US embassy cable - 05HERMOSILLO440

UNCLAS HERMOSILLO 000440 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, ASEC, ALOW, PREL, SNAR, MX, CASC 
SUBJECT: HERMOSILLO - ARMED ATTACK AT COUNTRY CLUB LINKED TO HOSPITAL 
NARCO-RAID 
 
REF: A) HERMOSILLO 279; B) HERMOSILLO 350 
 
1. (U) SUMMARY:  In an early morning raid on November 10th, 
approximately eighteen men shot their way into the exclusive Los 
Lagos neighborhood in Hermosillo, firing about 400 high-caliber 
bullets into the house of a local resident.  Although they did 
not shatter the bulletproof windows of the house, they did 
shatter the sleep of consulate personnel, many of whom live 
adjacent to the neighborhood.  No consulate personnel reside in 
Los Lagos.  This incident appears linked to a raid in July in 
which narco-commandos stormed the state hospital to free a 
prisoner under treatment there.  While "Hermosillo" means 
"pretty little place," it isn't so pretty anymore.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (U) At approximately 5:15 am on Thursday, November 10th, post 
personnel awoke to the sound of automatic gunfire that lasted 
about five minutes.  Approximately eighteen armed men, dressed 
in black, shot the gate guard at the exclusive Los Lagos Country 
Club and Residences before proceeding to the house of Carlos 
Gallegos Garcia, reportedly the owner of a shrimp farm.  There 
they fired about 400 rounds of high caliber ammunition, mostly 
at the second floor.  The windows in the second floor appear to 
have made of bulletproof glass, and nobody in the family was 
hurt.  The guard, however, has since died of his wounds.  Police 
took more than twenty minutes to respond. 
 
3. (U) The majority of consulate personnel live adjacent to Los 
Lagos, and many belong to the country club.  Eight consulate 
families live within 500 yards of the Los Lagos house and thus 
within range of the shooters' trajectory.  Also, after the 
incident, the Gallegos family was moved by the police to a 
nearby gated community that also houses many people from the 
consulate. 
 
4. (U) The state attorney general, Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, says 
that his office is investigating claims that Gallegos Garcia 
owes USD 3,200,000 to a shrimp business in Sinaloa.  While 
Gallegos Garcia apparently denies the connection, Murrieta 
Gutierrez says that public records may document the dispute. 
 
5. (U) On Friday evening, police arrested three men who had a 
cache of weapons.  One was Humberto "The Professor" Perez 
Lascano, alleged to be the ringleader of the operation, and who 
is wanted in the US for possession of drugs with intent to 
distribute.  On Saturday afternoon, police raided a house in 
Hermosillo, arresting three more men and confiscating magazines 
for automatic weapons, hundreds of bullets, eighteen dark 
uniforms, three smoke bombs, six handcuffs, and two pickup 
trucks.  Through ballistics, they matched one rifle to the 
attack on the Hospital General del Estado (State General 
Hospital) last July, in which a gang of armed commandos broke 
out federal prisoner and convicted narco-trafficker Efrain 
Beltran Felix, who had been transferred there for treatment of a 
stab wound (Ref A). 
 
6. (U) The second group of men confessed that "The Professor" 
had hired them.  Two of these suspects are from Badiriguato, 
Sinaloa, perhaps the single most lawless, narco-infested town in 
the narco-infested state of Sinaloa and hometown of Joaquin "El 
Chapo" Guzman Loera, whose far-flung drug empire includes seven 
Mexican states and much of the American west. 
 
7. (U) Also on Saturday evening, the head coroner for the State, 
Jesus Manuel Meraz Caballero, was assassinated in his car 
outside his house in Hermosillo.  While there is some 
speculation that the killing may be linked to the Los Lagos 
shooting, police do not yet have any leads on the case. 
 
8. (SBU) COMMENT: While Gallegos Garcia may be an upstanding 
shrimp farmer, shrimp farms are often covers for money 
laundering organizations.  Post believes that if the team had 
intended to kill Gallegos Garcia and his family, they could 
easily have succeeded.  Perhaps, then, the assault was a very 
loud warning.  Also, DEA reports that there are clear links 
between "The Professor" and Arturo Beltran Leyva, the Sinaloan 
narco-kingpin, and through him to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman 
Loera.  On November 10, a senior Sonora state official told us 
that he was "certain" that the shooting in Los Lagos was drug 
related.  Local media are highlighting what they characterize as 
a dramatic deterioration of public security in Hermosillo.  END 
COMMENT. 
CLARKE