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By Alex Gore'Community police' arrest former director of security in Tierra Colorado
They allege he took part in killing of their leader, 28, for criminal cartel
State prosecutors agree to investigate official's links to organised crime
Vigilantes have been stopping traffic at checkpoints and searching homes
Tourist injured after vigilantes opened fire because he failed to stop his car
Takeover comes amid growing 'self defence' movement against cartels
Members of the area's self-described "community police" say more than 1,500 members of the force were stopping traffic Wednesday at improvised checkpoints in the town of Tierra Colorado, which sits on the highway connecting Mexico City to Acapulco. They arrested 12 police and the former director of public security in the town after a leader of the state's vigilante movement was slain on Monday. A tourist heading to the beach with relatives was slightly wounded Tuesday after they refused to stop at a roadblock and vigilantes fired shots at their car, officials said.
The vigilantes accuse the ex-security director of participating in the killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of local organized crime groups and dumping his body in a nearby town on Monday. They reported seizing several high-powered rifles from his car, and vigilantes were seen toting a number of sophisticated assault rifles on Wednesday, although it was not clear if all had been taken from the ex-security director's car. "We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander," said Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group.
Placido said vigilantes had searched a number of homes in the town and seized drugs from some. They turned over the ex-security director and police officers to state prosecutors, who agreed to investigate their alleged ties to organized crime. The growing movement of "self-defense" vigilante groups has seen masked townspeople throw up checkpoints in several parts of southern and western Mexico, stopping passing motorists to search for weapons or people whose names are on hand-written lists of "suspects" wanted for crimes like theft and extortion.
The vigilantes have opened fire before on motorists who refused to stop, slightly wounding a pair of tourists from Mexico City visiting a local beach in early February. The groups say they are fighting violence, kidnappings and extortions carried out by drug cartels, but concerns have surfaced that the vigilantes may be violating the law, the human rights of people they detain, or even cooperating with criminals in some cases. Sensitive over their lack of ability to enforce public safety in rural areas, official have largely tolerated vigilante groups.
Source
When you shoot tourists you are not a vigilante. You need to read something other than the dailymail.
In the market town of Ayutla on a sweltering afternoon, two rusty old saloon cars pull up outside a furniture store on a street corner. Men with their rifles pointing skyward tumble out of the vehicles. But one of them has no gun. Nor does he have any shoes. He is being detained, and is brought in roughly by the men with weapons - all volunteer members of Ayutla's self-defence force. This street corner is the group's makeshift, unofficial headquarters. There are a few old chairs, a table, a barrel and some sandbags. Behind them, wardrobes embossed with Disney princesses jostle with chests of drawers. The young man with no shoes has his hands tied behind his back with nylon rope, and is told to sit down. "We're not going to mistreat him, or be aggressive with him", explains Leonides Ramos Ortiz, a member of the self-defence force. "We're going to take care of him until the investigation begins."
Since they became a force to be reckoned with earlier this year, this is just one of dozens of arrests made by untrained, armed civilians from Ayutla and its surrounding pueblos. But they have no legal authority, and they should not be carrying their guns in the street. This does not seem to be of concern to the steady stream of locals who come to the HQ to report crime. Dona Juana, a frail elderly woman, is having problems with a neighbour. He is trying to steal her land. "He says he's going to tie my husband up and drag him behind a horse, he's going to kill me, and kidnap my daughter", she says. Dona Juana has been to the police, the local council and the public affairs ministry, and nothing has been done.
Her friend, Carmela, believes Dona Juana's only hope is the "community police" as she calls the self-defence force. "The regular police and the military are all being used by organised criminal groups to carry out their activities. They're not stopping crime. Now we have our own community police, everything is much quieter. In the last couple of months organised crime has begun to disappear." Guerrero is what is called a hot state. It has some of the most violently disputed territory in Mexico, and produces more than half the country's heroin. Drug cartels grow opium poppies and marijuana in the highlands of the Sierra Madre, and move cocaine towards the United States along the state's mountain passes. Acapulco on the Pacific coast is the Mexican city with the highest homicide rate. And murder is a regular occurrence in Ayutla. On the outskirts of the town, down a rough track, a cavalcade of armoured military vehicles and police pick-up trucks have come to a stop next to a small farm.
Around the perimeter of the property, members of the self-defence force have taken up positions at five-metre intervals. Yellow police tape cordons off one area. "They found the remains of a body here, in an unmarked grave. It looks like it's a drug-related crime", says Gonzalo Torres, a large middle-aged man in a checked shirt, and one of the vigilantes. "Local people told us about the body, and we gave that information to the police." This is a role the self-defence force would like to play - important intermediaries between the community and Mexican authorities that are often regarded with suspicion by locals. The next day another three bodies are found close by. One of them was buried crouching, a young man with his legs tucked under his chin. Kidnap, too, is a common crime in Ayutla, a profitable sideline for the drug cartels and organised crime. Everyone knows someone who has been taken. In January, when the third of their commanders in as many months was bundled into a vehicle by an armed gang, hundreds of men, and some women, joined the self-defence force. They swooped and detained more than 50 people they claimed were guilty of serious crime.
