‘Bin Laden’ blamed for Mexican police commander’s assassination

EL PASO, Texas  – Bin Laden is back in the news. The Sinaloa cartel drug trafficker who last year distributed “COVID-19” food baskets to the poor in Chihuahua and hung banners defying the military is being blamed for Friday’s assassination of a police commander in Parral, Mexico.

Luis Raul Tarango Avila, deputy regional coordinator of the state police, was gunned down while riding a government vehicle on the Parral-Chihuahua City Highway, the state Attorney General’s Office said. His vehicle and body were riddled with bullets apparently coming from assault rifles.

Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Augusto Peniche on Monday blamed the attack on Antonio Leonel Camacho Mendoza, a.k.a. “Bin Laden” or “300.” He said criminals in Parral have been trying to pressure authorities to let them operate with impunity, using threats and violence.

“This was a treacherous act that will not go unpunished,” Peniche said. “The suspects are a priority target for local, state and federal authorities.”

Camacho reportedly holds U.S. and Mexican citizenship and has fled to his former home state of Sinaloa.

The town in Southern Chihuahua state sits at the junction of highways leading west to the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa, and north and east to the U.S. border. It has been a battleground between Juarez’s La Linea drug cartel and Gente Nueva, a gang associated with the Sinaloa cartel. “Bin Laden” allegedly heads the “Salgueiro” cell of Gente Nueva.

The attorney general suspects that the attack on the police commander is linked to recent arrests and drug seizures in the area. “The success we’ve had in the southern part of the state no doubt have caused anger in the ranks of organized crime and is part of the reaction we have seen,” he said.

Peniche said drug cartels continue to operate in the state in large part due to “traitors” in police agencies and legal circles. “We will continue rooting out bad (officers) and regaining the trust of the people.”

The attorney general said Chihuahua is mostly a transportation route for hard drugs into the United States, but doesn’t have the sophisticated drug labs for synthetic drugs, such as crystal meth.

“Those are coming from the Pacific Coast, Sinaloa, Michoacan, Nayarit. That’s where the precursor chemicals come in that’s where they manufacture it. […] Here in Chihuahua we have detected retail sales, warehouses and safe houses where they ‘cut’ the drug into doses,” he said.