The GiFiles,
Files released: 5543061

RE: From MX1 on the Mormon assassination
Question --
VCF made Le Baron responsible for the OVERALL situation of letting
Chapo operate in the area.
Therefore, the Mormon victim was not the upstanding anti-narco as
depicted? In reality, Le Baron was a narco too?
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From: Marko Papic [mailto:marko.papic@stratfor.com]
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 4:57 PM
To: Stephen Meiners
Cc: scott stewart; Fred Burton; ben; Karen Hooper; Alex Posey
Subject: Re: From MX1 on the Mormon assassination
More on Mormons from MX1:
New information on the matter:
Our intel is saying that it is indeed La Linea.
The region was controlled for 6 years by Juarez. After that, Chapo
came in. Many people, including Mormons, got rich over those VCF
years. Now they are literally fighting for control of the area.
VCF made Le Baron responsible for the OVERALL situation of letting
Chapo operate in the area. So the assasination is linked to the
bigger picture, not just the 25 of Chapos guys that were detained.
----- Original Message -----
From: 'Stephen Meiners' <meiners@stratfor.com>
To: 'Marko Papic' <marko.papic@stratfor.com>
Cc: 'scott stewart' <scott.stewart@stratfor.com>, 'Fred Burton'
<fred.burton@stratfor.com>, 'ben' <ben.west@stratfor.com>, 'Karen Hooper'
<karen.hooper@stratfor.com>, 'Alex Posey' <alex.posey@stratfor.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2009 5:20:28 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: From MX1 on the Mormon assassination
Huh? This is old, open source, and was totally debunked a few days after
it was reported. Or am I missing something here.
Marko Papic wrote:
ME: >Uhm yes.. we definitely are interested in Russian missiles!!
MX1:
OK, then this is NOT FOR PUBLICATION. I would be interested in any
ideas you have on what the hell this means.
ANEXO DE INTELIGENCIA san/epa002546/prot-
prev/solic/intel/NMDHS/misil/*/u/f
MISIL ENCONTRADO EN PLAYA BAGDAD
El 14 de mayo personal de la Armada de Mexico localizo sobre la
orilla del lado norte de la Playa Bagdad en Matamoros, un deposito
de fosforo conocido como lanza misil desechable de 50 centimetros
de largo por 10 cm. de diametro de fabricacion rusa, el cual habia
sido detonado recientemente.
Se indico que se es posible que el deposito haya sido lanzado al
agua del mar, pero la corriente lo arrastro hasta la orilla, frente
al area comercial del balneario, por lo que al ser detectado por
los pescadores del lugar estos dieron aviso a los elementos del
Sector Naval Militar, quienes recogieron el artefacto para
establecer mayores datos.
La fuente de la Armada, expreso que no hay reportes de que este
misil haya sido detonado en el area de la playa.
El artefacto asegurado es de la primera generacion de misiles
antiaereos portatiles sovieticos.
Caracteristicas tecnicas:
- Alcance maximo: 3 mil 400 metros
-Velocidad maxima: 430 metros por segundo, 1548 km/h
-Tiempo de entrada en posicion de tiro: 10 segundos
El funcionamiento de la guia infrarroja pasiva del misil consiste
en un dispositivo que detecta la radiacion infrarroja que desprende
el objeto al que se apunta, en una aeronave tipicamente el motor o
motores, bordes de ataque, etc. Una vez seleccionado el blanco por
el operador, el dispositivo adquiere la firma infrarroja del
objetivo.
Al efectuarse el disparo, el misil iniciara la persecucion del
blanco, segun diferentes trayectorias, y el dispositivo infrarrojo,
enviara al sistema de guiado del misil datos sobre la posicion del
objetivo, corrigiendo la trayectoria del misil segun las
variaciones en su trayectoria. Al acercarse el misil a su objetivo
(si esta dotado de una espoleta de proximidad), o bien al impactar
en el mismo, la cabeza de guerra hara explosion.
----- Original Message -----
From: 'Marko Papic' <marko.papic@stratfor.com>
To: 'Stephen Meiners' <meiners@stratfor.com>, 'scott stewart'
<scott.stewart@stratfor.com>, 'Fred Burton' <fred.burton@stratfor.com>,
'ben' <ben.west@stratfor.com>, 'Karen Hooper'
<karen.hooper@stratfor.com>, 'Alex Posey' <alex.posey@stratfor.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 9, 2009 5:04:48 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: From MX1 on the Mormon assassination
Answers from MX1 on Stephen's question posed today.. Note, I have asked
him to follow up on that Russian missile note at the bottom.
>Chihuahua state prosecutor said La Linea was behind the kidnapping
>and murder of Benjamin Lebaron, the American mormon leader and
>anti-
>crime activist in Galeana. Any thoughts?
Lots of thoughts, actually.
In principle, some official information from the State
Investigations Agency is linking the assassination to phone calls
that resulted in the detention of 25 of Chapos guys nearby a few
weeks ago. I wrote about this incident because it was extremely
noteworthy.
However, if it is a revenge signal to the Mormon community for that
action in particular, it would be Sinaloa cartel. Keep in mind
that La Linea is really a Chihuahua extension of the Sinaloa cartel
in most of the region. However, because some of its members
reverted to VCF, la linea gets too much credit more often than not.
What is significant about this is that I think there may be a
little battle between some Army officials and the Governor. The
Govenor has offered to provide security and even training for a
Mormon police force. At the same time, a military official told me
that that would not be a positive thing from their perspective, as
they insist on a security monopoly there. So, it seems that the
feds and the state are fighting over who has control of the region.
in the meantime, someone wants the Mormons to shut up. Given that
both Sinaloa and VCF operate there, it could be any one of them,
particularly considering that the Mormons, according to the
Rancher's association, have been reluctant to strike any deals or
pay any money whatsoever.
This is DEFINITELY something to watch in order to understand the
big picture that is Chihuahua.
PS- Are you guys interested in the Russian Missile we found in
Matamoros?