AZMEX UPDATE 19-10-17

AZMEX UPDATE 19 OCT 2017

Note: Close to home. From the good folks at Borderland Beat http://www.borderlandbeat.com
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Sinaloa Cartel cell responsible for recent murder of journalist
Posted by Stevectpa-Republished from El Universal translated by Mexico Daily

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2017/10/sinaloa-cartel-cell-responsible-for.html#more

The murder last March in Chihuahua of journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea, 54, has been linked to hired gunmen associated with the Sinaloa Cartel, the state Attorney General's office revealed this week.

The investigation has found that one of the four hitmen who killed Breach on March 23 is the nephew of Crispín Salazar, leader of a regional gang known as Los Salazar.

Thought to be a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel, the gang is based in and operates from the remote mountain Chihuahua municipality of Chínipas, close to the border with Sonora and also Breach's hometown.

Sources quoted by the Attorney General said Breach's murder was revenge by Los Salazar, who felt betrayed by the journalist's exposés on their modus operandi.

"What we know is that Los Salazar were not pleased with her, not so much about the content of her stories, but because they were being singled out by someone from their own hometown . . . shining the light on the abuses they committed and the way they attempted to impose candidates during the most recent [state] elections," said Attorney General César Augusto Peniche Espejel.


Los Salazar operate in the border region between Chihuahua and Sonora, cultivating and trafficking marijuana and opium poppies, which they smuggle into the United States across the border between Sonora and Arizona.


Arrest warrants have been issued for the four individuals suspected in Breach's murder.

Rosa María Breach, the victim's sister, recently won an amparo, or injunction, in which a federal judge ordered that the state provide her with all information it had gathered regarding the journalist's murder.

The Attorney General had refused to release the information on the grounds that Rosa María Breach was a third party, and that only the journalist's children could be granted access to the case file.

Note:
The Salazars operate in Sonora and in the mountains of Chihuahua. They control the planting, production and transfer of drugs to Arizona, in addition to the trafficking of undocumented migrants. Their founder, Adamo Salaar Zamorano, was an lieutenant of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
Borderland Beat Reporter guest reporter Posted at 10:09 AM

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Border gunbattles leave 11 dead in northern Mexico
Updated 3:58 pm, Tuesday, October 17, 2017

http://www.lmtonline.com/news/texas/article/Border-gunbattles-leave-11-dead-in-northern-Mexico-12282868.php?utm_campaign=hpborder

FILE - A Mexican federal police officer mans an automatic weapon during a patrol in Reynosa, where drug cartels battle each other for dominance over trade routes to the U.S. Officials said shootouts in the border city of Reynosa and around towns in the northern Mexico border state of Tamaulipas have caused at least 11 deaths. Photo: Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News / San Antonio Express-News
Photo: Billy Calzada, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — A running series of gunbattles caused at least 11 deaths in the northern Mexico border state of Tamauilpas, authorities said Monday.

Officials said the shootouts in the border city of Reynosa and the nearby town of Rio Bravo started late Sunday. Gunmen hijacked vehicles and used them to block streets, and spread bent nails to puncture tires to facilitate their getaways. Authorities called in a helicopter to support ground patrols moving to break up the roadblocks.
One group of four gunmen was killed near a gas station after they opened fire on a military patrol, officials said. Three other bodies were discovered at other points around Rio Bravo.


Police found 13 improvised armored vehicles, which are usually light trucks with welded steel plating. Such vehicles are often used by drug gangs in Tamaulipas. Officers also found six hand grenades, 17 40-mm rifle-launched grenades and about three dozen guns, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle.


The dead included a man apparently killed by assailants after he and a child sought shelter from gunfire in a house on their way to school. The man and child emerged from the house when the shooting died down temporarily, and that is when the man was hit.
Three people also were killed in what appeared to be targeted shootings in the town of Padilla, farther south.
Reynosa is across the border from McAllen, Texas, and has been the scene of turf battles between factions of the Gulf cartel.
In Chihuahua, another northern border state, prosecutors said Monday that the death toll from a shootout in the remote mountain town of Uruachi had risen to seven. About 100 state police officers were sent to the town after the Friday gunfight, which apparently involved a dispute between rival gunmen.

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