CAF: Narcos extort narcos in Mexico, Victims of their own methods

Original article available at VICE
Translated by El Wachito

In less than 72 hours after the assassination of his son, Ms. Reyna Gonzales was notified: the dismembered body of a dog has been thrown next to the tombstone where his son was buried.

The dead body of the animal left a purple color and the blood fell between the trenches that form the marked letters "Efrain Alvarez Gonzalez".

Over the ribs of the dog a narcomanta was left for the family: "The whole family is next". The message was quickly fading away due to the decomposed body of the dog.

The Alvarez Gonzalez knew that the message was not for the deceased. A few hours after his assassination, the rumors were quickly spreading like gunpowder. Efrain had been assassinated by the Cartel Arellano Felix -also known as the Cartel de Tijuana-, one of the most violent cartels in the history of drug trafficking.

'The forms of execution of their victims were brutal'

The Alvarez Gonzales didn't know any details, however they knew that Efrain got involved with drug-traffickers and in a short period of time, he became a Lieutenant in charge of the East Side of Tijuana, which was known for being one of the poorest areas in the border between Mexico and the United States.

The assassination of Efrain in March of 2012 was brutal: ambushed in a mechanical workshop. He was about to start his Silverado pick up truck, when a man approached the driver window, pointed at his face and shot him at a close distance. 

Five shots were fired. Two bullets hit him in the face; the other bullets made a hole in his head, arm and waist. The handgun .380 caliber was able to make a hole in his left cheekbone.

There was blood coming out of his mouth and ears and while Efrain was losing blood, his partner, a young man named Abel Gonzalez, was able to get off the vehicle, however the bullets reached him while he was trying to escape. 

Document of the 'Luz Verde' Investigation by the FBI

The Alvarez Gonzales family rapidly received a second warning: the tombstone of his son and his friend were removed from graveyard and abandoned in the patio of Ms. Reyna.

The drug traffickers stole the tombstones from the graveyard and cautiously placed them in the front patio of Ms. Reyna. According to the investigations, Efrain owed large amounts of money to the Cartel de Tijuana and their next move was to scare his mother in order to extort her. 

"I will make them suffer and they will leave the house", said a sicario of the cartel to another group of sicarios, during a phone call. 

The telephone "tapping" was part of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States (FBI) known as "Luz Verde(Green Light)", an demonstrated how the Cartel Arellano Felix, extorted Ms. Reyna, in order to take ownership of her house.

According to information recollected by VICE News -documents of the Federal and State government of California, FBI investigations, the DEA and experts in matters of drug trafficking-, extortion between cells of drug traffickers is an strategy used to finance the so called "war on drugs".

In Tijuana, the north border of the country, the dispute started due to an internal conflict in the Cartel Arellano Felix. After the arrest of his leader, Francisco Javier Arellano 'El Tigrilllo' in August of 2006, resulted in a dispute between the leaders in charge of the AFO(Arellano Felix Organization) cells.

Since then, the AFO instituted a new method of extortion: Narcos extorting other enemy narcos, and years later everything came back at then, when their own leaders fell victims of their own methods.

The "Palillos" extort the Arellano

Since he was a young man, Cesar Uribe had been involved in the sale and distribution of marijuana in the border. In the 1990's, when the Cartel Arellano Felix converted Baja California in their Plaza, Uribe was already trafficking for them.

When 2006 came, he already had move up the ranks of the drug trafficking organization: he bought a house in Eastlake, which was one of more expansive areas to live in San Diego back then, and he distributed drugs to several states of the west coast of the country.

After Felipe Calderon declared the war on organized crime, other drug traffickers, like Uribe, decided to move their operations to California.

There he met David Valencia, a drug trafficker that commanded an independent cell known as "Los Palillos". He was a strong man, 42 years old and with an intimidating look. They made some business, and Valencia sold cheaper drugs to Uribe.

Later on, during June of 2006, Cesar Uribe received a phone call: Valencia accused him of owing him 70,000$ of a shipment of marijuana. Uribe was confused and rapidly realized: it was an extortion and he couldn't report it to anyone, because, how was a drug trafficker supposed  to call the police to report an extortion?

'The Palillos were motivated by vengeance and greed'.

The Palillos gained fame among drugtraffickers and sicarios for being extremely violent and for the brutal assassinations of those who didn't pay their fees of extortion. Uribe knew what happened to another local trafficker, and was terrified. The body of the other trafficker was found in the trunk of a stolen car in San Diego and wooden sticks(Sticks translates to Palillo) were left on top of his body, along with a message to intimate others and to let others know what would happen if they didn't pay their fees to Los Palillos. 

