Saric and El Gilo?

[ArmChairIntellect]

I have been fascinated by this story of El Gilo or Arnoldo “El Cid” Buelna, a man who by all accounts should have been long dead.  And Saric, a tiny little municipality in northern Sonora, bordering Arizona and is the last corridor that belongs to BL.  If any little birdies have any currant news of the situation I'd appreciate it.  Gary Moore has covered it recently on the main board. http://garymoore22.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/editin/ 


This is a very old article by Michel Marizco.  This guy was awesome.

And Mexico, and I mean the State, is staying the Christ out of it. Thank you, first of all, to juanito, a reader here who helped set me straight on the players. (I’d like to add, as a friend in Nogales pointed out, who in the hell drives a Volkswagen Passat to a gunfight with the Beltrán Leyvas?)

He’s got it right, Felix the Ice Cream Man is with Raúl Sabori, Paéz Soto, Nini Beltrán and Los Jabalí, Jose Vásquez’s boys from Santa Ana. Collectively, they’re the Sinaloa Federation’s syndicate along the Sonora border.

And they’re going against El Gilo, a man identified in an FBI report as Hector Beltrán Leyva’s lieutenant in Saríc and Tubutama, that pocket of cerro between Nogales and Sasabe, just along the Sonora-Arizona border. It is significant that the U.S. intel agencies do not know his real name.

Gilo, according to the FBI, has 300 men stocked in that town and they’re running out of resources. Last week, the chief of police and town treasurer from Tubutama tried to make a run for Nogales to buy gasoline; they were subsequently eliminated from the argument. On June 12, according to a U.S. Border Patrol intel report, Gilo scrapped with the Mexican Army in Cerro Prieto; taking no casualties. The Army backed off, not saying how many casualties they themselves took. Geographically, it’s a rough area to get to; there is exactly one highway leading in, you come in from Magdalena de Kino or you come in from Sasabe or Altar. My apologies to those of you not from this area, it’s late, I’m busy and I don’t have time to explain these logistics. Suffice it to say that there are three entrances towards that mountain range, one from the east, two from the west.

In that gunfight yesterday, the Sinaloa crew fooked up; there’s just no other way to put it. Los Jabalí geared up with 30-50 SUVs and trucks, all marked with three X’s on the windows. Gilo’s people were waiting for them. According to the FBI, the Sinaloans ran into a roadblock, just a couple cars jamming up the road; enough to force the convoy to a halt. It was truly a stupid maneuver, in my opinion. Yeah, you had them cornered, Gilo’s people are sitting stranded in a fooking mountain town for chrissakes. But the Sinaloans moved in linearly when they should have come in from all directions. Idiotas. Bear in mind that the Army did nothing during this occupation; they didn’t move in on Gilo, they didn’t move on the Sinaloans.

From the FBI report: “Subjects report that the Jabalínas (sp) were forced to a stop on the highway when Gilo’s group opened fire and sustained heavy casualties.”

The Sinaloans are supposedly waiting for 300 men to arrive from Sinaloa. Unfortunately for them, Gilo is also awaiting reinforcements.

There’s an old story in the Sierra, about a lion cornered by a pack of dogs and just how many of those dogs the old mountain cat defeated before he was taken down.

Right about now, 48 hours after the killings, there oughtta be two groups coming in from Sinaloa; one from Culiacán, one from the Sierra, Los Mochis, maybe. 300 men, each side, about to fight it out for a mountain town. The FBI is filled with idiots who anticipate this is a mopping up of the Beltrán Leyvas. They ain’t been able to do it yet. In fact, got smoked when they tried.

No, no, mi estimado. One side is brimming, building up in the cities. But the other is quiet, watching, waiting. The dogs are howling; the cat’s snarling. This will be a fight for the corridos to remember. Gonna be one hell of a Fourth of July.

I’ll be in Tubutama this weekend. Try and behave. Sále.

