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3/22/14

Events of Organized Crime

Events related to organized crime





2006
  • November 25 - Popular singer Valentín Elizalde is gunned down along with his manager (and best friend) Mario Mendoza Grajeda, and driver Reynaldo Ballesteros. In an ambush after a concert in the border city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas in an apparent gangland style hit.
  • December 1 - President Felipe Calderón assumed office and declared war on drug traffickers. He also imposed a cap on salaries of high-ranking public servants and ordered a raise on the salaries of the Federal Police and the Mexican armed forces.
  • December 11 - Operation Michoacan is launched.

2007
  • January 2 - Operation Baja California is launched.
  • April 3 - Police arrest suspected drug lord Victor Magno Escobar in Tijuana.
  • March 17 - Zhenli Ye Gon, relieved of $213 million USD in Mexico City.
  • May 14 - Jorge Altriste, head of operations for Mexico's elite police force in Tijuana, was murdered.
  • May 16 - May 18: Battles in Cananea, Sonora, kill 15 gang members, five policemen, and two civilians.
  • August 26 - Trigo de Jesús son (and manager) of Popular singer Joan Sebastian is shot in the back of the head after one of Joan Sebastian's concert in Texas. Trigo was transported to the McAllen Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
  • December 2 - Popular singer Sergio Gómez is kidnapped and killed.
  • December 8 - Gerardo García Pimentel, a crime reporter, was killed.
  • December 29 - The entire police force in the town of Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, is disarmed from their weapons after suspicion of collaborating with drug cartels.
2008
  • January 21 - Mexican security forces capture drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva.
  • April 26 - 15 people are killed in a gun battle between the Arellano-Félix cartel and a rival gang.
  • May 8 - National Police Chief Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez was gunned down in Mexico City. He was the highest-ranking Mexican official to be killed.
  • May 9 - Esteban Robles Espinosa, the commander of Mexico's investigative police force, was shot dead on a street in Mexico City.
  • May 17 - Presumed members of the Sinaloa Cartel attacked Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua, and killed the police chief, two officers, and three civilians, and kidnapped at least 10 additional people.
  • May 28 - Seven federal police agents die in a shootout in Culiacán, Sinaloa.
  • May 31 - The United States announces it is using a drug trafficking law to impose financial sanctions on Mexican drugs cartels, along with other non-state actors.
  • June 26 - Police commander Igor Labastida is shot dead in a restaurant in Mexico City.
  • August 27 - Police find three headless bodies in a rubbish dump in Tijuana, killed by drug cartels.
  • September 15 - 2008 Morelia grenade attacks: Grenades killed eight civilians and injured more than 100 in Morelia, Michoacán.
  • September 17 - Over 200 people across Mexico, Guatemala, Italy and the United States, including members of the Gulf cartel and the 'Ndrangheta are arrested in a major anti-drug trafficking operation, Operation Solare.
  • October 22 - Police capture boss Jesus Zambada of the Sinaloa cartel after a shootout in Mexico City.
  • October 24 - Mexican criminal investigator Andres Dimitriadis is shot dead by drug traffickers in his car on his way home.
  • October 26 - Colombian police seize a shipment of cocaine worth US$200m en route to Mexico.
  • October 26 - The Mexican army captures drug lord Eduardo Arellano Félix after a shootout in Tijuana.
  • November 2 - Senior Mexican police officer Víctor Gerardo Garay resigns amidst claims one of his aides was on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel.
  • November 4 - 2008 Mexico City plane crash: Juan Camilo Mouriño, Secretary of the Interior of President Felipe Calderón, dies when his Learjet crashes in Mexico City. Fourteen others die, including José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the former assistant attorney general. Authorities said there was no evidence of foul play, as both Mouriño and Vasconcelos were key figures in the drug war, and that the accident was caused by wake turbulence.
  • November 7 - The Policia Federal arrested Jaime González Durán in Tamaulipas who was a founding member of the original Los Zetas
  • November 19 - Mexican Interpol chief Ricardo Gutiérrez Vargas is arrested on suspicion of links with drug traffickers.
