The Cover Up of the Cadereyt 49

By ACI for Borderland Beat

On May 13, 2012, 49 mutilated bodies turned up, outside the small village of San Juan.  The bodies were piled up on the side of the highway leading to Reynosa.  But before we delve deeper into how this massacre was covered up, let’s lay out some ground work.  



 A Sleepy Little Town
San Juan is very small village close to the town of Cadereyt, just outside of the city of Monterrey.  Cadereyt was a lazy town, best known for its churches and heat.  It is also home to some amazing grottos.  But in the war that has engulfed Mexico it will be known for something else entirely.

The town's historical Plaza

The Emergence El Loko
Cadereyt along with Allende were placed under the control of El Loko, or Daniel Elizondo sometime around July 2011.  He was the considered the Zetas boss for the rural area surrounding these two cities as well.  He wasted very little time making a name for himself, by leaving several mutilated bodies strewn through out the streets of both Allende and Cadereryt.  He is held reasonable for the killing of two young sisters from the town of Allende.  The two were picked up by the local police while walking home one night.  The local police apparently were ordered to deliver the girls to El Loko. He then raped, killed, then dismember their bodies, once again displaying the parts at the entrances to the town.  This case ended with the dismissal of 14 police officers who were reportedly involved.  El Loko, the man responsible was mysteriously was no where to be found.

A Mexican Cover Up

The Location of Loko's assumed death

Not long after the police were arrested, the military claimed one of two men shot in Cadereyt was none other than El Loko himself.  They announced his death saying only that they had killed a man who reportedly fit the description of El Loko, at this time no one even knew his real name.  What follows is the description the military released. 

 
Excerpt from Buggs
There have been preliminary reports that one of the sicarios killed was no other than El Loko. He was described as heavy set, about 200 pounds and was wearing a green shirt and Bermuda shorts. The military believes that it might be El Loko and the Attorney General's Office did confirm that the man killed was in fact El Loko.

The military had intitially suspected the man to be El Loko based on the fact that his name was written on the sun visor and the trunk of one of the vehicles. On the walls of the ranch military observed the letter "Z" written in yellow paint. The military believe that the ranch was used by the sicarios as a safe house.

El Loko is plaza boss in Allende and Cadereyta for Los Zetas. He is known to be a brutally violent sicario that has participated or has been linked to some gruesome executions.
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/08/el-loko-taken-down.html

El Loko

 El Loko was obviously a man who wielded significant power within los zetas.  He commanded enough power to have the Police bring him two innocent girls.  He survived an intense manhunt, which could have only been accomplished with the help of those higher up in the leadership of los zetas.  His death which was falsely claimed by the military, was promoted by the media and government and then quickly forgotten about.  The description given by the military did not resembled the true El Loko, it was generic and simple, it could have described almost anyone.  This by itself was troubling enough but as this terror unfolded the true depth of government complicity began to unravel.

The Menace Returns
September 2011, quiet returned to the area and silence took hold.  Not much was heard, some were frightened it was going to become another Mier.  The silence which plagues Nuevo Leon continued until May 13, 2012.  The day 49 torsos were discovered wrapped in plastic.  What followed was a bizarre chain of events, all of which deserving of a closer look.  

A Mothers Day to Remember
Several days before the massacre 12 people were found alive in Jalisco.  The victims lead police to a man called El Chato.  He was working for a cartel aligned with los zetas, he explained los zetas plan to display numerous corpses on Mother’s Day, even though he was unaware of the extent of the diabolic plan.  This portion of his interview was dismissed while the public focused on his confession that the victims were picked at random and had no ties to criminal organization.  It has long be suspected that many of the victims of these body dumps have been innocent.  No one paid much thought to this so called plan, that was until Sunday May 13, the day the 49 were found.  
Here is an except of that interview.  
Police: When were you going to kill the 12 people that were found alive, or what was the plan?
El Chato: Supposedly May 10 [Mothers Day in Mexico].
Police: Why?
El Chato: I don't know.

El Chato

http://borderland-beat.924382.n3.nabble.com/quot-El-Chato-R8-quot-from-Cartel-Millennium-quot-Fernando-R2-quot-from-ZETAS-and-quot-El-Moco-Booge-td4004302.html 
This leads us to the conclusion that the zetas had planned this massacre to take place on Mother’s Day, and that it was not a rouge cell leader who had gone off the reservation.  The plan it seems was to have several body dumps through out Mexico, utilizing not only los zetas but their allies as well.  This amount of coordination that would have had to taken place would have needed the cooperation of the highest levels of leadership, due to the compartmentalization of the los zetas organization and their allies.      

