From the Border reporter (please visit and donate to this great blog)
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And Mexico, and I mean the State, is staying the Christ out of it. Thank you, first of all, to juanito, a reader here who helped set me straight on the players. He’s got it right, Felix the Ice Cream Man is with Raúl Sabori, Paéz Soto, Nini Beltrán and Los Jabalí, Jose Vásquez’s boys from Santa Ana. Collectively, they’re the Sinaloa Federation’s syndicate along the Sonora border. And they’re going against El Gilo, a man identified in an FBI report as Hector Beltrán Leyva’s lieutenant in Saríc and Tubutama, that pocket of cerro between Nogales and Sasabe, just along the Sonora-Arizona border. It is significant that the U.S. intel agencies do not know his real name.
Gilo, according to the FBI, has 300 men stocked in that town and they’re running out of resources. Last week, the chief of police and town treasurer from Tubutama tried to make a run for Nogales to buy gasoline; they were subsequently eliminated from the argument. On June 12, according to a U.S. Border Patrol intel report, Gilo scrapped with the Mexican Army in Cerro Prieto; taking no casualties. The Army backed off, not saying how many casualties they themselves took. Geographically, it’s a rough area to get to; there is exactly one highway leading in, you come in from Magdalena de Kino or you come in from Sasabe or Altar. My apologies to those of you not from this area, it’s late, I’m busy and I don’t have time to explain these logistics. Suffice it to say that there are three entrances towards that mountain range, one from the east, two from the west.
In that gunfight yesterday, the Sinaloa crew fooked up; there’s just no other way to put it. Los Jabalí geared up with 30-50 SUVs and trucks, all marked with three X’s on the windows. Gilo’s people were waiting for them. According to the FBI, the Sinaloans ran into a roadblock, just a couple cars jamming up the road; enough to force the convoy to a halt. It was truly a stupid maneuver, in my opinion. Yeah, you had them cornered, Gilo’s people are sitting stranded in a fooking mountain town for chrissakes. But the Sinaloans moved in linearly when they should have come in from all directions. Idiotas. Bear in mind that the Army did nothing during this occupation; they didn’t move in on Gilo, they didn’t move on the Sinaloans.
From the FBI report: “Subjects report that the Jabalínas (sp) were forced to a stop on the highway when Gilo’s group opened fire and sustained heavy casualties.”
The Sinaloans are supposedly waiting for 300 men to arrive from Sinaloa. Unfortunately for them, Gilo is also awaiting reinforcements.
There’s an old story in the Sierra, about a lion cornered by a pack of dogs and just how many of those dogs the old mountain cat defeated before he was taken down.
Right about now, 48 hours after the killings, there oughtta be two groups coming in from Sinaloa; one from Culiacán, one from the Sierra, Los Mochis, maybe. 300 men, each side, about to fight it out for a mountain town. The FBI is filled with idiots who anticipate this is a mopping up of the Beltrán Leyvas. They ain’t been able to do it yet. In fact, got smoked when they tried.
No, no, mi estimado. One side is brimming, building up in the cities. But the other is quiet, watching, waiting. The dogs are howling; the cat’s snarling, tail lashing. This will be a fight for the corridos to remember. Gonna be one hell of a Fourth of July.
