Jose Jaime Arroyos-Carrillo, 51, a convicted drug dealer, and two of his associates are believed to have worked for Guzman, Mexico's top drug kingpin

Jose Jaime Arroyos-Carrillo, 51, a convicted drug dealer, and two of his associates are believed to have worked for Guzman, Mexico's top drug kingpin and head of the Sinaloa Cartel. They are named in a 29-count indictment that an El Paso federal grand jury handed up in November 2006.All three were indicted on the following charges: conspiracy to import a controlled substance, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, importing a controlled substance, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to laundermonetary instruments and bulk cash smuggling.Arroyos-Carrillo may currently be in hiding in Chihuahua, Mexico. His associates, Isidro Gomez-Arpero and Juan Samaniego were arrested in 2006 in Mexico, and extradited to the United States last year. On Aug. 14, 2008, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Cardone sentenced one of the masterminds of the organization, Gomez-Arpero, to 230 months (more than 19 years) in federal prison, and Juan Samaniego to 210 months (17½ years). The ICE investigation revealed that the Gomez organization, which was based in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, at one time was a large cell of the Guzman international drug-trafficking organization, judging by the large narcotics shipments it smuggled every week through El Paso.The nearly five-year OCDETF investigation was a joint effort by ICE and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Other law enforcement agencies participating in the investigation included: the El Paso County Sheriff's Office High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force (HIDTA), the Texas Department of Public Safety, the El Paso Police Department, and ICE Offices in New York, Seattle, Birmingham, Houston. The El Paso FBI Office and DEA Strike Force New York also played an active role in this case.The investigation resulted in more than 20 seizures totaling more than 1,000 lbs. of cocaine, more than 2,820 lbs. of marijuana, and two separate cash seizures totaling more than $1.2 million.
More than 30 individuals were identified as active participants of the Gomez organizations' drug trafficking activities. Among the organization's members identified, were two members of the Barrio Azteca Street Gang who coordinated smuggling cocaine shipments into the United States.
"ICE and its law enforcement partners worked relentlessly for nearly five years on this case, which ultimately disrupted the flow of narcotics coming into the country by dismantling a major drug organization based here on the border," said Roberto G. Medina, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in El Paso."
To date, 25 of the organization's members, who have been prosecuted by federal authorities in this case, have been sentenced. Their combined sentences total 1,507 months. Fifteen individuals have been prosecuted by Texas law enforcement agencies and sentenced to a total of 80 years.Arroyos-Carrillo, originally from Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, is among several members of the organization still at large. Arroyos-Carrillo, whose aliases include Jaime-Lopez-Carrillo, Jaime Carrillo-Fuentes and Jaime Apachuco-Romero, is believed to be in Chihuahua, Mexico.
In 1987, he was convicted of smuggling more than 700 lbs. of cocaine into Arizona. In 2000, he was deported as an aggravated felon through Laredo, Texas. As early as last year, he was known to own property and businesses in Ciudad Juarez.

Read more...

Sinaloa Bloodbath Beltran Leyvas believe that Guzman ratted out their brother and have retaliated with a vengeance.

