A man reacts near a crime scene where two men were shot to death by unknown gunmen in Tijuana, Mexico. (Guillermo Arias, Associated Press / April 20, 2010)

Drug war ensnares Morelos state

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
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"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Drug war ensnares Morelos state
Violence has increased recently in Morelos due to a battle for control of a drug cartel. Nearly 50 people have been killed in the state this year, newspapers say.
By Ken Ellingwood
3:24 PM PDT, April 20, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

Bodies are turning up in piles, hanging from overpasses, chopped up and thrown together in trash bags dumped by the roadside.

This is not Ciudad Juarez, the violence-battered Mexican city along the Texas border. This is the central state of Morelos, a normally quiet region known by many Americans as home to Spanish-language schools in the city of Cuernavaca.

Violence has increased in recent months, often in spectacularly grisly ways, due to a battle for control of the drug-trafficking operation once run by Arturo Beltran Leyva, who was slain by troops during a raid in Cuernavaca in December.

The fight appears to pit forces loyal to Beltran Leyva's brother, Hector, against the late kingpin's former top enforcer, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a feared figure nicknamed " Barbie" for his blue-eyed good looks and notorious for his brutal methods. Both men are wanted by Mexican authorities.

Nearly 50 people have been killed this year in gun battles and gangland-style executions in Morelos, long known as a stronghold of the Beltran Leyva group, according to unofficial counts by newspapers.

Residents have grown panicky as the violence has worsened. Streets in Cuernavaca went unusually quiet last weekend after anonymous e-mail threats warned people to stay away from nightspots or risk being caught up in what the sender described as a hunt for rivals. Bars and discos closed as a precaution, but there were no reports of weekend violence.

Gov. Marco Adame has sought to reassure residents. "The street, our plazas and the night do not belong to the violent, to the criminals. They belong to respectable people," he said Saturday.

Many of the killings have taken place around Cuernavaca, a popular weekend getaway 50 miles south of Mexico City that is known for year-round sunshine. An April 2 gunfight in the heart of downtown left two gunmen dead.

On April 13, the bodies of six young men, including three listed as 18 years old, turned up near the highway connecting Mexico City with the beach resort city of Acapulco. A handwritten sign directed Valdez to pick up his "trash."

Three days later, authorities found parts of two bodies in a black plastic bag.

Many of the messages found alongside bodies have been signed "CPS," the Spanish initials for Cartel of the South Pacific, a group that is believed to be controlled by Hector Beltran Leyva and his top aide, Sergio Villarreal Barragan.

The sudden outbreak of killing in Morelos underscores how violence has hop-scotched around Mexico since President Felipe Calderon mobilized the military in a crackdown on traffickers and other organized-crime groups in December 2006.

Since then, more than 22,000 people have died, largely as a result of turf wars between trafficking groups jousting for control of coveted smuggling routes into the United States.

The worst violence has occurred in Ciudad Juarez. But a separate wave of killings has swept the border states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, to the east, as the Gulf cartel and two other ones wage war against former allies known as the Zetas. The feuding has ignited a spate of slayings around the industrial city of Monterrey, 140 miles south of the U.S. border.

A separate war rages in the western state of Michoacan between the Zetas and a group known as La Familia.

Fighting within the Beltran Leyva group "is one more front. It's the last thing Calderon needs," said George W. Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. "The situation is getting worse on the ground because you've got multiplying fronts."

Calderon defends his anti-crime campaign as an essential fight to bring the rule of law to Mexico, but critics say it has failed to curb the power of drug cartels or rein in street violence.

The army has been accused of trampling on residents' rights and become a lightning rod for criticism. On Tuesday, Senate committees were considering putting limits on use of the military in domestic police work.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Monterrey hotel attacked in Mexico kidnappings

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."
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Monterrey hotel attacked in Mexico kidnappings
The hotel assault was reportedly mounted by up to 50 gunmen who seized cars to block streets, slowing the police. At least three people were kidnapped in the attack bearing hallmarks of drug violence.
By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times
5:17 PM PDT, April 21, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

In a bold predawn attack, gunmen stormed a hotel Wednesday in the heart of the northern city of Monterrey and kidnapped at least three people, officials said.

