1. Jorge Carrillo Olea agreed to give the author an extensive interview for this book on October 16, 2009, at his home in Cuernavaca. The conversation was recorded. The general stated that Mexico has the fourth biggest army in the world with the largest number of generals, after the United States, China, and Russia.
2. José Alfredo Andrade Bojorges is the author of Historia secreta del narco. Desde Navolato vengo (Mexico City: Océano, 1999). It is an investigation into Amado Carrillo Fuentes and his network of associates in the drugs business, as well as his protectors in the sphere of politics, the police, and the judiciary. For this study I obtained a copy of the original draft of his book, before it was edited and published.
3. Several years after leading the National Anti-Drugs Institute (INCD), Gutiérrez Rebollo was arrested and convicted for his links with Carrillo Fuentes.
4. On September 29, 1999, Reforma newspaper published an account of Andrade Bojorges’s book launch. According to some of those interviewed, he had disappeared on July 20 of that year.
5. In May 2011, the author interviewed the lawyer for the Guadalajara archdiocese, José Antonio Ortega, who gave her a copy of Benjamín Arellano Félix’s statement.
1. Proceso magazine, no. 166, January 1980.
2. In Vallarta’s former Sheraton Bugambilias Hotel, they still remember how the drug trafficker used to rent an entire floor for his stay. That is where he created the scandals that so annoyed his boss, Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
3. National Action Party, the party of former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón.
4. Milenio magazine, July 8, 2002.
5. The author lodged a complaint with the IFAI (Freedom of Information Institute) over Sedena’s reponse. In June 2010, IFAI ordered the Secretariat to look again for the document. But the commissioner, a former security adviser to President Calderón, Sigrid Artz, refused to sign the order for three and a half months, holding up the search. In October 2010, the author lodged a complaint against Artz in the IFAI’s internal affairs office.
6. Both the governor of Baja California, Ernesto Ruffo Appel, and his brother Claudio, had been linked with the Arellano Félix gang by El Chapo in his original statement.
1. This section is a reconstruction of the kidnapping and murder of Enrique Camarena, based on the sworn statements of Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, which were obtained by the author.
2. Information taken from justice.gov/dea/pubs/history/1985-1990.pdf.
3. Henry Weinstein, “Witness Who Tied CIA to Traffickers Must Testify Anew,” Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1990.
4. The author has a copy of the complete document.
5. Information taken from the “Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters,” better known as the Walsh Commission Report, archives.gov.
6. From an article published in the electronic magazine, Salon.com, on 25 October 2004 by journalist Robert Parry, who was responsible for many reports in the 1980s on the Iran-Contra affair for outlets like Associated Press and Newsweek. Kerry Report consulted on whatreallyhappened.com, January 14, 2013.
7. Manuel Buendía was killed on May 30, 1984, in Mexico City. The only person imprisoned for his murder was the then head of the DFS, José Antonio Zorrilla.
8. Given his close relations with the then president, Miguel de la Madrid, it was thought that del Mazo had a good chance of being nominated as PRI candidate for the 1988 presidential election. In the end, to his surprise and disappointment, the ruling-party candidate was Carlos Salinas. Today, del Mazo backs the former governor of the State of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, who won the disputed presidential election of July 2012. Ironically and not by chance, Salinas also backs Peña Nieto.
9. Javier Juárez Vásquez, another Veracruz journalist, was also killed around that time; some have wrongly identified him with Velasco.
10. Edén Pastora, or El Comandante Cero, was one of the leaders of the armed movement against the Somoza regime at the end of the 1970s. After the revolution won, Pastora split from the FSLN and turned against the Sandinista government, becoming a Contra leader.
11. For this investigation the author was in touch with many sources linked to different drug organizations.
12. The author obtained a copy of Rafael Caro Quintero’s written statement, which has not been published before.
13. Information published in the Los Angeles Times, June 8, 1990, by journalist Henry Weinstein, who covered the Camarena murder trial.
