The madness of such doings in a setting this splendid is hard to reconcile. It was his wide-lens view of the War on Drugs that made Vargas a brilliant cop: the ability to see patterns, not pointless depravity, in the crooks coming over from Tijuana. His killer, an AFO lieutenant named Victor Escobar-Luna, had a compelling motive. He wound up doing fed time for the guns and fake IDs, then was handed to the Mexican military for sweating. Secret lair holding clues was uncovered in case linked to JonBent, Author's husband wanted her to stop writing before 'faking her death for years', Putin readying 700k troops for new offensive in weeks to cut off Ukraine', Baby among 6 festival-goers sliced to death by glass-encrusted kite strings, 2020 THE SUN, US, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY | YOUR AD CHOICES | SITEMAP, Twenty alleged La Bandera cartel members are lined up to be executed, Video was posted online as a warning by rival gang Los Tlacos, Footage shows the mobsters being forced to identify themselves at gunpoint, A voice says the cartel members are 'trash that terrorised this beautiful city', Mexican drug cartel threatens to kill TV anchor over 'unfair' coverage. That enraged Herrod and his Group One agents but it didnt surprise them at all. To prove it, Vargas showed him Teos org chart. Y Formed in about 2010, the Jalisco cartel is the strongest and most aggressive competitor to the Sinaloa. July 18, 2010. It was the DEAs Most Wanted List, bearing the photos of 32 kingpins and their capos. Police say they found the bodies of three men hanging from two bridges along with threatening notes signed by a drug cartel. The grisly video shows 20 alleged La Bandera gangsters kneeling on the ground, held at gunpoint by masked men with assault rifles who identify themselves as people from the mountains. He is accused of many killings in Ciudad Jurez, including the notorious massacre of 18 patients of the rehabilitation center "El Aliviane". It climbs the khaki foothills of the Otay Mountains as it takes the eastbound pass out of San Diego. What agent Herrod did convey was that their actionable information had been useful in the takedown of Teos gang. He was also bringing goodies to share with other teams that were chasing after cartel hit men. OU NEVER FORGET your first murderer, they say though few cops recall the killers they caught as charitably as Vargas does. A man narrating the disturbing footage says, This plaza already has an owner, El Pas reported. The homicide is characteristic of Mexico's brutal drug gangs, which often dump mutilated victims in public places. It is where Chapo commissioned his first tunnels, baiting the AFO into a gunfight. Poblete was part of a three-man crew for Los Zetas who grabbed a worker from Mexicos state-owned oil company Pemex as the man was coming leaving a bar in Coatzacoalcos. Each morning dawned on fresh atrocities: corpses hung from the balustrades of bridges; cops beheaded and their bodies arrayed to spell out Teos nickname: 3L. So when he was promoted, in 2004, to a plainclothes desk job at a station near San Diego, the first thing he did was attach himself to investigators in the Anti-Smuggling Unit of CBP. (AP Photo/Antonio Sierra), Police forensic experts load into trucks the bodies of at least six men that were found dead in the city of Cuernavaca, Mexico, Tuesday April 13, 2010. Feds with long guns swarmed both cars. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Its an article of faith among the men and women who patrol our southwest flank: What happens in Mexico doesnt stay there. Keep my wife and kids safe and why are there people like that in the world?, WITH NO SMALL HELP from CRIM Squad, El Teo was arrested at a La Paz address in January 2010. Vargas stayed on to supervise his section before drifting off to intelligence operations. Released, he melted into the Tijuana streets literally, per one experts guess. She pointed to the poster on the wall behind her. Those mopes, as he calls them the hit men, kidnappers, bent cops, and smugglers were pawns in an industry with no way out, and whose wages were generally paid in blood. From those patterns and a set of underutilized laws Vargas built a web to catch cartel killers before they killed again, in the U.S. Iguala's then mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, was accused of masterminding the mass kidnap, and was jailed along with his wife. When the hitman removed the blindfold, the drug associate saw a family - a couple and their 6-year-old daughter - standing near a flaming barrel. WITH APOLOGIES TO Narcos and the countless films and series sipping from the goblet of cartel content, theres little or no profit rehashing the narco feuds that have exacted a hellish toll, making life all but lawless for our southern neighbors. Seven of us sit there, sipping Don Julio and recalling the demons of yore. President Felipe Calderon's strategy of sending 7000 troops to Juarez has not mitigated the situation. The PEPOS, or state police, had a file on him that they hadnt bothered to share with Group One. