Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: The Death Of Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel (Part 2)
Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal was a prominent Mexican drug lord associated with the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful and notorious drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. Here's a full summary of his life and death:Early Life and Rise to Power:
- Nacho Coronel was born on February 1, 1954, in Canelas, Durango, Mexico. He grew up in a rural area known for its cultivation of marijuana and opium poppy, which provided him with early exposure to the drug trade.
- Coronel became involved in the drug trade in his youth, working his way up through the ranks of the Sinaloa Cartel under the tutelage of its leaders, including Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
- He gained a reputation as a skilled organizer and trafficker, overseeing the transportation of large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico to the United States.
- Coronel became one of the top lieutenants of the Sinaloa Cartel, responsible for overseeing drug trafficking operations in various regions of Mexico, including Jalisco, Michoacán, and Durango.
- He was known for his ruthlessness and ability to maintain control over his territory, often resorting to violence to eliminate rival cartels and maintain dominance in the drug trade.
- Coronel played a significant role in expanding the Sinaloa Cartel's influence and operations, making it one of the most powerful and lucrative criminal organizations in Mexico.
- Nacho Coronel's reign came to an end on July 29, 2010, when he was killed during a military operation conducted by the Mexican army in Zapopan, Jalisco.
- The operation, dubbed "Operation Lightning," targeted Coronel's safe house, where he was hiding. During the raid, Coronel engaged in a shootout with Mexican soldiers and was ultimately killed in the crossfire.
- His death was seen as a significant blow to the Sinaloa Cartel and a major victory for Mexican authorities in their efforts to dismantle organized crime networks.
- Nacho Coronel's death left a power vacuum within the Sinaloa Cartel, leading to internal power struggles and increased violence as rival factions vied for control.
- Despite his death, Coronel's influence and legacy continue to resonate within the drug trade in Mexico, serving as a reminder of the cartel's vast reach and the challenges faced by law enforcement in combating organized crime.
Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel was a notorious drug lord who operated in Mexico and was a key member of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country. He was born on February 1, 1954, in Canelas, Durango, Mexico, and started his criminal career as a small-time drug dealer in his hometown.Coronel quickly rose through the ranks of the Sinaloa Cartel and became one of the most important figures in the organization, overseeing the trafficking of drugs from Mexico to the United States.
He was known for his ruthless tactics, including the use of violence and intimidation to maintain control over his territory.Despite his criminal activities, Coronel managed to maintain a low profile and avoided capture for many years. However, his luck ran out on July 29, 2010, when he was killed during a shootout with Mexican soldiers in Zapopan, Jalisco
In this episode we take a look at the death of Nacho Coronel and what happened in the aftermath as we continue to explore and discuss the strategy used to take out kingpins in the war on drugs.
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Ciudad Juarez: Ignacio Coronel and What Happens After a Drug Lord is Killed - The Awl
- Duration:
- 12m
- Broadcast on:
- 30 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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Trace for yourself with 25% off at virtual.com/preneal. - What's up everyone, and welcome back to the program. In this episode, we're gonna pick up where we left off with the article from the All that was authored by John Murray. The war with the Cineloans is what many researchers and reporters believe was the catalyst for the incredible levels of violence Mexico has experienced in the past three years. Arturo's sociopathic brutality and the ruthlessness quickly became apparent as police all over Pacific and central Mexico found bodies by the dozen, decapitated and bearing messages signed by El Hefe Del Hefeis, the boss of bosses, the name Arturo gave himself. These sadistic operations were carried out by men wearing uniforms bearing the acronym FEDA, which stands for special forces of Arturo. He didn't have a high opinion of himself or anything, huh? Let me name the whole entire special force unit that I employ after myself. The violence quickly escalated on both sides. Arturo reached out to his old contacts in the Carrillo organization in Juarez, as well as the Zeta's who were then distancing themselves from their former employers in the Gulf cartel. The three aligned against the hegemonic Cineloans and the Beltran Leyva Empire now rivaled any in Mexico, not only with size, but with brutality as well. Anytime you bring the Zeta's on board, you're dealing with a group of straight-up killers, straight-up maniacs and that automatically bolsters your own forces. But as quickly as things came together for the Beltran's, they began to unravel. In early August, Mexican officials arrested the Beltran's main connection with Colombian cocaine, ever Villafan Martinez. While they were able to establish new connections within Colombian cartels, it was a symbolic hit to the newly formed organization. In November, federal authorities running an anti-corruption campaign discovered that Noe Ramirez Mandelano, the chief of the attorney general's organized crime unit, was on the Beltran Leyva payroll. This brought increased attention to the group, which had probably bought off Ramirez long before, while they were still working for the Cineloa cartel. The violence bore on for another year and was in large part responsible for the skyrocketing death tolls of 2008 and 2009. Arturo terrorized Mexico and in addition to his nicknames The Beard and White Boots, he soon simply became called Death. Then, in mid-December of 2009, Arturo threw a Christmas party for friends and associates near Quanavaca. A wealthy resort town in his base state of Morelos, the party was thrown at a private house and Arturo had invited the popular singer Ramon Ayala to entertain his guests. But the party was interrupted when an elite special forces division of the Mexican Navy acting on a tip rated the house. Arturo managed to escape as his gunman held the Marines at bay. About a week later, on December 17th, Arturo was laid up at a second floor apartment of the Altitude's luxury condo development in Quanavaca with several bodyguards, though not including his favorite bodyguard and most trusted confidant, the Barbie. Again, the Mexican Navy, acting on intelligence, they had gathered from the first raid, managed to track him down and staged an assault