Gangland

by Jerry Langton

As the Arizona gubernatorial election approached, political tensions and rhetoric started to become more intense. Democratic challenger Terry Goddard accused incumbent Brewer of spreading false information regarding Mexican cartels beheading illegal immigrants in the Arizona desert. “I'm astonished, frankly, everybody who [has] studied this knows there are no beheadings,” Goddard said, citing a survey of state medical examiners. “Arizona has the lowest violent crime rate we've had since 1983, our law enforcement has done a great job, and why the governor won't simply say I was wrong, there were no beheadings, Arizona is safe, I do not understand, this is hurting us incredibly.”

  Brewer did not answer Goddard's accusations directly. Instead, on October 10, 2010 a discovery was made that convinced many in Arizona that the Mexican Drug War had indeed moved north of the border. Martin Alejandro Cota Monroy lived in Perris, California, a predominantly Hispanic city in Riverside County. He was an illegal immigrant and professional drug trafficker, working in association with the Sinaloa Cartel.

  That spring, he was ferrying a shipment of 400 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of meth for the cartel when he decided to keep it, and sell it himself. When his contacts in U.S. asked him where the drugs were, Cota Monroy told them that they had been intercepted by the Border Patrol.

  They weren't convinced for long and Cota Monroy was kidnapped the next time he was in Mexico. The men who kidnapped him were hired to kill him, but he managed to bargain with them, saying he would pay them back for the shipment, putting his house in Perris up as collateral.

  They released him, but when they found out that Cota Monroy did not actually own the house, his fate was sealed.

  At about 5:00 a.m., a man talking to his girlfriend at a row of townhouses in Chandler, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix that had been named to Forbes magazine's “most boring cities in the U.S.” list) noticed some Hispanic men arguing a few doors away and then leaving in a Ford Expedition SUV with California plates. He called police. They arrived at the house at about 5:30 and found the door open. Cota Monroy's body was just inside and his head was a few feet away. His body and head both showed signs of significant trauma and torture. “It was a very gruesome scene,” Chandler police detective David Ramer said. “Anytime you see a headless body stabbed multiple times, obviously that's gruesome. And this is a message being sent—not only are they going to kill you but they're going to dismember your body, and ‘If you cross us, this is what happens.’”

  An investigation into Cota Monroy's death led to the arrest of Tuscon-based illegal immigrant Crisantos Moroyoqui, who worked for the PEI Estatales/El Chapo organization, better known as the Sinaloa Cartel. Three other men—including one identified as “El Joto” (the Queer) were QMAT fugitives. It was alleged that the men were part of El Gio, an enforcer unit operating on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel. “The cartel hired hit men specifically to kill him,” said Detective Dave Ramer, spokesman for the Chandler police. “He lied his way out of being killed the first time. He said he was going to put up his house for collateral to pay for the drugs, but he didn't own a house. You're going to say whatever you can to save your life.”

  Brewer won the election and incidents related to the trafficking of both drugs and humans continued to be attributed to the cartels. In February 2011, a bus traveling in Nogales, Arizona, a few feet from the international border was stopped when a section of road collapsed underneath it. Police then discovered a hand-dug tunnel under the border that they said was used to smuggle immigrants and drugs into the U.S. It was just 19 feet long, beginning just on the Mexican side of the fence and exiting in the employee parking lot of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry building. It was, police said, the 25th such tunnel that had been uncovered since the summer of 2008.

  On the same day, Babeu publicly responded to a letter signed by several mayors of towns in Arizona's border counties that had asked him to tone down his rhetoric. He said:

  Pinal County is the number one county in the United States for drug and human trafficking. Our pursuits and drug seizures tied to drug and human trafficking far exceed those of the four border counties. The threat from an unsecured border, where 241,000 illegals were apprehended last year by the border patrol and an additional 400,000 got away. Those are failing grades by anyone's score card.

  Some speak of improved safety, while we have doubled the confiscation of drugs, calls to the Border Patrol and had 340 vehicle pursuits this year—up from 286 the year before and 142 the year prior. We have a serious public safety threat in my county, due to an unsecured border with Mexico and our nation should be highly concerned about the more dangerous national security threat that is presented with OTMs [an acronym meaning illegal immigrants “other than Mexicans”] and persons from countries of interest (that harbor/sponsor terrorists or speak ill of the U.S.A).

  Just this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Pinal County has a minimum of 75-100 mountains or high-terrain features that are occupied by Mexican drug cartels. How have we arrived at this point in America that this is acceptable to have foreign-born criminals controlling safe passage in an entire region of our state?

  If these mayors were serious about dialogue with me, they would have called, or at least waited for (their) letter to arrive by mail at my office, prior to releasing their letter to the media. They have done the very thing they accuse me of doing. I do not represent these mayors or their citizens, yet I do represent the nearly 400,000 citizens of my county and the overwhelming majority of Arizonans, who laugh at Secretary Napolitano's suggestion that our border is more secure than ever.

  On that same day, Jaimie Zapata, an agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and another unidentified agent were stopped at a roadblock in Mexico City. Men masquerading as soldiers fired upon the men, killing Zapata and badly injuring the other agent.

