http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=7a7_1322603755 Items in channel 'Cartel' Thu, 23 May 2013 13:09:26 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=7a7_1322603755 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:28:16 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8ee_1364613388 Cartel C.D.G. Sends Zetas an "Gift for Holy Week" Execution of 3 Men and 2 Women A ghastly, graphic video depicting CDG executing and dismembering five Zeta members. The five victims comprised of three men and two women. The video was sent to the facebook page of the popular ValorXTamaulipas several days ago. They posted the photo above. One of the narco blogs advertised they were in possession of the video, but asked for 5000 "likes" before they would publish it. It appears that some blogs regard the tragedy of the drug war as a game. In the extreme southern portion of Tamaulipas are two cities; Mante and Gonz'alez. They are a 45 minutes drive apart. Zetas control Mante, and their rival CDG controls Gonz'alez. In the video are five kidnapped Zetas, kneeling, blindfolded, with the hands of the women duct taped together in the front, while the men have their hands duct taped in the back. The five are surrounded by their CDG captors. There is the usual interrogation of the five, questioned one by one, right to left, each admitting working for Zetas. After the interrogation "Mr. Big" of CDG gives the usual warning speech that the same fate would be waiting for others going against "Golfo" (CDG). The victims are knocked unconscious from a hit to the head by an ax. They are then decapitated, dismembered and body parts thrown into the blue barrel of boiling acid. On the image above one can see the flames under the blue barrel. This process is used by cartels, and by both CDG and zetas to eliminate evidence, whereby the bodies are cooked and dissolved. This type of despicable execution is done in what is known as "kitchens" at narco camps. In southern Mexico a process is used to destroy evidence by constructing underground ovens to cook bodies. ValorXTamaulipas writes: The conflict between CDG from Cd Gonz'ales and Zetas from Cd Mante has been one of the most violent, to the point that in 2010 and 2011 it was required to show an ID to enter Mante. If the person was from Gonz'alez he or her will not be allowed to enter the city. In response CDG in Cd Gonz'alez did a similar thing, they applied restrictions to people and businesses from Cd Mante. Since then, the incursions of both criminal groups have been constant, especially in the area Temporalera de Mante and in Gonz'alez, in the southern suburbs of the municipality. Constantly, executed victims are found in vehicles all around the gaps between Mante and Gonzalez. On many occasions, most publications are generated only in large cities, but areas with smaller populations, have come to suffer and continue to suffer violent situations and they are ignored and what is happening in these areas don't get published in the news. -- Video narrative transcript-- *CDG: What is your name , nickname and where are you from? *1st guy: Daniel Hernandez Hernandez, I am from Veracruz *CDG: Where did they pick you up? *1st guy: In Gonzalez *CDG: What organization do you belong to and what do you do? *1st guy: Zetas, to give money to Damien *CDG: What is your name and nickname: *2nd guy: Guillermo Salas Hernandez *CDG: What organization do you belong to? *2nd guy: Zeta's *CDG: What were you sent to do? *2nd guy: To leave something only for Damien *CDG: Where were you picked up? *2nd guy: In Gonzalez *CDG: What is your name and nickname? *3rd guy: Daniel Aguilar Sandoval *CDG: What organization do you belong to? *3rd guy: The Zeta's *CDG: What were you told to do? *3rd guy: To check the point of Matias (sounds like) to Jose Manuel *CDG: Where were you detained? *3rd guy: In Gonzalez *CDG: Who do you report to? *3rd guy: Comandante Mante *CDG: Who does he report to? *3rd guy: To Ricky Santillan (sounds like) and El Danny (sounds like) *CDG: This goes out to all the scumbags from the CDG. Keep sending dumbasses like these and you are going to get fucked senores. *CDG: A message for you, Ricardo Santillan, even though you cover your face just like Polo, that participated in the killings of innocent people, because that is the only way you intimidate people, by pretending to be soldiers, lying to the people and local authorities. For example, I have a list, Homero Cuervos, Chief of Police, who give the whereabouts of the SEDENA and SEMAR. Felipe aka La Pona, who gives crooked papers so you can cruise the streets like nothing has happened. The Deputado, Jose Luis, who helps you launder your money. All the people who plan to help these scumbags, we remind you that here in the Gulf is nothing but business, not like all you fucking cowards that don't admit your own mistakes. Supposedly when you whooped our asses