Sinaloan Businessmen Arrive In Puebla, Announce Pig Farm And It Turns Out To Be A Narco-Laboratory

"Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from PROCESO 

Inhabitants of the municipality of Coatzingo, Puebla, recently expelled from their land a group of people that the mayor presented to them as "businessmen" from Sinaloa who were trying to set up legal businesses. The place, which was supposed to be a farm, has been secured by the Attorney General's Office (FGR).

In the image, the secured property in Coatzingo, Puebla, where the alleged drug farm is located instead of a pig farm... Photo: Montserrat López

BY: Gabriela Hernández 

COATZINGO, Pue (Proceso) - United and organized, the residents of this municipality in the Mixtec region of Puebla managed to remove from their territory alleged businessmen from Sinaloa who arrived with the cover that they would invest in a pig farm, when in reality they were installing and operating a laboratory for the production of synthetic drugs. 

The "La Cástula" site, where the alleged businessmen left 51 50-liter drums and 28 200-liter barrels with chemicals, two scales and 12 burners, has been secured since June 22 by the Attorney General's Office (FGR) and is being guarded by Army and National Guard elements.

In this town, especially in the Junta Auxiliar de Zaragoza, where the property that was seized is located, there is a climate of tension. 

The residents say they are surprised that, despite what happened, the federal authorities have not patrolled the area, nor issued any report. 

The news about the drug lab was only published as a rumor in some local media. 

In the desolate highways and country roads only municipal and state patrols pass by, but the inhabitants distrust those corporations, because they say that the municipal president, Abel Chávez Orea, was close to the owners of the secured property, and they themselves boasted to them that they had "influence" in the state government. 

"We in Puebla have good influence with the government, we are fine (with them), thank God," one of the Sinaloans is heard saying in an audio provided to Proceso.

Chávez Olea. The mayor who advocated for "entrepreneurs". Photo: Municipality of Coatzingo

Chávez came to the municipal presidency for the Redes Sociales Progresistas party, but is now seeking re-election for Morena, with the support of Julio Huerta Gómez, former Secretary of the Interior of Puebla, gubernatorial candidate for that party and cousin of the late governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta.

It was last June 17, in an open assembly, when more than 500 residents decided to declare the supposed Sinaloan investors, who had been in the municipality for more than a month and a half, "persona non grata". They gave them a deadline of the 21st of that month to leave. 

One day after these people left Coatzingo -last June 20- the neighbors went to the place where the Sinaloans were operating and discovered that they had left drums that "smelled very bad". They then reported the incident to the authorities, who only came to secure the place, but no one was arrested.

Almost three months after these events, the inhabitants say they do not know what type of drugs were being produced in the alleged laboratory; they affirm that only an element of the FGR, who came a few days ago, confirmed that the substances tested positive for precursors for the production of narcotics. Officially, they have not been told anything. 

The villagers are also not sure if the people they expelled from the town belonged to a criminal group. By inference, after two identified themselves as being from Culiacan, they presume that they may be part of the Sinaloa Cartel. But, although they have questioned the authorities, they perceive an official silence on these facts. 

To date, the residents are not clear whether the alleged criminals left the chemicals and tools on the land because they no longer had room in the truck and van they used to evict "La Cástula" or whether they intended to return to recover the material, but were unable to do so due to the presence of the military. 

A group of neighbors have asked the mayor and the aldermen, after these events, to call on the federation to reinforce the protection of the area, but they have had no response.  

The municipal president has even branded the complainants as "gossipers" and has disclosed that the barrels - guarded by the Army and the National Guard - actually contain diesel and water. 

"The government is not giving it the importance it should, they have already made requests, they have already spoken to the governor and so far we have seen nothing", states one of the neighbors interviewed under the condition of anonymity and who points out that the greatest concern they have is for the safety of their families.

The residents have noticed that every day, around ten o'clock in the morning, a small plane flies over the area and off-road vehicles and motorcycles circulate nearby.

Gómez Ríos. Regaño to villagers. Photo: Special

There are rumors in the area that the same alleged businessmen rented land in San Mateo Mimiapan, municipality of Zacapala, and that they could be in the town of Patlanoaya, Ahuatlán, in the same region.  

The neighbors state that they delivered a letter to the 25th Military Zone to request that a permanent detachment be installed in this town and they were even offered a space, but they have had no response. 

Although there are military and federal elements on the secured land, they do not carry out patrols. "Besides, the biggest problem could come when they (the military) leave," says one of those interviewed.

The Binational Council of Mexican Community Organizations (CBOC), which integrates Puebla natives living in Southern California, United States, delivered a letter to Governor Salomón Céspedes Peregrina to express their concern for the situation of insecurity in the Mixteca region, especially in Coatzingo and Ahuatlán, "where it is presumed that there is the presence of organized crime cells". 

"We are fine with the government".

There were multiple reasons to be suspicious of the outsiders who spoke with a thick northern accent and had more than 15 "plebes" working on the hidden plot of land, on the borders with Ahuatlán and on the banks of the Atoyac River. 

"Why come all the way from Culiacán, Sinaloa, to set up a pig farm in a distant place with very difficult access?", asks one of the neighbors, who adds that they never saw a single pig. 

Another reason was that most of the time they traveled after midnight and, instead of using the road, they did it on the sidewalks, in all-terrain vehicles and with cargo trucks. 

