Sunday, March 15, 2009 |The drug dealer thought he was getting a second chance to pay off a debt to the Mexican Mafia prison gang. When he was led
into the garage of a National City house to get the drugs he was to sell, the floors and walls were covered in plastic.
Not a good sign.
Two enforcers with aluminum bats started whacking. It's a wonder the dealer lived to tell. He managed to stop the attack by promising to pay in seven
days and by turning over his Lincoln Navigator.
Although disturbing, this is not exactly an uncommon tale in the violent battle for control of the Southern California drug-trafficking corridor
raging among Mexican cartels.
But what's got law enforcement officials concerned is this incident -- part of a federal complaint filed in December -- is evidence of a merger
between criminal enterprises in San Diego and Mexico. The men who were in the National City garage are believed to be members of Hispanic street gangs
in San Diego with suspected ties to both the notorious Mexican Mafia prison gang, also known as "Eme," and the Arellano Felix drug cartel.
"There's not a big distinction anymore between Mexican cartels and U.S. street gangs. It's hard to tell where one begins and another ends," said
Geoffrey Morrison, a San Diego criminal defense lawyer who has represented numerous clients accused of drug trafficking. "There's a bridge that's
developed between Eme and the actual drug cartels south of the border, and it's being strengthened."
The liaisons are nothing new; they date back to the early 1990s. What's changed is the depth of the penetration by the cartels and the Mexican Mafia
into local gangs, and the almost-corporate hierarchy that has been established in recent years.
Most importantly, violence that used to remain on the south side of the international border is increasingly making its way into American cities. And
authorities from here to Washington are scrambling to respond.
Officials have dedicated more resources to the potential spillover of drug-related violence to San Diego. The Department of Homeland Security has even
created a contingency plan that involves local law enforcement and the military should the violence escalate. That plan, initiated by the Bush
Administration, is still in place under President Obama, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said.
The matter of cross-border violence, and whether the military should be used to protect the border, is getting a lot of attention lately on Capitol
Hill. Lawmakers this week called for better coordination, stepped up efforts and more money to quell the raging border violence and keep it from
moving into the U.S.
Four congressional committees held separate hearings on Mexico and drug-related violence last week. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
testified last month on Capitol Hill that the problem is so overwhelming it will require more than the efforts of her department of some 200,000
employees.
"We are reaching out to the national security adviser, to the attorney general and others about how we within the United States make sure we are doing
all we can in a coordinated way to support the president of Mexico" in the fight against drug cartels and the exportation of violence, Napolitano told
members of one Congressional committee.
Likewise, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told reporters last month that Mexico was a "priority" for the agency.
Location, Location, Location
There were an estimated 6,000-plus drug-related murders in Mexico in 2008 -- with 800 of those in Tijuana. There were more than 350
kidnappings-for-ransom reported in Phoenix, and authorities believe most are cartel-related. In San Diego, four murders since 2007 are blamed on
cartel violence, plus 26 kidnappings-for-ransom of U.S. citizens in 2008 in both San Diego and Tijuana.
In the December case and related cases filed in February, 40 suspected members or associates of 14 San Diego street gangs and the Mexican Mafia,
including the alleged bat-wielders, were charged with crimes ranging from racketeering, firearms and drug offenses to attempted murder, kidnapping,
assault and extortion.
It is the third large-scale federal prosecution of Mexican Mafia figures in San Diego in 18 months. In all, the feds have a 100 percent success rate
in convicting more than 100 Mexican Mafia members and underlings, including local gang members.
There are 92 street gangs in the city of San Diego -- with an estimated 4,000 members -- and about three-quarters of those are believed to be
Hispanic, police said. And most of the Hispanic gangs are in bed with Eme and the cartels.
San Diego's gang population is small compared to places like Los Angeles, home to more than 100,000 gang members, and Fresno, which has about 24,000.
But San Diego has the distinction of being on the Mexican border, which has made the local gangs very attractive to the cartels as soldiers and drug
distributors. The Mexican Mafia and the Arellanos have compelled thousands of Southern California gang members to act as enforcers, bodyguards,
kidnappers, even assassins.