Mexico's Cartels and How it Got to This

 
By ACI for Borderland Beat

How it happen….
The war began before Calderon, but no one could have known what lay in store.  It was so unlikely; most thought that some arrangements would be made, life would go on as it always had.  But as time passed it became clear this was not to be and many simply wished that this Pandora's box would simply close.  Little did anyone know how pervasive and ingrained the darkness had become.

Only a few saw the demons lurking in the shadows, even then no one predicted what lay ahead.   The true roots of the evil had been lurking within the almost 80 year reign of the PRI and its predisposition to corruption.  The system was well worn, the networks had been laid, there was a price for everything, and this was all before the age of the Narco.

When the PRI lost to the PAN in 2000, it shook the foundation of the system to its core.  The old way of doing things had radically changed, the old networks fragmented, alliances broken, and what we have now come to know as the fragmentation of Mexico's criminal underworld had begun.  The chaos had arisen.  This was the cost of years and years of nepotism and corruption and the consequences were finally coming to pass.

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo

The Godfather and His Empire
There was a time when one man stood above all others.  He was part of the old guard, well entrenched with the workings of the world in which he lived.  His name was Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo or El Padrino (The Godfather); he oversaw over an entire empire; his industry, illegal smuggling.

He was soon to create what would soon be know as the Mexican Cartel.  For years his network remained unchallenged, immune to justice.  At the time Felix Gallardo was untouchable, too big to fail as they would say.  His organization laid the foundation for the TCO’s to come.

He masterfully greased the hands of politicos and high ranking military officials.  He reached out and began relationships with the Colombians.  The relationship he forged with the Colombians was to be worth more than even he could imagine.  Seemed like there was nothing anyone could do about El Padrino or his organization. That was until the untimely death of DEA agent Enrique Camarena.

Enrique "Kiki" Camarena

The Attention One Receives
Enrique Camarena, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency began working in Guadalajara in 1981.  His goal was to find out how powerful the Guadalajara Cartel had become.  At the time he was only one of a handful of agents working within Mexico.  He spent years infiltrating the Guadalajara Cartel for the DEA and had built close ties to El Padrino.  Everything was going according to plan until the betrayal. 

In 1984 Camarena led a raid on a 10,000 acre plantation called the Buffalo Ranch.  Miguel; through his network of police and federal informers quickly became aware of Enrique’s role in the raid.  The ranch was reportedly worth 8 billion dollars.  To Miguel and his ego this was  line that should have never been crossed. 

Miguel reacted and had Enrique kidnapped, tortured then killed, to serve as a warning to any who might want to disrupt cartel business.  The blow back was historic; the United States began the largest murder investigation in its history.  It did not take long before Miguel was identified as a target of interest.  The United States put an enormous amount of pressure on the Mexican Government to apprehend Miguel.  It would take the authorities 5 more years before they would be able to secure his arrest in 1989.


All Empires Eventually Fall
But as with all kings, his reign was to come to an end, all kings eventually fall.  Miguel could see the wheels in motion, he could hear the whispers from those that tended to his mansion, his telephones were a lit with the chatter of governors he had so faithfully served.  He listened as his friends in the government turned on him, the end was near.

He thought he might be able to save what he had built; that he could prevent his subjects from feeding on each other.  He was wrong.  Little did he know how fragile his empire had become, or the monsters he would release upon the Mexican people.  Prior to his arrest he held a meeting in the upscale tourist town of Acapulco.

Here he met with his top lieutenants; Arellano Felix, Carrillo Feuntes, Miguel Quintero, Juan Abergo, Chapo Guzman and Mayo Zambada.  During this meeting he divided up his empire.  Tijuana went the Arellano Felix brothers, Sonora would go to Miguel Quintero, Guzman and Zambada would get Sinaloa and Juarez would go to Carrillo Feuntes.

The Gulf would remain in the hands of Juan Abergo.  His plan worked for a short while, but greed has its own temptations, and the empire he sacrificed his soul for, was doomed to fail.
 

Let the Good Times Roll
One major shift occurred in the early 1980’s with the Cocaine Wars in Florida.  As law enforcement started to seal off the Caribbean route, as it was called, the money dried up and the routes shifted west; towards Mexico and its porous border with the US.  Prior to this Mexican drug traffickers mainly focused on marijuana and opiate cultivation.  El Padrino had already established connection with the Colombian Cartels, so the transition came naturally.

Cocaine brought with it vast amounts of cash, but with that cash also came blood.  The influx of cash changed the face of the game.  It also changed its nature, violence increased as did the tactics used to intimidate enemies.   It turned one king into to many; soon it would be the Mexicans dictating to the Colombians how the game was played.

Nothing was too expensive, anything could be purchased, and everyone could be bought.  This is the moment that the Mexican Cartels became the main suppliers of drugs to the United States.