, Mexican legislators are calling for a 
reinforcement of intelligence capabilities. A November 22 
report drafted by the Chamber of Deputies and Senate National 
Security Committees specified that shortcomings in Mexico's 
intelligence gathering capabilities contributed to the 
proliferation of organized crime and guerrilla organizations. 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Cartels' Reaction:  Searching for New Routes 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶16. (SBU) Embassy security analysts believe the operations 
launched by the federal government since December 2006 have 
pushed the drug cartels to seek new routes. Chihuahua, 
Mexico, and Baja California states have been particularly 
affected.   The permeability of Mexico's southern border, 
taken together with the impoverished socioeconomic level of 
Central American migrants, has offered traffickers a pool of 
new recruits ready to serve as "drug mules." 
¶17. (U) Director of the Mexican Observatory on Drugs Elias 
Razur Antonio claims that drug-traffickers have reopened the 
old South American-Yucatan Peninsula-Florida route for 
trafficking drugs, "taking advantage of relaxed surveillance 
by the USG which is busier with the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan." Razur says that the Sinaloa Cartel is disputing 
 
MEXICO 00006228  004 OF 004 
 
 
control of the revalued Caribbean routes with the Gulf 
Cartel. Colombian security expert Gilberto Zuluaga also 
recently claimed at a money laundering and drug-trafficking 
seminar that Merida represents not only a new global drug 
trafficking route, but also the main hub for shipping cocaine 
to the U.S. and Europe. 
-------------------------- 
Juarez Cartel Back On Top? 
-------------------------- 
 
¶18. (SBU) On November 12, a PGR and military intelligence 
report was leaked to local daily newspaper Milenio that 
claimed the Juarez gang was the most powerful drug gang in 
Mexico. (Note: Most security specialists thought that the 
Juarez Cartel had lost power following the death of its 
leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, during plastic surgery to 
alter his face in 1997. End Note.) The previous consensus was 
that the three most powerful cartels were Sinaloa, Gulf and 
Tijuana.  However, the intelligence report -- as reported by 
Milenio -- claimed that the Juarez cartel, now run by Victor 
Carrillo Fuentes, operated in 21 of Mexico's 32 states.   In 
comparison, the Sinaloa has a presence in 17 states, the 
Tijuana gang in 15, and the Gulf cartel - which is generally 
viewed by specialists as the most violent - only operates in 
13 states.   The report argues that while the other gangs 
have been feuding, the Juarez cartel has been building up its 
business and moving into new markets.   (Note: In the middle 
of the year, academics and other drug specialists claimed 
that the Gulf and Sinaloa gangs agreed a ceasefire because 
their battles were weakening each other. End Note.) Comment: 
Embassy security analysts are skeptical of the claim that the 
Juarez cartel is the most powerful.  If this were the case, 
we would likely see more violence extending to the Juarez 
cartel as they try to aggressively protect their drug routes. 
 End Comment. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶19. (SBU) Although narco-killings remain constant, a 
continuing string of high-profile arrests and seizures, 
suggests President Calderon's resolve has not wavered in 
taking this fight to the cartels.  The GOM's aggressive 
drug-enforcement stance has led many observers and analysts 
to conclude that Mexican efforts have indeed succeeded in 
disrupting drug-trafficking flows into the U.S., and they 
cite as proof official studies that indicate dwindling stocks 
and higher prices for cocaine in many U.S. cities.  Moreover, 
the U.S. law enforcement community at post agrees that 
USG-GOM security cooperation and information sharing is at an 
all-time high.  No doubt formal agreement to greater U.S. 
assistance in the context of the Merida Initiative will 
strengthen the GOM's resolve and produce even greater 
cooperation in our joint efforts to put traffickers on the 
defensive. 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
BASSETT