'Guano' Armies: Former Judge And Durango Official In Criminal Network

 "Ivan" for Borderland Beat 

A diagram that forms part of the documents hacked from the Sedena by the Guacamaya group shows that the brother of 'Chapo' Guzmán has a structure in Sinaloa and Durango made up of more than 300 people.

Aureliano Guzmán Loera, el Guano, brother of Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán, operates in the mountainous area of Sinaloa and Durango, in addition to the municipality of Escuinapa, through a criminal network made up of more than 300 people, including a former judge and a public official from the government of Durango.

According to a 2018 Sedena diagram titled "Infn. Guano," hacked by the Guacamaya group, Chapo's older brother, whom the Army has been seeking to arrest since 2016 and for whom the US government is offering a $5 million reward, then had a command structure with which he controlled drug trafficking in the mountainous area of Badiraguato and Escuinapa, in Sinaloa, and Tamazula, in Durango.

El Guano's security chief, according to the document, was Jesus Guillermo Flores Chavez, "El Caballo," and his closest man was Bernardino Esparza Aboyta, "El 08. The latter led a cell called "Gente de Aboyta," which had control of the community of San Jose del Llano, in Badiraguato.

This cell was made up of nine men, most of them young, whose identity is unknown to the SEDENA, while Aureliano Guzmán Loera directly led five cells in four localities in Badiraguato and Tamazula.

The first group that operated in the community of Bastantitas, Durango, and who are identified as "Drug Hoarders", was made up of brothers identified by the Sedena as Erasmo and Emilio Rodríguez Parra. The first is a former local judge, who was arrested by the military on August 22, 2006, along with six individuals, among them an alleged nephew of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who identified himself as Luis Alberto Cano Zepeda.

The judge and the six detainees apprehended at a clandestine airstrip in Bastantitas, municipality of Tamazula, were carrying 201,500 pesos in cash, three AK-47 rifles, a .10 millimeter caliber pistol, five radio communication devices, a computer, 211 grams of marijuana seeds, equipment to install satellite telephony and a Cessna 206 aircraft with license plate XB-ITM, which had taken off from La Platanera, in Culiacán.

The detainees were transferred to the SIEDO, accused of organized crime, crimes against health and possession of firearms for the exclusive use of the Army.

Relatives of Erasmo Rodríguez Parra accused that the judge had been taken from his house, without being shown an arrest warrant.

This is not the only time the judge's name has appeared in the media. In 2016, a file on Chapo Guzman's escape from the Altiplano prison in July 2015, published by national media, showed that then-deputy Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez, who was the partner of the then leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, contacted Erasmo Rodriguez Parra to file a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) about the operations that federal forces carried out in the highlands in search of the drug lord.

The file indicated that the judge was in charge of controlling the cultivation of marijuana and poppy in the town of Bastantitas for the Guzmán Loera organization. El Chapo would have hidden there after escaping from the Altiplano prison. Erasmo Rodríguez Parra allegedly served as an intermediary between the criminal leader and the legislator known as "Chapodiputada", who is currently part of the protected witness program in the United States, after having testified against her ex-partner in the so-called "Trial of the Century".

In the town of Santa Gertrudis, the Guano organization was led by Jesus Rodriguez Lara, the Sheriff and Josue Villa Gurrola.

THE CRIMINAL NETWORK.

In the Durango government directory, a person by the name of Josué Villa Gurrola currently appears as the civil registry official in El Durazno. In 2020 this same person was president of the Municipal Board of El Durazno.

The second group controlled by El Guano is called "Los Coteros", which at the time had a presence in the town of La Cebadilla, in Badiraguato. The cell was made up of five brothers: German, Jesús, Salomé, Alejandro and Víctor Vargas Villa.

On July 17, 2019, Salomé Vargas Villa died along with two more subjects during an ambush in the community of El Durazno, municipality of Tamazula.

The three men were circulating aboard a black Jeep Cherokee pickup truck on a road leading from El Durazno to the town of El Barco, where they were attacked by an armed group.

The diagram that was sent to the Commander of the Third Military Region establishes that another structure of Chapo Guzmán's brother operated in El Durazno. There, a man identified as "Genaro Núñez, ex-president of the Municipal Board" was in control, the name coincides with that of Genaro Núñez Terán, who was president of the Durazno Municipal Board.

In the town of Santa Gertrudis, municipality of Badiraguato, the Sedena also identified two women as responsible for surveillance or "halconeo". Only their names appear: Carmen and Alejandra.

La Válvula' criminal group

Under the orders of Aureliano Guzmán Loera, according to the Sedena, in 2018 there was also a criminal group called "La Válvula," which was led by José Alfredo Ceniseros Pacheco, alias El Cepillo and/or Chepe.

El Cepillo, exercised control in the municipality of Escuinapa along with his brothers Abel and Isac, and a commando of 40 men.

Abel and Isac Ceniceros (with "C") Pacheco have a mining exploration concession title for a 2,000 hectare lot known as La Bufona, in Tamazula, Durango, issued by the General Directorate of Mines.

Among the 40 men who operated for the brothers identified by the Secretary of National Defense as "Ceniseros Pacheco", the Army identifies José Luis Castro Saucedo, Leonel Labrador Aguirre, another subject identified as "El Gallo", the brothers José de Jesús Reyes Rubio, "El Toro Boludo", Darío and Antonio Israel, alias "Toñejas"; Casimiro Parente González, "El Casi" and José Bartolo Duarte Cebreros.

The Guano network also includes the brothers Olegario, Cain, Jose Lamberto and Jesus Flores Chiquete, Jose Luis Castro Saucedo, Victor Sinue Leyva Molina, Dario Rodriguez Rodriguez, another who is only mentioned by the nickname Mojarras, Marco Antonio Ulivarria Gonzalez, Javier Sanchez Pasos, Meliton, and the brothers Juan Francisco Perez Garcia, Infundia, Salvador and Clarito, alias Claro, who is said to operate in Altar, Sonora.

The leaders of the 'Guzmán Loera-Zambada García' organization.

The information on Aureliano Guzmán Loera's network of links, prepared by the Sedena intelligence areas, also establishes a map of Sinaloa and Durango, with a photograph of Guano at the top and in red the areas under his influence: Badiraguato, Tamazula and Escuinapa. It details the hierarchies within the "Guzmán Loera-Zambada García" organization.

In Badiraguato, the Army identified Manuel Valenzuela Portillo, who leads a group of 100 people, as the ringleader. Under his command are Bernardino Esparza Aboyta, number 08, in charge of a cell of 50 people, and Joel Zepeda Cano, number 23, who leads another group of 20 people. Also appearing in the diagram are Javier Chavez, el Chamaco, who controls a cell of 30 members, and Daniel Quintero Quiñonez, el Dani, who is in charge of a group of 20 people.

In Tamazula, El Guano maintains control of the area through Eligio Angulo Zamudio, el Señor, who has 50 people under his command.

In 2017 the president of the Nuevo Tamazula Local Livestock Association was Juan Eligio Angulo Zamudio, and in 2018 he was an alternate councilman for the PRI in the Tamazula City Council.

So far, Aureliano Guzmán has managed to escape the different operations that the military forces have implemented since 2016 to capture him. The most recent one took place on February 24 in the area of El Durazno, in Tamazula, Durango, where around 200 marines and military personnel arrived in search of him, without managing to apprehend him.

El Guano is wanted in the United States for the crimes of international conspiracy to distribute marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl to that country.

Article published on March 05, 2023 in the 1049th edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

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