14. Los Angeles Times, August 1, 1990.
15. William R. Doerner et al., “Latin America Flames of Anger,” Time, January 18, 1988.
16. “Crime of the Century: CIA – Cocaine International Agency,” USA Today, June 1999.
17. Jefferson Morley, “LITEMPO: The CIA’s Eyes on Tlatelolco,” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, no. 204, October 18, 2006.
18. Information obtained by Leslie Cockburn and Andrew Cockburn, “Guns, Drugs, and the CIA,” Frontline, PBS, May 17, 1988; see also John Kerry’s report, published in 1989.
1. The Mexican army divides the country into military regions and zones. The first are commanded by Major Generals, the highest rank, and the second by Brigadier Generals.
2. Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America, Berkeley and Los Angelos: University of California Press, 1991.
3. Ibid.
4. Diego Enrique Osorno, “Memorias de un capo,” Gatopardo, Mexico City, May 2009.
5. Seal’s story is so fascinating that in 1991 HBO made a TV film out of it called Doublecrossed.
6. The author has a copy of a CIA document which mentions Seal’s existence and his activities.
7. Daniel Hopsicker, Barry and “the Boys,” Oregon: TrineDay, 2001.
8. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1997.
9. “Report of Investigation, Volume I: The California Story,” cia.gov/library.
10. Evans-Pritchard, The Secret Life of Bill Clinton.
11. “DEA History Book,” 1985-1990, justice.gov/dea/pubs/history/1985-1990.html
12. Villa Coca was the name given to the case of the Peruvian drug baron Reynaldo Rodríguez López, El Padrino, after his cocaine laboratory exploded in a residential area of Lima on July 24, 1985.
13. “DEA History Book,” 1985–1990, justice.gov/dea.
14. “El fin de El Mexicano,” Semana, Colombia, June 8, 1992.
1. Marc Lacey, “Mexican Leader to Visit U.S. as Woes Mount,” New York Times, May 17, 2010.
2. Details taken from a copy of the police report dated September 5, 1992.
3. The author has a copy of Cristina Sánchez’s statement.
4. “News Release,” DEA, December 20, 2004.
5. Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2009.
6. “El contador de El Chapo,” Milenio Semanal, January 31, 2010.
7. Details from a copy, in the author’s possession, of the police report dated September 22 and October 2, 1992.
8. Information from the initial inquiry into the Iguala murders.
9. Thomas A. Constantine, DEA Congressional Testimony, “Drug Trafficking in Mexico,” March 28, 1996, justice.gov/dea.
10. Information borne out by the police report and, verbally, by people directly involved in the operation, including former Attorney General Morales. Aero Abastos still operates, benefitting from some fuel privileges, as was confirmed to us by the Transport Secretariat for this investigation, though they said they could not find the original documents.
11. Morales said as much in several interviews he gave in 1998, talking about his hopes of standing for governor of Veracruz state for an opposition party.
12. Sam Dillon, “A Fugitive Lawman Speaks,” New York Times, December 23, 1996.
13. “Drug Wars,” Part 2, Frontline, aired October 10, 2000, pbs.org.
1. Reforma, December 5, 2000.
2. The information on the state in which El Chapo’s cell was found after his escape is contained in the Visual Inspection Report of January 21, 2001, part of penal case 16/2001-III carried out by the federal public prosecutors attached to the Specialized Unit against Organized Crime (UEDO).
3. “Congressional Testimony Statement by Donnie Marshall,” DEA, March 19, 1998. In 1993 the Customs Service confiscated from Eduardo González two cargos of cocaine weighing 2.9 tons (El Norte, September 10, 1997). This information must have been communicated to the relevant authorities, so it cannot have been a surprise to anyone that the wealthy Jalisco businessmen were in fact drug traffickers.
4. Formal statement by Division General Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo, December 29, 1997.
5. Ibid.
6. Sworn statements of Juan Galván Lara (February 19, 1997) and Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo (December 29, 1997).