More BBC News - Mexico's vigilante law enforcers
Vigilante militias that have fought a drug cartel in western Mexico for a year entered a key gang bastion on Saturday, manning checkpoints and helping federal forces find criminals. The civilian self-defense forces had their eye on Apatzingan for months, saying it was the crown jewel of the Knights Templar gang and a vital trade hub for the regions lime and avocado farmers. Vigilante leader Estanislao Beltran said hundreds of his colleagues manned checkpoints outside the Michoacan city of 120,000 to check who goes in and out. Heavily armed men were seen making walls of sandbags outside Apatzingan, the main city in Michoacans Tierra Caliente (Hot Land), a lush agricultural region.
Another 150 vigilantes were deployed with police and military patrols inside Apatzingan to search all the homes of suspected gang members. The vigilantes said they had captured Antonio Plancarte, the brother of a recently arrested Knights Templar leader. Authorities did not confirm Plancartes detention. Michoacan Deputy Government Secretary Fernando Cano said the vigilantes who went into the city were unarmed. Cano said the vigilantes were all members of new rural defense forces that were recently formed under the armys oversight to legalize the vigilante movement. Fed up with the local polices failure to curb the cartels reign of violence and extortion, civilians began to form vigilante units a year ago in Tierra Caliente. The movement has grown since then, posing the biggest security challenge of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nietos administration.
Armed members of so-called self-defence groups on Saturday take control of the entrance to Apatzingan in Mexicos Michoacan state.
Pena Nieto deployed thousands of troops to Michoacan in May last year, but the continuing violence forced him to focus more forces last month in Tierra Caliente. Late last month, the federal government decided to legalize the movement. About 600 have signed up so far out of an estimated 20,000 vigilantes. Beltran said the arrival in Apatzingan was done in coordination with the federal government. In October last year, the army had prevented vigilantes from entering Apatzingan with their weapons. Those who went in unarmed were met with gunfire. The self-defense forces have seized several towns around Apatzingan since then, essentially surrounding the city.
The Knights Templar, a cult-like gang that claims to be the protector of Michoacan, has accused the vigilantes of working as a proxy force for the rival Jalisco New Generation drug cartel. Some officials indicated last year that some vigilante groups might have been infiltrated by the Jalisco cartel. More recently the vigilantes have been seen as allies of the federal government. The Knights Templar reportedly import drug precursors from Asia to cook crystal meth that they then export to the US. The gang has also taken hold of much of Michoacans economy, demanding protection payments from farmers and shopkeepers as well as extracting iron ore that they then export to China.
Mexican vigilantes enter cartel bastion - Taipei Times
Mexican police arrested Leonor Nava, boss of Los Rojos (The Reds) in Tecpan de Galeana northwest of the beach resort of Acapulco, the biggest city in Guerrero, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido told a news conference.
Known as "El Tigre" (the tiger), Nava is suspected of trafficking drugs to the United States, extortion and kidnapping. He is also being investigated in connection with the murder of eight army soldiers in December 2008, Rubido said.
Los Rojos are allies of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, which fractured into several groups after its leader Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed by marines in 2009. Rubido said Nava, 45, was the main leader of Los Rojos.
Guerrero is one of Mexico's most violent regions and borders the Pacific state of Michoacan, which the government has had to reinforce this year to beat down another drug cartel.
Mexico captures leader of drug gang in violent state | Reuters
The students went missing after they clashed with police in Iguala in the volatile, gang-ridden state of Guerrero on Sept. 26. A mass grave was found near the town over the weekend, full of charred human remains. Guerrero's attorney general, Inaky Blanco, said on Sunday that 28 bodies have been found at the site so far, and it is "probable" that some of the missing 43 students are among the remains found in the graves. He said the motive of the killings was unclear. Other local officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that at least 34 bodies have been discovered.
In his first comments on the incident, Peña Nieto said the federal government would identify those behind the massacre and make sure they face justice. "We need to find the truth and make sure the law is applied to those responsible for these outrageous, painful and unacceptable acts," he said in a four-minute-long televised statement. He did not take questions. Blanco said on Sunday that two gang hitmen have admitted killing 17 of the missing students with the help of security officials. The likelihood of official involvement creates a major headache for Peña Nieto, who has sought to shift attention away from Mexico's gangland violence and onto a batch of economic reforms he has driven through Congress.
