In the continuing issue of the events surrounding the supposed arrest of the son of "El Chapo" Guzman, we are being treated to a considerable furor, led by the left-wing press. His attorney says it is a case of mistaken identity, and then a woman who is a be-wrought "mother" of the poor child who has been unjustly arrested, and a "wife" of that same sad individual have been telling the all-too-sympathetic press that this poor child is not who it is said that he is. He is simply a poor, used-car salesman struggling to make a living in a maligned profession, but that he is nothing more or less than a common, honest, working man.
The corollary, or course, is that the Mexican military....be it the Naval Infantry or the Army....is always wrong, is always guilty of evidence planting, is always corrupt, mean, and and is just a bunch of bad people.
The problem buried in all of this is that the individual arrested and detained really is a person who has been identified by numerous common citizens as an individual who has bragged that he is who the Naval Infantry says he is. He has bragged in the cantinas, and he has bragged to people at soccer games, and he has bragged at social events involving mainly cartel people and their families. He has been identified by people at considerable risk to themselves and their families. And, he has been identified by American investigative personnel.
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| The man thought to be Alfredo Guzman Salazar, son of the elusive El Chapo |
There are a few problems with his story, as well. His used-car operation has been the scene of numerous confrontations between various factions of various cartels. People have been killed there on three or four occasions. He first said that he was just a salesman, but now it seems that he has documentation suggesting that he is the owner. He resisted a call by the Naval Infantry to open his door and come forward.
Allow El Gringo Viejo to suggest, if the Naval Infantry calls upon a person to open the door and come forward, there is nothing to gain, be one innocent, in resisting the order. And, in 99.999999% of the cases, you will lose the point by resisting. The firepower of a platoon of these military people is....to put it very conservatively....formidable. Inside the house, the authorities found 132,000 dollars in cash, neatly bundled. They also found two of the fairly common grenade launchers normally found in the homes of poor used car salesmen, along with two fully automatic rifles (AK-47) and several thousand rounds of ammunition for said weaponry. A couple of pistols were found as well along with ammunition for those weapons. At first the poor, innocent, used-car salesman said that he had the money from the sale of a home (this according to his attorney). Unfortunately he could not remember exactly where that home is or was, nor could he remember who had bought that home. The attorney declared that the weaponry had been planted along with the ammunition, and that the Naval Infantry is guilty of trying to frame his client. Later it is learned that the poor innocent used car salesman thought that some or all of the weaponry and ammunition had been given to him as a kind of a "down-payment" on the purchase of a late-model used car.
Enter the killing of a person who bears a familial resemblance to the poor, innocent, used- car salesman, on the 18th of June, 2012. This killing is in Culiacan, Sinaloa some distance up the Pacific Coast road from these scenes aforedescribed in Zapopan, an interior suburb of Guadalajara. We include this unfortunate picture, once again only for adults. Obied Cano Zepeda is the unfortunate on the ground with face towards the camera. He has a strange resemblance to his 1st cousin in Zapopan. Obied is (was) also a pilot, and worked for his Uncle El Chapo. Some think his Uncle has succumbed to various disorders and that the Cartel might be unravelling from its base somewhere in the remote mountains between Durango, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua States of Mexico.
In any regard, beware of the news reports concerning this case. It would even be possible that the Federal Prosecutor might release this innocent, used-car salesman....although it is very probable that is the last thing the salesman wants. Were he to walk out of the detention, his life expectancy would be something in the neighbourhood of 30 days. The salesman probably wants to be transferred to a prison east of Mexico City, and if possible be extradited to the United States for crimes charged in various States in our Republic.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 | 
Borderland Beat
According to information from the attorney general, Cano Zepeda, 24 years old, was at his home in Colonia Loma Linda, in the center of Culiacan, when a command (group of 'comandos') cut him down in a hail of bullets. The gunmen descended from several vehicles and fired several shots against others present at the home and those two were also killed. Close to Cano's body was man identified as Luis Alberto López Higuera, 25, the third person killed is Jesus Tostado, 22. During the shooting a man identified as the father of one of the deseased was injured. The injured man is identified as Fernando Lopez Lopez, 64. Obeid Cano was arrested on May 21, 2008 with an arsenal, along with Christian Misael Lopez Estrada.