  • November 21 - Noé Ramírez Mandujano, ex-head of Mexico's anti-organized crime agency, is arrested on suspicion of links with drug traffickers.
  • November 28: Gunmen in Ciudad Juárez killed eight people at a restaurant.
  • November 30: Guatemalan and Mexican drug gangs clash on the two country's border, leaving 18 dead.
  • December 4: 13 bodies are found near a dirt road in Sinaloa.
  • December 8 - Ten suspected drug traffickers and one soldier are killed in a shootout in Guerrero, while another six people are killed when fire is opened on a pool hall in Ciudad Juárez.
  • December 10: Felix Batista, an American anti-kidnapping expert was kidnapped in Saltillo, Coahuila.
  • December 21: Seven off-duty soldiers and one police commander were kidnapped, tortured and decapitated.[34] Their heads were left at a shopping center with a threat note to the military.
Summary: For 2008 a record of 5,630 deaths was reached.

2009
  • January 2 - Mexican authorities arrested Alberto Espinoza Barrón (known as “La Fresa”), who is presumed to be one of the leaders of the Michoacán Drug Cartel (La Familia Michoacana).
  • January 6: Gunmen fired on and threw grenades at the Televisa TV station in Monterrey during a nightly newscast, causing no injuries. A note left on the scene read: "Stop reporting just on us. Report on the narco's political leaders."
  • January 19 - 21 police officers in Tijuana are arrested on suspicion of collaborating with drug cartels.
  • January 22 - Police arrest Santiago Meza, a man who allegedly dissolved 300 bodies of rival drug traffickers for his boss Teodoro García Simental, after he split from the Arellano Félix cartel.
  • February 3 - The body of retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñónez, who had been appointed a special drugs consultant to the Benito Juárez municipality mayor, was found near Cancún along with the bodies of his aide and a driver.
  • February 5 - Police capture drug dealer Gerónimo Gámez García in Mexico City.
  • February 10 - Troops descended upon a police station in Cancún in connection with the torture and murder of former general Mauro Enrique Tello, who led an elite anti-drugs squad.
  • February 10 - Assailants kidnapped 9 people in Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua. They were then pursued by the Mexican military to a ranch located 12 km south of the Garita de Samalayuca, where at least 21 people were killed. The fatalities includes one soldier, 6 of the 9 prisoners and 14 assailants that were killed by The Mexican army. This event shares much with the attack of May 17, 2008, and it is presumed that the attackers were members of the Sinaloa Cartel.
  • February 12 - Octavio Almanza, alleged head of Los Zetas in Cancún, is arrested.
  • February 12 - Gunmen assassinate Detective Ramón Jasso Rodríguez, the chief in charge of the homicide division for the state police of Nuevo León.
  • February 13 - A police patrol was ambushed in a grenade attack in Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán. Two municipality police officers were injured and evacuated to the hospital, they were reported to be in stable condition.
  • February 14 - In the municipality of Villa Ahumada, 125 kilometers south of Ciudad Juárez. troops on patrol fought a gunbattle with cartel gunmen, leaving three assailants dead.
  • February 15 - Five people were killed by alleged narco assailants in Gómez Palacio, Durango.
  • The Mexican Navy, with the help of the United States Coast Guard, confiscated 7 tons of cocaine being transported on a fishing vessel in international waters in the Pacific Ocean.
  • Gunmen in Tabasco kill a policeman, ten members of his family, and another person.
  • February 16 - Seven people were killed by alleged narco assailants in Jalisco.
  • February 17 - A multiple-hour running gun battle between elements of the Mexican Army and unknown attackers (sicarios) has resulted in five dead soldiers and five dead assailants in a shopping district and several residential neighborhoods of Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Approximately 20 additional people were injured by gunfire and grenades.
  • February 20 - Ciudad Juárez Police Chief Robert Orduna announced his resignation after two police officers are killed. Drug traffickers had threatened to kill a police officer every 48 hours until the chief resigned.
  • February 22 - Five assailants attacked the convoy of Chihuahua governor, José Reyes Baeza, killing a bodyguard.
