The drug wars in my area this past week

The past week has been busy and tragic as the drug wars in Laguna are heating up again. Here is a run down of the week's news as best I know it.

18 July 2010. Torreón At 1:30 AM Sunday, an unknown number of gunmen traveling in a convoy of between 5 to 8 trucks entered a birthday party being held at a party villa known as the “Italia Inn” and massacred 17 partygoers, including 5 women.
Another 18 people survived the attack with gunshot wounds and many were in serious condition in local hospitals. At least 5 of the survivors were women.

One of the wounded later died at the hospital, raising the count to 18 dead..

According to statements from survivors, the gunmen blocked the entrance and shouting “kill them all”, opened fire on the fiesta.

It is now known that the people at the party were not the reason for the attack. The action was against the owner, just as one of the other recent massacres in Torreón was against the owner of a club. In this latest attack, the owner had been publicly warned several weeks ago. It's all about drug gang warfare. In the sick minds of the drugers, the quickest way to kill a business is to kill the customers.

23 July 2010. While being tortured, a kidnapped Lerdo municipal police officer told his Zeta interrogator that it was a group from a rival gang who did the shooting. Their leader was a jefe (boss) in the cartel who is currently in jail at the Durango state prison in Gómez Palacio. He was released to do the shooting and returned to the jail after the act. The idea was to make it appear it was done by the Zetas in order to discredit them. He apparently still runs his organization out of his cell. The You-tube video of the cop's confession is making news in the Coahuila media.
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25 July 2010. From Sunday's Torreón newspaper:
Elements of Durango State Police maintained security in the prison, after the arrest of the directors, heads of trustees and at least 31 guards.
Federal authorities are investigating whether prisoners, whose departure would have been permitted by the principal or the prison guards were involved in the killing of 17 people at a party last Sunday and if they used weapons of their own guards.
The former director of the Cereso, Margarita Rojas Rodriguez, and three former heads of trustees, who had been detained by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) were delivered to the Attorney General of Coahuila, which put on hold for 20 days

History of troubles at the state prison in Gómez Palacio.
20 April 2009. The warden and 11 guards were arrested for arranging the escape of several high-value drugers.
25 August 2009. The army was called upon to quell a riot at the prison. 20 inmates were killed. The army discovered a large number of knives, hand guns, long guns, bomb making material and drugs. The new warden and several guards resigned saying they fear for their lives.
July 2010. The lady warden who was hired to replace the last one is now in jail along with much of her staff. The prison is now in lock-down by the state police.

In addition to the Lerdo policeman whose admission under torture exposed the latest scandal at the prison, four other Lerdo policemen were kidnapped and murdered.

Mexican prisoners let out to kill: prosecutors
Last Updated: Sunday, July 25, 2010 | 6:58 PM ET Comments24Recommend18The Associated Press
Guards and officials at a prison in northern Mexico let inmates out, lent them guns and let them use official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people last week, prosecutors said Sunday.

Mexican attorney general spokesman Ricardo Najera, shown at a 2009 new conference, said Sunday that officials at a northern Mexican prison temporarily released inmates to carry out killings. (Alexandre Meneghini/Associated Press)After carrying out the killings the inmates would return to their cells, the attorney general's office said in a revelation that was shocking even for a country wearied by years of drug violence and corruption.

"According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director … to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," attorney general spokesman Ricardo Najera said at a news conference.

The director of the prison in Gomez Palacio in Durango state and three other officials were placed under a form of house arrest pending further investigation. No charges have yet been filed.

Prosecutors said the prison-based hit squad is suspected in three mass shootings, including the July 18 attack on a party in the city of Torreon, which is near Gomez Palacio. In that incident, gunmen fired indiscriminately into a crowd of mainly young people in a rented hall, killing 17 people, including women.

Police found more than 120 bullet casings at the scene, and Najera said tests matched those casings to four assault rifles assigned to guards at the prison.

Similar ballistics tests linked the guns to earlier killings at two bars in Torreon, the capital of northern Coahuila state, he said. At least 16 people were killed in those attacks on Feb. 1 and May 15, local media reported.

Najera blamed the killings on disputes between rival drug cartels. "Unfortunately, the criminals also carried out cowardly killings of innocent civilians, only to return to their cells," he said.

Coahuila and neighbouring Durango are among several northern states that have seen a spike in drug-related violence that authorities attribute to a fight between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcers, known as the Zetas.

Interior Secretary Francisco Blake said the revelation "can only be seen as a wake-up call for authorities to address, once again, the state of deterioration in many local law enforcement institutions … we cannot allow this kind of thing to happen again."

© The Canadian Press, 2010


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/07/25/prisoners-hitmen.html#ixzz0ukHwXIGc

"In addition to the Lerdo policeman whose admission under torture exposed the latest scandal at the prison, four other Lerdo policemen were kidnapped and murdered."

An update of this.

I was shocked to learn just now that the policeman shown in the torture video had worked as helper on my Las Casas building project 8 years ago. I did not recognize him in the video. He was just a teenager 8 years ago.

The bodies of the 4 Lerdo police (2 men and 2 women) who disappeared about the same time have not been found.

The prison warden and two of her top aids have been transfered to México City in the care of the Feds.