MONTERREY LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE: AUGUST 2007

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MONTERREY 000818 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR DS/IP/ITA AND DS/IP/WHA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM ASEC KCOR KHLS KJUS PINS CASC MX SUBJECT: MONTERREY LAW ENFORCEMENT UPDATE: AUGUST 2007 REF: MONTERREY 800 MONTERREY 00000818 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Monterrey's law enforcement agencies remained busy during the month of August. In a victory against narco-traffickers, a Monterrey Special Agent assisted in placing three known Gulf Cartel kingpins on the U.S. Consolidated Priority Organizational Target list. Post continued its outreach with local and Federal law enforcement officials, which helped secure the arrest of a former regional AFI (FBI equivalent) agent wanted on money laundering charges. A Post law enforcement agent helped debrief Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna, the boss of the Gulf Cartel's Tampico, Tamaulipas "plaza", after his high-profile August 28 arrest. Monterrey DEA agents worked with local authorities to secure the arrest of a fugitive wanted in Texas on drug-trafficking charges. Monterrey's law enforcement offices worked together to recover a vehicle stolen from a Texas car dealership on August 31. Finally, RSO, DHS-ICE, and FBI Monterrey worked with their U.S. counterparts to secure the transport and arrest of an American Citizen with outstanding arrest warrants as he traveled back to Laredo, Texas. While an apparent truce between rival drug cartels continued to curb the number of narco-related assassinations, Nuevo Leon witnessed a spike in the number of kidnappings. There were four drug-related killings in August, bringing the number of such murders in the state to 89 for 2007 (twenty-nine of which were active-duty police officers), compared to 55 for all of 2006. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) In a demonstration of Post's excellent working relationship with local law enforcement, Monterrey's DHS-ICE agents worked with DHS McAllen and with the Mexican Attorney General's office to secure the arrest of Adrian Echeverria Rodriguez, the former regional AFI director in Veracruz, on August 24. Echeverria was originally wanted by Mexican Authorities for his alleged involvement with the Gulf Cartel and for avoiding Mexican Law Enforcement since abandoning his post in Veracruz several months ago. While DHS McAllen reported that Mexico's PGR Attache in San Antonio had stated that Echeverria did not have any active warrants in Mexico, Monterrey's DHS-ICE agents worked with the Director of the Narcotics Division for the newly created Mexican Federal Police to ascertain Echeverria's true status. Monterrey's Assistant ICE Attache learned that Echeverria was wanted in Mexico on money laundering charges. DHS-CBP denied Echeverria entry into McAllen and walked him back into Mexico where members of AFI's vetted unit took him into Mexican custody as he crossed the Hidalgo Bridge. ¶3. (SBU) On August 29, two of Monterrey's DEA Special Agents met with AFI agents and representatives from the Mexican Attorney General's Office of Organized Crime (SIEDO) to share intelligence about the whereabouts of known drug traffickers. As a result of this intelligence-sharing, Mexican authorities were able to arrest a DEA fugitive out of Dallas who had been wanted on drug trafficking charges since 2003. Mexican authorities arrested the fugitive in Nuevo Laredo and seized a large weapons cache that included semiautomatic weapons, handguns, and a large assortment of ammunition. Also found in the suspect's car was a money-counting machine, a testimony to the large sums of money with which he operated on a daily basis. ¶4. (SBU) On August 31, Monterrey's law enforcement officials received information from the DHS-ICE in Corpus Christi that vehicles that had been stolen from a Texas car dealership had been located via On-Star in Reynosa, Mexico. Monterrey's RSO, DHS-ICE, FBI, and DEA offices worked together with local Mexican authorities to pinpoint the exact location of one of the vehicles. When Mexican police arrived at the location, they were able to recover the car. Leads from the recovery will aid local police in locating the other stolen vehicles. ¶5. (SBU) American Citizen Rudy Alejandro Norman came to the Consulate on August 31 and told the American Citizens Services section that he was the victim of a robbery and that all of his possessions had been stolen the previous day at a Monterrey bus station. After conducting preliminary checks, the ACS Chief and RSO office ascertained that Norman had a criminal history and that he had outstanding arrest warrants in Texas. Monterrey's RSO, DHS-ICE, and FBI Special Agents then worked together to provide Norman with public transportation back to Laredo, Texas, and to facilitate his arrest at the U.S.-Mexico border. ¶6. (SBU) A Monterrey Special Agent represented AmConGen Monterrey's LegAtt office at an interagency meeting on the Consolidated Priority Organizational Target list (CPOT),which was held at DEA headquarters in Washington, DC on August 13. Representatives from DEA and DOJ were also in attendance. The MONTERREY 00000818 002.2 OF 002 interagency group agreed to add three Gulf Cartel kingpins onto the national CPOT list. ¶7. (SBU) There were four drug-related killings in Nuevo Leon in August, bringing the number of drug-related executions in Nuevo Leon to 89 for the year, compared with the 55 who were killed in all of 2006. Of that 89, 29 were active duty police officers. While the apparent "truce" between rival drug cartels continued to curb the number of assassinations, Nuevo Leon witnessed a spike in narco-kidnappings (reftel). So far, there have been 78 kidnappings in the state in 2007, compared with 35 for all of 2006. On August 7, there was an attempted kidnapping of the 16 year old daughter of a former Mexican congressman in San Pedro, the Monterrey suburb where all Consulate families reside. On August 16, two AFI officials were kidnapped and killed. Two days later four additional AFI agents were kidnapped in Santa Catarina and were found a day later nude, bound, and blindfolded, but still alive. On August 20, two transit police and one PFP agent were also kidnapped in Santa Catarina. A day later, an armed commando group entered a local police station in San Nicolas, forced the police to open a jail cell, and kidnapped a prisoner who was later found dead from a bullet wound to the head. Interestingly, the City of San Nicolas has officially denied that the incident took place, despite media reports that detailed the kidnapping. Consulate law enforcement sources have stated that the police station kidnapping did, in fact, take place. Similarly, on August 29, local police in Garcia, another Monterrey suburb, were transferring a prisoner when their police vehicle was intercepted by "sicarios" (drug cartel hitmen). A gun fight ensued, but police were able to get the prisoner out of harm's way. Finally, on August 31, a man was kidnapped from his vehicle in Monterrey after he had been pursued by an armed commando group. WILLIAMSON