Mexican media said up to 50 hooded gunmen arrived in a convoy and burst into the downtown Holiday Inn, seizing guests and employees.

Law enforcement officials, offering only scant details by late afternoon, said it was not immediately clear whether a fourth person was seized or how many gunmen took part in the 3 a.m. attack. Authorities offered no motive for the kidnappings, but the attack bore the hallmarks of Mexico's drug gang violence.

Monterrey's mayor, Fernando Larrazabal, said police had trouble reaching the scene because the attackers commandeered cars and used them to block surrounding streets. Larrazabal told a radio interviewer that the kidnappers had disappeared in less than 20 minutes.

Authorities dismissed news reports that the kidnappers had seized another person from a hotel across the street. Initial news accounts here said seven people had been kidnapped.

Violence related to drug gangs has spiked in recent months in northeastern Mexico, including around Monterrey, a business hub that is Mexico's third-largest metropolitan area. Hit men have slain police officers and members of rival groups.

A shootout in Monterrey between gunmen and Mexican soldiers last month killed two university students outside their school, Monterrey Tech.

Much of the recent mayhem across the state of Nuevo Leon, of which Monterrey is the capital, and the nearby state of Tamaulipas stems from fighting between the Gulf cartel and former allies, known as the Zetas. That feud has drawn in other trafficking groups, spreading chaos along the U.S. border near the Gulf of Mexico.

The Holiday Inn, with 390 rooms, sits in a downtown zone with numerous high-rise hotels.

The website of the daily Reforma newspaper quoted an unidentified witness as saying the hotel erupted in shouts and the sound of people being beaten. It said gunmen fired when a captive tried to escape, but that it was not clear if the person was hit.

A security guard was reportedly pistol-whipped.

Calls to the hotel were not answered.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

Cecilia Sanchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Mexico death toll in drug war higher than previously reported

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."
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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexico death toll in drug war higher than previously reported
More than 22,000 have died since President Felipe Calderon launched his crackdown on drug trafficking gangs, according to news reports citing confidential government figures.
By Ken Ellingwood
April 14, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

The death toll from the Mexican government's three-year war on drug cartels is far higher than previously reported -- more than 22,000, according to news reports published Tuesday that cited confidential government figures.

The figure is significantly higher than tallies assembled by Mexican media. They estimate that more than 18,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug-trafficking groups after taking office in December 2006.

The unofficial media tallies have often been cited by foreign news outlets, including The Times.

The government has seldom released official counts of those killed in the skyrocketing violence, which stems largely from fighting between rival drug-trafficking groups.

The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that it was preparing to make its count public, but it had not issued its report by the evening.

The daily Reforma newspaper first published the toll number, which it said was contained in a confidential file that top security officials gave federal senators during a hearing Monday. The Associated Press, which said it had gained access to the report, said the total given was 22,700.

The figures present a starker picture than previously known of the violence that has buffeted the country, especially along the U.S. border and in drug-smuggling corridors.

Last year was the deadliest since the Calderon anti-crime offensive began, with 8,928people killed, according to Reforma. So far this year, 2,904people have died, the newspaper said. The AP said the report put the toll at 9,635 last year and 3,365 in January through March this year. It was unclear why there were discrepancies in the report's figures.

Calderon has dispatched more than 48,000 soldiers and several thousand federal police officers along the U.S. border and in other drug-smuggling hot spots across the country.

The clampdown has brought down some leading drug figures, including suspected kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva, killed during a raid in the city of Cuernavaca in December. A succession struggle for control of his cartel has sparked violence recently in the central state of Morelos, where six bodies were found Tuesday under a highway overpass.