Angel Aguirre, the governor of Guerrero state, said he was certain the students were killed by gangs in cahoots with the police. He added that he expected at least some of the bodies in the mass grave would be those of the students, but said tests still needed to be completed to make sure. "It could well be them, I don't rule it out, it's a very real possibility," Aguirre, who has been criticized for not doing enough to clean up the state and keep a lid on the rampant violence, said in a radio interview. Some 22 local police have been arrested in connection with the violent incidents in Guerrero. The fugitive mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, is also being investigated for possible involvement in the crimes, as is the head of security for Iguala.
Blanco said the leader of a local gang known as the Guerreros Unidos conspired with security officials to carry out the killings. Peña Nieto took office two years ago pledging to end a wave of violence that has killed around 100,000 people since the start of 2007. Though homicides have fallen on his watch, other crimes have increased, including extortion and kidnapping. Guerrero, which is also home to the resort of Acapulco, has been one of the most lawless states in Mexico for years.
Mexico s president vows to find miscreants responsible for massacre Reuters
The newly created preventative unit of the federal police was tasked Monday with keeping order in Iguala and helping search for the 43 students still missing following the Sept. 26 attack, in which six people died. As state officials worked to determine whether any of the missing were among 28 bodies found over the weekend in a clandestine hillside grave, President Enrique Pena Nieto called the deaths "outrageous, painful and unacceptable." Pena Nieto said he dispatched federal security forces to "find out what happened and apply the full extent of the law to those responsible." Guerrero State Prosecutor Inaky Blanco said so far there was no known motive for the attack, but officials have alleged that local police were in league with a gang called the Guerreros Unidos. Investigators said video showed officers taking away an undetermined number of students, who had gone from a rural teachers college in Ayotzinapa to the city to solicit donations.
Speculation abounded among parents and local residents as a banner appeared in the name of the Guerreros Unidos. It demanded that 22 police officers detained in connection with the attack be released within 24 hours, and warned of consequences otherwise: "The war has started." The federal takeover came amid rising international concern over the Iguala incident and another possible case of a mass killing involving Mexican authorities. An army unit is under investigation and three soldiers face homicide charges in a June 30 confrontation that killed 22 suspected gang members in neighboring Mexico state. The army originally reported that they died in a gun battle after soldiers on patrol came under fire, but a witness told The Associated Press that 21 of them were killed after they surrendered. In Guerrero, Blanco said the bodies in the mass grave are badly damaged and genetic testing could take two weeks to two months to identify them. A person detained in the case had told investigators that 17 students were taken to the site outside Iguala, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) south of Mexico City, and killed there, he added.
Clandestine graves are seen near Iguala, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. State officials worked Monday to determine whether 28 bodies found in the clandestine graves are of the students who were attacked by local police in Iguala. President Enrique Pena Nieto called the deaths "outrageous, painful and unacceptable."
On Monday, Iguala's remaining police force was sent to a training center, and officers' weapons were to be checked for evidence of being used in crimes, said National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido. Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre charged last week that the majority of police in his state have been coopted or infiltrated by organized crime. Former anti-drug prosecutor Samuel Gonzalez said it was possible that traffickers suspected the students had been sent by a rival drug gang. Manuel Martinez, spokesman for the students' families, denied they had any links to organized crime. But the Ayotzinapa school has long been an ally of community police in the nearby town of Tixtla, and Martinez said that, along with the teachers union and the students, it had formed a broad front to expel cartel extortionists from the area last year.
Authorities have presented charges against 29 people. Three suspects are fugitives, including Iguala's police chief. Parts of Guerrero are controlled by vigilante-style community police forces, some believed to have ties to leftist guerrilla movements. Drug traffickers sometimes form their own pseudo-vigilante groups, and the state is torn by ancestral land conflicts, illegal logging and mining interests that create a powder keg for potential conflict. The mother of 17-year-old Luis Angel Abarca Carrillo said he had enrolled in the Ayotzinapa school to get ahead in life and not be a poor farmer like his brothers. "But now look what they did to him," said Margarita Carrillo, 60. "He hasn't reappeared."
Federal Police Take Over Mexico City After Attacks - ABC News
Two rival vigilante groups in Mexico's western state of Michoacan had a violent show-down in La Ruanta on Tuesday that left at least 11 people dead. The two-hour shoot-out pitted Hipolito Mora's followers against a group led by rival Luis Antonio Torres. Five members of Mora's group and six of Torres' were killed.
Tensions between Mora's and Torres' groups intensified earlier this year when they traded accusations of infiltration by the Knights Templar and argued over land seized by the drug cartel.
Vigilante groups, also referred to as "self-defense groups," were formed in February 2013 to protect locals from drug cartels, including the infamous Knights Templar, in the face of insufficient protection by government security forces.