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time The kidnap wasnt the story, but its punchline was: The victim wound up captive in Tijuana. Raised in a barrio east of Los Angeles, Vargas saw how thin the line was for brown-skinned boys. Five of the Locos were charged with murder. People from Iguala, here are all those who extorted money and who were killing innocent people and women, the man says. Three men with rifles opened fire. He crumpled, agreeing to spill his guts. In 2010,Guzmn,orEl Chapo, recorded a video of him removing Hugo Hernandez's head with a chainsaw. The body was found in the same place where eight others were executed a few weeks ago. The state prosecutor said the three men had escaped from a Morelos state prison last month. Till one drunken night in 2003, when a Palillo punched an AFO in-law. During the attack, which came right as the wedding ceremony was about to wrap up, Mexican site La Silla Rota reported that armed men arrived in vans at the church door, unleashing a hail of bullets. That was all they told me, along with a name. The other three men are still unidentified. A subset of Mexican-mafia wannabes, theyd moved to San Diego as minors and been busted for cartel crimes as adults. The Mexican drug cartels have killed more Americans than any terrorist group in historyand the death toll is rising every day. When the stench summoned the cops, they found the van full of cash; there were toothpicks strewn across the victims corpses. They called it walling off: bringing pretext charges while the long-term operation carried on, says Duncan. They were narco-juniors working their way up the line: moving loads across for AFO, Vargas says. Rand503 May 29, 2020 After watching this several times, I m convinced that the guy gets hard as his head gets chopped. Inside the legendary crew of federal agents who caught them. Kingpins like Chapo are now imprisoned or dead, their empires a jumble of chockablock shards that their successors kill to reclaim. At the bottom was a phone number. The key was sifting through traces, then putting in the time, sitting vigil on suspects houses after-hours. But Vargas made the collar, so he went into the interrogation room first. And he goes, Yeah but I only held the camera!. No one told them how those captures linked to El Teo or his enemy, Fernandito, of the AFO. Authorities found the dead man beaten, naked and castrated, and have not identified him but believe he is Rogelio Sanchez, a Baja California state government official who went missing this week. The bride, Karem Lizbeth Ypez Ortiz, was at the altar with her beau, himself an alleged narco named El Calamardo, when the shooting started at around 2.30 on Saturday. In his confession, Yeyo admitted to heinous acts with deadpan indifference. The murder rate has soared to peak-Teo levels. Homicide 11 hours ago. Big Love in Spanish Grande Amor! CRIM Squad revoked Chans B-1 visa and pushed him through the gate at Whiskey Two. But make em tell it backwards and you find the holes. Reportedly, he then affixed the victim's face to a soccer ball to add to his warning intended for the Juarez cartel. Theyd thought that was him in the Caddy. To those boys, their Uncle Mayel was a saint., I havent met a fed as empathetic as Vargas in 20 years of covering the War on Drugs. With one note of grace that bears mentioning here: Nearly everyone is brown. Of the 10 deadliest cities, per capita, in the world, Mexico scores five or six in a given year. In hindsight, the certificate felt a tad premature for a crew that hadnt faced its greatest test. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. The Mexican cartels that rose to meet the demand might be new, but they are undeniably vicious. This execution style entails taking live victims and putting them in a 55-gallon drum. But we were the first to say, Hey, there are cartel murderers here. In exchange for a stipend and a new place to live, hed help them locate Teo and his lieutenants. The squad members recount the killers they caught at their day jobs, including one guy working at a Cheesecake Factory, and a Sinaoloa hit man who hid in the States after fleeing Mexicali in 2002. Harrison Tenpas. With the PEPOS information, he put an alert out on Timmy at all the border crossings. That set was out of control, just stone-cold killers: five bodies in 15 months in Lincoln Park, says Contreras, whos now retired but working a cold case in Los Angeles. Back then, DHS was the only outfit that could file certain charges against narcos: illegal entry after deportation; illegal alien with a gun; human smuggling, etc. No official information from the