Jalisco: The Plague of Narco-Laboratories

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: In

                                                                   YES: Statistics
Jalisco State, Mexico:

Tequila, Jilotlan, Yahualica, Hostotipaquillo, Tamazula, Zapopan, Tecalitlan, Concepción de Buenos Aires, Tlajomulco and Tuxpan are the municipalities of Jalisco in which the Army found the most narco-laboratories in the last decade.

Of the 221 that the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) located in the Entity since 2008, 107 were located in those 10 territories. Almost half. The rest are registered in 52 other demarcations.

Faced with this situation, the Attorney General, Raúl Sánchez Jiménez, responded that the narco -laboratory findings can occur anywhere in the State. "Right now you can create a narco-laboratory right here. No longer does one ask you, as  before, for the cultivation marijuana fields or poppy plants. "

In first place is Tequila, which adds 20 locations to produce synthetic drugs. On March 9, the military found one in the community of El Salvador and secured 11 reactors for organic synthesis, six gas tanks and various chemical substances.

Nationwide, Jalisco also occupies the third position in the dismantling of these sites. It is surpassed by Michoacán and Sinaloa , where, from 2000 to February 1 of this year, 563 and 503 findings were documented, respectively.

The discovery of these places to process drugs has taken a toll: 19 soldiers died in the clashes that occurred after the location of narco-laboratories ; 34 more were injured.

In the case of civilians, until April 2014 (the unit stopped giving continuity to this indicator since that month), it was noted that 39 lost their lives in these shootings and three had injuries.

On August 18, this media outlet published that according to the US DEA, ie the US Drug Enforcement Administration,  between 2015 and 2017 the  Cartel New Generation  expanded from 12 to 25 cities in the United States. United , they  stole or won over plazas and routes from  the Sinaloa, Gulf, Juarez, The Knights Templar, Beltran Leyva and Los Zetas Cartels.

The agency indicated that the criminal group headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho", mainly traffics "hundreds of kilograms" of methamphetamine from Guadalajara through US border crossings in Tijuana, BC  and on to distribution centers in Los Angeles and San José, in California.

Since 2008, the Sedena seized 26,721 kilos of methamphetamine in the State of Jalisco. However, in 2017 its troops recovered less than a kilo and a half (1.19 Kg).

Con EPN, the Securing of Arms and Drugs Plummets :

According to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), during the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto  (EPN) as President of Mexico, armaments and drug seizures in Jalisco fell by the military, and the rates of violence increased.

In the administration of Felipe Calderón the soldiers took down 159 illegal factories, ie narco-laboatories; with Enrique Peña  Nieto they add only 59.  With EPN, arms and drugs sequestration collapses in Jalisco. ??????

Although the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) announced that in 2017 there were 582 homicides in the Entity, ie, the State with which the State of Jalisco registered a rate of 20 murders per 100,000  inhabitants, that same year the Army took note of the lowest results of busting narco-laboratories and hectares seized of marijuana, poppy, and also less seizures kilos of weapons and methamphetamine.

For example, between 2008 and 2012, years in which the PAN leader Felipe Calderón governed, 159 laboratories were found in Jalisco to make synthetic drugs, 3,054 hectares of marijuana, 32 of poppy, 24,000 kilos of methamphetamine and 2,790 weapons were confiscated.

However, between 2013 and 2017 the soldiers detected 59 narco-laboratories, 1,590 hectares of marijuana, 83 of poppy, 1,851 kilos of methamphetamine and 745 weapons.

In a message he shared through his social networks, President Enrique Peña Nieto acknowledged that despite the fact that in the first years of his administration lowered crime rates, in the closing there was a rebound.

"We have not reached the goal of giving Mexicans peace and tranquility in any part of the national geography."

With regard to the increase in murders, Arturo Villarreal Palos, an academic at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), stressed that this situation was accentuated when the current presidential administration began and a strategy of "priority objectives" was determined that did not work and that caused the separation of criminal groups, among which the New Generation cartel is no exception.