7. “Trends in Resource Utilization on Major Cases,” declassified FBI report, September 2003.
8. Reforma, July 7, 1997.
9. Ibid., July 10, 1997.
10. The officer, whose name cannot be given for reasons of security, was consulted as a professional expert for this book.
11. Milenio, May 8, 2010
12. Or maybe his wife, Celia Quevedo, told the truth in her statement: she insisted that Vicente was dragged out of their apartment in his pyjamas, and that “the sports gear in which he was presented to the press was a fabrication” (Proceso, no. 1711, August 16, 2009).
13. Proceso, no. 1732, January 9, 2010.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Antonio Toledo Corro, Labastida’s predecessor, was from 1986 mentioned in DEA reports as a probable collaborator with the Pacific organization.
17. PGR Bulletin 1237/09. In 2008 a war began between El Chapo and the Beltrán Leyvas, which explains why the latter at once became the target of federal pursuits and arrests.
18. Sworn statement by Antonio Aguilar Garzón, February 9, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
19. Sworn statement by José de Jesús Carlos Cortés Ortiz, January 25, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
20. Statement by Miguel Ángel Leal, January 22, 2001. The dialogue here has been reconstructed from that statement.
21. Additional statement by Juan José Pérez Díaz, January 30, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
22. Sworn statement by Salvador Moreno Chávez, February 17, 2001. Additional statement by José Salvador Hernández Quiroz, February 9, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III. Sworn statement by Margarita Ramírez Gutiérrez, January 24, 2001.
23. Ibid.
24. Sworn statement of Antonio Aguilar Garzón.
25. The Oaxaca Center for Human Rights promptly requested the National Human Rights Commission to ensure the physical and psychological safety of the female guerrillas.
26. Sworn statement by Salvador Moreno Chávez, February 17, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
27. Sworn statement by Felipe de Jesús Díaz, January 24, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
28. Sworn statement by María Guadalupe Morfín Otero, January 20, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
29. Sworn statement by Antonio Aguilar Garzón, February 9, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III. The dialogues that follow have been reconstructed from that statement.
30. Additional sworn statement by Juan Gerardo López Hernández, January 27, 2001; sworn statement by Carlos Uribe, January 27, 2001; additional sworn statement by Juan Carlos Sánchez, February 9, 2001. All are in penal case 16/2001-III.
31. Sworn statement by Juan Gerardo López, January 25, 2001.
32. García Luna’s declaration of interests, SFP, May 24, 2010.
33. Alegre told various people what Guzmán said in his statement to General Álvarez Nahara on that flight. At the end of 2009, one of them was interviewed for this book.
34. Sworn statement by Luis Francisco Ruiz, January 27, 2001.
35. Sworn statement by Joel Villalobos Anzaldo, penal case 16/2001-III.
36. Additional statement by Juan José Pérez Díaz, January 24, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
1. La Jornada, January 20, 2001.
2. Sworn statement by Miguel Ángel Leal Amador, January 22, 2010.
3. Ibid.
4. One of Mexico’s foremost banks, Banamex was taken over by Citigroup in August 2001, in the largest ever US-Mexican corporate merger. [Translator’s note]
5. Additional statement by Guillermo Paredes Torres, February 9, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
6. Sworn statement by Juan Carlos Sánchez Castillo, January 26, 2001.
7. Ibid.; sworn statement by Margarita Ramírez Gutiérrez, January 24, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
8. Sworn statement by Juan Carlos Sánchez Castillo, January 26, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
9. Additional statement by José Salvador Hernández Quiroz, January 22, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
10. Sworn statement by Jaime Sánchez Flores, January 20, 2001; additional statement by Juan Gerardo López Hernández, January 29, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
11. Sworn statement by Ernesto Ramos Aguilar, January 21, 2001.
12. Sworn statement by María Mercedes Fajardo Cantero, January 20, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
13. Additional statement by José Salvador Hernández Quiroz, January 22, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
14. Sworn statement by Juan Carlos Sánchez Castillo, January 26, 2001; additional statement by Guillermo Paredes Torres, February 9, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
15. Visual inspection of the visitors’ register for Puente Grande Federal Rehabilitation Center No. 2, carried out on January 22, 2001. The book contains visitors’ movements from October 30, 2000, to January 21, 2001.