21 people, including a 12-year-old girl and other ordinary citizens, have been killed by warring drug gangs since Thursday in the western state of Sinaloa, in one of the worst spasms of violence in memory in a region long conditioned to narcotics-related savagery.The wave of deadly mayhem began with the audacious daytime shooting of a dozen people in the capital, Culiacan, and continued during the weekend and into Monday. The deaths of innocents, including the young girl, who had just left a party, have terrified the public and left many questioning the effectiveness of the federal government's ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking."Sinaloa Bloodbath" read a headline from El Sol de Sinaloa, a daily newspaper. The article Monday on its website was accompanied by a photo of corpses slumped in the back of a bullet-riddled pickup truck. An editorial in Monday's national daily El Universal questioned President Felipe Calderon's decision to aggressively pursue the nation's drug kingpins, a strategy the United States has encouraged and backed with millions of dollars in assistance."Direct confrontation has only escalated the violence," the newspaper said. "The worst thing that can happen is for us to become accustomed to the dramatic daily count of deaths and kidnappings caused by narcotics assassins."
Authorities were still sorting through the carnage in Sinaloa as the body count continued to rise Monday. But law enforcement and Mexican media accounts provided a picture of the relentless violence: On Thursday, gunmen in Culiacan shot dead six people inside an auto repair shop and three more outside. The victims included a 61-year-old university professor and his son, 37, also a professor. Later confrontations between the gunmen and authorities left three police officers dead.
Early Saturday in Culiacan, rival traffickers engaged in a shoot-out, using automatic weapons and bazookas in a neighborhood in the northern part of the city. Police reported no deaths or injuries in that 15-minute clash, but photos of the scene show the pavement littered with heavy-caliber shell casings and homes scarred with bullet holes.
On Saturday evening in the beach resort of Mazatlan, gunmen shot to death a high-ranking police official, then stormed a restaurant in a popular shopping mall, where they held patrons hostage before escaping. No customers were killed or injured. Photos from local newspapers show terrified shoppers running from the mall.
Early Sunday morning in the city of Guamuchil, eight people leaving a quinceañera party were shot to death in their vehicles while they waited at a stoplight. Among the dead were several teenagers and the 12-year-old girl. The guest of honor -- 15-year-old Maribel Lopez Marquez -- was also injured in the attack, according to police.
Early Monday, suspected rival drug gangs clashed again in a residential neighborhood in Culiacan. Assailants attacked a home with Molotov cocktails, burned vehicles and opened fire with high-powered weapons. No injuries or deaths were reported. But there were unconfirmed reports of two more drug-related shooting deaths in Mazatlan.
The state, home to the so-called Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, has become a battleground for traffickers feuding for control of the drug trade. Calderon has sent 3,500 army troops and federal police to the region as part of a nationwide offensive that observers say has both helped and hurt the situation.
The effort has resulted in high-profile arrests as well as the seizures of large caches of drugs and weapons. But the removal of top leaders has set off a power struggle among underlings eager to use violence to establish authority.
"The old drug lords often acted as mediators" to keep the peace, said Jorge Chabat, a Mexico City-based security analyst. "The new, young guys are not disposed to negotiate."Mexico's drug war remains extremely fluid. Across the nation, established trafficking alliances are fracturing and new ones forming. On any given day, even veteran observers have difficulty figuring out who is fighting whom.Still, experts say some of the violence in Sinaloa stems from bad blood between cartel leader Guzman and the Beltran Leyva brothers -- Hector Alfredo, Carlos Alberto and Marcos Arturo. Known as "The Three Gentlemen," the siblings for years were confidants of Guzman.
The rumored power struggle burst into public this year with the arrest of Hector Alfredo. Nicknamed "El Mochomo," for a desert ant with a vicious sting, he is alleged to be involved in money laundering and payoffs to corrupt officials. He reportedly was carrying $90,000 in cash and a cache of pricey wristwatches when he was seized in Sinaloa by elite military forces in January.According to a popular law enforcement theory, the Beltran Leyvas believe that Guzman ratted out their brother and have retaliated with a vengeance. Unidentified assassins shot and killed Guzman's son Edgar, 22, and two friends in a Culiacan parking lot in May. Other Guzman relatives and associates have been captured by authorities, ostensibly with the help of tips provided by the Beltran Leyva brothers.
"Factions of the Sinaloa cartel are fighting each other," Chabat said. "That's why we're seeing all this violence."
Chabat said the cartels might be violating a long-standing custom to avoid civilian casualties in order to put pressure on Calderon to back off. Although polls have shown that the president's tough stance has largely been popular with the public, recent events may be changing minds.
"The situation is out of control," said Gerardo Contreras, manager of a shoe store in the mall were people were taken hostage. "The people of Sinaloa ask the president to stop this violence. The killing of innocent people can't continue."

Read more...