Without opposition and with Dr Mireles in Prison, the CJNG has new plans for Tepalcatepec

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Sinembargo article

Subject Matter: CJNG, Tepalcatepec, Michoacan, Tijuana, Baja California
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion has expanded and consolidated its control of narco trafficking of drugs in Jalisco and its neighbouring States, they have rivals like Los Zetas and the Knights Templar. Now this group seeks to take control of Tepalcatepec but is also intent on control of the North of the Country frontier of Tijuana in Baja California

Reporter: Sinembargo Redaction
The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion is seeking to control the town of Tepalcatepec, localized in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacan, known for being the birthplace of autodefensas that marks three years since they took up arms to fight the Knights Templar who controlled this zone as one of their principal centres for drug distribution.

"The Cartel is trying to penetrate into the community and take charge of all the the city, they want to control the black market for cooking drugs, extortion of business owners, kidnapping and killing people", said Jueventillo Cisneros, Chief of the Fuerzas Rural and ex member of the Tepalcatepec autodefensas.




Cisnero was one of the principal representatives of the autodefensas

Juventillo Cisneros, Commandante Tilin

 another one of the members of this group of civilians that took up arms on 23rd of January of 2013 was the Doctor Jose Manuel Mireles, another originating from Tepalcatepec, and who now is found in prison in the Maximum Seucrity Cefereso in the city of Hermosillo after having been arrested in June of 2014 in possession of fire arms for exclusive use of the armed forces, the same one that, his defense has insisted were given by the Mexican Government to combat the drug Cartels.

Leaders of the Michoacan autodefensas, Cisnero is second on right. click to enlarge

Dr Mireles gained relevance for the movement when he made a 21 minute denouncement video in February of 2013, showing the terror that the inhabitants of Tepalcaepec lived through at that time. He narrated how the Knights Templar were demanding money not only for square meter of property or for every car, but even wives. Later the daughters too who were kidnapped, raped and returned to the city when they were pregnant.

Together with Mireles other leaders emerged in the autodefensas. Such as the case of Misael Gonzalez, leader in Coalcoman and far left in above photo. Hipolito Mora, chief of La Ruana autodefensas, Estanislao Beltran "Papa Pitufo" or "Papa Smurf", spokesman of the movement and Juventino Cisneros, now Chief of Police in Tepalcatepec. The majority of them received places in the Fuerzas Rurales of Michoacan, a Police body that sought to integrate the combatants from the autodefensas.

It was not that way for Mireles or Mora. Hipolito was in prison for more than 2 months. Meanwhile Mireles is still in prison following the refusals to release him. Different voices have been seen in his detention in a political vendetta as a result of criticisms made by the Dr to the then Federal Commissioner Alfredo Castillo Cervantes.

Now after the dissolution of the autodefensas and the imprisonment of some of their leaders, a new criminal group threatens Tepalcatepec in the void left by the Knights Templar, Juventillo Cisneros elements are still superior in number, but " we don't know for how much longer we can maintain control".

The CJNG and "El Mencho"

The leader of  the CJNG, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho", is originally from the Tierra Caliente of Michoacan. According to the Treasury Dept of the United States, he has been involved in drug trafficking activities since 1990. In all, and according to insight crime, in 1994 a District Court of California condemned him to 3 years in prison for distribution of heroin.

The organization dedicated to the investigation and the analysis of organized crime in Latin America and Carribean refer that after his liberation from United States, "El Mencho" returned to Mexico, where he was employed as a Policeman in Cabo Corrientes and Tomatlan, in Jalisco. With time, he left the Police and joined a cell of the Milenio Cartel that were allied with the head of the Sinaloa Cartel Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias "Nacho Coronel", after the death of Villarreal, El Mencho founded the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

The reports give accounts of how the CJNG has expanded and consolidated its control of drug trafficking in Jalisco and its neighbouring States, had as rivals Los Zetas and before the Knights Templar. Now this group seeks to take control of Tepalcatepec, and also intend to control the Northern frontier of Tijuana in Baja California.