But critics say the army-led strategy has failed to reduce violence in cities such as Ciudad Juarez, the nation's deadliest. Juarez is part of Chihuahua, the state with the most killings. Next on the list are the states of Sinaloa, Guerrero, Baja California and Michoacan, according to Reforma.

ken.ellingwood

@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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He's called the face of Ciudad Juarez terror

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-border-el-paso5-2010apr05,0,406005,print.story

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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

He's called the face of Ciudad Juarez terror
Authorities say Eduardo Ravelo has helped turn the border city into Mexico's homicide capital. Now investigators think he played a role in the U.S. Consulate slayings.

By Richard A. Serrano
April 5, 2010
Reporting from El Paso


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Authorities think he had his fingertips altered to disguise his prints and plastic surgery to mask his face. Except for his dark eyes, federal officials doubt he looks anything like his 12-year-old FBI most wanted photo -- round face, trim mustache and a scar along his cheek.

Eduardo Ravelo, known on the street as "Tablas," or "lumber," for his ability to crush, allegedly rules thousands of acolytes in an operation that authorities say specializes in killing, conspiracy, extortion, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Though he is thought to live across the border in Ciudad Juarez and regularly cross into Texas, he has eluded arrest.

"He's a butterfly, a moth," said Samantha Mikeska, an FBI special agent leading the hunt for Ravelo. "He takes care of his people and that keeps him under the radar."

Ravelo, 42, is said by law enforcement to have been a major factor in turning Ciudad Juarez into the homicide capital of Mexico, with nearly 5,000 people slain there since 2008 and more than 600 this year. He is thought to be responsible for dozens of the slayings.

Now he has risen to new prominence as authorities in the U.S. and Mexico investigate whether he was behind the recent drive-by killings of three people associated with the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez.

Arthur H. Redelfs, a detention officer at the El Paso County Jail, and his wife, Lesley A. Enriquez, a consulate employee, were ambushed and killed March 13 as they drove home from a birthday party. A third person, who was married to a consulate employee, was apparently killed by mistake as he drove from the same party in a vehicle similar to the Redelfs'.

The U.S. is determined to find Ravelo, and his wanted picture is plastered on billboards around El Paso. But in Mexico, he appears to have protection.

Robert Beltran, a former gang member who runs a private protection firm on both sides of the border, said the Mexican government, with scores of army troops stationed at the border, should be able to catch Ravelo

"Anybody can be found in Juarez," Beltran said. "If the government puts enough pressure, or the right price is put out, someone will give him up."

But Mikeska, the FBI agent, said Ravelo was no easy target. "He is at the highest rank you can get," she said. "He has a lot of pull, a lot of juice. He has done a lot to survive."

The violence is spilling across the Rio Grande, said Jesse Tovar of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

He pointed to the killing of Sergio Saucedo, 30, in September because of a Mexican drug deal, allegedly involving Ravelo, that went bad. Saucedo was kidnapped from his home in El Paso in front of his family and a school bus filled with children. His body was dumped on a street in Ciudad Juarez with his arms severed and placed on top of a cardboard sign on his chest.

In El Paso, Ravelo's gang is called Barrio Aztecas. It started small, evolving from the so-called Mexican Mafia of inmates in Texas prisons. Authorities said its initial aim in the late 1990s was street robberies to collect funds for the prisoners' commissary accounts.

Today, authorities say there are 2,000 or more hard-core Barrio Aztecas roaming El Paso, a city of 600,000 beset by drug trafficking and illegal immigrant smuggling. In Ciudad Juarez, Ravelo's gang is known simply as the Aztecas. Its numbers are difficult to count but are probably three times those in El Paso. Maybe more.

Both gangs largely work as one outfit, investigators said, primarily moving drugs from the Mexican side into the U.S. Officials said members from both sides, under Ravelo's eye, serve as hit men for the larger Juarez cartel and its Vicente Carrillo Fuentes drug trafficking operation that claims this part of the border region as its turf.