16. Sworn statement by Juan Carlos Sánchez Castillo, January 26, 2001.
17. Additional statement by José Salvador Hernández Quiroz, February 10, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
18. Sworn statement by José de Jesús Briseño Martínez, January 21, 2011.
19. Sworn statement by Ernesto Ramos Aguilar, January 21, 2011.
20. Sworn statement by José de Jesús Carlos Cortés Ortiz, January 24, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
21. Criminal investigation notes, Sheet 1007, penal case 16/2001-III.
22. This was confirmed by some who toured the maximum security prisons with Juan Pablo de Tavira.
23. Sworn statement by José de Jesús Carlos Cortés Ortiz, January 24, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
24. Criminal investigation notes, Sheet 1008, penal case 16/2001-III.
25. Sworn statement by José de Jesús Carlos Cortés Ortiz, January 24, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
26. The author has a copy of these still unpublished files.
27. Additional sworn statement by Juan Gerardo López Hernández, January 27, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III; sheet 2339 of penal case 2339.
28. Sworn statement by Antonio Díaz Hernández, January 21, 2001, penal case 16/2001-III.
29. Additional statement by Juan José Pérez Díaz, January 25, 2001.
30. Sworn statement by Leonardo Beltrán Santana, January 20, 2001, Penal case 16/2001-III.
31. Sworn statement by Víctor Manuel Godoy Rodríguez, January 26, 2001.
32. La Jornada, January 21, 2001.
33. Additional statement by Juan Carlos Sánchez Castillo, February 9, 2001. Sworn statement by Guillermo Paredes Torres, January 27, 2001, Penal Case 16/2001-III.
34. El Universal, October 22, 2011.
35. Reforma, January 5, 2002.
36. Ibid., July 18, 2002.
37. Ibid.
38. The interview was conducted by the author.
39. Ibid.
40. According to official regulations, published on May 6, 2002, in the Diario Oficial, this body depends on the Secretariat of Public Security and it is the secretary who appoints and dismisses the commissioner in charge.
41. The author spoke to one of the DEA’s coordinators in Mexico at the time.
42. Forbes, March 30, 2009.
1. New York Times, March 4, 2000.
2. Reforma, May 1, 1999.
3. Actual, April 1, 1999.
4. Santería: an Afro-Cuban cult to which many drug traffickers subscribe, partly for divine protection. Another marginal or outlaws’ cult is La Santa Muerte, Holy Death. [Trans. note]
5. Sworn statement by José Javier Bargueño Urías under the protected witness codename of César, November 14, 2000, sheet 91 of penal case 16/2001-III, of which the author has a copy.
6. La Jornada, January 8, 2006.
7. Sworn statement by Albino Quintero Meraz, April 22, 2003, penal case 15/2008-IV, of which the author has a copy.
8. US State Department, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
9. Ibid.
10. The author has a copy of case 15/2008-IV, which gives details of Héctor Beltrán Leyva’s activities.
11. Reforma, June 18, 2010.
12. “Héctor” written backwards.
13. Reforma, June 18, 2010.
14. Bulletin no. 6466 of the Federal District Arbitration and Conciliation Board, June 24, 1999.
15. Bulletin no. 317/06 of the PGR, March 15, 2006.
16. US State Department, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
17. “Mochomo” is used in Sinaloa to refer to a large red ant with an irritating but not poisonous bite. [Trans. note]
18. Río Doce, December 21, 2009.
19. Several names were supplied in the sworn statement of José Javier Bargüeño Urías, November14, 2000, penal case 16/2001-III.
