The Moving Target, on the Trail of Chapito Isidro

Borderland Beat

Chapito Isidro: A Moving Target-RioDoce

After being placed on the most-wanted list by the United States, the objective of capturing him does not stop.

The Mochis. - the morning of October 13, in Nayarit, it was announced that the federal Government had launched an offensive to capture the leader of the organization. Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, “El Chapo Isidro”, was on the verge of being captured that morning during the posboda (post wedding celebration) of one of his sisters, who was celebrating her wedding in the paradise resort of Santa María de el Oro.

The wedding was on Saturday and the posboda that night, the organized crime leader was a no-show.  Isidro is one of the most wanted by the governments of Mexico and the United States.

But at midnight Sunday he arrived at the fandango, finding the celebration continuing with banda music and the musical company of the popular folk minstrel of the narcos, Remmy Valenzuela.

Two hours after Isidro Meza arrived on the scene, ground vehicles and helicopters arrived with elements of the Marina, provoking a confrontation, resulting in a singer by the name of Remigio Alejandro Valenzuela Buelna sustaining injuries.

An alleged gunman died in the conflict, in addition to the arrest of at least seven municipal police forces who were guarding the celebration venue.

In fact, anonymous sources consulted in Guasave, el Chapito Isidro was also injured, with two bullet wounds, although he managed to escape.

In January 2013, the Department of the Treasury of the United States listed Meza Flores and several of his family and alleged accomplices as part of a criminal organization (Kingpin Designation Act).

With that, the U.S. Government officially gave,  the category of most wanted criminal organization which they identify as a rival of the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán. Also identified as a leader of that cartel is Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, el Chapito Isidro, and the list included seven members of his family and three companies within the criminal group.

According to the press release, the Meza Flores group emerged in Guasave, Sinaloa, and since the decade of 2000 to 2010, they are responsible for smuggling into the United States large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and cocaine, according to the information office.

Since then, they have been in violent conflict with the Sinaloa cartel, led by the most wanted drug trafficker in Mexico, El Chapo Guzman, which has resulted in many deaths in the State.

In addition to the leader of the cartel, the Treasury Department recognized  as drug traffickers; the wife of Meza Flores, Araceli Chan Inzunza; his father, Fausto Isidro Meza; the mother, Angelina Flores; his sister, Flor Angely Meza, and uncles Agustin Flores Apodaca, arrested last July in Sinaloa county; Salome Flores, and Pánfilo Flores.

The Hostilities

The Northern part of the state is one of the most patrolled by federal forces, predominantly by the army. This has led to clashes between military forces and criminal groups.

Just ten days ago, a clash between soldiers and gunmen took place in the district of El Burrión, Guasave, one of the bastions of the organization that El Chapo Isidro controls. They seized guns, an armored vehicle, and a tiger that, according to the locals, goes by the name of Bruno.

It was a warning. The morning of Thursday December, 12^th  Ignacio Gonzalez Peñuelas,”Nacho”, brother of Jesus Chuy Gonzalez Peñuelas, considered number two in the criminal structure of the Guasave BLO cell by local law enforcement authorities, was arrested in a shootout with soldiers, in their home area of  Batamote, Guasave.

El Nacho, alleged chief of the Guasave killings and who allegedly controlled drug sales, collection of piso de plaza (extortion fees), and dozens of assassins, this according to statements given by low level dealers arrested previously.

He had the zone under his control and influence and he was responsible for the area from the field 38, in Juan José Ríos, up to the limits of the municipality of Sinaloa, to the West of the international highway Mexico 15. At the time of his arrest, there was an arrest issued against him for federal crime. The criminal charge was not revealed.

Gonzalez Peñuelas, lost his freedom along with their accomplices, Marcos Eduardo Félix Arredondo, José Cruz Pérez Vega and Hugo Moreno Sarmiento, Moreno  was transferred for medical attention to a hospital that for security reasons was not disclosed, , Attorney general of Justice of the State, Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez revealed at a press conference.

Alejandro Rivera Montoya, identified by an identification he was carrying on his person, died in the military operation. However, his identity will be confirmed by those claiming the body and the testimonials of the bereaved.

He was dead in the Miguel Hidalgo Street opposite the 04872 post and a drain, where initiated and concluded the facts with military forces.

Also seized at the site was  armament of conventional war: nine offensive grenades caliber. 40, four hand (fragmentation) grenade, a rifle Barret caliber 50 mm, a rifle, a rifle HK-19, two AK-47 rifles known as "goat horn", a carbine AR-15, a 10 gauge rifle, and a Magnum revolver caliber. 45, as well as nearly three thousand cartridges for the seized weapons, some of them expansive, three vehicles and 15 kilos of narcotics.

 

According to the facts narrated in inquiry that the Attorney General of Justice of the State initiated through the crime of homicide, the end of Nacho González and his group, began around 11:40 hours of Thursday 12 December when a military command noticed a group of suspicious people. With assault weapons they  gunned down the soldiers, who repelled the assault.

A pursuit ensued that culminated at a house, where the four subjects were arrested and a fifth individual died.

After the fact, the Batamote area was cordoned off by dozens of ministerial, municipal and effective military.

In the evening, calm returned to the village.

Higuera Gomez was reserved in establishing of which criminal group the detainee and his accomplices belonged, as the public prosecutor of the Republic is required  to make this clear, he retains the case since weapons and drugs were detected. "We only act for the reported killing, and described here is what the agent of the public prosecutor of the common jurisdiction had before.

He did not reveal the possibility that the detained group had participated in the killing of policemen in several ambushes perpetrated in the municipality of Guasave, Sinaloa, and a home, and the summary executions of civilians. (click on any image to enlarge)

Bosses of Guasave

Months ago, was published a chart of the operational command of Fausto Isidro Meza, who would be later identified as head of the cartel of Guasave and in which Jesus Gonzalez Peñuelas, brother of the detainee, el Nacho, now was the second in importance.

On the chart next to Chuy Gonzalez appears Samuel Lizarraga Ontiveros, nicknamed el Tortillero and Juan Francisco Patron Sánchez, with the alias “El H2”.

Just below Gonzalez appears Juan Pablo Osuna Sánchez, known as “El Cien”, who passed away in 2011 after ambushing a convoy of judicial police in the village Tetamboca, in El Fuerte. Followed by Juan Miguel Pacheco Samaniego, el Pecas, who according to Los Mochis police authorities we consulted, has opted to go to ground to avoid their capture or order of execution, the same as José Sabá Ávalos Sánchez, nicknamed el Güero Saba did.

Instigators of Delinquency  

According to old criminal records, Ignacio and Jesús González Penuelas began their first criminal activity being sheltered from the famous Miguel Ángel Beltrán Lugo, el Ceja Güera, murdered in the maximum security prison No. 2 at Puente Grantde, when he was about to regain freedom in 2004, after the escape of his supporter, Joaquin Guzmán Loera .

After his fall, they spent time in the shadows and reappeared on the scene of the crime after kidnappers loyal to Alfonso Avila Palafox, el Loncho, better known as “El Mochadedos”, were considered responsible for the killing.

Their names began to appear on narcomantas hung in different points of this city, where they were held accountable as perpetrators of the disappearance and subsequent murder of radio journalist hotline, José Luis Romero.

In underground publications, the brothers were presented as bloodthirsty murderers, kidnappers and other crimes were blamed on them.
 

For an excellent article about Isidro written by ACI ...link here