Authorities said Ravelo, who was born in Mexico but has permanent resident status in the U.S., rules the gangs with a firm hand. They said sicarios, or hired killers, are easy to find; he pays them less than 500 pesos, or $40, a week. Gang members who sell heroin for him and then get hooked on the drug are killed. When drug loads turn up missing in El Paso, suspects are kidnapped and taken to Ciudad Juarez. Some are shot; some are tortured and then shot. Some are beheaded.

But it is not always about drugs. Authorities think retaliation and intimidation were the motives behind the consulate shootings. Their operating theory is that Redelfs was the intended target because Ravelo and other gang leaders thought the detention officer was too tough on gang members in the El Paso County Jail.

The violence did not begin with the consulate ambush; it likely will not end there. Last week, Azteca members in Ciudad Juarez sent an e-mail to some residents warning them to expect more violence in the next three or four months.

"People from Juarez," the e-mail said, "get ready because the problem comes hard, the murders are coming heavy and hard. And don't cry with your blankets because nobody cares about you."

Authorities said Ravelo assumed leadership after a series of killings along the border eight years ago. To get to the top, they said, Ravelo betrayed his predecessor, repeatedly stabbing him and then shooting him in the neck.

His ascent was helped, authorities said, by the 2008 arrests in El Paso of six Barrio Azteca leaders, all of whom were handed sentences of life in prison. Ravelo was indicted with the others in the sweeping federal racketeering case. In all, 26 gang members were convicted or pleaded guilty, except for Ravelo, who was never caught.

Authorities said he has slipped undetected between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, sometimes coming with bodyguards and an armored truck to recruit hit men or simply to visit family members on the U.S. side.

For the most part, however, authorities say Ravelo lies low, living modestly with his common-law wife and their children in the Ciudad Juarez hillsides. Investigators think his base of operations is a tattoo parlor, though they said he rarely frequented the shop now, especially after the consulate shootings.

U.S. authorities have no jurisdiction in Mexico, and must rely on officials there to find and arrest him.

"He knows he is looking at life in prison with no parole in this country," said Mikeska of the FBI. "He's not a dumb man. And he's not the kind of person who would come in and surrender. Instead he's saying, 'Come get me.' "

Carmen Coutino, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in El Paso, said the agency recently ran a three-day operation with more than 200 federal agents, arresting 54 gang members.

Ravelo's gang threatened to retaliate against El Paso police if it continued.

"The consulate shootings, that's one of the reasons we did this," Coutino said. "There was a lot of intelligence-gathering, a lot of new leads. We're trying to find out what else we don't know."

richard.serrano@

latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Soldiers gather near the body of a suspected gunman on the outskirts of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state. Drug gangs fighting to control northern Mexico have sought to blockade troops' garrisons. (Claudio Cruz / Associated Press / March 30, 2010)

Mexico drug gangs turn weapons on army

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexico drug gangs turn weapons on army
In northern states this week, gunmen fought troops and sought to confine some to their bases by cutting off access and blocking roads. The aggression shows they are not afraid to challenge the army.
By Tracy Wilkinson
April 2, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

Drug traffickers fighting to control northern Mexico have turned their guns and grenades on the Mexican army, authorities said, in an apparent escalation of warfare that played out across multiple cities in two border states.

In coordinated attacks, gunmen in armored cars and equipped with grenade launchers fought army troops this week and attempted to trap some of them in two military bases by cutting off access and blocking highways, a new tactic by Mexico's organized criminals.

In taking such aggressive action, the traffickers have shown that they are not reluctant to challenge the army head-on and that they possess good intelligence on where the army is, how it moves and when it operates.

At least 18 alleged attackers were killed and one soldier wounded in the fighting that erupted Tuesday in half a dozen towns and cities in the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, the army said, topping off one of the deadliest months yet in a drug war that has raged for nearly 3 1/2 years.

The U.S. Consulate in Monterrey issued a warning to Americans who might be traveling in northern Mexico for the Easter break, citing the sudden outbreaks of gun battles in Nuevo Leon and neighboring states.

Traffickers previously have fought with army patrols, but the attempt to blockade garrisons came after weeks of an intense, bloody power struggle between two rival organizations, the Gulf cartel and its erstwhile paramilitary allies, the Zetas, to control the region bordering South Texas.