The Uribe family paid 50,000$ of the 70,000$ to Los Palillos of a debt that never existed.

According to declassified archives from investigators of the State of California, The Palillos were a cell of the Cartel Arellano Felix who became independent.

Everything happened when their leader, Victor Rojas Lopez, Alias 'El Palillo', nicknamed like that because he was extremely skinny, was assassinated by members of another Cartel Arellano cell, in a dispute. Jorge Rojas Lopez, his brother, became their new leader and decided to separate from the cartel, and decided to take vengeance with everyone that was part of the Cartel Arellano Felix.

According to a report from Pandillas Sin Fronteras, published in 2014 by the State of California, 'The Palillos' were a transnational criminal organization dedicated to extortion, drugtrafficking, thief, kidnapping and murder. Even though they are well known by American authorities, in Mexico there is no registry of them.

"Los Palillos were motivated by vengeance and greed. Their victims were people identified as operators of the Arellano Felix Organization, who they believe that had large amounts of money and drugs."

Structural diagram of Los Palillos

Source: Federal Law Enforcement of California

Extortion: As profitable as the sale of drugs

"In the last decade, extortion became profitable as the same level of the sale of drugs, that narcos ended up extorting each other. The end of the code of honor between drug lords", said Gilbert Gonzalez, who worked more than 20 years for the DEA.

Before "extortion was only limited to business. They came into a bakery saying 'I like your place, you have done a good job, it would be terrible if something bad happen to you, your family or your business, the only thing that you have to do is pay me a small percentage of your profits, and I will give you a life insurance and a business insurance", said Gilbert, who was able to infiltrate several cartels and was a witness to the evolution of drug trafficking organizations.

Since the 'drug war' of Felipe Calderon started, drastic changes in the movement and sale of drugs were reported and "if it doesn't move, it doesn't sell" said the ex-DEA agent that is in charge of the Association of Narcotic Officers of Texas. "If the workers are not able to move the product, it will generate a crisis in the criminal organizations".

"Drug lords had to rely on extortion to generate profits. The first victims were merchants and businessman, then they ended up extorting each other", explained this Ex-Agent, who was part of the team that investigated the assassination of undercover agent Enrique Camarena 'Kiki' in hands of the Cartel de Guadalajara in 1985.

'The first victims were merchants, then they ended up extorting each other'.

 According to Victor Clark Alfaro, an expert in drug trafficking and extortion issues of Mexican citizens, the crime of extortion is extremely profitable for criminal organizations because there is a low number of  criminal complaints due to death threats. 

Intimidation is a key element for a successful extortion. "The forms of execution of their victims were brutal, because they stopped using firearms and started dismembering their victims and dissolving them in acid. This created a climate of fear.

"And everybody knows that the threats of drug traffickers are real death sentences", according to an investigator from the University of San Diego.

-Why is extortion among drug traffickers more profitable?

-Because they handle their finances in cash and because if the majority of the population are scared of filing a criminal complaint through the authorities due to fears of retaliation, imagine how the narcos are even more aware of the capabilities of their enemies. They are also unavailable to justify the legal possession of cash, jewelry and cars. 

With the beginning of the 'war on drugs' of Felipe Calderon, the extortion in Baja California were on a rise, according to an analysis of the statistics of the Semaforo Delictivo Nacional.

According to the database of VICE news, in the year of 2010, extortion's duplicated in the entity of Baja California. In 2006 we had a total of 329 and in 2010, authorities reported 506 cases of extortion.  The years of 2011 and 2012, continued with high levels of extortion and match with the levels of cartel related violence of those times.

Extortion in Baja California

They fell for 50,000 dollars 

Eduardo Tostado Gonzales, a 33 year old male that had the body of wrestler, arrived at his home in Chula Vista, California in May 22nd. He inserted his house key in the lock and opened the door, then a white sheet on the floor of his house caught his eye.

"Urgent, call this number".

For his neighbors, Tostado was a successful Mexican businessman. He was born in Ensenada, Baja California and attended the best schools, in which he was able to socialize with the sons of the most prominent people of the state of Baja California. At a really young age, he became the owner of a seafood restaurant called Mariscos El Pacifico.

That night of 2007, before he called the number that appeared on the sheet that he found on his doorsteps, he checked the recordings of the security cameras that he installed in his luxury residence. A man knocked the door twice and when nobody responded he proceeded to slip the message through the door of the house. Tostado reviewed the video twice, however, he was not able to identify the individual that left the message.

Intrigued by the message, he left his home and called the number from a public telephone. A 'Robert' was on the other side of the line and straight forward warned him that he would be kidnapped if he didn't pay 50,000$ the next day.