The federal charging documents in the case filed last month involving the beating in National City mention numerous incidences of violence by local
street gang members on the north side of the border who were acting at the behest of Mexican Mafia bosses, who in turn were working with Arellano
Felix associates:
# In August, gunmen forced their way into a home in Coronado to confront a gang member who supposedly failed to pay his drug partners $50,000. The
victim was abducted, and his family members were corralled at gunpoint and threatened with death if they called police. "We are an army," one of the
gunmen told the family. The kidnappers took two Dodge trucks, a Land Rover, a Mercedes Benz, $2,000 in cash, two laptops, several watches and jewelry
from the house. The victim was taken to another location where he was confronted about the drug debt. Officials did not describe the outcome in court
records.
# In September, a man was abducted at gunpoint from a McDonald's parking lot in San Diego. The man was forced into the back seat of his own car and
driven to a location in Chula Vista, where the kidnappers attempted to transfer him to another vehicle. The man broke free and serendipitously tripped
as a kidnapper fired shots at him; he managed to dodge the bullet and escape.
# Also in September, a pregnant woman was kidnapped from her Lemon Grove home and choked unconscious for supposedly invoking the name of a Mexican
Mafia member to "garner protection" for her unspecified activities. Her attackers -- including a Mexican Mafia member who'd once been romantically
involved with the victim -- also hit her about the head and shaved part of her scalp with electric clippers. She was then allowed to leave.
Not Your Average Gang Member
Among street gang members listed in the charging documents with nicknames like "Shaggy" and "Psycho" is the most unlikely of defendants. Kevin Smith,
a 39-year-old project manager for Harper Construction with an annual six-figure salary and no criminal background, was charged with conspiracy to
distribute methamphetamine.
Even U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Battaglia commented at a bond hearing last month on the apparent dichotomy. On one hand is a law-abiding U.S.
citizen with the same high-paying job for more than 20 years and no arrests. On the other is the government's description of Smith as a
methamphetamine distributor who hangs out at Tijuana nightclubs with Arellano Felix and Mexican Mafia associates.
During the bond hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Parmley told the judge the government has audiotapes of Smith accepting $1,500 as down payment
to smuggle 20 pounds of methamphetamine for a person he believed was associated with the Mexican Mafia.
"During recorded meetings Smith admitted to moving large amounts of narcotics across the country in a private plane" for a codefendant, Jose "Shaggy"
Flores, who the government says is associated with both the Mexican Mafia and an unidentified Mexican drug trafficking organization, presumably the
Arellanos, according to court documents.
During a search of Smith's home, federal agents found guns, some registered and some not, including a .50-caliber handgun, Parmley told the court.
Officials from Harper Construction attended the hearing, offering a check for $300,000 as bond. Battaglia instead required a $450,000 bond to be
posted by a family member. He allowed Smith's parents to put up their house, valued at $350,000.
Smith's lawyer, Shaun Khojayan, declined to comment outside court beyond this: "Mr. Smith is a hard-working young man with no criminal history
whatsoever and any other comment I have I would make once I have a chance to look at the evidence." Smith has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
It was Smith's co-defendant, Flores, who lured the drug dealer into the plastic-covered garage on September 4, according to the government. Also there
was a large bag with zip ties. "These materials are consistent with a gang-style execution as they are used to minimize possible forensic evidence and
to aid in the disposal of a body," the federal complaint said.
One defendant stood by the door aiming a gun at the victim, who is never identified in the complaint, while the men with bats swung, hitting the
victim repeatedly in the head, upper body and legs.
According to court documents, Flores appears to be a central character linking the Mexican Mafia and the Arellanos.
The complaint also alleges that Flores sought permission from the Mexican Mafia to kidnap and murder a rival in October because the intended victim
had been using one of Flores' men to commit armed robberies. The documents said Flores took steps to commit the murder, but it never took place. The
complaint does provide additional details.
The case presented unique challenges for members of the multiagency San Diego Violent Crimes Task Force-Gang Group, which investigated the case and
through informants became aware of impending murders such as this and had to carefully intervene to prevent violence without jeopardizing the case.
Authorities managed to prevent about 30 murders, kidnappings and assaults during the course of the investigation, officials said.
Where It All Started
The Mexican Mafia was started in the 1950s by Mexican-American inmates at a California youth offender facility. The ranks and influence of the gang
known as La Eme, which rules prisons with violence and intimidation, has increased over the years as members got out of prison and returned to their
street gangs with greater stature and power.
