http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126890838


Mexico's Drug War: A Rigged Fight?

John Burnett and Marisa Peñaloza

May 18, 2010
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All Things Considered
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Mexico's Juarez Valley: Drug Cartel Battleground
Credit: Kim Perry/NPR
May 18, 2010

When President Felipe Calderon visits Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Mexico's
brutal drug war will be high on the agenda. Fighting among the cartels — and
between government forces and the cartels — has cost nearly 24,000 Mexican lives
since Calderon took office in late 2006.

This NPR series was reported in collaboration with investigative producer Bruce
Livesey.

You can find Livesey's reporting from Juarez at CBC Dispatches, CBC Radio's weekly
foreign affairs program.

The U.S. is giving $1.3 billion in military and judicial aid to Mexico to help Calderon's
battle against the drug mafias. Mexico's drug cartels are the major foreign supplier of
marijuana and methamphetamines to the United States, and Mexico is a main
conduit for cocaine coming mainly from Colombia.

An NPR News investigation in Ciudad Juarez — ground zero of Calderon's cartel war
— finds strong evidence that Mexico's drug fight is rigged, according to court
testimony, current and former law enforcement officials, and an NPR analysis of
cartel arrests.

In that border city, federal forces appear to be favoring one cartel, the Sinaloa
(named after the coastal state in northwestern Mexico), which the U.S. Justice
Department calls one of the largest organized crime syndicates in the world.

'El Chapo' Seeks Control

A woman in stretch pants and sneakers peddles music CDs of narco-ballads in the
streets of Juarez. Her most popular inventory represents the two narcotics cartels
battling for control of the city, across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (shown in 1993) heads the Sinaloa cartel.
Enlarge Damian Dovarganes/AP

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (shown in 1993) heads the Sinaloa cartel, which is
engaged in a bloody turf battle with La Linea, or the Juarez cartel. But an NPR
investigation has found that the two cartels aren't competing on a level playing field:
Federal forces appear to be favoring the Sinaloans, Mexico's largest, oldest and most
powerful drug cartel.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (shown in 1993) heads the Sinaloa cartel.
Damian Dovarganes/AP

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (shown in 1993) heads the Sinaloa cartel, which is
engaged in a bloody turf battle with La Linea, or the Juarez cartel. But an NPR
investigation has found that the two cartels aren't competing on a level playing field:
Federal forces appear to be favoring the Sinaloans, Mexico's largest, oldest and most
powerful drug cartel.

The hometown favorite is La Linea, or the Juarez cartel. The newest gang in town is
a group of freelance local traffickers backed by the Sinaloa cartel, whose chief is
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera.

"La Linea is from here. It's the Juarez cartel," the woman says. "Chapo wants to take
over Juarez, but those with La Linea don't want to give it up. This is why there's so
much killing."

With a $5 million bounty on his head, Guzman is the world's most wanted drug lord.
He is said to live deep in the state of Sinaloa — hundreds of miles from Juarez —
protected by mountains, an army of pistoleros, loyal villagers and his own wolfish
cunning.

Everywhere in Juarez, people whisper the story about how the Mexican army and
federal police are helping Guzman's gangs of assassins capture the city.

Fear And Suspicion

Most residents are afraid to talk about it openly. Their suspicions are based on what
they see, and what they live. Over the past two years, the president has dispatched
10,000 army troops and federal police to Juarez to quell the violence that's been
killing six victims a day.

More In This Series
Sinaloa Cartel Seems Favored In Mexico's Drug War May 19, 2010
On The Trail Of Mexico's Vicious Sinaloa Cartel May 18, 2010

"The presence of the army and the federal police has not resolved the problem," says
Manuel Espino, former congressman from Juarez and former head of the National
Action Party, the president's party. "On the contrary, it's gotten worse. El Chapo
comes to town to take over the territory. It makes us believe there's a complicity with
the federal government."

Veteran journalists in Juarez see it, too.

Edgar Roman is news director of Channel 44, a Juarez television station.

"When you're out on the streets of Juarez and you hear constantly from people that
are eyewitnesses, relatives of victims, they're saying prior to the killings the army was
here. They left here, and armed men came and killed somebody," Roman says.

The drug traffickers, whose death squads cause much of the mayhem, make the
same accusation.
Mexican federal police patrol the Ciudad Juarez streets during an anti-narcotics
operation in 2009.
Enlarge Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

Mexican federal police patrol the streets of Ciudad Juarez during an anti-narcotics
operation in March 2009. More than 24,000 Mexicans have died in the country's
brutal drug wars since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006.
Mexican federal police patrol the Ciudad Juarez streets during an anti-narcotics
operation in 2009.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

Mexican federal police patrol the streets of Ciudad Juarez during an anti-narcotics
operation in March 2009. More than 24,000 Mexicans have died in the country's
brutal drug wars since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006.

A Message On A Wall

Last month, gunmen killed six federal police officers and left a message painted on a
public wall: This is what happens to officers "who ally with Chapo and all those
mother- - - - - - - who support him. Signed — La Linea."

