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Vicente Carillo Leads Juárez Cartel

The DEA has officially recognized Vicente Carillo Fuentes as the new leader of the Juárez Cartel. According to the DEA, Vicente Carillo Fuentes took control of all the sub-organizations related to the cartel after the death of his brother Amado Carillo Fuentes.

It is believed that the Juárez Cartel is the most dangerous organized drug trafficking chain in México. In January 1998, the Mexican government released 65 arrest warrants for people proven to be related to the Cartel. Among the warrants was one for Amado's widow, Sonia Barragán Pérez.

While Mexican authorities assure that they are looking for Vicente Carillo Fuentes in order to comply with the arrest warrant, they said they haven't been successful in locating him but do believe he is in México.

Tequila Frog's Causes Hardships And Death

After the February 7 attack on former PJE agent Dante Poggio Hernández and his family in Cd. Juárez, a series of executions and misfortunes have surrounded Poggio's nightclub in the city's Pronaf district. Tequila Frog's, one of Cd. Juárez' most renowned and luxurious nightclubs with an estimated worth of over 4 million dollars closed its doors to the public after three months of operation on March 19. Signs that informed customers that the establishment had closed read "Undergoing remodeling, new administration."

It is believed by local authorities that the club was closed after a series of attacks that stemmed from the February 7 incident. On March 7 employees of Tequila Frog's obstructed the entrance to the club, making it impossible for firefighters responding to an anonymous bomb threat to enter the premises. The employees told the firefighters that they could not come in because there was nothing for them to see.

On March 18, the body of Raul Iglesias Olives, 36, was found in the trunk of Cherokee in Cd. Juárez, shot to death and apparently tortured. He was employed as a body guard for the now closed nightclub Tequila Frog's. Another two employees of the nightclub were reported missing on March 21. René Zubiate Salazar and Javier Ponce Portugal disappeared on March 17, according to their families who placed the report with local authorities.

Local authorities have reported that Dante Poggio Hernández is still missing. However, they stated that "Intelligence reports from highly confidential sources, as well as our own investigations, show that Poggio Hernández met with then Assistant Attorney General Nahúm Nájera in his office during the first week of March."

Informant's Death Could Be Linked To Drug Bust

A former Federal Mexican Police officer was shot and killed by a bicyclist on Friday, March 5, as he traveled through Cd. Juárez. The execution is believed to be related to drug trafficking.

José Rizo Ceja, 42, worked for the Federal Police as well as for a Federal Border Security Task Force that was in place when Rafael Aguilar Guajardo was the leader of the Juárez Cartel and Cuauhtémoc Ortiz was his lieutenant. Both were executed in 1993. It has also been reported that Rizo, who was unemployed at the time of his death, was an unofficial informant to anti-drug agencies.

It is believed, according to El Diario, that Rizo had maintained a long relationship with both cartel leaders as well as with the former chief of the Federal Judicial Police, Guillermo González Calderon.

Police in Cd. Juárez are currently investigating a number of local gangs. Witnesses at the scene of the crime described the assailant as a member of a Cd. Juárez gang. Authorities have told the press that the investigations are still underway.

Just an hour before this execution, over a million dollars, packaged in cellophane and tape, was confiscated on the Córdova Bridge of the Americas (the "free" bridge) in Cd. Juárez by federal police. The driver had been traveling from El Paso into México.

The driver, Pedro Cuevadier García, was arrested immediately and taken to the local police station to render a statement. According to Cd. Juárez authorities Cuevadier appeared uneasy as he crossed the international border which lead the officers to question him and eventually discover the hidden money. While authorities are not releasing specific information concerning Cuevadier's statement, they did say that they believe the purpose of this money was to pay off a major drug deal. They have also stated that they believe this incident could be related to the March 5 murder of José Rizo Ceja.

The discovery of this money trafficking is the largest ever made by Mexican border officials, and second only to a April 11, 1997 confiscation of over 5 million dollars by US officials. The April incident also occurred on the Córdova Bridge of the Americas.

Other Executions

On Friday, March 19, another body was discovered in the trunk of a Cherokee, shot and also apparently tortured. The victim's hands and head were bound with duct tape. This victim has not yet been identified.

On March 24, Andrés Maldonado Marques, 26, was executed in front of his home by a group of four men dressed in black. It is believed that he may have been a former body guard of Jose Sandalio Loya who was executed in November of 1997 and was known to have associations with the Juárez drug cartel.

On March 25, a man known only as "El Beto," was found shot and stuffed into a bag in a colonia on the southwest side of the city. An anonymous phone call lead the police to discover the body which had apparently been tortured before execution.

RELATED NEWS BRIEFS

Statistics Reveal That Drug Use Is Up

According to recent statistics released by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) Chihuahua is ranked fourth in the nation for drug abuse. In the last year there has been more than a 100 percent increase in drug abuse, mostly among children under the age of eighteen.

The INEGI studies show that in Chihuahua, there are more than 100 thousand users of heroine and cocaine. José Antonio Rivera Rojas said that while the consumption of heroine, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol is rising among young adults in Cd. Juárez, the use of inhalants is down.

US Customs Agents Confiscate 6 Million In Drugs

On March 3, US Customs Agents confiscated over 1,200 pounds of cocaine in two separate incidents. "This represents half of the total amount of cocaine confiscated in all of last year, " said Manuel Alvarez director of US Customs in El Paso. The drugs confiscated on March 3 have an approximate street value of 6.2 million dollars, said Alvarez.

Both drug busts were made on the Córdova Bridge. According to customs officials 52 packages of cocaine were discovered at 11 a.m. inside a tire that belonged to a Kenworth tractor. Another 188 packages of cocaine were discovered later in the day inside an abandoned Ford Explorer near the Córdova Bridge.

Drug Enforcement Looses Local Support

The Department of Public Security removed their members from the Special Task Force 'Orion.' Special Task Force 'Orion' is a group of police agents from all three judicial levels, federal, state and municipal whose primary task is to combat illegal drug activities. On March 1, 'Orion' confiscated over 80 kilos of marijuana from a local address, however, now officials fear the end of the task force due to lack of support.

'Orion' was founded two years ago with members of Municipal Police, Judicial Police, and Federal Police. Recently both the state and municipality have pulled there members from the task force. "It is a shame that the state removed their officials, however, we know that they have a specific duty and we do too, and well, everyone should do what they are supposed to," said Police Chief Javier Benavides González when questioned how the force would survive with only one police unit remaining.

DEA Studies 'Narcocorridos' For Drug Trafficking Hints

United States government employees have confirmed to Norte that for at least "seven years the DEA has hired linguistic experts to 'decode' and analyze the meaning and hidden messages of narcocorridos." According to Norte's sources, the DEA has, in certain instances, been able to solve cases thanks to the messages in the songs.

Narcocorridos tell the story of drug traffickers and drug trafficking in México. It is believed that since it is public that the DEA uses these songs to help their investigations, a number of important drug lords have asked song writers to be less specific in the narcocorridos.

According to a story in Norte, if one were to compare the narcocorridos from a few years ago to today's songs, one would find that they are less specific and no longer depict specific incidences or persons.