the ones you killed were innocent people and you killed them anyways. Watch your back, Sandia, because in the list of involved is your cousin, the Barritas, and your wife, La Pansona. All the people that support La Temporalera so you can see not everybody wins. Your fucking lousy estakas from San Buena El Chaneke also going to fall bitches. Graphic Video.. You've been warned :) click HERE to watch http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8ee_1364613388 Cartel CDG Executes Zs , Dismembers, Boils 3 Men 2 Women Zetas, Cartel, Mexico, Execution Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:36:29 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a3a_1356657025 Cartel Distrito Federal-- Despite the death of the absolute ruler of Los Zetas , Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, " El Lazca ", this criminal organization was not affected. On the contrary, its cells continue in operation and are multiplying, and they are the bloodiest in the country. In over half of Mexico, they have a presence in activities related to drug trafficking, human trafficking, fuel theft and extortion, despite the blows struck against the organization in the past six years. The United Nations classifies this criminal group as the most violent in the Americas, which not only seeks control of the drug market at the national and international level, but also of the whole spectrum of illegal activities. Officials of the PGR (Mexican Attorney General) and the SSP (Secretariat of Public Security) commented that the "strengthening" of the criminal group is the result of the leadership of Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, El Z-40 , who now occupies El Lazca's position. This person's rise to power broke the pattern of the group, which had always been led by Army deserters. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a3a_1356657025 Cartel Zeta's Grow Stronger Despite Lazca's Death... mexico, zeta, cartel, death, lazca Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:02:02 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=921_1346979565 Cartel The police officers who fired on a U.S. Embassy SUV and wounded two officials from that country will be punished "upon confirmation of the excessive use of force," the Mexican Public Safety Secretariat said. "Upon confirmation of the excessive use of force, lack of following operational protocols and complicity in crime in the conduct of public servants, the Federal Police is the first to be interested in punishment in accord with the law," the secretariat said in a statement. On Friday, Aug. 24, two U.S. Embassy officials, both of them security experts, were wounded when they were fired upon by Mexican Federal Police as they were traveling in an armored vehicle with diplomatic plates along a road in the central state of Morelos. The incident occurred along the stretch of road at Tres Marias Huitzilas, just outside the Federal District. The people responsible for firing on the vehicle were federal law enforcement agents who were investigating the kidnapping of a federal official, the secretariat said. The U.S. Embassy initially said that the attack had been "an ambush." A judge ordered the preventive arrest of the 12 police officers involved on "abuse of authority" and other charges, while the investigation was conducted. The Federal Police cooperated with the investigation by prosecutors and placed at their disposal the information that is contributing to ascertaining each officer's responsibilities in the incident, the secretariat said. "The Federal Police will undertake with determination the necessary corrective actions so that these regrettable events do not occur again," the secretariat said. These type of activities and attitudes, which are "contrary to the spirit of the corps and honorability that govern the daily activities of the Federal Police, have not been and will not be tolerated," the secretariat said. Officials have maintained ongoing communication with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and with the Attorney General's Office "with the objective of establishing a close collaboration that will facilitate the full clarification of the facts," the Public Safety Secretariat said. Neither the U.S. or Mexican government has provided any details about the wounded Americans, but The New York Times reported that both men are CIA officers. Mexican Attorney General Marisela Morales also said that the two men had left the country after being wounded and without giving statements to investigators. The Americans and a Mexican navy official were traveling in a Toyota SUV on a stretch of unpaved road en route to a navy installation at El Capulin mountain when they encountered "a vehicle whose occupants brandished guns," the statement said. The driver of the Toyota "maneuvered to get away and re-enter the highway, the moment in which the occupants of the aggressor vehicle opened fire on the diplomatic vehicle." Soon, according to the statement, "three other vehicles joined the pursuit and fired gunshots at the U.S. Embassy vehicle." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=921_1346979565 Cartel Mexico to Punish Officers Who Fired on U.S. Agents Mexico, CIA, Cartel, Drug Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:24:02 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ffa_1346788789 Cartel Griselda Blanco, the drug kingpin known for her blood-soaked style of street vengeance during Miami's "cocaine cowboys" era of the '70s and '80s, was shot to death in Medellin by a motorcycle-riding assassin Monday.Blanco, 69, spent nearly two decades behind bars in the United States for drug trafficking and three murders, including the 1982 slaying of a 2-year-old boy in Miami.Called the "Godmother of Cocaine," she was deported in 2004 to Colombia, where she maintained a low profile. Colombia's national police confirmed her slaying late Monday. According to Colombian press reports, two gunmen on motorcycles pulled up to Blanco as she walked out of a butcher shop in Medellin, her hometown. One man pumped two bullets into her head, according to El Colombiano newspaper. It was the sort of death many had predicted for her: Blanco has been credited with inventing the idea of the "motorcycle assassin" who rode by victims and sprayed them with bullets."It's surprising to all of us that she had not been killed sooner because she made a lot of enemies," former Miami homicide detective Nelson Andreu, who investigated her, said late Monday. "When you kill so many and hurt so many people like she did, it's only a matter of time before they find you and try to even the score."The former kingpin was with a pregnant daughter-in-law, who was uninjured. According to El Colombiano, the woman told police that Blanco was no longer involved in organized crime and that she was hoping to live off the sales of several properties she owned. Blanco came to epitomize the "cocaine cowboy" bloodshed of the 1980s, when rival drug dealers brazenly ambushed rivals in public.Raised in the slums of Medellin, she began her criminal career as a pickpocket, eventually commanding an empire that reportedly shipped 3,400 pounds of cocaine per month, by boat and plane. She was considered a Colombian pioneer in drug smugglingto the United States, a precursor to the larger cartels that dominated in the 1980s. She even had a Medellin lingerie shop custom design bras and girdles with special pockets to hold cocaine, a tool used by her drug mules flying to Miami.She ran the organization with her three of her four sons, two of whom were later assassinated in Colombia. Blanco was known for her flamboyant lifestyle - one of her sons was named Michael Corleone, an homage to The Godfather movies. Three of her husbands also died in drug-related violence.But it was her nasty temper and penchant for unyielding violence that drew the attention of law enforcement and the public. Investigators linked her to the daytime 1979 submachine gun attack at Dadeland Mall that shocked Miami. Detectives conservatively estimated that she was behind about 40 homicides.She was only convicted of three murders. Two of them: Blanco arranged the slayings drug dealers Alfredo and Grizel Lorenzo in their South Miami house, as their three children watched television in another room. They had failed to pay $250,000 for five kilos of cocaine that Blanco had allegedly delivered to them. She was also convicted of ordering a shooting that resulted in the death of 2-year-old Johnny Castro, shot twice in the head as he drove in a car with his father, Jesus "Chucho" Castro. Blanco was targeting Jesus Castro, a former enforcer for Blanco's organization. Detectives learned the intimate details of the hit from Jorge Ayala, the charismatic hitman who later testified against Blanco. He told police that Blanco wanted Castro killed because he kicked her son in the buttocks. "At first she was real mad 'cause we missed the father," Ayala told police. "But when she heard we had gotten the son by accident, she said she was glad, that they were even."She had been arrested in 1985 in a cocaine trafficking case in New York. Ultimately, she served 13 years in federal custody before she was handed over to Florida authorities.Blanco seemed destined for Florida's Death Row - but the prosecution's murders case was dealt a severe blow. The reason: Ayala - the case's chief witness - engaged in phone sex with secretaries from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. After an investigation, three secretaries were fired and a veteran prosecutor resigned.Special prosecutors from Orlando took over the case, and Blanco cut a plea deal in 1998. Blanco was sentenced to three concurrent 20-year sentences, of which she had to serve only about one-third because of guidelines in effect at the