MEXICO CITY INFESTED WITH DRUG CARTELS

Sicarios leave Sinaloa and form cartel in Mexico State, dramatically named: "New Empire"

By Elia Baltazar

Sinembargo (translated for Borderland Beat)
October 19, 2017

According to the Security Atlas and Defense of Mexico, in 2006 only six drug trafficking organizations were identified in the country, and four years later increased to 10. Thereafter, PGR reported in 2014 a total of nine cartels controlling 43 criminal groups. Today, however, there are 14 criminal organizations operating in 96 of the municipalities of the Mexico State, and 10 have presence in the 16 delegations of the country's capital.

Mexico City, October 15 -- The drug cartels in Mexico are like The Hydra. In a decade that has cost the country 193,000 deaths and 30,000 missing - according to official figures - criminal groups have expanded and fragmented.

There is no official figure or consensus among specialists. But recently Francisco Torres Landa, secretary general of the United Kingdom Against Crime Foundation (MUCD), said that the number of criminal gangs operating in the country has increased from six to 400 in 10 years.

One of these groups appeared recently in the State of Mexico, which borders the capital of the country. Authorities identify the group as the New Empire cartel and attribute its appearance to the breakup of the Sinaloa Cartel, which at the time was led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loaera, now in prison in New York, United States.

"This is part of the fragmentation, having removed the big heads, the only thing that it creates is the dispersion of interests and even struggles to reach higher distinction in different geographical areas," said Torres Landa.


The New Empire began operating a few months ago, after the arrest of "El Quinceañero", operative for Dámaso López "El Mini Lic", son of another Sinaloa Cartel leader of the same name, explains a research journalist specializing in organized crime in the State of Mexico, whose identity he prefers to conceal for security reasons.

This group is linked to at least 13 recent murders in the municipalities of Huxquilucan and Naucalpan, and with "narcomantas" that appeared in different suburban areas of Mexico City.

"The day after the capture of 'Quinceañero' appeared the first narcomantas of the New Empire cartel, in which they threatened all the other groups of that area", says the Mexican journalist.
As a result of the investigations that the authorities undertook in the wake of the killings and these narcomessages, on October 9 Alejandro Gómez, Attorney General of the State of Mexico, reported the arrest of seven possible members in the municipality of Cuautitlán Izcalli.

In their possession were handguns and long arms, gun clips and magazines, cartridges, drugs, cell phones, tactical clothes, posterboards with threatening messages and three cars.

This new cartel is possibly headed by a man whom they identify in the "narcomantas" as "Commander 7". However, there is no official information.

NARCOMESSAGES, THE FIRST CLUE

The authorities detected this criminal group from a series of messages on posterboards located in different areas of the State of Mexico, where New Empire allegedly operates.

Authorities say that members of this group extort traders forcing them to pay "derecho de piso" - as payment is known, in exchange for "security" - and are responsible for various homicides over the last year.

Just this August, in Cuautitlán Izcalli, police found a message placed next to the body of a man, murdered and showing signs of torture. In Huixquilucan another blanket was hung on a bridge located in an exclusive residential area known as Interlomas. Others appeared in Tlalneplantla, Naucalpan and Atizapán.

In the latter municipality, Nahúm Abraham Sicairos Montalvo was arrested last July, known as "El Quinceañero" and identified as financial operative for Dámaso López Serrano, son of "El Licenciado" Dámaso López Núñez, also one of the strong men of the Sinaloa Cartel .

Founded 27 years ago, the Sinaloa Cartel has emerged as the most powerful drug trafficking organization in Mexico. But the capture of its leader, "El Chapo" Guzmán, has led to a stage of fragmentation and infighting, according to the authorities.

Control is now being disputed for by the children of "El Chapo", Iván and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, known as "Los Chapitos"; Dámaso López Serrano, and the closest operative for Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

THE EXPANSION

The 2016 Atlas of Security and Defense of Mexico, prepared by the Collective of Security and Democracy Analysis (Casede), notes that in Mexico, six drug trafficking organizations were identified in 2006, and four years later that number increased to 10, according to international security specialist Bruce Bagley of the University of Miami. A 2014 report by the Attorney General's Office (PGR) registered a total of nine cartels that controlled 43 criminal gangs, operating throughout the country.

Although there is no consensus among security analysts, according to investigators Jonathan D. Rosen and Roberto Zepeda in the Atlas, "most agree on identifying at least 13 that have enough resources to fight for territory with violence."

But these figures seem conservative compared to a July 2017 analysis of the organization Cause in Common, which warns of the expansion of drug trafficking only in the State of Mexico and the capital.

Cause in Common reveals that in May 2014 there were nine criminal organizations operating in 81 of the 125 municipalities of the State of Mexico, and in Mexico City the presence of organized crime was limited to some areas of the Iztapalapa, Cuauhtémoc, Gustavo A. Madero and Tláhuac.

Today, however, there are 14 criminal organizations operating in 96 of the municipalities of the State of Mexico, and 10 have presence in the 16 delegations of the country's capital.

"The most serious thing is that, in at least 70 of these municipalities and delegations, more than one criminal organization operates, which increases the likelihood of confrontations due to territorial struggle," Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés wrote in the analysis.

MUCD's Torres Landa attributes this fragmentation and expansion of criminal groups to the short-term policies of the federal, state and municipal governments.

In presenting the results of the National Survey on Perception of Public Safety in Mexico, which has been up for 10 years, he said that "there were more or less six or seven cartels that divided control of the country."

Now there are 400, so "it should not be surprising that the levels of violence grow and control of these groups becomes more complex," said Torres Landa.