20. La Jornada, June 14, 2001.
21. Sworn statement by José Javier Bargueño Urías, November 14, 2000, penal case 16/2001-III.
22. The New York Times, April 8, 1995.
23. PRI presidential candidate Colosio was assassinated in Tijuana during a campaign rally. Mario Aburto confessed, but the ballistics, the forces behind the murder, and many other aspects are widely regarded as suspicious. The replacement candidate would be Ernesto Zedillo. [Trans. note]
24. Proceso, no. 1057, February 1, 1997.
25. Ibid.
26. Semana, August 18, 2007.
27. “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010,” United States Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center.
28. Narco-corridos are a version of that Northern Mexican form, with lyrics celebrating the lives and deeds of drug traffickers instead of the traditional heroic bandits. [Trans. note]
29. Palabra, March 29, 2004.
30. Bulletin no. 099, PGR, March 18, 1999.
31. La Jornada, October 26, 1997.
32. Mural, May 29, 1999
33. This information and that which follows comes from intelligence reports and oral accounts made available for this book.
34. Sworn statement by Albino Quintero Meraz, April 22, 2010, penal case 15/2008-IV.
35. Sworn statement by José Javier Bargueño Urías, November 14, 2000, penal case 16/2001-III.
36. Penal case 15/2008-IV.
37. This information was provided for this book by one of the DEA agents directly involved in these investigations.
38. US District Court, Eastern District of New York, F. no. 2009R01065/OCDETF # NYNYE-616, known by the US Justice Department as the “Indictment against The Federation.”
39. Ibid.
40. Proceso, no. 1744, April 4, 2010.
41. Milenio Semanal, July 16, 2000.
42. Milenio, November 16, 2008.
43. Author’s interview with Mario López Valdez, Reporte Índigo, July 8, 2010.
44. Syndicated column by Jesús Blancornelas, May 30, 2006.
45. Noroeste, July 10, 2009.
46. Noroeste, July 7, 2008.
47. El Norte, May 19, 2007.
48. Ibid.
49. Conagua, concession no. 03SIN116508/10ABGR02.
50. Proceso, no. 1744, April 4, 2010.
51. “Godmother,” or unofficial assistant to a corrupt member of the judicial police; see chapter 4. [Trans. note]
52. Intelligence reports obtained for this book.
53. It was in this capacity that General Álvarez accompanied the handover of El Chapo by Guatemala in 1993, and heard his first, now vanished, statement on that flight from Tapachula. See Chapter 1. [Trans. note]
54. SSP/Cisen file on Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, of which the author has a copy.
55. Information confirmed directly by one of the DEA officers in charge, in May 2006.
56. US State Department Narcotics Rewards Program file.
57. Ibid.
58. SSP/Cisen file on Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, of which the author has a copy.
59. SSP/Cisen file on Juan José Esparragoza Moreno.
60. Proceso, no. 1746, April 18, 2010.
61. El Universal, June 6, 2005.
62. Case filed in the New York Eastern District Court, F. no. 2009RO1035/NYNYE614.24/07/2009.
63. Proceso, no. 1682, January 25, 2009.
64. Alfredo Corchado, “Cartel figure lashes out,” Dallas Morning News, October 15, 2006.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid.
68. Declarations given to the author by a senior DEA officer in Mexico.
69. Corchado, “Cartel figure lashes out.”
70. US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, case no. 08-2657, March 10, 2009.
71. Ibid.
1. “Zeta” is the Spanish word for the letter “Z.” [Trans. note]
2. SSP/Cisen file on Heriberto Lazcano, of which the author has a copy.
3. This information was requested of Sedena on September 4, 2009. The Secretariat replied on October 5 that it had found no record of Heriberto Lazcano’s enrolment in the Heroico Colegio Militar.
4. This information was provided directly by Irma Pérez Ochoa’s lawyer.
5. Secretariat of National Defense, public information request no. 0000700083405, December 22, 2005.
6. SSP/Cisen file on Heriberto Lazcano.
7. FBI Report drawn up by the Criminal Investigative Division & San Antonio Field Intelligence Group, July 15, 2005, of which the author has a copy.