NPR spoke to a former Juarez city police commander who confirms the story.

"The intention of the army is to try and get rid of the Juarez cartel, so that Chapo's
cartel is the strongest," says the ex-commander, who asked that his name not be
used because of death threats he says he received in Juarez.

He was on the force when the Sinaloa cartel came to town, and he says his entire
police department worked for the local cartel. He is now seeking asylum in El Paso.

"When the army arrived in March 2008, we thought, damn, now all this violence is
going to end," he says. "The number of deaths did drop for about three weeks. But
during those three weeks, Chapo's people contacted the army and figured out what
they were doing and how much money they wanted. They started to pay them off,
and the Sinaloans just kept working."

Testimony: Military-Sinaloa Cartel Ties

Collusion between the Mexican army and the Sinaloa mafia in Juarez is further
corroborated by sworn testimony in U.S. federal court, where two top Sinaloa
traffickers went on trial in El Paso in March.

The presence of the army and the federal police [in Ciudad Juarez] has not resolved
the problem. On the contrary, it's gotten worse. [Sinaloa boss] El Chapo comes to
town to take over the territory. It makes us believe there's a complicity with the
federal government.

- Manuel Espino, former congressman from Juarez and former head of President
Calderon's National Action Party

One of the government's main witnesses was a convicted former Juarez police
captain, Manuel Fierro-Mendez, who went on to work for the Sinaloans. He testified
that he regularly provided intelligence on La Linea to an army captain, after which
the military would go arrest people and seize weapons and vehicles.

In an exchange with lead prosecutor Russell Leachman, Fierro-Mendez described the
need to have control over local, state and federal agencies "and have free rein to
continue trafficking drugs without any problem."

Later in the day, Leachman asked Fierro-Mendez: "And was the influence with the
military an important factor?"

"Very important," he replied.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Matthew Sandberg testified at the trial,
confirming the contact between Fierro-Mendez and a Mexican army officer, code-
named Pantera, the Panther.

NPR Looks At Arrest Data

In an effort to get a more precise picture of who the authorities are pursuing in
Juarez, an NPR News investigation analyzed thousands of news releases posted on
the website of Mexico's federal attorney general's office, the Procuraduria General de
la Republica. The news releases document every arrest of a cartel member charged
with organized crime, weapons or drug offenses.

Juarez is the murder capital of Mexico, and now the most patrolled and policed city in
Mexico. The NPR analysis found that since federal forces arrived in the state of
Chihuahua in March 2008, there have been 104 arrests involving suspects identified
as cartel members. Of those arrests, 88 were affiliated with the Juarez cartel, and 16
with Sinaloa.

The Mexican federal attorney general's office reported arrests and other enforcement
actions on more than 2,600 members of major drug cartels since December 2006.
Among six major cartels, the largest number of defendants came from the Gulf-Zeta
cartel.
Chart shows the breakdown of drug cartel enforcement actions by the mexican
federal government.

Source: NPR analysis of Mexican government news releases

Credit: Robert Benincasa and Stephanie d'Otreppe/NPR

But Enrique Torres, spokesman for the military and police joint operation in
Chihuahua, says there is "no way" there is favoritism.

"The work of the Mexican army in Chihuahua and here on the border is to damage
the structures of criminal groups, regardless of their origin," Torres says. "We've
arrested many criminals for many crimes, who belong to all the drug trafficking
groups."

In February, growing criticism that Calderon's forces are selectively fighting the
cartels prompted him to address the issue at a news conference.

"These accusations are totally unfounded, false. In most cases, it reflects a
misunderstanding of the facts, the result of other interests, I want to be clear,"
Calderon said.

Roots Of Sinaloa's Success
Understanding The Data

NPR took news releases from the Mexican federal attorney general's office
(Procuraduria General de la Republica) about criminal action the office has taken
since December 2006 against figures from six major drug cartels. We created a
computer database of the defendants listed in the releases to get a picture of
enforcement patterns.

What We Found

After analyzing data on more than 2,600 criminal defendants, we found that the Gulf-
Zetas cartel (which recently split into two independent groups) represented more
than 40 percent of the individuals arrested — more than 1,100. The rest were spread
among the other cartels. The Sinaloa, Beltran-Leyva and Tijuana cartels each
accounted for about 12 percent of the arrests.

NPR also looked at releases for arrests in the Ciudad Juarez area starting in March
2008, when the Mexican army arrived in Juarez as part of the country's drug war.
Since then, the Mexican government has announced criminal action against only 16
Sinaloa cartel affiliates arrested in Chihuahua state, including Juarez. In contrast,
there were 88 arrests associated with the Juarez cartel listed in the government
releases. There are four individuals who were associated with both cartels, according
to separate news releases.

NPR also analyzed cases that involved charges of cartel bribes of public officials (see
chart below). Municipal officials were involved in most of the cases. The data suggest
that bribes by the Sinaloa cartel focused on federal and military officials. Out of 19
cases, 14 of them involved federal and military officials. The Juarez cartel was
charged with bribing 10 officials, and nine of them were municipal.