As a result, the Mexican Mafia today essentially runs the drug dealing in most Southern California neighborhoods dominated by Hispanic street gangs,
from San Ysidro to Fresno and San Bernadino to Ventura.
The local street gangs, with members as young as 12, can go tagging and do robberies and drive-by shootings at will, but when it comes to drugs, they
must abide by rules of the Mexican Mafia, which has only about 300 members but thousands of associates.
The person who runs each neighborhood on behalf of La Eme is said to be the keyholder, or the "llavero" who makes the calls in that designated area,
deciding who can (or cannot) deal drugs and what it will cost them.
Law enforcement believes the Mexican Mafia first joined forces with the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO) -- at the time Mexico's most powerful and
feared drug cartel -- in 1992 through David Barron Corona. Corona, a Barrio Logan street gang member, joined the Mexican Mafia in prison, and then
became an assassin for the Arellanos when he got out.
The liaison made sense: The AFO is made up of Mexican nationals trafficking drugs from Mexico and points further south into the U.S. Eme is an
American organization with members of Hispanic heritage who deal drugs on the U.S. side. The common ancestry, language and proximity to the border
made it convenient for the groups to work together.
Barron, known as "Popeye," became an enforcer for the AFO and was able to recruit fellow street gang members, like Alberto "Bat" Marquez, a U.S.
citizen, to do hits in Tijuana, Guadalajara, Mazatlan and elsewhere, authorities said.
Authorities have said Barron, Marquez and others were involved in the 1993 botched shooting of Cardinal Jesus Posadas Ocampo in the Guadalajara
airport. The bullets were meant for a rival cartel leader. The Cardinal's death marked the beginning of a symbiotic relationship between the Mexican
Mafia and AFO that endures today.
Barron was killed in a shootout with Mexican authorities in 1997 as he tried to assassinate Mexican newspaper editor Juan Blancornelas. Since then,
other Mexican Mafia leaders kept the relationship with the cartel strong -- in particular "Bat" Marquez, who was a member of the Del Sol street gang
in San Diego.
Marquez was captured by Mexican authorities in 2003, was extradited to the U.S. in 2006 and awaits trial in San Diego federal court. Authorities
allege that for years Marquez headed a group of killers that settled scores for the Arellanos. The victims often were members of rival drug gangs, or
people who owed money or drugs to the cartel.
But the AFO has been crippled in recent years by the deaths or arrests and extraditions of the brothers Arellano. Most recently, Francisco Javier
Arellano Felix, who was captured in international waters off Baja in 2006, pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego and is serving a life
sentence. Another brother, Ramón was killed in a gun battle with police in Mazatlan in 2002.
Timothy Coughlin, head of the U.S. Attorney's drug unit, said the relationships between gangs and cartels are tight but not impenetrable.
"There are tiny threads running through these organizations in Mexico and gangs that are here," Coughlin said. The latest prosecution "doesn't
eliminate the violence in Mexico but it begins to address the power of the Mexican Mafia in San Diego as well as in Mexico."
Kelly Thornton is a San Diego-based freelance writer. Please contact her directly at kellythornton7407@yahoo.com with your thoughts, ideas, personal
stories or tips. Or set the tone of the debate with a letter to the editor.CaboRon - 3-16-2009 at 11:53 AM
It really is an amazing story , isn't it ?rpleger - 3-16-2009 at 12:19 PM
Wow....truly amazingnorte - 3-16-2009 at 01:55 PM
And Based on past threads you guys thought it was all in Mexico. We just know how to keep it quietnancyinpdx - 3-17-2009 at 12:29 AM
wow.... and yikes. Life gets so complicated.k-rico - 3-17-2009 at 07:30 AM
I'm not surprised, wholesalers and retailers getting the product to market. Too bad things have gotten so violent recently. Why did that happen?CaboRon - 3-17-2009 at 07:34 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by norte
And Based on past threads you guys thought it was all in Mexico. We just know how to keep it quiet
Who are "we"
and where are you ?BajaDove - 3-17-2009 at 08:41 AM
The violence started because a drug king was accidentally killed and they were fighting to take over his territory.Iflyfish - 3-17-2009 at 09:13 AM
Thanks Bajaboy for this very informative post.
I hope that posts like this will help educate people as to the seriousness of this issue. Force alone will not end this. Remember Capone and the Gangs
during Prohibition? Remember the Cagney films and the drive by shootings? They weren't making that up. Remember the Saint Valentines Day mass?