At that time, the Federal Police captured two hit men of the colony Los Pinos, who had four firearms including a 50 caliber Barrett, hundreds of cartridges, magazines, grenades and 16 luxury vehicles. The machine gun was fitted with a Barrett's easel in the case of one of the vans.
In the forensic review and evaluation of the safe house, officials encountered 16 cars of recent model, seven of which were reported as stolen. The gunmen had in their possession at arrest four guns, 25 magazines, 913 cartridges, 11 of them to Barrett 50 calibre, three gas grenades, vests, boots, and other military paraphanalia.
Obied was the brother of Luis Alberto Zepeda Cano, who was apprehended by the Army on August 22, 2006 along with four other men, including a judge in the town of Bastantita de Tamasula, Durango. These arrests led to the fury of the Sinaloa cartel, which days later threw a body of a man at the main gate of the Ninth Military Zone with a sign on his chest: "For fingering, Eddy". Sources used: Ixtepec Informa, Animal Politico-EL Debate.
The Attorney General of Justice (PGJ) of Sinaloa confirmed that during a Father's Day celebration Obied Cano Zepeda, nephew of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was killed.
According to information from the attorney general, Cano Zepeda, 24 years old, was at his home in Colonia Loma Linda, in the center of Culiacan, when a command (group of 'comandos') cut him down in a hail of bullets. The gunmen descended from several vehicles and fired several shots against others present at the home and those two were also killed. Close to Cano's body was man identified as Luis Alberto López Higuera, 25, the third person killed is Jesus Tostado, 22. During the shooting a man identified as the father of one of the deseased was injured. The injured man is identified as Fernando Lopez Lopez, 64. Obeid Cano was arrested on May 21, 2008 with an arsenal, along with Christian Misael Lopez Estrada.
At that time, the Federal Police captured two hit men of the colony Los Pinos, who had four firearms including a 50 caliber Barrett, hundreds of cartridges, magazines, grenades and 16 luxury vehicles. The machine gun was fitted with a Barrett's easel in the case of one of the vans.
In the forensic review and evaluation of the safe house, officials encountered 16 cars of recent model, seven of which were reported as stolen. The gunmen had in their possession at arrest four guns, 25 magazines, 913 cartridges, 11 of them to Barrett 50 calibre, three gas grenades, vests, boots, and other military paraphanalia.
Obied was the brother of Luis Alberto Zepeda Cano, who was apprehended by the Army on August 22, 2006 along with four other men, including a judge in the town of Bastantita de Tamasula, Durango. These arrests led to the fury of the Sinaloa cartel, which days later threw a body of a man at the main gate of the Ninth Military Zone with a sign on his chest: "For fingering, Eddy". Sources used: Ixtepec Informa, Animal Politico-EL Debate.
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Below is a fairly common observation of people writing in to the Borderland Beat commentary line about all of the above.
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Such is the nature of the days in which we live. We saw the article, for instance, about the 6 boys who killed a 60 year old Chinese fellow in Wilmington, Delaware. The offense of the Chinese fellow? He was delivering a pizza that had been ordered by the 6 much younger men. They killed him and left him slumped over his steering wheel. And then they went back inside to eat the pizza. First things first. Al Sharpton is organising protests at this time I am sure, due to the racism involved in the arrest of the 6 individuals.
The thing is that in Mexico the situation grows steadily better. Slowly, even too slowly. But it is better. In the United States, the urban situation, no matter what kind of cosmetic efforts are made....the situation hovers between hopeless and disastrous. One holds his breath for the results of the next election to give us a chance that the advances made by the Army and Naval Infantry will be solidified and advanced.
Another part of me wonders how there could even be any chance that the American people could be so stupid as to even consider such a thing as a re-election of Barak Hussein O'Bama.
Mexico hovers over making a six year mistake while we hover over making an eight year mistake. We must hope and work for the best solution in both cases.
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More Later. We try to keep folks informed and we try to provide different platforms from which to view the situation.
El Gringo Viejo