  • February 24 - Mexican authorities extradited Miguel Ángel Caro Quintero (the brother of Rafael Caro Quintero) to the U.S.
  • Heavily armed gunmen assassinated the Vista Hermosa Mayor in Michoacán.
  • February 25 - assailants attacked a police patrol with gunfire and fragmentation grenades in Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, killing four police officers.
  • American raids code-named Operation Xcellerator on the Sinaloa cartel in California, Minnesota and Maryland lead to 755 arrests, the discovery of a 'super meth lab' and laboratory equipment capable of producing 12,000 ecstasy pills an hour.
  • February 28 - Close to 1,800 Mexican troops arrived in Ciudad Juárez as part of a contingent of 5,000 Federal Police and troops.
  • March 4: 2009 Mexico prison riot leaves 20 dead.
  • March 9: French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets President Felipe Calderón in Mexico. Sarkozy discussed with his counterpart the fate of French national Florence Cassez who was sentenced to a 60-year jail term for being involved in kidnappings in Mexico. Cassez may ask to be returned to France to finish her sentence in her home country.
  • The Mexican Army confirmed the arrest of 26 members of the Arrellano Félix Cartel, including Ángel Jácome Gamboa (El Kaibil'), one state police officer, one municipal police officer, and other suspects.
  • March 10: The Mexican Ministry of Defense orders 6 Eurocopter EC 725 Helicopters from Eurocopter to transport soldiers in special operations. The deal was finalized behind closed doors between Felipe Calderón and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
  • March 10: 5 human heads found in coolers in Jalisco. State Public Safety Secretary Luis Carlos Najera says threatening messages aimed at drug traffickers were found with the heads, which were covered with tape and discovered in individual coolers near the community of Ixtlahuacán del Río.
  • March 12: The United States Department of Homeland Security stated that it is considering using the National Guard as a last resort to counter the threat of drug violence in Mexico from spilling over the border into the US.
  • March 19: The Mexican Military captures alleged Sinaloa cartel drug trafficker Vicente Zambada Son of Imsael Zambada . Zambada's father, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, also is considered a top leader of the Sinaloa cartel and is among Mexico's most-wanted suspects.
  • March 22: Gunmen have killed a state police commander in charge of investigating kidnappings and extortion in the western state of Michoacán. Édgar Garcia was sitting at a red light in his car Sunday when two other vehicles pulled up and opened fire, the state government said in a communique late Sunday. He died at the scene. State police in a nearby patrol car chased the suspects. One of the cars went out of control and crashed into a university building, according to the statement. A gunman got out of the car and began shooting at police, injuring one officer. Police then shot the gunman dead while his partner fled with apparent gunshot wounds.
  • March 25: A battle took place between The PFP and members of a kidnapping gang linked to "La Familia" cartel. Two federal policemen were injured and 3 of the delinquents were captured.
  • Special Forces Unit captured one of Mexico's most-wanted drug smugglers, Héctor Huerta Ríos, whose nickname "la burra" — female donkey — belies his power as the alleged trafficker controlling drugs flowing through the northern city of Monterrey.
  • March 26: A US Marshal, Vincent Bustamante who was the subject of an arrest warrant, was found dead in Ciudad Juárez.
  • April 1: Three gunmen were killed by the Mexican army in a 10 minute gun battle.
  • April 2 - Vicente Carrillo Leyva, son of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested near Mexico City.
  • April 19 - Eight police officers are killed in an attack on a prison convoy transporting senior leaders of the Beltrán Leyva cartel cartel. Federal Police captured 44 members of "La Familia", including its chief Rafael Cedeño Hernández "El Cede".
  • April 22 - The bodies of two undercover government agents are found in Durango, 50 km south of Guanacevi, along with a note saying "Neither priests nor rulers will ever get El Chapo" (El Chapo referring to Joaquín Guzmán and with clear allusion to the comments of the Archbishop of Durango Héctor González Martínez)
  • April 30 - Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, an influential figure in Los Zetas, was captured in the city of Matamoros.
  • May 17 - An armed gang linked to the Gulf cartel disguised as police officers break into a prison in Zacatecas and free 50 inmates.
