Cartel Aerial Drops Thousands of Flyers in Culiacán; Blames Governor for Killing

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

A departure from procedures typically used by cartels to convey messages was used Tuesday as thousands of flyers were aerial dropped on the Sinaloa city of Culiacán. 

The usual methods of hanging banners, displaying cartulinas, and posting videos have been long used to send messages.  Recently, in attempts to intimidate, terrorize and publicize threats, cartels have added the method of mass executions to accentuate messages.

In the past cartels have distributed small quantities of photocopied flyers, but the incident on Tuesday in the Sinaloa state capital was the first time that cartels have resorted to an aerial drop of flyers. 

Possibly, it may be another indication of heighten escalation in what has become a nationwide, military-scale battle between the Sinaloa cartel and the Los Zetas cartel.

"It appears they dumped them early in the morning from an airplane. They surely know that it would be very difficult to do by land," Sinaloa Gov. Mario Lopez Valdez said.

Security expert Raul Benitez at the National Autonomous University of Mexico said it was the first time he knew of such mass flyer distribution, much less from an aircraft.

"I can't remember any cartel having used an airplane to do this, nor of them having distributed propaganda in public places," said Benitez.

The single-page, computer-printed leaflets were unsigned, but expressed anger at the in custody killing of a suspect who was recently arrested and sent to a prison allegedly dominated by the Sinaloa cartel.

The suspect, who had been identified as a member of the Beltran Leyva gang, whose remnants have allied with the Zetas, was killed by another inmate four days ago.

The message was unsigned, the translated to English text as follows:

THE GOVERNOR, BY ORDERS OF "CHAPO GUZMAN", GAVE INSTRUCTIONS THAT THE PGR ATTORNEY CONSIGN JAVIER AVILEZ ARAUJO, TO TORTURE AND MURDER, IN THE STATE PENITENTIARY, BECAUSE WHEN HE WAS FREE, THEY NEVER COULD DO IT!!!! WE MAKE THE GOVERNOR, MARIO LOPEZ VALDEZ, RESPONSIBLE OF THE LIFE OF JAVIER AVILEZ ARAUJO AND FOR THE DAYS THAT HE WAS ALIVE IN THE PENITENTIARY, WAS SPENT TORTURING HIM!!!!

IF HE OWED ANY OFFENSE, WHY NOT SEND HIM TO MEXICO CITY OR ANY OTHER PENITENTIARY WHERE CHAPO GUZMAN AND MARIO LOPEZ VALDEZ DIDN'T LEAD OR ISSUE ORDERS.

P.S WE ALL HAVE WHERE IT CAN HURT, AND SOONER OR LATER EVERYTHING ALL IS PAID, SHOW YOUR FACE LIKE MEN DO, NOT KILLING TIED (IMPRISONED) PEOPLE LIKE EL CHAPO GUZMAN DOES, WITHOUT THE HELP OF MALOVA, WE WOULD'VE FINISHED YOU!!

 (MALOVA IS THE NICKNAME OF THE GOVERNOR)

The governor denied he has links to Guzman. "This is a person I don't even know, whom I have never had contact with and from whom I have never received an order," Lopez Valdez said.

The content of the letter suggest it is the work of the Zetas, who have launched an all-out attack against Sinaloa strongholds after Sinaloa and their allies moved into Zetas territory in the states of Tamaulipas and Veracruz.

Benitez said. "The Sinaloa cartel is very powerful in monetary terms, but it has a weak force of hit men. And the Zetas are weak in terms of money, but they are very strong in military terms, they have real armies of killers."

The tit-for-tat battle is only likely to continue,  "It's about attacking enemy territory ... they keep striking blows against each other."

photos: RIODOCE
article source: RIODOCE & AP