Drug killings in Sonora reflect new smuggling
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 9:55 AM PDT
Dynamics
By Jonathan Clark
A recent surge in drug-related violence in Sonora is a result of new
pressures affecting a group of loosely affiliated cartels known as
"The Federation," which controls the state's lucrative smuggling
routes, U.S. officials and analysts say.
Organized crime
At least 20 killings related to organized crime have been registered
in Sonora in 2007, according to Stratfor - a Texas-based private
security consulting firm - as new crime-fighting efforts in Mexico
indirectly drive the violence.
Shortly after taking office in December, Mexico's President Felipe
Calderon sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas
ravaged by drug violence, including Acapulco, Tijuana and the western
state of Michoacan. Those deployments, said the Stratfor analyst, who
asked not to be named due to safety concerns, have sent unsavory
characters looking for safer ground - a move that Sonora Gov. Eduardo
Bours has called "the cockroach effect."
"Sonora has generally been fairly quiet, mainly because it was
controlled by the federation of cartels," the analyst said. "And
where you have one group firmly in control, it's quiet. But now you
have these outside guys moving in, and that's where you see some of
the sources of violence."
But it's not only outside competition that upsets the federation,
said Ramona Sanchez, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement
Administration. The alliance is also susceptible to internal disputes.
The federation
The federation formed when kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, whose
operations are centered in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, teamed
up with other regional drug lords, including Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada
and Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza.
United by their common interest in smuggling drugs into the United
States, the independent organizations forged a relatively peaceful
coexistence. "It's very business-like," Sanchez said. "They might not
like each other, but they're doing it for the common objective."
But as U.S. anti-smuggling enforcement increases along the Arizona-
Sonora border, Sanchez said, the organizations may be turning on each
other as viable routes become fewer and more hotly contested.
Interdiction
"When there are tougher interdiction efforts at the border, we know
that smuggling prices go up," she said. "And the truth ... is these
organizations have identified their own routes, and if anyone
interferes with those routes, they will use whatever means they can
to protect their turf."
Another potential source of tension, Sanchez said, is the phenomenon
of rip-off groups who lurk in the Arizona desert and try to hijack
other gangs smuggling drugs or undocumented immigrants across the
border. Sanchez also acknowledged that the arrest last December of
alleged Naco, Sonora, drug baron Carlos "El Calichi" Molinares might
contribute to the local violence.
"The arrest of a leader causes a vacuum, and when you have a vacuum,
this is when these competitor organizations are most volatile," she
said.
"The organizations are vying for control, they're desperate because
of an increase in interdiction, and now there are these rip-off
teams. It's squeezing them and it's putting pressure on them."
Several of the most recent targets of organized-crime-related
violence in Sonora have been police officers.
On Feb. 26, the head of public safety in Agua Prieta, Ramon Tacho
Verdugo, was shot and killed by unknown assailants as he left his
office. Two days later, a member of the federal preventative police
force was shot and killed in Magdalena de Kino, approximately 60
miles south of Nogales.
On a recent Monday night, an officer with the state police was shot
and killed in the state capital of Hermosillo. On Tuesday, a city cop
in Cananea was shot dead in his patrol car, and the tortured body of
an Hermosillo municipal policeman was found outside the city, bound
and gagged with several bullets in his head.
Interpretation
The police killings are difficult to interpret, the Stratfor analyst
said, because of the high level of corruption in Mexican law
enforcement. A police officer might be killed because he is too
effective at fighting crime, but he might also be killed for aligning
himself with the wrong criminal group.
"Since some cops work for the cartels, you can have guys in cartel A
using a bunch of cops as their enforcers," the analyst said. "Then
some guys from cartel B catch up with these enforcer cops and kill
them."
A handwritten note attached to the body of the Hermosillo cop found
Tuesday might indicate such a scenario. It read: "Look, jerks, the
problem is not with the government, it's with (Sinaloa federation
members) Arturo Beltr‡n and 'La Barbie.' All judicial and municipal
police who are with them are going to die."
Drug-related
Mexican officials believe a recent wave of drug-related violence in
the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, results from a turf
war between two groups: the Arturo Beltr‡n group, whose main operator
is Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez, and the Zetas, the enforcement arm of
the Gulf Cartel, which is based in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas.
The Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have been locked in a bloody turf battle
in the city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across from Laredo, Texas.
In 2005, President Calderon's predecessor, Vicente Fox, sent the
Mexican army to that city in an effort to stem the violence.
The note found on the Hermosillo cop, therefore, may suggest that
among the groups now pressuring the Sinaloa federation in Sonora is
its most hated rival, the Gulf Cartel.
(Editor's Note: Sierra Vista Herald/Review reporter Jonathan Clark
may be reached at (520) 515-4693, or by e-mail at
jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net.)
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