  The attack was met with a strongly worded statement from Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano. “Let me be clear: Any act of violence against our ICE personnel ... is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety,” she said.

  That led many people in the U.S. to believe that their government would be more active in the Drug War. “You start killing U.S. officials and that really turns up the heat,” said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. “There's going to be great pressure on the Mexican government to find out who was behind this killing, enormous pressure.”

  Just as the rhetoric was reaching its highest levels, French videogame developer Ubisoft released a violent Grand Theft Auto-style video game called Call of Juarez: the Cartel. In it, players must travel from Los Angeles to Juárez “taking the law into your own hands.” As first, the company defended the game. “Call of Juarez: the Cartel is purely fictional and developed by the team at Techland for entertainment purposes only,” a Ubisoft press release said. “While Call of Juarez: the Cartel touches on subjects relevant to current events in Juárez, it does so in a fictional manner that makes the gaming experience feel more like being immersed in an action movie than in a real-life situation.” After much controversy, Ubisoft eventually pulled the game, recast it in the Old West and relaunched it as Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood.

  On March 1, ICE announced that its Operation Southern Tempest had resulted in the arrests of 678 people throughout the southeastern United States who were involved with the Mexican drug cartels. ICE Director John Morton pointed out that those arrested represented 133 individual gangs, including the Salvadoran MS-13, the Latin Kings, the Bloods and the Jamaican Posse.

  And two days later a raid occurred that convinced many Americans that the war had indeed spilled over the border. In Columbus, New Mexico—the very town that Pancho Villa had attempted to take over in 1916—11 members of local government, including Mayor Eddie Espinoza and Police Chief Angelo Vega, were arrested in a conspiracy to import weapons into Mexico. In the 84-count indictment, the accused were
alleged to have purchased at least 200 firearms—specializing in 9mm pistols and a shortened form of the AK-47 that can be fired using just one hand—and 1,500 rounds of ammunition to resell in Mexico.

  “I couldn't tell you for sure that the firearms would ultimately be put in the hands of people who were going to hurt other people, but because we believe the firearms were destined for Mexico, we feel we made a big difference today,” said District Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales. “Presumably these folks are engaging in this activity because there is money to be made. We're very disappointed that we have among these 11 people three people in government positions—a police chief sworn to protect the public and a mayor sworn to lead and provide for the public safety and a village trustee that has that duty as well. That was part of the tragedy here—we're actually having to search a police department.”

  So before the spring of 2011 had arrived, many features of the Mexican Drug War had clearly been seen north of the border. Mass arrests of drug-trafficking gangs were being arrested with no disruption of the flow of drugs on the streets. Rough justice had been handed out by cartel members in the form of throat slashings and a beheading. American financial institutions (some of whom received government assistance for their own mismanagement) had been shown to have aided the cartels. And to complete the cycle, elected officials and the police had been found to be corrupt—running illegal firearms to the cartels for profit.

  • • •

  Of course, it's impossible to predict what will happen next in the Mexican Drug War. The two sides in Mexico appear to have reached a bloody equilibrium in which forces loyal to President Calderón make mass arrests, sometimes of top capos, which seem to have no effect on the level of violence or trafficking.

  There are no easy answers. Acceptance of marijuana usage in North America is growing, but trafficking is still illegal. While legalization could be an option in the future, at this point it would be against the wishes of the majority of North Americans, and it would have little or no effect on the trade of cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin, MDMA and other drugs. And mere legalization is no guarantee that smuggling would stop. When the Canadian government increased taxes on cigarettes in 1991, thousands of Canadians risked arrest—and many even risked their lives with dangerous night-time waterborne border crossings—to smuggle cheaper tobacco across the border. When the legislation was hastily repealed in 1994, it had cost Canadian taxpayers $4.8 billion, according to a University of Ottawa study. Taxed marijuana, if significantly more expensive than contraband, could have a similar effect. Trade to those for whom marijuana sales would still be prohibited—minors, for example—would also contribute to illegal trade.

  While many groups, including the quasi-governmental RAND Corporation, have advocated rehabilitation and education programs instead of interdiction, it should be noted that while they may reduce drug use and especially dependency, they do not eliminate it. A rough analogy can be found with unplanned pregnancies: although sex education is universal and contraceptives are cheap and easily accessible, millions of North American women still experience unplanned pregnancies every year.

  Any of these actions can help reduce the effect of trafficking, but as long as there are outrageous sums of money to be made, there will be people who are willing to intimidate and kill to get their share. The combination of factors that incubated the Mexican Drug War—poverty, ignorance, hypocrisy, corruption and the contempt it breeds—made it an ideal place for war to emerge. Before the Fox and Calderón initiatives, there was much less violence, but there was also an environment in which the government essentially took orders from criminals.

  It seems that there are two paths Mexico can take. It can continue with the War Against Drug Trafficking in hope that it will subside much like the crack wars did in the U.S. Or they can go back to collaborating with the cartels, allowing them to keep the peace in their own way.

