For a map, click here. For a map of Chihuahua state, click here. New information from Nota Roja including identity of the four suspects killed and an inventory of arms seized
By Chris Covert
Four armed suspects were hunted and shot to death by Mexican security forces in a remote western Chihuahua town Sunday, according to Mexican news accounts.
The suspects were identified as José Roberto Méndez Villagrän 24, Ivän Ramos Cruz de 18, FermÃÂn Gonzälez de 23 and Noé Arturo Juärez Rascón de 36. All four had been shot in the head.
The suspects killed were apparently four of several drug gang members who spent the better part of a day drinking and intimidating residents of San Juanito in the Sierra Tarahumara sector of western Chihuahua.
The suspects entered the town Saturday and immediately kidnapped three municipal police officers and then went on a drinking binge threatening local residents with firearms said to be heavy caliber weapons. One of the suspects reportedly carried a 0.50 caliber Barrett rifle used in NATO countries as well as in Mexico as a long range sniper rifle, but with an apparent antiarmor and antiaircraft capability.
The remaining municipal police were unable to intervene. Latest national reports suggest the three police officers who were kidnapped were taken from San Juanito. Their fate is unknown.
In a press statement Monday Chihuahua Governor Cesar Duarte confirmed the incident at San Juanito to local press, but did not mention the three abducted police officers.
Sunday at noon, a security force comprising Chihuahua state police agents and Mexican Army units entered San Juanito and began to search for the suspects.
The ensuing gunfight last 20 minutes. The armed suspects fled the town aboard three pickup trucks. A subsequent search of the area turned up the three vehicles at an intersection with the four dead men aboard. Reports say a police agent intercepted and fired on the suspects. It is unclear if the four dead suspects had been hit in San Juaniito, or if they were killed by the police agent.
Weapons seized following the gun battle include one 0.50 caliber Barrett rifle, one YHM AR15 assault rifle model YHM-15, one Colt AR15 model Match Target, one Romarm brand AK-47 assault rifle and one .308 caliber rifle PTR-91 brand (G-3 semi automatic). Also seized include 333 rounds of ammunition, 14 weapons magazines one bipod and one rifle scope, for the Barrett.
A GMC Sierra was also seized. Seized materials were moved to an army base in Creel, about 10 kilometers south of San Juanito.
Reports say an earlier incident took place this year where five apparent drug gang members were killed by rival shooters.
Missed that one. Sorries...
San Juanito was also the area where in August of 2010 100 members of the Sinaloa drug cartel entered the town in force, stayed for about six hours before leaving. No shootings were reported during that invasion. Retrospectively, the invasion may have been to "fly the flag" in the area.
To read the Rantburg report on the August 2010 invasion of San Juanito click here.
The Mexican Sierras in western Chihuahua, eastern Sonora, western Durango and eastern Sinaloa states, dubbed the Golden Triangle" by Mexican press, is where a number of indigenous Indian communities reside. Many of those in those communities whch are under control of drug gangs, are treated like medieval serfs using murder, intimidation and arson.
The Taramhumara sector of far western Chihuahua is home to the Tarahumara Indians whom have direct ancestral links to the original Aztec of central Mexico. As with nearly every indigenous community in the Mexican Sierras, the residents are isolated by choice from the rest of Mexico. Drug cartels such as the Sinaloa cartel and the Juarez cartel take advantage of that and press those communities into growing drugs.
San Juanito is roughly 20 kilometers north of Bocoyna the seat of Bocoyna municipality. San Juanito is also 30 kilometers due south of Mexican Federal Highway 16 which runs from Chihuahua, Chihuahua, to Hermosillo, Sonora.
Another security incident took place in even more remote Jicomorachi in Uruachi municipality 10 kilometers due west of San Juanito last March. Four armed suspects died and several homes were torched in an apparent intergang feud last March.
To read the Rantbrug report in the Jicomorachi, Chihuahua shootings, click here