time of the murders. Even on her return to Colombia, she was believed to have held onto immense wealth.In recent years, younger Miamians were introduced to Blanco via two "Cocaine Cowboys" documentaries made by filmmakers Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman."This is classic live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword," Corben said Monday. "Or in this case, live-by-the-motorcycle-assassin, die-by-the-motorcycle assassin." Magnolia Pictures Documentary ( search liveleak for cocaine cowboys ) : Michael Corleone, Griselda, and her lover Charles(also the guy on the cover in above picture) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ffa_1346788789 Cartel 'Cocaine Godmother Griselda Blanco's death brings solace to South Florida...' Cartel, Killed,Motorcycle,Drug, Griselda, Shot, Godmother, Memorial, Day, Cocaine, Cowboys Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:54:34 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=71d_1346618964 Cartel The SUV's Level Seven Armour Saved the lives of the Three Wounded Men Reforma reports that officials close to the case reported the shooting of a an SUV with Diplomatic plates and U.S. officials by Mexican federal police agents have confirmed that the two Americans shot were, in fact, CIA agents. They were apparently on their way to give shooting lessons to members of the Mexican military. They were also, apparently, initially attacked by civilians in a Dodge Van...12 Mexican officers were ordered held for at least 40 days while investigators sort out what the embassy called an "ambush." CIA American agents who were shot last Friday, along with a Captain of the Marina of Mexico, as they headed to the shooting range and Marines Infantry training field located Xalatlaco area, belong to the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA, for its acronym in English), confirmed official sources close to the investigation, which added that the attack took place after the attackers were in close view of the diplomatic vehicle occupants. According to the obtained information by this newspaper, the aggression against the American agents and of the marine was direct and the fact that there were no fatal victims, it was because the Toyota SUV they were travelling in was amour grade 7 ( highest level). The reports given the same day of the incident, which occurred near Tres Marias, Morelos, the U.S. embassy reported that it had been an ambush , while the Federal Police said it had been a confusion . Interception The information from the Attorney General's Office (PGR) said that the CIA agents were to conduct follow up shooting courses at the Marine Corps Training Field. As they traveled in the stretch of dirt known as El Capulin, in Xalatlaco, Mexico State, they encountered a Dodge Van with several heavily armed civilians who, at gunpoint, forced them to stop. While not aiming their weapons, two of them approached the Toyota. , Suddenly, the driver of the U.S. embassy vehicle abruptly threw the vehicle in reverse while turning it around then sped to the federal highway with the gunmen shooting at the vehicle in full pursuit. The pursuit grows During the pursuit a second vehicle, a Sentra, appeared attempting to block the embassy vehicle, while four gumen in the Sentra opened fire with heavy artillery. During the chase, and with two vehicles in pursuit, they passed through a village near a junction, where eight plainclothes men in two vehicles, joined the Toyota aggression and also began firing weapons. Now chased by four cars, and U.S. agents tried to signal Marines at a gas station, but after failing the pursuit continued. When reaching the junction there awaited a fifth vehicle, that joined the chase and also began shooting. Once in the federal highway, because of the impact damage, the Toyota was immobilized and yet still sustaining shots of high-caliber weapons. One of the assailants with an AK-47 (cuerno de chivo/goat horn) blasted the armored diplomatic vehicle. It was during the attack with the AK47 when U.S. agents were injured, they were in the front seats and the Marina officer in the rear. The informant added that directly after the shooting ceased three Federal Police vehicles arrived at the scene.Federal agents got out of their patrol cars with weapons drawn. One of them approached the Toyota and was when officers identified themselves as U.S. diplomats. Fourteen federal officers involved in the attack have been detained and transfered to a Mexico City prison for a 40 day hold, until the investigation can clarify exactly what occurred. In the photo above families of the officers involved are protesting this action. Sources: La Jornada & Reforma http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=71d_1346618964 Cartel More info on Ambushed CIA in Mexico City Ambush, Cartel, Mexico, Violence, CIA Sun, 02 Sep 2012 13:00:31 