Eleven days into a campaign aimed at crushing organized drug traffickers in the state of Michoacán, Army officials announced Thursday that the military operation is entering a new phase with state law enforcement agencies playing a larger role.Manuel García Ruiz, chief of the 12th Military Region and the general in charge of the campaign, said Michoacán state police will join Army troops and federal police in the sweeps against drug traffickers, as well as carry out arrest orders on their own.
A key shift in Phase Two, according to the general, will be more focus on urban operations. Much of the action during the first phase took place in the countryside, where troops sought to deal the traffickers a financial blow by destroying marijuana fields.
The first 11 days of the operation netted 60 arrests, four of them involving high-level operatives in the Sinaloa cartel.
Ten of the arrests came on Wednesday, with federal troops detaining presumed drug traffickers in the towns of Apatzingán and Aguililla.
One of the arrested was Fermín Borjes Barajas, son of a major Gulf cartel figure known as "Poncho el Feo."
Gen. García had said earlier that the current military sweep of Michoacán has confirmed that the Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf cartel, are no longer a factor in the crime organization´s activities. The once-feared band of former soldiers is now a "myth," according to the general and the Gulf cartel can no longer count on help from any true Zeta force in its battles with the Sinaloa and Tijuana cartels.
"We´ve detained a number of criminals in this state for many months, and whenever we asked them why they call themselves Zetas, they always answer that they just use that name to scare their enemies," Gen. García said Wednesday.
However, the federal Attorney General´s Office (PGR) still consider the Zetas a security threat, according to internal PGR documents.
Even so, the PGR recognizes the Zetas have been reduced in numbers, with perhaps 11 leaders remaining nationwide.
Other lesser organizations are still working in support of the major cartels, including in Michoacán gangs with family names such as Valencia, Süastegui, Rosales and Mendoza.
INTELLIGENCE MAPS
It also came to light Thursday that Army officials are using detailed intelligence maps that locate cartel strongholds in specific Michoacán towns.
According to the maps, the Gulf cartel controls the municipalities of Coalcomán, Arteaga, Tumbiscatio, Antunes, Pará- cuaro, Nueva Italia, La Huacana, Churumuco, Huetamo, San Lucas and Tacámbaro.
The Sinaloa cartel holds Turicato, Aquila, Álvaro Obregón and the state capital of Morelia.
Seven municipalities - Apatzingán, Uruapan, Lázaro Cárdenas, Aguililla, Buenavista, and Jacona are being fought over by both cartels.