Is the reason that fewer of Guzman's people are in jail that they are smarter
traffickers?

Tony Payan, a political scientist at the University of Texas, El Paso and the
Autonomous University of Juarez, says the Sinaloans operate in "apache raids" in
Juarez.

"[Chapo] sends his people into the city and they clean out a number of people
they've already identified," Payan explains.

"But they do it in a very disciplined way; they're not sloppy," he adds. "The Juarez
cartel has proven to be very sloppy."

There's a simple explanation why the authorities arrest more traffickers from the
Juarez cartel, says Joe Arabit, special agent in charge of the El Paso office of the
Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA is a strong supporter of Calderon's
crackdown on the cartels.

"La Linea has controlled the [smuggling] corridor so there are more [Juarez cartel]
operators in this corridor than any other cartel. Therefore, you're going to see more
people from [that cartel] being arrested," he says.
Cartel Bribes Of Mexican Public Officials
Graph: Reported Cartel Bribes Of Mexican Public Officials

Graph: Reported Cartel Bribes

Shifting Alliances Among Cartels

But this explanation overlooks an important detail, say local journalists who cover
street crime. As the Sinaloa cartel has muscled into the city, La Linea gangsters
switch sides and join the Sinaloans, also known as la gente nueva, the new people.
There's even a name for them — chapulines, or grasshoppers.

The small number of arrests of Sinaloa operatives is striking to Howard Campbell, an
anthropologist at the University of Texas, El Paso and an expert on Mexican drug
trafficking. He sees a larger strategy at work.

"It appears the cartel de Sinaloa is winning the battle over the cartel de Juarez, and
it doesn't seem possible for them to do that without some sort of backing from the
Mexican military," he says.

"For the drugs to get to Ciudad Juarez and from there into the U.S., they have to
pass through military-controlled territory. And so the military is either absolutely inept,
or they're corrupted by the Chapo Guzman cartel. There's really no other
explanation," Campbell says.

Other Cartels Also Involved In Corruption

This is not an exclusive arrangement — corrupt elements of the Mexican military are
for hire for any cartel.

Two former Juarez police commanders — one interviewed by NPR and another who
testified in federal court — said the Juarez cartel also pays off the army.

Indeed, in 1997, Mexico's then-drug czar, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was
convicted and imprisoned for working for the Juarez cartel, at the time the country's
top drug mafia.

Four years ago, a detachment of soldiers was caught escorting a shipment of
marijuana through Juarez cartel-controlled territory.

Cartel Wars Spreading Across The Border?

In January 2006, Texas peace officers witnessed an astonishing sight: a Mexican
military Humvee trying to pull a pot-laden SUV out of the Rio Grande, where it had
gotten stuck. Police video captured the entire incident.

The Mexican government concluded it was a case of drug traffickers dressed as
soldiers, using a military-style Humvee.

The following month, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West and his deputy went to
Washington, D.C., to testify at a congressional hearing about the incident. The dope
was being smuggled into his county.

"When the deputies arrived at the border, where the drug loads were to cross, the
deputies were met with the Mexican military in a military Humvee. The deputies
reported seeing heavily armed soldiers in the Humvee. The deputies took a defensive
position while the Humvee and load vehicles crossed back into Mexico," West
testified.

The paunchy, no-nonsense lawman in a white hat is worried these days that the
drug violence is about to spill over the Rio Grande into his county.

"Until one person is in charge of all the drugs, they're going to keep killing each
other," he says of the Mexican cartels. "And they're going to use the Mexican
government to help them do it," he said in a recent interview in the town of Fort
Hancock.

Hudspeth County is across the Rio Grande from the newest Sinaloa-controlled
territory, el Valle de Juarez.

The Juarez Valley is a region of cotton fields and farm towns east of that city — so
close to Texas that you can watch the Walmart trucks creeping past on Interstate 10.
For decades, this has been a valuable smuggling area. That's why the Sinaloa cartel
wants it.

A Fight In The Valley

Carlos Spector is an immigration attorney in El Paso whose family goes back three
generations in the Juarez Valley.

"The Valle de Juarez represents a model of how the cartel war is being fought and its
relationship to the Mexican government," Spector says. He and other sources with
direct knowledge of the Juarez Valley say it appears that the army's policy is to stand
by and let the Sinaloa hit men do their work.

"Nothing could happen without the military. So it was by omission, by refusing to act
that they participate with the drug traffickers," Spector says.

In the past two years, Sinaloans have used a scorched-earth strategy of murder,
torture and arson to take over the Juarez Valley, under the direction of an assassin
nicknamed quitapuercos — pig killer.

The community of Esperanza is a virtual ghost town, with dogs wandering the
streets.

An old woman wearing a soiled plaid dress and accompanied by her granddaughter
made her way down the deserted road like an apparition. The walker she leaned on
scraped on the gravel.

"Because of the people burning and killing and threatening us, everyone has left,"
she said. "They've gone to Juarez. But I can't. I'm sick. I can't run. If they kill me,
they'll be doing me a favor."

When asked about the army, she replies: "They just pass by. They never protect us."


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