Guadalajara police has being released yet on the case. The only thing he could do was sign the proffer. Vargas got there just as the backup roared up. We taught everything from intel to mobile surveillance. To be sure, those are givens of investigative policing but till CRIM Squad, no one did that at CBP. Este artculo fue escrito por Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias), A forensic expert examines the body of a man that was killed by unknown gunmen near the international bridge in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday, May 28, 2010. When the beer ran low, he sent the friends for more, tossing them the keys to his Cadillac. (AP Photo/Antonio Sierra), A wall with bullet holes is seen next to photos and other things sitting on a bed in an apartment in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. Not that Im blaming the job for that. Ranked among Americas safest, cleanest towns, its praised for fiscal health by good-governance groups, and exalted for both its beaches and civic stability. Four of the dead men - including a wanted murder suspect - were dumped outside the new mayor's campaign office in Iguala, in Mexico's south-western Guerrero province. Young agents stopped them in the hallways: Holy shit! Hes sitting on the veranda of his very handsome house, a few miles north of the border fence. It remains unclear if Poblete Ramos worked with a particular cartel. Well hunt anyone we think might know you. The bride was also the sister of Jos Antonio Ypez Ortiz, alias El Marro, who leads the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, which is embroiled in a long-running feud with El Menchos CJNG. At this point, everyones looking for Furcio, figuring theres a bloodbath popping off, says Vargas. He made things bad for business everyones business.. The men also had their hands severed and appeared to tortured to death. REUTERS/Kristian Lopez, Forensic experts carry a stretcher with the allegedly mutilated body of a drug gang member wrapped in a blanket after it was found in Tlajomulco on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, Friday, May 28, 2010. The police there play by different rules, says Vargas. Through those durable holes pour billions of dollars a year in fentanyl, methamphetamine, and the tainted pharmaceuticals that kill U.S. teens on campuses every day. Theyre supposed to charge you within six years, but sometimes they forget, he says, laughing. Tigre did so. Texas law enforcement apprehended Marciano Chano Millan Vasquez in 2015. Lists about punishments, penalties, systemic harm, and execution methods used then, now, here, and all around the world. Back at the office, Im filing my assault-on-a-federal-officer [report], and the supes like, Whatever. We caughtthe worst of the worst. It was released as a warning on social media by Los Tlacos, who claimed they were cleaning up the city after the other mob robbed and killed innocent civilians. The Mexican Attorney General's Office announced Sunday afternoon the arrest of Jose Rodolfo "El Gato" Villareal-Hernandez, the alleged mastermind behind the murder of a drug The second was that he never again wanted to wait around for his target to come at him. In exchange, Timmy got the Sammy the Bull [Gravano] deal, as Vargas calls it, sneering. Backed by a tactical unit, Vargas squad approached the door. Mexicos popular Blog del Narco now reports that the CJNG has posted videos goading El Marro himself for running away from the wedding scene to avoid being killed. His organization splintered, his stew-maker was jailed, and a fragile peace broke out in Tijuana. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias), A man looks at a body of an unidentified man who found dead with his arms and legs tied together by the side of a dirt road in Zapopan, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico Monday, May 24, 2010. The buildings in National City are old and stooped. Related The best bunch of hunters you ever saw., For that op, the hunt was tracking killers for months, then bagging them up just hours before a murder. Why doesnt the West see that? Mexican Cartel Violence. One of the friends fell dead. Suspected drug hitmen attacked soldiers who were intending to inspect a cartel safe house in the colonial town of Taxco southwest of Mexico City. His cousin was among the six slain, along with a schoolgirl hit by stray gunfire. The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox. Cardenas was arrested in 2003 and is currently serving 25 years in jail in the US. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias, File), Police officers surround the body of a coworker killed during a shooting with alleged drug traffickers in Tijuana, Mexico, late Friday, Sept. 18, 2009. In 2021, 107,000 Americans died of overdoses, two-thirds of which were caused by synthetics, according to a high-ranking official with the DEA, who, for political reasons, asked that I not name him. The tragic episode marks the deadly presence of Mexican drug cartel violence that has begun to spill over the border along with the flood of migrants into the United States. The AFO sent their hit squads here to try and take them out, says Duncan, who led the Palillos investigation. Finally, on May 1, 2009, 40 cops and feds including CRIM Squad agents kicked down the doors at five addresses. You pull in at 5 a.m. and lay there till nine, not moving while you piss in a bottle, says Guru. 2023 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. El Teo after the CRIM Squads work led to the cartel leaders arrest in 2010. I speak to Vargas shortly after the Tijuana burnings. Dave Contreras, a boss with the Gang Suppression Team of the San Diego PD, asked for CRIM Squads help with Operation Stampede, a massive, task-force takedown of the Southeast Locos. In the process, Vargas flipped the role of Border Patrol agents: He turned them into bloodhounds for other feds. Not an ounce of remorse: just an evil little shit who made my skin crawl, says Vargas. Usually, Vargas crew could take a nickname and get rolling, but Furcio was on no ones radar screen. According to local authorities, three police officers were killed and one was wounded during the shooting. Because we were on wires, we knew when a hit was coming: We stopped at least 20 murders from taking place, says Contreras. obsessed over the top-of-org-chart types the kingpins, lieutenants, and logistics wizards of the cartels Vargas went after their murderous gunsels on the streets of San Diego. CRIM Squad sifted through their intel cross-checks, searched every alias linked to Tigre, and found a car connected to a name. Vasquez, an alleged hitman for the Los Zetas cartel, was involved in the 2013 kidnapping of a former drug trafficking associate. Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in a hate crime targeting people of Mexican descent at a Walmart store in As they got in the car, a van pulled up. They were miners with their heads down, sifting through the dirt. When the killing went over the top [in 2007], Mexico sent the army to Tijuana, says Duncan, the task force leader working the AFO. But then hes asked if he was there when they cut a guys dick off, says Vargas. 2:21. At the wheel of his seven-seat Escalade a car that drives like an opium dream and is fancied equally by narco bosses and the retired federal agents who chased them Vargas speaks of the Camacho-Higuera brothers like promising kids who made a rash mistake. A salt breeze scrubs the air a shade of topaz-blue, and the light that hits the roofs of these seven-figure villas gives the low spark of high-heeled money. Vasquez repeated the same action on the parents. There wasnt a lot of sharing going on.. He looked stunned when they pulled him from the Caddy and cuffed him he surely assumed he was about to be killed. Lazcanowas reportedly felled in a 2012 shootout with Mexican military officials. Pete then dissolved the corpses into chunks of stew and poured the liquid remains down a drain. But Furcio went to ground after the botched hit, and the trail promptly stopped cold. Called the SIG Academy, it was mandatory coursework for Border Patrol investigators in San Diego. Theyd think they were facing fed time for sneaking across the border with a gun and a fake ID. Hopelessly overmatched there was a machine gun mounted on the turret of the Hummer the agents fled in separate directions and called for backup, which never came. He killed doctors and the middle class, even when they paid the ransom, says a Mexican official well call Seven. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images), A soldier stands guard inside an apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. The victims were reportedly snatched from a rural teaching college by local police officers and then handed over to the cartel. He and a second agent were parked mirror to mirror, when they heard an H-1 Hummer belching toward them. Line watch was the mission of most of its agents: waiting in their Broncos for illegals to cross, then chasing them down and cuffing them for deportation. A BRUTAL drug runner dubbed Cartel Queen has been captured by the Mexican army after allegedly kidnapping five people. Officials report 31 homicides in the capital city of Hermosillo in September 52 more in Ciudad Obregn. DISTURBING video shows Mexican cartel hitmen lining up 20 rival gangsters in a forest before executing them one by one. For six weeks, they surveilled gang addresses and caught them out with one thing or another. They would often meet discreetly at a 7-Eleven in San Ysidro he liked the American Slurpees better than Tijuanas. A Mexican who thought he was Mormon! Sito cackles. 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