Federales on the Cross Hairs of La Resistencia

The ambush of Monday June 14 against federal police, which killed 12 of them and two suspected sicarios, was executed on orders from Nazario Moreno "El Chayo," according to the Public Security Secretariat (SSP). The federal agency says this man is the leader of La Familia Michoacana.

Intelligence sources of the SSP further state that the aggression, perpetrated on the road from this city to Toluca, was the work of the commando known as La Resistencia, the armed wing of La Familia that arrived to displace Los Zetas. The Zetas is a paramilitary group of which La Resistencia separated from two years ago.

Octavio Ferris, intelligence expert of the SSP said that both the attack on April 24 against Minerva Bautista Gómez, secretary of Public Security of Michoacan, as well as the one of June 14, are similar and seem to be the work of La Resistencia.

"These sicarios are composed of former police commanders, former chiefs of the state police and former members of Special Operations Group, their tactics are very similar to those of the ministry: the crossfire.

"They don't go straight after the objective, such as Los Zetas do, who are military or former military. They do not leave anyone alive. their tactic are accurate and secure, as in the case of the Secretary of Public Security of Michoacan, José Manuel López Revueltas, killed on September 2, 2009 in one of the main streets of Morelia.

Along with the official they also gunned down his driver and body guard. No one was left alive."

The ambush

Ramón Pequeño García, head of the Third Section of the Federal Police, presented in the Command Center the alleged sicarios Alain Escutia Ruiz, El León, and Emilio Obed Palacios Andrade, El Mostro, members of La Familia , who were arrested the night June 16 in Morelia.

The federal official said that the statements from interrogations of El León and El Monstro showed that an individual by the nickname of El Chucky and another known as La Morsa coordinated the ambush against the Federal Police.

Pequeño explained that El Chucky received orders from Nazario Moreno to carry out the attack, for which La Morsa met several members of La Familia at a gas station known as the La Cotorra in Zitácuaro.

Ramón Pequeño recreated the attack of the convoy of the federal police to the media that occurred at 7:30 am on June 14 that took place from two bridges around mile 2 of the Zitácuaro-Toluca highway.

In order to carry out the attack, according to Pequeño and a newsletter of the SSP, La Morsa gathered 35 sicarios aboard 12 SUV's and were broken up into two groups.

One of the groups consisting of nine people on board four vehicles, led by Don Pete, was placed in a bridge that expected the federal police officers to eventually drive by.

The other group led by La Morsa and composed of 26 sicarios (in which El Leon and El Monstro were also part of) were in eight vehicles and were placed over the second bridge, to enclose the federal convoy.

According to the official statement 10 minutes after taking their positions they initiated the attack, firing against the police vehicle for about 20-30 minutes.

The attack was carried out with assault rifles, handguns, shotguns and fragmentation grenades that were directed at three federal police trucks that were identified as unit numbers 12431, 13969 and 108613 that eventually resulted with 10 officers being slain at the scene and 15 of them critically injured.

While repelling the attack, police killed a coordinator of the sicarios, identified as Beto, who died on board one of the vehicles.

After the attack two undetonated fragmentation grenades were found in the ditches. There was a lot of blood on the bridge, along with hundreds of spent casings from R-16, AK-47, 9mm., 38 super, 45 and from other calibers. Also found at the scene were bullet proof vests, black clothes, blankets and two trucks. In their escape the attackers seized two buses full of passengers that were set on fire and used as barricades to protect their escape and ultimately give them a clean get away.

Soon after reinforcements from the Federal Police (PF) and the Army arrived to secure the scene and attempt to find the sicarios.

The injured federal police officers were taken to hospitals in Morelia, Toluca and Mexico City. Two of them eventually died in the capital of Mexico.

The SSP said that during the attack federal police officers repelled the attack with gunfire and consequently, several sicarios were killed and others wounded. The bodies and injured from the attacking group were lifted by their accomplices.

On June 15 the state officials released the names of the federal police officers who lost their lives: Alberto Cruz García, Antonio de Jesús Sánchez Suárez, David Damián Alejo, Víctor José González Acosta, Juan Carlos Martínez Bautista, Miguel Ruiz Díaz, José Alberto Estrada Malo, Ricardo Ordóñez Rosas, Tomás García Torres, Jacob Villar Ramos, Hernán Reyes Rosales and Adolfo Gustavo Sierra..

Pequeño reported that after the attack La Morsa and El Chucky ordered the sicarios to disperse to several municipalities in the state and to keep hidden for 8 to 15 days.

New group of Sicarios

After the breakup of Los Zetas and La Familia Michoacana, La Resistencia appeared publicly on October 14, 2009 when they decapitated the lawyer Josafat López Tinoco, a former director of inquiries from the Attorney General (PGJE) of the State of Michoacan and former technical secretary of the Secretariat of Public Security.

The head of the former official was found on top of a cooler and it had a card with the inscription: "This is going to happen to all the protected witnesses in our territory. We are united and stronger than ever, sincerely, La Resistencia."

Since then there have been several executions, dismemberment and beheadings with the same signature: "La Resistencia."

Octavio Ferris, who has worked with the Group of Senses Data (GIS) of the Army, said that it does not take an expert to know that La Resistencia operates a lot like the state police using "crossfire" like in the attack in Minerva Bautista in Morelia and the convoy of the PF.

It's a tactic that for years served, inclusive, to get rid of their disgruntled peers, "chivas," informers or people not "pulling even with the group." They use outdated grenades that so sometimes do not detonate and that has saved the lives of many people, including people in Minerva Bautista and federal police officers.

Los Zetas, however, use military tactics as they were trained in Israel, Spain, England and even in Guatemala with kaibiles, using quality grenades, long and short guns along with knives. La Resistencia does not, as they are not military or former military operatives.

Minerva Bautista Gómez was injured when was ambushed as she left the Fairground of Morelia at dawn on April 24. The official escort consisting of Gilberto Molinero Tonari and Francisco García Corral were killed after the attempted to repel the attack.

In April 26, in Morelia, the Interior Minister Fernando Gómez Mont said that the organization responsible for the attack was a group derived from La Familia Michoacana, known as La Resistencia.

On May 1 in Santa Ana Maya, in the Tierra Caliente they found the body of Abel Zamora Aguilera, in his 20s right next to the main plaza who had been previuosly abducted by a commando. He was decapitated and there was narco-message in which La Resistencia took credit for the murder.

On May 11, with messages warning Minerva Bautista, were found the bodies of two men in the community of Coróndiro, Apatzingán. "Here are your informants Minerva Bautista," the message said. "See if now you respect the agreement," the sign warned and was signed by La Resistencia.

On May 16 from a moving vehicle sicarios threw the body of an individual from a pizzeria in the plaza Vasco de Quiroga de Pátzcuaro. The body was handcuffed, gagged, blindfolded and had two gunshots from a high caliber weapon to the chest and head. Attached to the back of the body was a card that said, "Rufo we are la resistencia against you and the Z."