The Mexican government has tried to rein in the vigilante groups by incorporating them into the government-sanctioned Rural Defense Corps. With rivals at odds in La Ruana, the government dispatched federal police to gain control there Tuesday.
Rival vigilante groups clash in western Mexico 11 dead - UPI.com
The comments by Michoacan state prosecutor Jose Martin Godoy were the most open recognition yet the groups that arose in 2013 to fight the Knights Templar cartel included a large number of former gang members, many known as "forgiven ones" after apologizing for their crimes. Godoy told local media that about half the vigilante movement's leaders were honest, but the other half were drug traffickers or other criminals. "In the self-defense groups, half of them rose up to create conditions of peace and tranquility and detain the criminal groups, but the other half, and the public knows this, were the well-known 'forgiven ones' who were part of a criminal group," Godoy said. "There were a lot of people taken in to these (vigilante) groups, who in the end were involved in the criminal activities, in (synthetic drug) laboratories and drug trafficking," he said.
Hipolito Mora, one of the founders of the vigilante movement who has battled other self-defense groups he branded corrupt, said Tuesday that there had long been signs of rotten eggs in the movement. "The self-defense forces were infiltrated ... and the infiltrators passed themselves off as self-defense leaders," Mora said, adding: "At last, he (Godoy) has publicly acknowledged that some self-defense leaders are criminals ... it took a while." Godoy's statement came in response to the discovery Monday of the bullet-ridden bodies of four men dumped by a roadside in Michoacan.
One of the dead men was identified as Carlos Rosales Mendoza, 53, alias "El Tisico," or "The Tubercular One." Rosales Mendoza was one of the founders and leaders of La Familia Michoacana cartel and then the Knights Templar cartel, which arose from the remnants of La Familia. Those gangs systematically extorted money from Michoacan residents and killed and kidnapped people until the vigilante movement rose up to fight them.
Godoy said Rosales Mendoza had been meeting with vigilante leaders before, including possibly at the time of his killing. "Everything indicates that recently, he (Rosales Mendoza) had begun to have contact with some leaders of the self-defense group, he began to have meetings," Godoy said. "He went to a meeting ... and everything indicates that things went wrong and they killed him there."
Mexican state prosecutor says criminals infiltrated vigilante groups that challenged cartel | Fox News
Criminals infiltrated vigilante groups that challenged Knights Templar cartel...
Mexican state prosecutor says criminals infiltrated vigilante groups that challenged cartel
December 29, 2015 – The chief prosecutor in the western Mexico state of Michoacan said Tuesday that criminals made up a large percentage of the "self-defense" vigilante movement that sprang up nearly three years ago to challenge a local drug cartel.
The comments by Michoacan state prosecutor Jose Martin Godoy were the most open recognition yet the groups that arose in 2013 to fight the Knights Templar cartel included a large number of former gang members, many known as "forgiven ones" after apologizing for their crimes. Godoy told local media that about half the vigilante movement's leaders were honest, but the other half were drug traffickers or other criminals. "In the self-defense groups, half of them rose up to create conditions of peace and tranquility and detain the criminal groups, but the other half, and the public knows this, were the well-known 'forgiven ones' who were part of a criminal group," Godoy said. "There were a lot of people taken in to these (vigilante) groups, who in the end were involved in the criminal activities, in (synthetic drug) laboratories and drug trafficking," he said.
Hipolito Mora, one of the founders of the vigilante movement who has battled other self-defense groups he branded corrupt, said Tuesday that there had long been signs of rotten eggs in the movement. "The self-defense forces were infiltrated ... and the infiltrators passed themselves off as self-defense leaders," Mora said, adding: "At last, he (Godoy) has publicly acknowledged that some self-defense leaders are criminals ... it took a while." Godoy's statement came in response to the discovery Monday of the bullet-ridden bodies of four men dumped by a roadside in Michoacan.
One of the dead men was identified as Carlos Rosales Mendoza, 53, alias "El Tisico," or "The Tubercular One." Rosales Mendoza was one of the founders and leaders of La Familia Michoacana cartel and then the Knights Templar cartel, which arose from the remnants of La Familia. Those gangs systematically extorted money from Michoacan residents and killed and kidnapped people until the vigilante movement rose up to fight them.
Godoy said Rosales Mendoza had been meeting with vigilante leaders before, including possibly at the time of his killing. "Everything indicates that recently, he (Rosales Mendoza) had begun to have contact with some leaders of the self-defense group, he began to have meetings," Godoy said. "He went to a meeting ... and everything indicates that things went wrong and they killed him there."
Mexican state prosecutor says criminals infiltrated vigilante groups that challenged cartel | Fox News
what are your thoughts on donkeys?Hmm, they have any good pussy down there?