  Notes

  The standard Mexican naming convention is usually that the given names are followed by the paternal surname and then the maternal surname. For example, former Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesda's father was named José Luis Fox Pont and his mother Mercedes Quesada Etxaide. For the most part, I have usually included both surnames to reduce confusion. The exceptions are those personalities—like Fox or Lydia Cacho (Ribeiro)—who are well known to North Americans by one surname. With them, I use two surnames for first reference and one for subsequent mentions. Many sources, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), hyphenate Mexican surnames, as in Fox-Queseda. A second given name is sometimes given when two people share the same first name and surname, as in Francisco Javier “El Tigrillo” Arellano Félix and Francisco Rafael “Frankie O” Arellano Félix. Mexican-Americans, like Jenni Rivera, are generally referred to by one surname if it is their preference. Some historical figures like Francisco I Madero (González) have their second surname listed in parentheses on first reference if it is not commonly used. One exception is that of journalist Jesús Blancornelas, who was born Jesús Blanco Ornelas, and conflated his name.

  Nicknames are given between the given name and first surname in quotation marks. English translations are provided where appropriate. Some liberty has been taken with the translations, as in examples like “El Gordo,” which literally translates as “the fat one,” but I think is better expressed as “Fatso.” Some nicknames, like “El Kalis” have no literal English translations, while others, like “El Puma” are self explanatory. In published reports, Edgar Valdez Villarreal is often called “La Barbie” because the doll he is named after is feminine and just as often “El Barbie” because he is masculine. Mexican sources I have spoken to recommend using just “Barbie.” Although translating Zhen-Li Ye Gon's nickname “El Chino” as “the Chinaman” may sound culturally insensitive, I think it accurately reflects the way it was used by Mexican media.

  With place names, I use local spellings and accents, unless the place in question is a commonplace English word. For example, I use Mexico City for Ciudad de México, but Culiacán is spelled with its accent. For place names that are used in more than one place, like Hidalgo, the state is also given. The exception is Juárez, because of the importance to the narrative of Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua.

  Civilian versions of the AK-47 and M-16 assault rifles are known as the WASR-10 and AR-15 respectively, but when they are illegally brought back to military standards, I refer to them as AK-47 and AR-15 as is commonplace, if not strictly correct.

  Although the official name of Mexico is Estados Unidos Mexicanos (the United States of Mexico) and that of America is the United States of America, in the book, as with convention, the phrase “United States” refers to America. For reasons of convenience, North America refers to the United States and Canada, not Mexico, and Central America refers to Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, not Mexico.

  The preferred spelling of the consumable product of the cannabis plant is marijuana, but the United States government uses the older spelling “marihuana.” I retain their spelling when quoting official documents. Cocaine refers to powdered cocaine and crack cocaine is simply called crack.

  Drug cartels often have multiple names—such as the Tijuana Cartel, which is often known as the Arellano Félix Organization or AFO—I prefer to use geographic names to avoid confusion. The exception is the Beltrán Leyva Cartel (also known as the South Pacific Cartel) because of the importance of the Beltrán Leyva family in its founding and organization and La Familla (instead of Michoacán Cartel), because that's what they are more commonly called and it befits their quasi-religious philosophy.

  The river separating Texas and Mexico is called the Rio Grande in the U.S. and Canada and Rio Bravo in Mexico. I use the name Rio Grande.

  Although it is controversial, I frequently use the term “illegal immigrant” because of its commonplace usage and because undocumented migrants are indeed breaking immigration laws.

  Sources

  Because of t
he nature of the conflict in Mexico and the pressure put upon journalists who risk being kidnapped and murdered for reporting what they see, many of the sources used in this book would be put into grave danger if their names were published. Because of this, most individuals referred to in this book are given assumed or partial names. Sources are named where the source is deceased, imprisoned, well known (such as politicians or pop stars) or already exposed by the media (as in the case of people such as Tiffany Hartley).

  Officially, much of my research has come from the U.S. Embassy to Mexico, the U.S. General Accounting Office, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the police departments of El Paso, Tuscon and other cities. Some information has also come from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Citizenship Canada and various Canadian police forces. Even more came from The Center for Latin American and Border Studies, the Pew Research Center and many other nongovernmental organizations.

  More information came from the reporters and editors of International Herald Tribune, El Universal, The Houston Chronicle, Milenio, Alertnet, El Mañana, Reuters, BBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, Yahoo!, The Christian Science Monitor, Nueva Leon Enlinea, El Diario, Fox News, The Times of London, CBC, ABC, MSNBC, The Star-Tribune, Time, The Chicago Sun-Times, The El Paso Times, Newsweek, The Washington Examiner, Crónica, Diario Eyipantla Milenio, Diario Xalapa, El Dictamen, Excélsior, Frontera, El Imparcial, El Informador, La Jornada, La Voz de Michoacán, El Vigia, El Nacional, El Norte, Notimex, Novedades de México, Novedades de Quintana Roo, Novedades de Tabasco, Novedades de Yucatán, El Occidental, Periódico Vanguardia, Publico, La Prensa, Reforma, Siglo 21, El Siglo de Torreón, El Zócalo and many other media outlets. Special thanks to Eric, Joe, Karen and Javier.