Part of the strategy of Tuesday's assaults may have been to prevent the army from patrolling, to give the drug gangs a freer hand in their fight against each other.

"This really speaks to the incredible organization and firepower that the drug-trafficking organizations have managed to muster," said Tony Payan, a border expert at the University of Texas at El Paso. "These are organizations that are flexible, supple and quick to react and adapt. They no doubt represent a challenge to the Mexican state."

In Reynosa, one of the scenes of Tuesday's fighting, the local government put out alerts Thursday for residents to avoid parts of the city. Residents said they heard gunfire and saw military armored personnel carriers moving through neighborhoods. One person was reported killed.

"People hear gunfire and get scared," said Jaime Aguirre, a radio talk show host. "But it's better to keep quiet and not hear anything so as not to risk reprisals."

Reynosa resident Yenni Gandiaga was driving to the gas station Tuesday morning when she heard gunfire getting closer and louder. Then she saw the troops and the gunmen. She turned down a side street to hide, crashing into two other cars in the process.

"People ran about screaming, picking up their children," she said. She hid in a stranger's house. When she emerged after the combatants moved on, the windows of storefronts and cars were shattered.

The Mexican Defense Ministry in Mexico City put out a blow-by-blow account of Tuesday's events. Taking a page from a manual on urban guerrilla warfare, gunmen struck at the same time Tuesday morning, and then again in the afternoon.

In Reynosa, a city in Tamaulipas state across the border from McAllen, Texas, gunmen positioned trucks, cars and trailers on a highway to block Campo Militar, an army base, about 11 a.m. At almost the same time, they blocked a garrison in the city of Matamoros, about 60 miles to the east. In Rio Bravo, between the two cities, traffickers battled with army patrols.

Later in the day, troops and traffickers clashed in other Tamaulipas towns and in neighboring Nuevo Leon state.

The army said it confiscated armored cars, grenade launchers, about 100 military-grade grenades, explosive devices and about 13,000 rounds of ammunition. Seven men were captured.

"The actions by these criminal organizations are a desperate reaction to the advances made by federal authorities in coordination with state and municipal security forces," Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas said.

It was not clear whether the fighting the army reported was with the Zetas or the stronger Gulf cartel. Most of the violence has been cartel against cartel, with some bystanders getting caught in the cross-fire. The gangs have also attacked police stations in many areas.

The Zetas, founded as a group of mercenary former soldiers working for the Gulf group, split away in a bid to take over part of the lucrative drug trade. They are fighting to seize territory from the Gulf network in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, amid reports that other strong cartels, such as the one based in Sinaloa, may be uniting with the Gulf traffickers to wipe out the Zetas.

Dozens of people, primarily traffickers, have been killed in recent weeks as the two groups clashed in the broad triangle along the border from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey to Reynosa and Matamoros. Traffickers have flexed their muscle by repeatedly setting up roadblocks, closing highways and tying up traffic even in Monterrey, a major city.

"It is a risky tactic because it has the potential of angering society, but it is a very effective show of power," said Martin Barron, a researcher at a Mexico City think tank.

The increased agility of the drug gangs seen in Tuesday's violence indicates good intelligence, experts here and abroad said. Some of that intelligence comes from taxi drivers, street vendors and scores of other people on the traffickers' payroll who serve as lookouts for drug runners and their henchmen. But Payan and others suggested that some of the precise, street-level intelligence may come from soldiers, adding substance to fear that as the army is increasingly dragged into the drug war it is becoming susceptible to the same cartel-financed corruption that has long corroded police departments and many political structures.

In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's deadliest city and where the army has been deployed in greatest force, federal police are to begin taking over security duties this month as the army is gradually withdrawn, the government said. The army has been criticized for rights abuses, including the disappearance of detainees and illegal searches.

By one newspaper's count, the drug war's death toll in March was the highest yet, more than 1,000.

wilkinson@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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