  • May 27 - 27 high-ranking officials including 10 mayors and a judge in Michoacán suspected of collaboration with La Familia cartel.
  • June 6- 16 gunmen of a drug cartel and 2 Mexican Army soldiers are killed during a four hour shootout in Acapulco
  • June 15 - Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza of the Gulf Cartel is captured in Cancún.
  • June 26 - Federal police kill 12 members of Los Zetas in Apaseo el Alto.
  • Gunmen kill two assistants of Ernesto Cornejo, a Partido Acción Nacional candidate, in Sonora, but fail to kill him.
  • July 7 - Anti-crime activist Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law Luis Widmar are murdered after armed men storm their house in Galeana, Chihuahua.
  • July 11 - Several Police headquarters are attacked by gunmen in Michoacán, leaving several injured, and 2 members of the Mexican Army dead.
  • July 14 - The organization tortured and murdered twelve Mexican federal agents and dumped the bodies along the side of a mountain highway. The agents were investigating crime in President Felipe Calderón's home state of Michoacán.
  • In a confrontation with Federal Police officers, two gunmen died in the state of Veracruz, no federal officers or soldiers were reported injured.
  • August 6 - A shootout between police and gunmen leaves over a dozen dead and 22 injured in Pachuca, the capital of the state of Hidalgo. Nine Mexican cartel suspects and three law enforcement officials were injured Thursday. Missing federal agents were found alive, however this discovery initiated simultaneous shootouts and grenade attacks on police installations around Mexico.
  • August 8 - Federal police arrest Manuel Invanovich Zambrano Flores, a top lieutenant of the Tijuana Cartel.
  • August 20 - Law enforcement officials, led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration disrupted a massive drug operation by cutting off shipments of cocaine by the ton into Chicago and knocking out a major distribution network that operated out of the city. The drug operation allegedly brought 1,500 to 2,000 kilos of cocaine every month to Chicago from Mexico and shipped millions of dollars south of the border. At the top of the Chicago crew were 28-year-old twin brothers—Pedro and Margarito Flores—who controlled a group of underlings and headed up incoming drug shipments. They were also in charge of collecting, storing and shipping the cash and distributing the drugs around the country, authorities said. The Flores brothers were allegedly supplied by two warring cartel factions that have played a major role in the escalating drug violence in Mexico, including one reputedly led by Joaquín "el Chapo" Guzmán Loera, 54, and Ismael "el Mayo" Zambada García, 59, and another led by Arturo Beltrán Leyva, 47. The Flores brothers, who are in custody, had done business with each of the warring drug cartels, authorities say. Each cartel threatened the Flores brothers with violence if they did business with the other, according to the charges.
  • September 3 - Gunmen attack a drug clinic in Ciudad Juárez, lining up patients against a wall and killing at least 17.
  • September 6 - José Rodolfo Escajeda of the Juárez cartel is arrested in connection with the drug clinic massacre several days earlier.
  • September 16 - 10 people are killed in another gun attack on a drug clinic in Ciudad Juarez.
  • October 16 - One Federal Police officer was killed by gunmen while the officer was conducting a traffic stop, instead the men in the vehicle opened fired and killed officer Valentin Manuel Gutierrez Heredia, 34, who was assigned to the Mazatlan sector. shortly after in the afternoon, Mexican troops conducted a raid in the residential zone of Mazatlan leading to a gunbattle. One civilian was killed while one soldier and one police officer were injured.Unofficially, it was reported that the armed group is the same one that killed federal agent Valentin Gutierrez, Thursday night.
  • December 16 - A two hour shootout between 200 Mexican Marines and Beltrán-Leyva Cartel gunmen led to the death of Marcos Arturo Beltrán-Leyva the main head of the organization and his brother Mario Alberto Leyva, or Hector, in an upscale resort in Cuernavaca, also killed were four of his bodyguards, of which one committed suicide while surrounded by marines. Two marines were also injured and one other died, Navy 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo Córdova died while being treated for his injuries.