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=99d_1346604749 Cartel Two U.S. officials wounded last week when assailants thought to be Mexican federal police opened fire on their vehicle have left the country without giving statements to investigators, Mexico's attorney general said. "They must first be in the appropriate conditions to be able to do it. It will be done at the right time, once they are in shape for it," Marisela Morales told reporters, adding that the U.S. government is fully cooperating with the probe. The safety and health of the two men is the primary consideration, she said. Neither the U.S. or Mexican government has provided any details about the wounded Americans, but The New York Times reported that both men are CIA officers. Though 12 federal cops are being held in connection with last Friday's incident in the central state of Morelos, the Mexican attorney general said she would not discuss possible suspects "so as not to obstruct the investigation." "It will be with scientific evidence that we will solve this very sensitive case," she said. Morales also declined to comment on the U.S. government's description of the events as an ambush, saying only that "there are various lines of investigation." Federal police were engaged in anti-crime operations at the time of the assault on the U.S. Embassy vehicle, a Toyota SUV with diplomatic plates, the Mexican government said last Friday in a statement. The Americans and a Mexican navy official were traveling on a stretch of unpaved road en route to a navy installation at El Capulin mountain when they encountered "a vehicle whose occupants brandished guns," the statement said. The driver of the Toyota "maneuvered to get away and re-enter the highway, the moment in which the occupants of the aggressor vehicle opened fire on the diplomatic vehicle." Soon, according to the statement, "three other vehicles joined the pursuit and fired gunshots at the U.S. Embassy vehicle." Source: EFE I have a more in depth article on the account if you guys would like me to post it just let me know :) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=99d_1346604749 Cartel Wounded U.S. Officials Leave Mexico without Giving Statements Mexico, CIA, Shot, US, Cartel,Border, Violence Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:18:04 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0f9_1346440413 Cartel Note from translator: This article appeared yesterday in Rio Doce. The original Spanish version is posted on the Forum, but I thought it deserved wider exposure because it helps describe the social and economic reality in the Golden Triangle. --un vato. -A trip to Chapo Guzman country. Close to 6:00 p.m. in the afternoon on Tuesday, August 21, a young mountain resident about 20 years old, came in on an ATV, with more style than if he had arrived mounted on an alazan (chestnut sorrel horse). He stopped under a thick live oak tree, turned off the motor, climbed off and slowly walked towards the house. He had an AK-47 rifle hanging on his shoulder, a two-way radio on his chest and a .38 Super pistol tucked into his waist. A dog came out to greet him. He was almost walking into the portal of the house when he bumped into the journalist, whom he regarded with mistrust. His skin tanned by the sun, the young man gripped the rifle with his right hand, slowed down and, not knowing what to do in the presence of a stranger, he seemed to hesitate while he looked all around him. This is when the guide who had taken the journalist into the bowels of the Sierra Madre Occidental (West Sierra Madre Mountain Range) returned with a glass of water in his hand and, with surprising intimacy, greeted him: "How's it going, Lupe, what do you say?" he exclaimed as he came forward to greet him. The tension lessened, but not the mistrust. "He's a journalist who came to do some work about the weed... Jose already knows, so you can tell him all about this business out here," explained the guide. "Ah!," murmured "Lupe", who still not quite convinced stared at the journalist, although he finally shook his hand; more out of inertia than out of conviction. A little later another 15 mountain farmers arrived, also riding ATVs and also carrying AK-47 rifles. One by one, they climbed off their ATVs like a death squad in the mountains and, curious, surrounded the journalist. The guide, with greetings and jokes, began to reassure the newly-arrived farmers, until three more ATVs arrived. One of them, the tallest, wearing a bulletproof vest, a cuerno de chivo (AK 47 rifle) on each shoulder and two radios, walked towards the journalist, with what appeared to be his security people by his side. The guide, with surprising familiarity, went to meet him halfway. "Jose ... this is the journalist I was telling you about; he came up to the mountains to do some work...well, the reality about the farmers who plant marijuana: how they live, what they eat, what