Different time, same story, only more violent and pervasive now. Human nature. People will use drugs. The issue is how to address that fact.
Ilfyfish
Kidnappings No Longer Just a Mexico Problem
Bajaboy - 3-17-2009 at 09:22 AM
Here's the next part:
Kidnappings No Longer Just a Mexico Problem
By KELLY THORNTON http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/03/17/governmen...
Part two of a two-part series examining the San Diego impacts of Mexico's escalating drug war. Read part one. http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/03/16/governmen...
Monday, March 16, 2009 | The news media described it as a brazen midday carjacking on busy Ingraham Street in Pacific Beach. There were three hooded
gunmen. The car was a 2007 BMW. The victims were a young man and his girlfriend headed for Rocky's Crown Pub.
A witness called 911 after he saw the gunmen force the couple back into the car. It made for good TV because San Diego Police Department officers
spotted the BMW and the chase was captured on the police helicopter's video camera. The timely 911 call, on Feb. 3, ended up saving the day. The
victims were safe, the car was unscathed, the gunmen jailed.
But it wasn't what it seemed.
One of the victims, a U.S. citizen, is a suspected drug dealer who'd supposedly run afoul of the ruthless Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel,
according to sources with knowledge of the investigation. The accused kidnappers, who have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled for a preliminary
hearing next month, are believed to be street gang members sent to abduct him and settle the score.
This spillover of drug-related violence is an unintended consequence of the successful crackdown in recent years on the Arellano Felix Organization.
What's left of the AFO, plus splinter groups and rival cartels, are battling for control of the Southern California trafficking corridor.
As a result, Mexico's border towns have become killing fields, with executions, torture, beheadings and bodies disintegrated in barrels of acid common
occurrences. Tijuana suffered more than 800 cartel-related murders in 2008.
And, as the Pacific Beach incident shows, the mayhem has come to America. Some places have been hit harder than others -- Phoenix was branded
"kidnapping capital of the U.S." with more than 700 abductions-for-ransom reported in the past two years.
The statistics in San Diego County aren't as alarming, and experts doubt seriously that the region will ever rival Tijuana in drug-related violence.
But there is a general agreement that the situation is dire.
"Thank God we're not Phoenix but I think it's a major problem here," said San Diego Deputy District Attorney Mark Amador, who specializes in gang,
drug and kidnapping cases. "I don't think you can overstate the problem. I believe the spillover is a major problem in that there is an increase in
violent crime based on the chaos that's occurring in Tijuana."
The exporting of violence to San Diego has been a hot topic lately. Congressional committees have heard testimony on the subject this week, and San
Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has appeared on national television twice in recent days to discuss the overflow of violence.
Sanders said the United States should start screening motorists who drive into Mexico, since 90 percent of guns used by drug lords are from the United
States. Those same guns are being used in assaults, kidnappings and murders on both sides of the border.
"We are very concerned about the increase and what could spill over to San Diego County," Sanders said on Fox News. "So many of the drug cartel
community have residences throughout the southwest." Law enforcers are keeping an eye on that, he said.
There were four cartel-related murders in the city in 2007, which remain unsolved, according to the SDPD. And there were 26 reported kidnappings for
ransom involving U.S. citizens in 2008, most of which occurred in Mexico while the victims were visiting family or conducting business, said San Diego
FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth.
Like the Pacific Beach case, some of the abductions took place in San Diego. In most cases the kidnappers and victims had current or previous cartel
connections. "Now you're seeing actual kidnappings of cartel members on the north side of border," said a criminal defense attorney with expertise in
drug cases.
"And you see a lot of cartel members moving to the north side of the border. They're living in the U.S. because they're fearful of operating in
Tijuana where they used to because they're afraid they're going to get kidnapped. Now the kidnappers have followed them."
Anyone Can Be a Target
What is most troubling to law enforcement is that kidnappings used to happen only to people within the drug trade, as payback for deals gone wrong,
but that has changed since the AFO lost its monopoly.
"That's where we've seen a change in the last couple of years," said San Diego FBI chief Keith Slotter. "Some of the splinter groups decided they
don't need to play by the old AFO rules. In their minds kidnapping purely for profit is simply a money-making operation for them."