For Russ Baer, an agent of the DEA, the CJNG "is one of the most powerful Cartels in Mexico", that also "operate cells inside the United States. In one declaration, Baer explained that " the CJNG has expanded rapidly its criminal empire in the last few years by violence and corruption.

A recent example of the use of violence to control different areas of the country, is that which occurred in Tijuana. At the start of 2016, the State that occupied the third place nationally in number of violent homicides was Baja California almost duplicates the number recorded in a year. Meanwhile at the start of 2015 it had registered 52 killings, this past January this level had risen to 99.

A report published in the middle of February the Los Angeles Times gave account of State Functionaries who saw a relationship between the increased presence of this group and the increase in killings that began last spring ans which has continued until the beginning of  this year.

The North American news outlet detailed a series of  narco mantas that they left together with hanging bodies or mutilated cadavers, " the narco trafficking group most recently born, the CJNG can now be found in Tijuana and they are fighting to expand their influence".

The Times mentioned that the killings associated with drugs represented more than 80% of the 670 homicides in Tijuana in the year 2015, the highest number in 5 years, according to data from the Attorney General of Baja California. The media says that a total of 71 homicides in January marked the most violent year in Tijuana since 2010.

Daniel de la Rosa, Secretary for Public Security in Baja California, said to the Los Angeles Times that the CJNG doesnt have a significant presence in the State, although it has focused on the creation of alliances with members of the underworld of Tijuana in an attempt to challenge the Sinaloa Cartel, "which has been widely recognized in recent years as the dominant drug trafficking group in the city".

The Expansion of the Cartel

As well as their alliances, the CJNG has carried out a campaign of public recruitment by means of leaflet distribution that promises high salaries and good benefits. (Otis: taking a leaf out of Los Zetas book here). Experts consulted by The Associated Press explained that in recent days this tactic reflects the growing power of the criminal organization.

Raul Benitez, a security specialist  who teaches political sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said to the American Agency that the Cartel Jalisco is far from being degraded and, on the contrary, clearly  is expanding.

"They are pentrating all of the structures that were left vacant by the Knights Templar and the Sinaloa Cartel", said Benitez

The specialist signalled that the Sinaloa Cartel is abandoning the area because of "El Chapo", referring to the capture in January of the Capo of the drugs Joaquin Guzman, and of Jalisco " its the unique cartel that one can say is in expansion", he added.

The last point was confirmed by the business STRATFOR that cites data of the DEA referring that the CJNG want to snatch key territories from the criminal group of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, the Sinaloa Cartel.

For STRATFOR, the CJNG has taken advantage of splits in the Sinaloa Cartel, and together with Los Cuinis have taken advantage of the breakdown of the other bands of drug traffickers, to win territory.

The report mentions that the CJNG is participating in the dispute for control of the frontier towns of Tijuana, Ensenada and Rosarito, Baja California, that until a few months ago were maintained by the criminal organizations of the Cartel Arellano Felix and the Cartel of El Chapo.

According to the authorities of Baja California, the CJNG seeks to reinforce its presence in that zone adjacent to the United States, to snatch the actual domination that is maintained by El Chapo Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Notwithstanding, it also has a presence in the Tierra Caliente of Michoacan.

"The Government of Morelia, had no idea that we were confronting them here, if the Politicians would permit us, we could do to the CJNG what we did to the Knights Templar in a matter of months", affirmed Cisnero.

"Its the responsibility of the Goverment to protect its citizens, but it does nothing. The Cartels have all the illicit funds they need to advance in weapons and high tech. Then, how does one suppose we are to fight against them when we are in bankruptcy?", he denounced.

Despite the abadonment by authorities that he denounces, the former leader of the autodefensas said; "we will do what is necessary to combat the Cartel, if they come for me, at least I will die fighting".

Original article in Spanish at Sinembargo