they hope for and how things are not what people believe," he told him. Jose looked at the journalist with a certain mistrust, but he extended his hand to greet him, but not before warning the guide: "Well, he can't use names or say where we are, and he can't take pictures, because you're the first one we'll come looking for." "He knows that if he pisses outside the hole, he'll never see the end of it...and, well, I know that I won't see the end of it," said the guide, half joking and half seriously. Everybody laughed with amusement at the guide's comment. The ice was broken. -You have to make a living To live in the mountains is to live in total abandonment, and to be always "at the mercy of God." If you don't kill a jackrabbit, a deer, a cochi jabali (peccary), you rarely eat meat, unless you take something up from Culiacan. But in addition to food, you also have to pay for electricity, oil, clothing, shoes, school supplies for the children, and although one can plant beans, squash and tomatoes, money is indispensable, at least for the basics. But there is no work, not a single industry to create jobs, so it's difficult to get ahead. That's why people have not stopped planting marijuana-- despite the signs of civilization that are coming closer, like pavement and electricity-- (it's) the only product they can be sure will sell. And, there's no "right" age for planting marijuana; it can be (done by) an eight year old child as well as a 60-year old adult, and growing it is not easy. Every day, farmers of all ages get up at 6:00 in the morning, have a breakfast of eggs, beans or "whatever there may be," and start a hard, eight hour work day under the sun. In a place that can only be reached by air, or after a five hour trip-- starting from Culiacan, the municipal seat-- on roads, gullies and paths that run on the edges of curves and steep cliffs, the farmers get ready to go up to the most inhospitable part in that area, where they have their plots. Right at dawn, they get up, eat, take their weapons, machetes, knives, lunch, and climb on their ATVs, beginning a journey of several miles of uphill trails, crumbling roads, rocks and pine trees. In the old days, they say, they went on horseback, but they had to feed the animal, now they get there faster on ATVs, and they only need gasoline and the tires changed every six months. "Tires don't last long because there's so many rocks," one of them explains. At the top, the farmers lay down their weapons, the lunch, and they go into the marijuana plants which were planted in June, and so begins caring for the crop. -The "desmachadero" As with any other crop, marijuana requires a lot of care and dedication. From August to September, the farmers undertake the process known as the "desmachadero", which consists of identifying the male ("macho") marijuana plants and cut them down to prevent pollination of the female marijuana plants, otherwise the crop is ruined. "Because, if you leave the male plants, it produces little balls, and these little balls release a dust that gets into the "colitas" (tails, the flowering part of the female plant). If that happens, instead of harvesting marijuana "colitas", you harvest seed, and that's where the crop is ruined," explains "Pancho", a farmer that has a plot of more than 50 square yards (4,500 square feet). Like him, every farmer plants his own little plot, from a 14 year old boy to a 70 year old man. They help each other, and if one of them falls behind on the "desmachadero", the rest of the farmers get together to help. The search for male plants can last up to three weeks, and it's done row by row. As it grows, the plant starts to show what will be the marijuana "colita", which is what people smoke, or whether it will develop the little balls of pollen. But even after the male plants have been eliminated, the farmer has to keep taking care of the plots, not just because a male plant may appear or because a female plant may turn male, that is to say, it will start to produce balls of pollen, but to pull up weeds that grow among the plants and to eliminate insects. In addition, cows and deer go into the plots and eat the marijuana plants. "The cows and the deer that eat the marijuana get all crazy, but they also ruin the product," explains a farmer that has been coming from Culiacan for eight years to plant the drug. -From the city to the mountains Many people from Culiacan go into the mountains to plant "mota" (marijuana). According to them, "there are no jobs in the city." Up in the mountains, they go to relatives, or through a trusted person who recommended them. If they work hard like the rest of the farmers, they come back and after some time, they are given access to land so they can grow their own marijuana. In cases like these, once he harvests the marijuana, the deal is 50/50, that is, the owner of the land provides the plot, the seed, fertilizer, room and