What’s in a brand? For gangs it’s life or death

Mexico state caught in deadly turf conflict

MEXICO CITY — In the central Mexico state of Guanajuato, the color of the meth or the markings on the package in an addict’s pocket may determine whether he lives or dies.

The Jalisco Cartel sells crystal-clear meth at $2.30 per dose. The home gang, Santa Rosa de Lima, sells cheaper blue-tinged methamphetamines for $1.40. And the rival gangs don’t accept competition in a struggle for control that has turned Guanajuato into one of Mexico’s most blood-drenched states.

“It is a sure sentence of death” for a dealer to be caught with the wrong color of meth, Guanajuato-based security analyst David Saucedo said. “It is almost like a script … the massacres of street dealers. They will attack funerals, where the (deceased) relative had some kind of links to another gang.”

It is unclear whether the distinct colors are from different production processes or if the colors are intentional. It may be no coincidence that a recently arrested leader of the Santa Rosa gang is nicknamed “El Azul,” or “Blue.”

Both sides also mark the plasticine envelopes with their brands. Jalisco’s may say “CJNG,” the group’s initials, or “Grupo Elite,” or have a drawing of a skull with a bayonet and a pistol. Santa Rosa’s symbol is a triangle, with a skull and two sledgehammers, a reference to the nickname of another arrested leader.

Sophia Huett, the Guanajuato security commissioner, said those markings may matter most. “It is a brand concept based on the label,

more than the color, which isn’t always present.”

In either case, the battle pits the two most powerful drug cartels in the hemisphere against one another for control of the state — an industrial and farming hub that has attracted gangs for the same reason it has lured auto manufacturers: road and rail networks that lead straight to the U.S. border.

Worried about the rise of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the long-powerful Sinaloa Cartel in recent months has moved in to form an alliance with Santa Rosa de Lima and other smaller local, bands.

Guanajuato, Mexico’s sixth-most populous state, saw over 3,400 homicides in the first nine months of this year, more than any other state in the country.

It has also suffered the deaths of more police officers in the line of duty than any other Mexican state.

The Santa Rosa de Lima gang expanded into drugs after a start robbing freight trains and stealing fuel from government pipelines.

With police closing in on him in July, Santa Rosa cartel leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz — known as “El Marro,” or “Sledgehammer” — made a desperate plea for an alliance with the Sinaloa cartel to fend off the Jalisco group, currently Mexico’s fastest growing and most violent criminal organization.

Saucedo said the Sinaloa gang was reluctant to back Santa Rosa, whose leaders were seen as unsophisticated and untrustworthy gangsters. But “the arrest of El Marro led the Sinaloa cartel to intervene in Guanajuato, to prevent Jalisco from taking control.”

“We had had a war between two cartels, and unfortunately now a third cartel (Sinaloa) has entered the conflict.”

Rebecca Blackwell The Associated Press A policeman stands guard in February as the mayor attends an event for a renovated market that has suffered as violence has kept shoppers away in Apaseo El Alto, Mexico.