8. SSP/Cisen file on Heriberto Lazcano.
9. This information comes from interviews with staff attached to the PJF who witnessed these measures.
10. SSP/Cisen file on Heriberto Lazcano.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. FBI Report drawn up by the Criminal Investigative Division & San Antonio Field Intelligence Group, July 15, 2005.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Revealed by members of the Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco in Victoria, at the meeting “Construyendo acciones: presente y futuro de las víctimas de la delincuencia organizada,” held on July 30, 2011 in Mexico City.
21. Proceso, no. 1746, April 18, 2010.
22. Sworn statement by Miguel Ángel Beltrán Olguín, preliminary investigation pgr/siedo/ueidcs/111/2004.
23. The Zetas recount this in a letter they sent to a senior government official at the beginning of the Calderón presidency, of which the author has a copy.
24. Ricardo Ravelo, Osiel. Vida y tragedia de un capo, Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2009.
25. SSP/Cisen file on Edgar Valdez Villarreal, of which the author has a copy.
26. Star protected witness for the PGR in the case known as Operation Cleanup, against officials of the PGR itself accused of links to the Beltrán Leyva clan, Jennifer was also La Barbie’s attorney.
27. This story features in a confidential report entitled “The Footballer Case,” of which the author has a copy. It was corroborated directly by people who worked in the AFI at the time.
28. Sworn statement by the protected witness called Karen, October 5, 2005, penal case 15/2008-IV, of which the author has a copy. Thanks to this statement, it has been possible to reconstruct an account of what happened in Acapulco and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo.
29. Proceso, no. 1763, August 15, 2010.
30. El Universal, December 8, 2005.
31. Communiqué from the Presidential Office, June 11, 2005.
32. Ibid.
33. See Chapter 8.
34. This version was given by The Zetas in a letter sent to a senior government official at the beginning of Felipe Calderón’s presidency, of which the author has a copy.
35. The initial investigation into the executions in Acapulco was recorded as pgr/siedo/ueidcs/106/2005.
36. Bulletin no. 071 of the Sistema Penitenciario del Distrito Federal.
37. Information obtained from the Civil Service Secretariat.
38. Anabel Hernández, Fin de fiesta en Los Pinos, Mexico City, Grijalbo, 2007.
39. In 2008 a request was made through the Federal Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information to reveal the number of initial investigations opened against García Luna between 1990 and 2008. In January 2009 the IFAI ruled on our complaint that the PGR had refused to supply the information. It ordered the Attorney General’s Office to hand over the list. But by the time this book went to press, the PGR had still not complied with the order.
40. Based on direct testimony from sources with first-hand experience of these events.
41. Confidential AFI internal affairs report, of which the author has a copy.
42. Ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. El Universal, December 22, 2012.
47. Confidential AFI internal affairs report, of which the author has a copy.
48. Ibid.
49. Ibid.; the author was also able to talk directly to Igor Labastida’s lawyer.
50. Confidential AFI internal affairs report, of which the author has a copy. The information was corroborated by first-hand sources, the testimony of one of whom is on tape.
51. Anabel Hernández, Los cómplices del presidente, Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2008.
52. In December 2008 the author revealed the content of these case files in Reporte Índigo.
53. Information based on an official document of the Federal District Public Security Department on Khouri’s arrest, of which the author has a copy.
54. Information from sources involved in the investigation, who confirmed these details.
55. Testimony related by their attorney, José Antonio Ortega, in Hernández, Los cómplices del presidente.
56. Reporte Índigo, September 25, 2009, researched by Isela Lagunas.
57. Bulletin no. 438/05 of the PGR, May 3, 2005.
58. Classified FBI report, July 15, 2005.
59. FBI report drawn up by the Criminal Investigative Division and San Antonio Field Intelligence Group, July 15, 2005, of which the author has a copy.