"That war against drug trafficking was the only thing that managed to fragment the cartels and generate more violence for the control of them," explained the researcher at the University Center for Social Sciences and Humanities.

In the case of the reduction in the seizures of arms and illicit substances, he commented that it is:

worrisome and evidences a change of plan on the part of the Armed Forces.

The territory facilitates criminal activities:

On January 6, the military located a narco-laboratory in the vicinity of Rancho Santa Ana, in Tamazula de Gordiano. On February 2, they found a similar site at Rancho El Coral in Jilotlán de los Dolores. Later, on March 9, they found another one in El Salvador, populated by Tequila. In all cases, the soldiers secured reactors for organic synthesis and chemical substances.

The mentioned municipalities are among the 10 in which the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) has located more clandestine laboratories to produce synthetic drugs during the last decade.

The mayor of Tamazula de Gordiano, José Luis Amezcua Arias, explained that the implementation of these places in the territory that governs is due to the difficulty to enter some communities. He stressed that some can be reached after traveling, from the municipal seat, a dirt road for three hours.

"Tamazula is one of the largest municipalities of the State in territorial extension and, consequently, we have many communities too far away in the mountains where it is lent for this type of illicit activities because of the difficult access that any individual has to some areas of our municipality. That's why it does lend itself to those kinds of situations. "

The mayor with license from Yahualica de González Gallo, Alejandro Macias Velasco, who will return to office next month, stressed that the municipality faces a "difficult" situation in this issue because of the border it has with Zacatecas and the geographical area shared by both entities.

"There is a mountain range that connects with Moyahua, Juchipila. I think it can influence our municipality. "

Mayors without contact:

In addition, although there are governors like Luis Alberto Camacho Flores, who answered that he does not have information about the 10 clandestine laboratories to elaborate synthetic drugs that the Army registered in Hostotipaquillo, the territory that he administers, there were others like Felipe de Jesús Jiménez Bernal, of Tequila, which ranks first in the State in the detection of these places, which preferred not to answer the questions.

This publication also sought the first ediles of Zapopan, Tlajomulco, Concepción de Buenos Aires and Tuxpan de Bolaños, who complete the list. However, the interviews did not materialize.

It was also not possible to contact those who head the municipalities of Jilotlán de los Dolores and Tecalitlán, whose municipal presidents were murdered this year.

Backround Curtain:

Cartel of "El Mencho" , CJNG, doubles presence in the US:

On August 18, this media outlet reported that the Drug Control Administration (DEA) documented the strengthening of the  Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) in the United States in just two years

The agency noted that in 2015 its presence was detected in Reno,  Nevada, Sacramento, San Francisco, Bakersfield, Orange, Riverside, San Ysidro, California ; Gulfport, Harrisburg, and Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia in which it shared the plaza mainly with the Sinaloa cartel, but also with Cartel  del Golfo, Juarez, Los Caballeros Templarios, Beltrán Leyva and Los Zetas.

However, in 2017 it registered an increase in its activities: it reached San Diego, Ca, Seattle, Washi, El Paso, Tezas, Birmingham, Alabama, Kansas City, Missouri, Fayetteville, NC,  Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Florida ; Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina; Roanoke, Virginia and  Washington DC and New York, where they snatched part of the plaza to share with their  opponents.

In its National Drug Threat Assessment, the DEA indicated that the CJNG, which was born in July 2010 after its founders separated from the Sinaloa cartel, is one of the fastest growing among those operating in the United States. 

The agency added that this expansion is due to the willingness of its members to participate in violent clashes with the security forces of the Mexican government and rival groups.

According to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), while in 2016 the military secured 1,083 kilos of methamphetamine and only 8 narco-laboratories in Jalisco, in 2017 they could only intercept 1.19 kilos and seven clandestine spaces to elaborate this type of synthetic drug.