[ArmChairIntellect]

Shameless self bump, but with another story from Michel


The Drug War And Cartels Lead To An Exodus In Northern Mexico
Michel Marizco

The Drug War And Cartels Lead To An Exodus In Northern MexicoIn northern Mexico's smallest towns, cartel violence has led to a diaspora as people flee to larger cities. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, villages in the Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas are emptying out, leaving lawless ghost towns.

In some of those towns in Sonora, residents say the government can no longer protect them.

The long ribbon of highway outside of town stretches for miles. Desert scrub grows out onto the cheaply paved road in the mountains of Northern Sonora. Locals warn don't go too far up into the hills. Even the Sinaloa Cartel stays out. So does the Mexican Army. They circle them instead.

In the hills, their target is a narco-trafficker who has successfully fought both the Army and the cartels off for the past year. He goes by the name “El Gilo”. Mexican federal law enforcement sources identify him as Arnoldo del Cid Buelna; he's a holdover of the Beltrán Leyva cartel and has been in the mountains south of Arizona for years.

In 2010, the Sinaloa Cartel, the most powerful cartel in the Western Hemisphere, moved against him, trying to roust him from the hills. He ambushed their convoy. Officially, he murdered 21 cartel gunmen. Unofficially, local reporters say there were so many dead that police used bread trucks to haul the bodies down. Since then, both the government and the cartel stay at a respectful distance.

The largest of the towns in these hills is Tubutama. A 300 year old mission town. Father Anastasio Franco Gómez gives the Mass on this day.

"The last census counted 1,750 people; right now, I doubt there are 500 left,” Gomez said in Spanish.

The town's last local cop was shot dead in mid June. The police station, closed down. Companies stopped delivering goods to the local stores. School teachers have left; businesses locked up.

Empty roads, empty houses sit in the middle of town, their windows shattered out. Maria Luisa Galvach has been the mission's keeper for 18 years.

“There are no medics. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing,” Galvach said. “The health clinic that served the region is closed down.”

Travel further into the hills and closer to the U.S. border in Arizona. The last Army checkpoint is miles behind now. Pull into the pueblo of Cerro Prieto. This is Gilo's territory. The town is nearly deserted.

Leonardo, 11, is helping his dad work on a house. He grew up in Phoenix where they lived illegally before returning to Mexico. He hoses the sweat off on this hot day and goes to stand shyly behind his father.

"They come with guns here. Like … people. Scary," he said, quietly.

Like the other towns here, there is no gas station or large grocery store. For those, one must drive down into the cities. But people have been killed by the cartel for trying to bring fuel or food back up. The assumption is it will go to Gilo. The Mexican Army? It stands back and watches.

It leaves Leonardo's father angry, frustrated.

"They don’t allow us to bring provisions, fresh vegetables, nor gasoline," he said in Spanish.

The boy Leonardo has clear instructions for when the gunmen come.

"Just go to … like inside the house and stay there," the boy said.

And then, Gilo comes.

“Who are you looking for? Gilo? I'm Gilo,” the man says as he approaches.

He's a large man; huge. Blonde hair clipped short, wearing a black button-down and strings of bright yellow and orange plastic beads. He's driving a beat-up maroon pickup truck with five men inside. Six men sit in the bed, staring like cats. Their hands grasp the rails of the truck as if they're ready to leap out. His eyes are blue and he's angry. At the government, he says.

“The government brought in mercenaries,” Gilo said in Spanish. “They're arming a war.”

He’s prepared, he says.

Back down the lawless road into the main town, the few children left are warming up for San Pablo Day: A historic festival that's always drawn a crowd from both sides of the border. The crowd is supposed to spill out from the mission and onto the church square for the celebration.

This year, it barely filled the pews.

[Chivis]

ACI

You can write to Gary via BB and ask him if he has additional info...

[Misael]

CONTENTS DELETED

The author has deleted this message.

[Chivis]

Ovemex (i think) covered it at the time..I think i added links to photos can't remember but you might check it out

[ArmChairIntellect]

Thanks guys, still havent heard if it was confirmed or not, if Isidro and Gilo both fell that would be quite the set back for Hector and the Z's.