60. The Obama administration closed down the NDIC in June 2012. [Trans. note]
61. “National Drug Threat Assessment,” NDIC, April 2004.
62. “National Drug Threat Assessment,” NDIC, January 2006.
1. Given the implications of this first-hand account we have decided to leave out the general’s name.
2. Bulletin no. 058/01 of the PGR, February 1, 2001.
3. Today Tello works for the Mexican cement giant, Cemex.
4. The 2006 elections were won by the PAN amid widespread accusations of fraud. [Trans. note]
5. Communiqué of the Presidential Office, December 4, 2006.
6. Wikileaks Cable 06, Mexico 6871.
7. The author carried out an extensive investigation of García Luna’s properties, published in Reporte Índigo in 2009 and 2010, which demonstrated wealth that is difficult to explain for a public servant. These reports led to the illegal detention of two journalists from the TVC television company in 2009, and of three employees of Reporte Índigo in 2010. To try to make the origin of his property appear legitimate, García threatened to sue Reporte Índigo and the journalist, but he never did.
8. Letter sent on November 18, 2008, by a group of AFI officers to the then President of the Public Security Committee of the lower house of congress, and to forty-nine other lawmakers.
9. Communiqué of the Mexican Presidential Office, April 27, 2007.
10. The son of Ismael El Mayo Zambada.
11. The author has copies of the files from both institutions, which show they were drawn up in Cisen, the Interior Secretariat, and the Public Security Secretariat.
12. Information obtained from the files drawn up by the SSP, of which the author has copies.
13. Ibid.
14. The author has a copy of this document.
15. Edgardo Buscaglia, in his capacity as Adviser to the UN on Corruption and Organized Crime, has taken part in missions to Colombia, Italy, and Afghanistan. In February 2010, he gave the author an exclusive interview for this book.
16. From the beginning of July 2007, the author heard accounts of the union between El Chapo Guzmán and Emma Coronel from some of those present. At the same time, the magazine Proceso published a report of the event by journalist Patricia Dávila on September 3, 2007. All the accounts have much in common. It remains uncertain whether she is a relative of Nacho Coronel.
17. These events are recounted by Los Zetas in a letter sent to a senior government official at the beginning of Felipe Calderón’s presidency, of which the author has a copy.
18. On April 27, 2007, the author wrote an exclusive report in Reporte Índigo on the attempts to negotiate a truce between the two cartels.
19. Dispatch of January 21, penal case 15/2008-IV, of which the author has a copy.
20. Reporte Índigo, February 7, 2008, researched by the author.
21. The author spoke directly to Igor Labastida’s attorney after his execution.
22. The author met tradespeople and community leaders in Tepito to learn more about the background to Edgar Millán and his family.
23. Pitufo, a former member of the Gulf Cartel, gave his statement on March 9, 2009. The author has a copy.
24. The PGJDF has published the findings of its investigations into these kidnappings, which it attributes to Sergio Ortiz.
25. Reporte Índigo, September 10, 2008. The author documented with payslips and other civil service documents that Lorena occupied a senior post in the SSP, one day after Rosas and García Luna denied it.
26. Document of the Federal District SSP on the characteristics of the kidnap gang led by Sergio Ortiz.
27. Reporte Índigo, October 2, 2008. The author exposed in an exclusive report the investigation carried out by the SIEDO into these officials for alleged protection of the Sinaloa Cartel.
28. The lawyer Raquenel Villanueva told the author that Ángela Quintero, a surgeon, was close to former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe. It seems she did not know whose party this was.
29. Reforma, December 13, 2008.
30. At the scene were four men among others who opened fire to defend the Zambadas. They were serving policemen, connected to the SSP and to García Luna: Marco Valadez, assistant inspector of the PFP assigned to the international airport; Carlos Castillo, from the AFI’s Regional Deployment Directorate; José Báez, from the Intelligence Department; and Francisco Montaño, of the State of Mexico police.