"The municipal president told us that they were good, hard-working people who wanted to invest in the town," he recalls. "But as soon as we saw those people, we realized that they were not country people. We had a bad feeling about them.

Salomón Céspedes. No response for the inhabitants. Photo: Cuartoscuro

In addition, the workers of the supposed businessmen began to behave in an arrogant manner towards the population, such as "burning tires" in front of a school or threatening anyone who approached the land where they were installed. 

Last June 13, a group of villagers met with three of them at the town hall: one born in Tijuana, but with family in the neighboring town of Tenango, and the other two from Culiacán, who said they were the owners of the farm.

After being introduced by the municipal president, the subjects offered them that they could also rent their land to them. "We are coming to work," they said in the recording available to this media outlet, "we want to plant corn and tomatoes and put in cattle and pigs, and make fertilizer".

-And why did you choose Coatzingo? -asked the villagers. 

-As the (municipal) president said, sometimes we look for land by satellite and many times we guide ourselves because it has happened to us that they have tried to extort us, you understand, there are problems everywhere, so we look for quiet areas to work.

-But who told you that it is quiet here? Here we have problems of insecurity and even more in that area where you have set up," the neighbors refuted them. 

-That is what we have been told, but we in Puebla have good influence with the government; we are fine thanks to God, that is, we can do anything, that is, pay attention to the people and send for the government or something like that, any little detail. We have good influence there, we are doing well there.  

And still, as if to finish convincing them, the businessmen added: "We have a good culture, well, as I said, someone who says 'well I come from Jalisco, they are going to say, well he is going to charge me,' I am from Sinaloa and thank God we Sinaloans are doing well wherever we stand and we are workers and we are a source of income for many people".

The group of settlers proposed to the businessmen that they present themselves in a public assembly and that the people decide if they could stay. 

One of the neighbors narrates that on that occasion they were asked for voter's credentials to identify them, but only one of them had them, and the others agreed to present them the following day, which did not happen. 

The day after that meeting, Chávez Orea summoned the members of the Irrigation System and offered them 1,500 liters of diesel as a support from the "businessmen", but the group did not accept it. 

Although the mayor later refused to convene the open assembly, the villagers did so on their own.  

The meeting took place on June 17 and was published in full on Facebook. Some 500 neighbors confronted the mayor and complained to him for not having consulted them in order to allow these people to settle in the community. 

Mayor Chávez Orea denied any link or interest with the investors and argued that they showed up when they had already contacted the owner of the land to rent it.

"I tell you one thing? A delinquent never presents himself to the authorities," the municipal president justified to convince them that they were making "a big fuss." 

However, the president of the ejidal commissariat, Gilberto Rodríguez Orta, publicly revealed that he was present when the mayor called the owner of the site to arrange for him to rent it to the businessmen. 

By majority vote, the neighbors drafted a document to order the "people of Sinaloa" to "take their things out" and leave the municipality. 

On June 19, residents, municipal authorities of Coatzingo and neighboring Ahuatlán, as well as the businessmen themselves, were summoned to the State Government Secretariat in the city of Puebla to mediate a solution to the conflict. 

However, by that day Chávez Orea informed the attendees that the Sinaloans would not show up because they had already decided to leave the place. 

"The (municipal) president told us that the only thing they were asking was that we not touch their things because then there would be problems," says one of the witnesses. 

He adds that the Director of Delegations of the Secretary of the Interior of the state, Edgar Alejandro Gómez Ríos, reproached the neighbors that, because of their conflictive position, an important investment for that community had been lost. 

Last June 20, the people came to Coatzingo to remove their belongings in a truck and a van. The next day the locals went to the property where they found the drums and denounced the authorities.

Community patrols

For years, the locals have organized community patrols, together with their neighbors from Huehuetlán el Grande and San Juan Epatlán, to counteract the insecurity that plagues the Mixteca region of Puebla, a strategic region for crime due to its multiple highways, paths and roads that are poorly guarded and connect to Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos and Mexico City. 

In 2012, dozens of locals, including countrymen living in California, joined forces with the authorities to fight a kidnapping gang operating in these municipalities. 

Before, the insecurity came from local criminal groups.  But now, in most of the municipalities in this region, national cartels operate, particularly Los Rojos - due to the proximity to Guerrero - and the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation.  Thus, dismembered, bagged and mass executions have become a daily occurrence in the Mixteca region.

However, the presence of the National Guard is almost nonexistent. According to residents, there was a base at the Las Palomas crossroads, between Telcingo and Acatlan, and another one in the municipality of Jolalpan, but they were withdrawn years ago.

Drums with chemicals from the alleged pig farm. Photo: Montserrat López

The community patrols, called the Poblano Territorial Force, made it possible to detect the vehicles of the alleged Sinaloan businessmen, say those interviewed; otherwise they might still be operating in "La Castula. Also, they add, it had to do with the firm reaction they assumed in the assembly. 

And it is possible that the "pseudo-businessmen" feared they would end up as victims of a lynching, a very common phenomenon in Puebla. 

In the Mixteca, the self-defense groups came to group more than 700 armed residents, but on July 21, 2022 the leader of Fuerza Territorial Poblana, Eloy Merino Mendoza, and five other members were killed in an ambush, allegedly by the criminal group Los Rojos. 

At the same time, then-governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta accused the group of acting "illegally," which weakened and divided the organization.

Source: PROCESO