The FBI declined to give details regarding kidnappings that fit that description. "We’re not going to give the name of a victim who was kidnapped here
and taken down there. We don’t do that," Foxworth said. "We have victim-witness confidentiality issues. Also doing that would not only jeopardize the
victim but the investigation."
The FBI has responded to the growing threat by doubling the number of agents dedicated to the issue, Slotter said. "Certainly there's been a manpower
shift where we've got more resources working kidnappings, probably more than we've ever had before," Slotter said. He estimated that four agents, up
from two, are working with Mexico to investigate cases involving U.S. citizens.
"Anyone potentially could be a target," he said. "Now obviously the more a person travels to Mexico, if they have business down there, that has an
impact on the possibility of something like that happening."
Untold numbers of kidnappings go unreported because kidnappers threaten to kill their captives if authorities are called. Mexican families often don't
trust law enforcement because of rampant corruption. Or families worry that police should be avoided because the victim is also involved in drug
trafficking.
"There are many, many more kidnappings that go unreported and many word of mouth stories that are passed on that seem to have legitimacy," said
Amador, the prosecutor.
"Go down to the nice neighborhoods in Chula Vista and Eastlake and talk to residents of Hispanic ethnicity. Many would know people who have been
kidnapped and it's fairly common to hear those stories."
Privately some officials admit it's not especially troubling to see the drug traffickers implode. Just keep the collateral damage away from San Diego,
they say.
The Vacuum After AFO's Fall
The kidnapping problem in both countries became more significant two or three years ago when the Mexican and U.S. governments stepped up enforcement
efforts and "put the squeeze" on the Arellanos, said the San Diego defense attorney, who asked not to be identified because he has attempted to
negotiate the release of numerous Mexican kidnapping victims in recent years when families were too terrified to go to authorities.
"The drug cartels turned to kidnappings as a primary source of income," he said. "It used to be they would only go after other persons in the
business. They would never touch innocents. All of a sudden you saw doctors, lawyers and dentists, tourists, people racing in the Baja 1000 and
surfers being kidnapped and their girlfriends being gang raped. It has all but shutdown the tourism industry in Tijuana.
"If they do that in San Diego, we are looking at the same problems as Tijuana because people are going to stop coming here. They could do the same
thing to San Diego. It's kind of scary. It's this huge beast sitting right there at our doorstep."
The defense lawyer compared the dismantling of the Arellano Felix Organization and resulting chaos to the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In
neither case, he said, did the authorities adequately prepare for the power vacuum. And as a result, innocent people are dying.
"The government is totally incapable of dealing with it. There are high profile prosecutions on both sides of the border. But I would wager you're
only scratching the surface," he said.
The FBI's Slotter does not want to downplay the problem. But he said the notion that San Diego could become another Tijuana in terms of drug-related
violence and kidnappings is going too far.
"I don't like to draw that comparison because I don't think it's there," Slotter said.
Kelly Thornton is a San Diego-based freelance writer. Please contact her directly at kellythornton7407@yahoo.com with your thoughts, ideas, personal
stories or tips. Or set the tone of the debate with a letter to the editor.k-rico - 3-17-2009 at 09:35 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaDove
The violence started because a drug king was accidentally killed and they were fighting to take over his territory.
Accidentally killed? Oops, wrong guy.
Are you talking about a particular incident in San Diego gangland?
[Edited on 3-17-2009 by k-rico]Martyman - 3-17-2009 at 09:40 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by CaboRon
[Who are "we"
and where are you ?
Thats Rude!Woooosh - 3-17-2009 at 09:50 AM
They put plastic down in the garage before beating him with bats? I can't even get my painter to put dropcloths down. Such wasted talent.slimshady - 3-17-2009 at 10:15 AM
It's always been here. Local gangs have always coordinated and orchestrated with drug cartels. Its all about moving, selling, and controlling
narcotics traffic to the american consumer.
American gangs,mexican gangs such as the surenos and nortenos fall under the umbrella of the to the EME which is the mexican mafia. Which pretty much
runs the drugs north from mexico. Throw in some black and white gangs into the mix and you have the whole enchilada.
As in the case above it is pretty safe that the car jackers were local gang bangers working on orders from the mexican mafia which recieved word from
their conterparts in the AFO. Therefore the hit was on.
Want to stop border violence then stop the american consumer and arrest gang members on our streets and treat them like the terrorists they are.