on his apartment. Arturo and his men saw them swarming the complex from their second story perch and opened fire. Over the course of about 90 minutes, 200 Mexican Marines stormed the Altitude's condo complex, even repelling into the scene from helicopters. Arturo's men were well armed, firing assault rifles and lobbing grenades from the windows of the apartment. At one point, Arturo called for backup and at least 10 more gunmen arrived at the complex, throwing grenades and fighting back the Marines to give Arturo a chance to escape. One by one, his men fell, until it was just Arturo left in the apartment. Whether he was given a chance to surrender is unclear, but it's clear he had no intentions of doing so. In a final act of defiance, he picked up an AR-15 and kicked open the front door of his apartment to make a break for it. He was met by Marines coming up the stairs to the second floor, who cut him down immediately. Yeah, you don't have a very good chance of surviving that encounter by yourself, running into a whole group of Marines coming up the stairs who are looking to kill you. Yeah, chances are, you're gonna end up dead. This was Felipe Calderon's first major victory in the drug war and Beltran Leva's body was certainly treated like a trophy. With his jeans were stripped to his knees in a gesture of humiliation, just as so many of his victims had been found. He was extensively photographed and recorded, and those images made their way around the internet very quickly. This was the first time in the recent war, anyone got to see what a dead Mexican drug lord looked like. There was something very strange about seeing where and how he lived, bowls of fruit still fresh on the table, next to religious icons and automatic weapons that made the whole thing seem symbolic, but it was very hard to grasp what the symbol was. Well, with hindsight, we now know that that symbol was to show the Mexican people that look, we're going after the cartels, but it was all just a show. At the same time they were doing this, they were also feeding all kinds of information to the Cinaloa cartel. And that was just recently proved inside of a courtroom in America when Genaro Garcia Luna was convicted for his crimes of taking money from the cartels and working with the cartels, hand in hand, as he was Mexico's top cop. So when we look back at all of this in hindsight, it all really comes into focus. From there, the Beltran Leyva cartel began to fall apart. On December 30th, police arrested Carlos Beltran Leyva, who was riding by himself with fake identification, two guns and a bag of cocaine in Kulea Khan. With three of the brothers dead or arrested, many speculated about what would happen to the headless cartel. Some thought there would be some kind of succession of power allowing it to survive. Others predicted another cartel moving in and taking over the entire operation. But what has happened so far bears no sign of a definitive ending. Over the months following Carlos arrest, the group fractured further in an apparent struggle for control of the remnants of Arturo's empire, Barbie, the sidekick whom Arturo once trusted before anyone else is now at war with Hector Beltran Leyva, one of the last remaining brothers of the cartel namesake. The factionalized group is also still locked in a larger struggle with the Cinoloa cartel, which played itself out most recently in the epic shootout between Cinoloa and foot soldiers and the last remnants of a local Cinoran Beltran Leyva gang entrenched in a hill town, some 25 miles from Nogales, Arizona border crossing a few days ago. Perhaps the most lasting legacy of the Beltran Leyva gang in the Mexican psyche has more to do with Joaquin Guzman. Almost without fail, the origins of the cartel are traced back to the media reports and drug war analysis to the betrayal by Chapo Guzman and that's a reputation that hasn't left Chapo since. To this day, it can be seen in the attitude of citizens who believe that Calderon's administration is in league with Chapo, Bingo, they most certainly were. That is all played out now and it's all been factually proven. He's viewed as the man behind the scenes, pulling all the strings. Any time someone is killed or arrested, that was a one-time friend or enemy of Chapo Guzman, the suspicion arises that he had something to do with it, that he either tipped off the police or somehow was responsible for the murder. This happened immediately after the death of Artero Beltran Leyva. It also happened when Teodoro, Cemental, a one-time associate of the Teowana cartel operating in southern Baja was arrested and it continues with the death of Nacho Coronel. But this was the biggest mistake they made. As far as Nacho Coronel being thrown under the bus. At the time they didn't realize it, but it led to CJNG and the number one rival that Cinelloa cartel has for their supremacy. But these reports are impossible to corroborate and in many cases may owe to the puppet master's stature that Guzman has received from the arrest of Alfredo in 2008. Well, we know now that it's all true. It all bared out that Guzman and the Cinelloa cartel, were working with the government. They were feeding them information about their enemies and in return they were being protected. But what the Beltran Leyva's can tell us about the possible repercussions of the death of Nacho Coronel is that one thing we can expect is more violence. 2010 is on target to becoming the most violent year yet in the Mexican drug war and a great deal of that was spurred on by the death of Artero and the subsequent infighting in chaos within his ranks. Guadalajara was plagued with relatively little violence when compared with the slaughter in Juarez and along the Texas border in Gulf. That may change. Worse still, this will be extremely complicated. As Nacho and his most apparent successor have been taken out of the picture. Infighting among Nacho's group and their Cinelloan allies along with the threat from the Zatas and other cartels will create a mess in Jalisco for some time to come. Well, that didn't really happen, did it? As far as a mess in leadership because that vacuum that void was filled right away by Almencho and then Almencho and his group, well, they became CJNG. So you know that the capitation strategy they were talking about? Well, how's it working out? While the DEA called Coronel's death a crippling blow to the Cinelloa cartel, the structure of the group ensures that it will survive, just as it survived and prevailed when it lost the Beltran Levas, who were then a huge part of its core. The drug trade is far bigger than any one capo, no matter how big an image we paint of them. The only sure thing his death has for the history books at this point is one more story of an immensely powerful drug trafficker shot down in a country where such stories flourish and the promise of violence to come in the aftermath. And boy, oh boy, did that violence come. And we see it playing out every single day right now in real time. All right, folks, that's gonna do it for this one. 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