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Hard times turn fishermen to smuggling
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/12428.html
BY ALEJANDRO SUVERZA AND JAVIER CABRERA
October 24, 2005
SINALOA COAST Along this stretch of the Sinaloan shore, the name Chino Gre?as won't soon be forgotten. But the shrimp fisherman's fame does not
originate from any record-breaking crustacean catch, but rather from a one-ton load of marijuana that he was carrying in his boat when he was arrested
on the way to La Paz, Baja California Sur.
Gre?as spent the six years following his arrest at the Islas Mar?as island penal colony. When he got out, he tried, with the support of his family, to
walk a straight line. But money was hard to come by, and when his daughter's 15th birthday celebration came around and he hadn't the funds for a
proper quincea?os party, he decided to make one more pot haul.
Once again, Chino Gre?as was found by the authorities. But this time, he was discovered not with his boat full of drugs, but with his lungs full of
water. Along with three companions, he had loaded a small craft with marijuana and headed northward. No one is certain what happened next, but the
result was that Gre?as drowned. His body was the only one of his crew of four to be recovered.
Perhaps the reason the story of Chino Gre?as has become so legendary here is that the decision he made to smuggle marijuana in hopes of improving his
financial lot is one that countless other Sinaloan fisherman have considered, and many have chosen. According to Navy statistics, 167 people were
arrested ferrying drugs along the coasts of Sinaloa, Sonora and Baja California between 2001 and 2004. Those arrests included the confiscation of 134
tons of marijuana and 113 boats.
The majority of the detainees were shrimp fishermen captured during the months of March and April: the season during which shrimp fishing is closed
along the western coast. The lure of making 25,000 to 30,000 pesos (US2,315 to US2,778) to run a boatload of marijuana northward during the down
season is often too much to pass up, say members of the 43 fishing communities on the Sinaloan coast.
One Sinaloan fisherman who admitted to having hauled pot to Lareto, Baja California Sur, agreed to speak with EL UNIVERSAL about his experiences on
the condition of anonymity.
?JUST ANOTHER JOB?
"For many of us, it's just like any job," said the fisherman from the deck of his boat, anchored a mile from port under a star-filled night sky.
"You're not assaulting or robbing anyone, you're just carrying something from one place to another. You just load, drive and deliver. The authorities
view it as a crime, but we see it as just another job. It's not even for domestic consumption; it's going to another country."
The fisherman said that he had carried up to 1.5 metric tons of pot in packages of 5 and 10 kilograms, all loaded by hand, packet after packet. The
boats used for such operations are usually either 23- or 36footers, he said, with three, 200-horsepower motors to propel the overloaded craft.
The boats travel with sonar that will register any other craft within a range of 20 miles. If something suspicious shows up, they make a stop and hide
out.
"You have all night to travel," said the fisherman. "And if things get 'hot,' you navigate a little and get up to the shore where you can guard the
merchandise until the danger passes. You might even hide the stuff in a swamp, bury it in the sand or stick it in a cave. Whatever works."
It's like with airplanes: they travel by making stops."
If contracted by one of the "big" cartels, a fisherman might get the benefit of a search plane, which scours the projected course to make sure that
all is clear before a shipment heads off. In the old days, these sea-borne drug mules navigated without aerial reconnaissance, without a navigator or
even a compass. They relied only on their knowledge of tides, currents and the stars to find their way.
"They used only the sky and the sea to get where they needed to go," said the fisherman.
Nowadays, smugglers have more to fear than interception by a Navy vessel or helicopter. The fishermen say that they also have to be on the lookout for
bandits along the shore, who watch the sea at night for drug-smuggling vessels. If they see one putting in for the night, or stopping to hide an
illegal cargo, they might attack and steal the booty.
Perhaps this is what happened to Chino Gre?as.
In any case, said the fisherman, if the bandits don't kill you but make off with the drugs, the cartel will kill you for losing the shipment.
ALL ARE UNDER SUSPICION
Navy officials say that small-time fishermen are not the only mariners targeted for drug inspections. Large fishing ships are also subject to surprise
searches. "We inform them (the large-boat fishing companies) that they are likely to see an inspection," said Admiral H?ctor Alberto Mucharraz
Brambia, head of the regional fleet that covers the waters off of Sinaloa. "We inspect ship holds and advise the crews that they cannot pick up any
another boat that they come across while out at sea."
Still, Mucharraz Brambia recognized that small fishermen are more susceptible to the entreaties of the drug cartels. He said that the traffickers
often offer to give the fisherman a boat or motor in exchange for running a shipment. "And any fisherman is going to say, 'Sure, I'll take advantage
of that.'"
And the small fishermen are especially vulnerable, say some, now that new regulations prohibit small craft from shrimp fishing in high seas.
Furthermore, say the fishermen, recent poor production and a curtailment of the activity during March and April are making it more and more difficult
to earn an honest living.
"That's why there are only a handful of fishermen in the region who haven't hauled drugs in their boats," said Ram?n Castro Leal, a shrimp fisherman
from Guasave, Sinaloa. "After the season ends, there's nothing else to do."
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Don Jorge
Senior Nomad
Posts: 648
Registered: 8-29-2003
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No way?
Ah yes. Who will forget the bales of hay washing up on the shores of Bahia de Los Angeles?
Or being at Refugio or the Big Island hoping they don't show up with guns needing a boat because there's is out of gas or has motor problems. Ask
Sammy Daz about that one.
I lived in Valle de Gaudalupe when a turf war was going on and people were dropping like flies in a country with gun control. They followed people
into California and shot them on the freeways for debts from rooster fights or deals gone bad.
The Narcos rule Mexico. Add to that gringos putting up white rail fences in places like Bahia de Conception like they are living in Solvang and it's
no wonder so many of us are just counting the days till we can move to Costa Rica or the Domincan Republic or Nicaragua or El Salvador. Yeah, I have
been to all those places, and petty crime is a way of life there, but I just can't bear to watch Baja become so full of despair and disparity.
Try visiting the labor camps in San Quintin! I have farm laborers and here life is a bed of roses compared to to the Oxacans picking your vegetables
in Baja.
Heck, my foreman and many of my workers own homes in Orange County , and that be because here there is oppurtunity and reward for hard work.
For now though, Baja it is close and accessible for the quick trip and until retirement I am stuck sticking to Baja. I love the place but it is going
to pot and meth fast.
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
Posts: 2962
Registered: 8-31-2003
Location: Sunset Beach
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Mood: Just dancing through life
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For anyone interested in this.....Get a copy of Troubled Sea by Jinx Schwartz.... all about cruising the Sea of Cortez and stuff like this made into a
real thriller involving the Mexican Federal Police, the DEA, the U.S. Coast Guard and more.
Go to http://www.trebleheartbooks.com
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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bajajudy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6886
Registered: 10-4-2004
Location: San Jose del Cabo,BCS
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We also sell Jinx books for her.
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