In June, operatives attempted to assassinate Mexico City's police chief, Omar Garcia Harfuch hammering his body with at least three bullets and slaying two of his bodyguards. Macias found success following the cartel's three-pronged business model: Macias recruited Brizeida Janett Sosa, the mother of his youngest child, to help organize themoney laundering scheme, court records would later show. CJNG, which routinely faces off with its No. But betrayal awaited, Will El Chapo son's arrest slow export of drugs to US? Passed over for promotion, ElMenchoteamed withhis in-laws who ran an affiliatedcartel and forged his own criminal organizationin early 2011 CJNG. The government also alleges that Los Cabos targeted law enforcement in Tijuana, killing at least three police officers. Courier Journal reporters pieced together CJNGs network, from the suburbs of Seattle, the beaches of Mississippi and South Carolina, Californias coastline, the mountains of Virginia, small farming towns in Iowa and Nebraska, and across the Bluegrass State, including in Louisville, Lexington and Paducah. "A very big, increasing problem. Throughout Mexico, more than 40,000 children and adults remain missing. Still, The Courier Journal traveled to Portland, its suburbs, the Oregon coast and Seattle to review court records and interview federal agents, defense attorneys and prosecutors to learn about the Farfan drug ring, its cartel ties and how it finally imploded. hammering his body with at least three bullets, stolen cars converted into armored vehicles to drones and high-powered machine guns. CJNGs increased distribution of fentanyl across the country has helped the synthetic opioid unseat heroin as the nations No. "We consider this cartel to be one of the five most dangerous transnational criminal organizations on the face of the Earth, and it is doing unimaginable damage to the people of this nation," Sessions said. The couple's daughter, age 11, also was home. Twomasterminds now in prisonorchestrated the scheme from Guadalajara:Carlos Parra Pedroza,aliasWalt Disney, who owned a jewelry store; and Diego Pineda Sanchez, an accountant. In mid-October, 13 Mexican police officers were killed in an ambush in El Mencho's home state of Michoacn in western Mexico. The CJNG has been fighting the Sinaloa Cartel in Zacatecas with one recent clash in June killing 35 people. He got his first glimpse of CJNGs success when he was overseeing drug cases in Los Angeles, a key cartel hub. But DEA agents across the border are sharing intelligence and working with their Mexican counterparts to devise ways to dismantle CJNG and arrest its leaders. "He spoke with Mexican-based members of the conspiracy, met interstate couriers and directed subordinates," prosecutors noted in a government motion to keep Farfan locked up pending trial. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ACCOUNT, SIGN UP FOR ONE HERE. Another Puzzle From The Mexican Cartel. Follow him onTwitterandFacebook. Irma Isaisa Jasmine Arroyo, 10, whose body was found maimed and semi incinerated on 28 January in the city of Tecoman. "They send their businessmen out into the U.S. to look for areas of opportunity." She has extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Latin America investigates global conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world. DEA agents take a suspect into custody during an arrest of a suspected drug trafficker on Wednesday, March 11, 2020 in Diamond Bar, Calif. or redistributed. While some moves targeted the cartels finances, others were more personal. "This happened to me for being a thief, and because I didn't respect hard-working people and continued to rob them," the chilling note strapped to their bodies read. A cartel member even worked at Kentucky's famed Calumet Farm, home to eight Kentucky Derby and three Triple Crown winners. "Big cities have big police departments and DEA, FBI and (Homeland Security Investigations) and an ability to look at intelligence and focus on their cells and contacts, said the DEA's Donahue. "And it is a football (soccer) player of a narco.". Instead, The Courier Journals investigation documented cells where CJNG members moved in, settling into a luxury condo near downtown Nashvilles honky-tonk district; an upscale Hollywood high-rise apartment near Sunset Boulevard; and sidewalk-lined suburbs in Cairo, Illinois; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Kansas City, Missouri. In turn, the Sinaloans killed a high-ranking CJNG boss in the area, Emiliano Torres Ramrez AKA El Agapo. Hearing the word "cartel" uttered in open court instantly rattled Eduardo. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Este es el #Mxico de @lopezobrador_ @BreitbartNews @elpais_america pic.twitter.com/E7kek1yNK4, Mxico Cdigo Rojo (@MexicoRojo1) February 28, 2022. He also didn't want to be shunned by his close-knit family for betraying his uncle, a senior relative. His cousin, Roberto Carlos Farfan Alvarez, known as "Raton" or "Mouse," pleaded guilty but never talked to police. CHINESE 'CARTELS' QUIETLY OPERATING IN MEXICO, AIDING US DRUG CRISIS. CJNG burns rivals face alive as a way of mocking his nickname Ghost Rider. more proof that CJNG ain't shit but zetas 2.0 gente de Sinaloa no trabaja asi como vale vergas. It hauled inmore than 3 kilos of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid so potent that an amount as small as Abraham Lincoln's cheek on a pennycan be fatal. On April 13, 2017, federal agents arrested Maciason his way to Calumet Farm. Investigators uncovered three main pieces of the puzzle that revealed a snapshot of how this drug ring thrived. Warren traveled to six cities in the U.S. and reviewed thousands of documents in more than 100 court cases and sought prison interviews with more than two dozen cartel members and associates. Sheriff's investigators say a Paducah, Kentucky, business owner who fell behind on a drug debt was warned last year by the cartel: "If we dont get our money, were gonna kill you and your family.. Parra Pedroza and Pineda Sanchez received 13 and 15 years, respectively, in prison after both pleaded guilty to money laundering. CJNGmembers or associates would sell drugs to traffickers inWisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, California, Texas, Kentucky, Illinois and North Carolina. Experts estimate that the CJNG also brings in the millions in a multitude of methods aside from the drug trade including illegal mining, human trafficking, money laundering, and the extortion of farmers and their families for a cut in avocado exports and the forced protection payment or else meet a premature death. We have all had a drug consumption problem," said the official, who asked not to be identified for his protection. It has an army of 5,000 members . CJNG took credit on social media for the massacre. CJNG's plan tomove intosmall-town America and cashin on the country's addiction crisis played out in Lexington, Kentucky. CJNG wasn't the only cartel in the Bluegrass State in 2017, but authorities say it was the main supplier of fentanyl when Louisville's Adam Cooley, who sought heroin, snorted 20 times alethal dose. "It was almost unbelievable, the things we were hearing, theamountof drugs," said Benjamin Taylor, who oversees investigations for Homeland Security in Gulfport, Mississippi. Adam died midsentence while writing a thank-you note to a friend on the eve of entering a rehab facility. El Mencho was deported in 1997and then traveled to Tijuana. Agents arrested him in 2006, and he was convicted of illegally reentering the U.S. and trafficking cocaine and meth. Theyre also working to train Mexican police to improve the country's solve rate for kidnappings and murders, which is less than 5%. U.S. officials have . But two years later, agents discovered he had slipped back into the U.S., returned to Portland and resumed trafficking cocaine and meth and had added heroin to his offerings. %privacy_policy%. But soon, he was asked to deliver drugs. After agents toppled the drug ring, the cartel turned on the gang. That fight has been waged across America over the past seven years, federal court records show: CJNG is also using a mix of street gangsand white-collar businessmen to move the drugs and hide the money. By 2018, the CJNG became the second most powerful cartel in Mexico, and was believed to have over 100 methamphetamine labs throughout the country. Immigrants, some fleeing criminal violence themselves, can be victimized by cartels on both sides of the border and unfairly targeted by U.S. political rhetoric or perceptions stoked by cartel crime. He reached 'kingpin' status by selling Mexican cartel-supplied drugs. For police, it was d vu. But someCJNGbossesdidnt follow those rules. The Courier Journal's investigation into CJNG's surge comes during a recent wave of significantviolence among warring drug cartels in Mexico. The unending stream of narcotics has contributed to this countrys unprecedented addiction crisis, devastating families and killing more than 300,000 people since 2013. In cases in which immigrants resist the cartel's offer, CJNG members often threatened violence to them or their loved ones back in Mexico, according to court cases and law enforcement officials. Alderete also is accused of asking a criminal informant in Paducahfor assault rifles andagrenade launcherto supplya cartel "war" in Mexico,saidJesseRiddle, the Narcotics Unit captain with the McCracken County Sheriffs Office in Paducah. "As well as the violence and corruption that puts at risk the neighbor with which the United States shares an enormous land border, and in which thousands of U.S. companies operate, and U.S. citizens live.". Reply Delete It has drug cells all across the U.S., even in tiny towns. CJNG torture video - The man was poured alcohol on his head and set on fire The man was poured alcohol on his head and set on fire The gunmen used isopropyl alcohol to set fire to the man's face and mocked his nickname. It has drug cells all across the U.S., even in tiny towns. Agents followed Machado-Medrano as he took a taxi to a bus station and headed to a bathroom. Last year, a judge sentenced Eduardo to 30 months behind bars, followed by five years supervised release. El Mencho eventually joined the Milenio Cartel, gaining a reputation as a cunning sicario, or hitman, and then a boss of hitmen in Guadalajara, Jalisco's capital city. Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) gunmen lined up at least 17 victims and shot them during a funeral in western Mexico Sunday. Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. Provided by McCracken County Sheriff's Department. Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, underscored that as the criminal environment has become more fragmented with many groups and affiliated gangs, the amount of killing and its unpredictability has become more generalized. Dozens of couriers throughout the U.S. would then collect the drug profits and use the dirty moneyto buy scrap and fine gold. The Portland-based drug network, which stretched into affluent area suburbs, westbound to Oregon's quaint coastal cities and north into southwestern Washington, is emblematic of a key Mexican cartel strategy to establish drug pipelines far beyond the border and into small, unsuspecting towns. A veteran Jalisco police officer, whoasked not to be identified for his safety, said CJNG has officials on its payroll at thelocal, state and federal levels. He can be contacted atbdarby@breitbart.com. At night,from 2015 through April2017, Maciasdirected the flow of $30 millionworth ofheroin, cocaine, ecstasy, crystal meth and fentanylfromMexico to Kentucky's two largest cities:Lexington and Louisville. There, he built a thriving drug trafficking business, but the city's dominantcartel ordered him to leave when leaders became threatened by his success. Eduardo, known as "Pollo" or "Chicken," began running errands, or drug runs, for his uncle when he was 20 or 21 and claims he had no understanding of the scope of the drug ring or the risks he was taking. The investigation documented CJNG operations in at least 35 states and Puerto Rico, a sticky web that has snared struggling business owners, thousands of drug users and Mexican immigrants terrified to challenge cartel orders. According to U.S. officials, the CJNG is now the primary drug trafficking outfit in 24 of Mexico's 32 states. Soldiers stand guard in front of a modified and armored truck as it is displayed to the media at a military base in Reynosa, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas June 5, 2011. Both serve as popular entry ports for the precursor chemicals in synthetic drugs, mostly brought in fromChina. Alderete was indicted in September 2019 in Chicago on charges of trafficking more than a kilo of heroin and at least 400 grams of fentanyl from May to June of this year. Enemies: CJNG, Juarez Cartel, Los Zetas. Police had long known John Armas was a major meth trafficker, but he was careful. After agents toppled the Oregon drug network in 2018 and arrested 23 suspects, there were murders in Mexico that U.S. investigators suspect were meant to scare and silence potential witnesses in the Portland case. Treasury Department officials stood with Sessions and announced more sanctions on businesses linked to CJNG and its affiliate, Los Cuinis. 17 555 49 1. A young woman en route to selling street food was also fatally struck by a stray bullet through a car window. Garbage. CJNG's Kentucky strategy has been repeated in town after town across America, in places better known for cheese, cows and corn. On Oct. 16, 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, standing next to a large "Wanted" poster of El Mencho, announced a $10 million reward for his capture and unveiled detailed indictments against him and CJNG. "As well as those who suffer from a lack of economic opportunity because businesses cannot thrive, and a lack of quality of life because public services, in some ways, do not function well.". . WARNING: THE VIDEO IS EXTREMELY DISTURBING AND GRAPHIC AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE TO ALL AUDIENCES. FBI agents lauded Walker's work, which helped the Bureau and Homeland Security Investigations expose an extensive drug distribution cell that targeted the Pacific Northwest. His attorney, Noel Grefenson, declined comment for this story. He agreed to talk to agents only about certain drug crimes, including detailing his actions and his uncle's actions inside the U.S., after a judge released him from jail on bond and after his elder family members gave him their blessing. More:He reached 'kingpin' status by selling Mexican cartel-supplied drugs. It's a common and effective tactic used by many cartels. All rights reserved. "That's the type ofterrorists were dealing with here.". Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. In just six months, smugglers brought across the border almost two kilos of fentanyl up to 1 million lethal doses of the No. Reporters Jonathan Bullington, Kala Kachmar, Chris Kenning andKarol Suarez contributed to this story. In eightmonths, Sosas crew laundered about $1million for CJNG,stacking drugs and cash behind a wall of their trailer. Los Cabos allegedly engaged in this violence in support of CJNG, one of the most dangerous transnational criminal organizations in the world. 12:52 you're really coward and pathetic what about cjng all the killings from . In Seaside, known for commercial fishing and timber, traffickers easily established a strong customer base. "They are, however, big on extortion and can turn to violence if victims refuse to cooperate," she asserted. Legal Statement. Victor Alvarez Farfan, a native of Michoacn, Mexico, headed the Portland drug ring blamed for bringing large amounts of meth, heroin and fentanyl across the border beginning in October 2017. The . MEMBERS ONLY. The cartel has run brothels in Mexico, often using teens and women forced into CJNG's web. Sam Upshaw Jr., Louisville Courier Journal. He dropped out of sixth grade to helphis family pickavocados. But Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador declined Trump's offer for U.S. troops, saying his country doesn't need help. 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