31. “Godfather” and “godson” signify intimate bonds, much like compadre, rather than a literal ceremonial kinship. [Trans. note]
32. Colloquial name for the Mexico City police force: “smurfs.”
33. Reforma, September 23, 2008.
1. Sworn statement by Richard Arroyo Guízar, October 28, 2010, of which the author has a copy.
2. The code name of José Salvador Puga Quintanilla, the former member of the Gulf Cartel who had also become a protected witness.
3. He moved between the PF and posts elsewhere in the SSP until the end of Calderón’s mandate in 2012.
4. Sworn statement by Edgar Enrique Bayardo del Villar, March 9, 2009.
5. Information from Wikileaks which appeared after the first edition of this book (November 2010), cable 08, Mexico 3498.
6. The author had access to sources who witnessed these events.
7. The author had access to sources connected to the US government.
8. Reforma, November 5, 2008.
9. The author had access to several sources that recounted the version that drug boss Ismael Zambada gave to his people, and also spoke to a member of Mouriño’s family.
10. The author spoke directly to Mouriño’s relatives.
11. After the first edition of this book, the author had contact with a close friend of the Mouriño family, who told her this part of the story.
12. The author has copies of the military reports on the operation.
13. The address is 425, Calle Fuerza Aérea Mexicana.
14. Reforma, December 15, 2008.
15. Information from the National Commission for the Defense of Financial Services Users (CONDUSEF).
16. Héctor Velázquez was secretary of administrative financial services at Congress when Felipe Calderón was leader of the parliamentary PAN group. Later Velázquez would be remembered as the official who allowed Calderón, just after the latter became director of Banobras, the state development bank, to lend himself the money to buy a house in 2006.
17. Proceso, no. 1896, June 26, 2012.
18. Information provided to the author officially by the AICM.
19. The author made a formal request in 2010 for information on how Aviones S. A. operates in the AICM, how much rent it pays, with which companies it shares its hangar space, etc. For its continued operation in the airport, see its website: avionessa.net (accessed March 15, 2013).
20. Specifications of contract FAM 973/2007.
21. Auditoría Superior de la Federación, public accounts audit for fiscal year 1999-2000, Volume 2.
22. Sworn statement by Richard Arroyo Guízar, November 21, 2008.
23. United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, no. 09 CR 383.
24. Edgardo Buscaglia was interviewed by the author in February 2010.
25. In December 2012, the British bank HSBC was fined $1.9 billion for turning a blind eye to money laundering at its Mexican affiliate, HSMX. $7 billion in US bank notes had been unquestioningly transferred to its US affiliates between 2007 and 2008, according to a Senate report.
26. In 2009, twenty-eight officials in Michoacán state, including eleven municipal presidents, were arrested on suspicion of links to organized crime. [Trans. note]
27. President Lugo was impeached and ousted by a right-wing Congress in June 2012.
28. “National Drug Threat Assessment 2010,” US Department of Justice, NDIC, February 2010.
29. Ibid.
30. Information obtained by the author from sources directly involved in the case of Ignacio Coronel’s supposed death.
31. El Noroeste, July 31, 2010, and La Jornada, August 1, 2010.
32. “Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime,” July 19, 2011.
33. In June 2011, the author requested copies and results of the tests to which those closest to García Luna were subjected. The SSP refused to hand them over. The classification put on these documents by the SSP itself means that we will not be able to discover for another twelve years whether the senior SSP staff were “trustworthy.”
34. Proceso, no. 1777, November 21, 2010.
35. The author has a copy of the agreement signed by the PGR and El Grande.
36. Proceso, no. 1883, December 2, 2012.
1. La Familia Michoacana was a quasi-religious, extremely savage group in Michoacán state that developed from vigilantism to working with the Zetas for the Gulf Cartel during the 1990s. They formed their own group in 2006, but have now disbanded; an offshoot is Los Caballeros Templarios, the Knights Templar. [Trans. note]
2. A controversial security cooperation agreement between the US and Mexican governments, 2008.