"I will call you tomorrow, wait till tomorrow", responded Eduardo Tostado Gonzalez.

Documents of an interview of the FBI with Tostado

That same night, he crossed the border and made his way to his restaurant in Tijuana. He showed the pictures that he took of the monitor of the cameras, to his clients and waiters.

Several people recognize the man: his name was Juan Arvizu and he was a dangerous drug trafficker that had worked for the Cartel Arellano Felix and now was operating for "Los Palillos". Mariscos El Pacifico was the perfect place to speak -among loud and live narcocorridos music and bottles of Buchanan's- about drug lords.

Eduardo Tostado was a really simple man with good manners, however, he was one of the principal money launderers of the Cartel Arellano Felix, and the restaurant had the perfect facade.

At the age of 33 he was a close friend of the sons of Benjamin Arellano Felix, who at one moment was the leader of the Cartel de Tijuana, and was incarcerated in the maximum security prison of Mexico.

Tostado was also the owner of several car dealerships, restaurants, two houses, and an all terrain vehicle valued at 150,000 USD, who had been given to him by Ismael Higuera 'El Mayel', a veteran money launderer of the Cartel de Tijuana.

'El Mayel' 

Eduarto Tostado was a perfect victim for extortion from Los Palillos, the organization that extorted druglords who could never be denounce to the authorities. Their 'reputation' back them up, that's why Tostado immediately offered them 5000 USD as a first payment, however Los Palillos perceive that quantity as an offense and they hung the phone after threaten him of the consequences.

FBI documents

Months later, Los Palillos accomplished their promise: they utilized a beautiful law student. She had thick lips and curly hair. They infiltrated her into the gym that Tostado often visited, and with her charms he quickly fell in love.

Nancy Mendoza, the law student used by Los Palillos to catch Tostado . Nancy Mendoza received life in prison 

According to declassified information of the FBI, after several encounters in the gym and phone calls, the young lady asked him to meet her in a house on Point Dume Street of Chula Vista, in June 8th of 2007.

Nancy was an assistant of the Secretary of the municipal Government of Tijuana while she was a student. This is a picture of her taken before she heard her sentence. She received 2 life imprisonments and 20 years.

At the moment he arrived at the house, he was beaten and when he fell on the floor he dropped a bottle of coñac and a box of condoms. The following days he was tortured and Los Palillos threaten that they would murder his wife if he didn't pay them one million dollars. His family quickly reunited with a team of FBI agents.

Eight days after he was kidnapped, Eduardo Tostado was liberated and even though he confessed to being a member of the Arellano Felix Cartel, he was put in a witness protection program, in exchange of information that could lead to the capture of Los Palillos.

In the year of 2014, the leader of Los Palillos, Jorge Rojas, was sentenced to 12 life imprisonment sentences in California. During the court hearing, the defense argue that he was forced into the cartel because of extreme poverty. Rojas grew up in a dump yard, his parents were trash pickers, so he decided to traffic drugs and relied on extortion in order to ascend the social ladder. Rojas was able to avoid death.

According to PGR, the Cartel Arellano Felix operates in Baja California through 3 cells: El Chan, El Jorquera and El Kieto.

Juan Lorenzo Vargas Gallardo 'El Chan'

The statistics of extortion grew in the last decade by a 61%

When Felipe Calderon came to power in December of 2006, he declared a "war on drugs". After 11 days of taking power, he promised to dissolve the structures of organize crime and to eliminate crimes, such as extortion: "Its about preserving the safety of the Mexican families so that their children can grow up in a safe climate". A decade later the statiscs revealed that the situation of crime has not change for the better. 

In 2006, there were 3157 claims of extortion and in 2013, 8196 claims were reported. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg, because this are only the reports that the authorities have received.  Unfortunately, extortion is one of the less reported crimes. 

According to statistics of the Semaforo Delictive, the states with the highest incidence of extortion are the State of Mexico, Mexico city, and Nuevo Leon.

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The other day one our readers was asking about "Los Pelones", who were a group of sicarios that worked for El Teo and for "El Guero Camaron" of the Cartel Arellano Felix.... The following is a video were "El Guero Camaron" orders local policeman to abandon the area of Colonia Libertad so his group of sicarios "Los Pelones" could executed AFI Agent Eduardo Reyes...

Eduardo Reyes was an agent in charge of combating small scale drug dealing in Tijuana, he was executed in his own office. Later on the AFI (Federal agency of investigation, has now been disolved) arrested 12 municipal cops for their participation in the execution.

El Wachito