  • December 22 - Only hours after the burial of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo Córdova, gunmen break into his family's house and kill Angulo's mother and three other relatives. The shooting was believed to be retaliation for the death of Marcos Arturo Beltrán-Leyva, as well as a warning against the military forces involved in President Felipe Calderón's war on Mexico's drug cartels.
2010
  • On January 2, Carlos Beltrán Leyva brother of Marcos Arturo Beltrán-Leyva was arrested by Federal Police officers in Culiacan, Sinaloa.
  • January 8, due to high crime rates in the munipality of Tancítaro, Michoacán its Municipal Police force have been disbanded. City officials will leave the Army and Policia Estatal (State Police) incharge of public security.
  • January 12, Federal Police arrested the leader of the Tijuana Cartel, Teodoro "El Teo" García Simental in La Paz, Baja California Sur.
  • January 31, Teenagers at a party in Ciudad Juarez are gunned down. At first the number of casualties was reported to be 14 but increased to 16 after two victims died in the hospital later on. Ten of the victims were between the ages of 13 and 19, according to the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office. Four ranged from ages 23 to 42, and two others were unidentified. The local police is investigating the possible causes but said that it is likely linked to a turf battle between rivaling Cartels. However only three of the victims could be linked to the drug trade so far.
  • February 8, Raydel Lopez Uriarte, known as El Muletas or Crutches, was arrested in the capital of La Paz. Raydel Lopez Uriarte was considered the leader of the criminal cell that had been previously led by "El Teo", who were engaged in a bloody dispute over turf with Francisco Sanchez Arellano (a) "El Ingeniero", the head of the Arellano Felix cartel.
  • February 22, Jose Vasquez Villagrana "El Jabali," 40, was arrested in his home town of Santa Ana, Sonora, which borders Arizona. Described as a key operator of the powerful Sinaloa cartel who served briefly in the U.S. army before taking on the trafficking of 2 tons of cocaine a month into the United States.
  • February 24, Osiel Cardenas, 42, is sentenced to 25 years in prison and made to forfeit $50 US million of his personal fortune by a federal court in Texas. Osiel formerly headed Mexico's notorious Gulf cartel, was arrested in Mexico in 2003 and extradited in 2007 to the US, where he has been held behind bars without parole.
  • March 1, The Gulf cartel declares war against Los Zetas. Los Zetas are pursued form Matamoros to Monterrey. La Familia sends re-enforcements to assist the Gulf cartel. It is believed that the Sinaloa cartel might also be helping the Gulf cartel attempt to eliminate Los Zetas. The northeast border of Mexico becomes a battle ground in the escalating violence between rivals cartels, military and police officers.
  • March 15, Three people connected to the US consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez were killed. A U.S. consular employee and her husband were gunned down inside their SUV near the Santa Fe International Bridge. The husband of an employee of the U.S. Consulate is also executed within seconds. The executions are attributed to the Juarez cartel armed wing "La Linea" using street gangsters of Barrio Azteca with ties to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. 
  • March 17, President Felipe Calderon makes an unpredented third visit to Ciudad Juarez within 33 days. The Mexican President was in Juarez to share his plan to quell violence and to analyze the comprehensive strategy on security. He was pushed to act by the Jan. 31 massacre of at least 15 mostly young people at a party and the slayings of three people attached to the U.S. Consulate.  He promises that Juarez will not be forgotten and he promised to send economic and security support.
  • March 31, The slaying of an Arizona rancher Robert Krentz by a suspect who apparently fled to Mexico
  • April 20, The Hummer Sentenced to 16 Years.
  • April 23, Mexico Captures Indio.
  • April 29, Drug Lord Extradited to Texas.
  • April 29, Wife of "El H" Abducted and Set Free.
  • May 15, Former Mexico Presidential Candidate Missing.
  • June 28, PRI Gubernatorial Candidate Assassinated in Tamaulipas.
  • July 29, Nacho Coronel Killed in Zapopan, Jalisco.
  • August 17, Mayor Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos is abducted and killed.
  • August 26, Zetas Massacre 72 Illegal Immigrants in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.
  • August 30, La Barbie Arrested.

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