board, in exchange for him taking care of the crop. Once it is harvested, they split the profit (50/50). "If we get 150 kilos (330 lbs) we get 75 and 75," explained a young farmer, while he was spraying his land, a plot of about 200 meters square (about 1,800 square ft.) Like "Lico", many other city dwellers go to the mountains and up there, in the most inhospitable part, where there is no cell phone service, they remain out of touch, hoping the cultivation of marijuana works out and leaves them a little cash. -The man. Once the marijuana is harvested, in mid-October, and hoping the Army doesn't hit them and destroys their fields, the farmers can only deal with one man. This person, they said, buys all the marijuana grown in the mountains from everybody, (paying) up to 800 pesos per kilo (about $62.00), if the weed is good, but if it contains a lot of seeds, the most they get is about 200 (pesos per kilo, about $15.00). "The thing is, nobody else can buy marijuana around here, just this man," says a farmer. "This man, is he Chapo Guzman?" he's asked. The farmer hesitates before he answers. He looks all around, and finally explains that the mountain belongs to El Chapo, but he's not the one who deals with them, but somebody who surely knows him and who probably sells everything to El Chapo Guzman. This man is the one who takes the weed with him, only he knows where he takes it. We only grow it, and if we lose it or the Army destroys it, well, there's no money. -Armed to the teeth. The farmers in the mountains always go around armed. It's de rigueur . And although they may lay down their AK-47 in the shade of a pine tree while they're working, under no circumstances will they take their pistol off their waist. They sleep with it, they wake up with it, they die with it if necessary, but they don't take it off. They say it's to defend themselves from mountain lions, cats, snakes and any other animal that they run into, or in case they bump into a deer or a "cochi jabali" (peccary). In that case, the shots are quick. --Why do you carry the pistol inside the house? --In case something comes up, explained an old farmer who's lived all his life in the mountains. As was explained (to this journalist), fights in the mountains are not with fists, but with gunfire. People joke, and all of a sudden somebody doesn't like a comment, and they get their irons out and start shooting. When somebody kills another person, the victim's family wants satisfaction and comes and kills the murderer. The (murderer's) family also wants satisfaction, and goes looking for the person who killed their relative. Entire families are eliminated in that manner, and the feuds and the killing goes on from generation to generation. "It's just that there can be no fix because there's blood involved," explained the farmer, giving his reason why everybody goes around armed with weapons. -The hope. Resting their bodies and the sun, the farmers get together every night to joke a little and forget the day's hardship. After almost three months of labor, fatigue begins to weaken them, but their hopes of getting a little money and going to see their families begin to grow. The only thing they hope for is that soldiers won't come and destroy their crops. "If you get about 200 kilos (440 lbs) of "mota", well, you're doing well, but it's money that's got to last until we plant again, because the truth is, mister, life is hard around here," explained the oldest farmer as he snugged his cuerno de chivo on his shoulder. It was time to rest; tomorrow, another day in the sun awaited him. Notes on marijuana -- The marijuana cultivation cycle is 125 days, the first stage being germination, the next 15 days its sprouting stage -- when it comes out of the ground--, and the next 70 (days) the vegetative (growing) stage, and the final 35 days, the reproductive stage, explains the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). --According to SEDENA (Mexican National Defense Secretariat), just this past July alone, the Army located 494 plots of marijuana in Sinaloa and Durango, which amounted to 59.48 hectares (about 147 acres). Likewise, 3,053 kilograms (6,716 lbs) of unprocessed marijuana, 176 kilos (387 lbs) of packaged marijuana and 227.6 kilos (455 lbs) of cannabis seed were seized. --According to Sylvia Longmire, former officer and special investigator in the U.S. Air Force, trafficking and sales of marijuana makes up 60% of Mexican cartel profits. --From the World Drugs Report: in 2006 --the year that President Felipe Calderon's war on drugs began-- Mexico was the largest cannabis producer in the world, producing up to 7,400 tons. --For several decades, the United States has been the world's principal cannabis consumer. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0f9_1346440413 Cartel Poor farmers, rich narcos: Marijuana, the only safe investment.. Mexico, AK-47, Cartel, Mountains, Guns