In Chihuahua City (1849) Michael H. Chevallié and Glanton may have influenced the state legislature to pass the Fifth Law over the veto of the governor, empowering Chevallié to contract with guerrillas to capture or kill troublesome Indians on an individual basis. Chevallié entered the first contract the next day, and Glanton was in his company on several successful expeditions north of the capital.- From Handbook of Texas Online on John Joel Glanton
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Wow, this is quite a list below. You know, in my research on John Coffee Hays I also stumbled upon an infamous group called the Glanton Gang. These guys were contracted to hunt down Indians for a bounty in Mexico, and they used scalps as a proof of death. The problem with this gang is that they ran out of Apache or Comanche warriors to kill, and they started going after innocents. In other words, the industry of killing the enemy was extremely effective. But as soon as hunters violated the contract and tried to cheat the system, that is when the state put down the hammer.
Mexico decided to put a bounty out on the Glanton Gang after they found out about their scheme, and that effectively ended the gang’s work in Mexico. From bounty hunter to fugitive, all due to a violation of the contract. If the Mexicans would have demanded a bond from these bounty hunters, I think that would have further kept hunters like this in check. Either way, the line of criminal behavior was crossed, and the gang instantly turned into criminals because of their actions.
It should also be noted that John Glanton fought as a civilian scout for the US Army under John Ford, and was a Texas Ranger with Hays. But it seemed that everywhere John went, he pissed off folks by killing the wrong guys or not playing well with others. lol So I would classify him as a guy who lacked discipline and was an extreme liability to anyone that used him. The book Blood Meridian is supposed to be based on the Glanton Gang as well.
To get back to my point. Mexico has a history of bounty hunting, and they have contracted outsiders before. And seeing how the city of Juarez is now the most dangerous city in the world, maybe some consideration should be given to creating an industry that could clean it up. They could issue Letters of Marque and Reprisals, or initiate the Fifth Law (what ever that entailed), and fire up the industry necessary to clean up these cartels. –Matt
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John Joel Glanton.
Mexico offers rewards for 33 drug gang suspects
By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
May 29, 2010
MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s government unveiled a list of 33 wanted drug suspects Friday, including three men allegedly tied to a cartel responsible for much of the bloodshed in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez.
The Attorney General’s Office did not specify the criminal bands affiliated with each suspect.
However, a security official in the northern state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located, said the three at the top of the list belong to La Linea, a gang tied to the Juarez cartel. Rewards of $1.1 million (15 million pesos) were offered for each.
One of the three, Juan Pablo Ledezma, is believed to be the head of La Linea, said the official, who is with the joint army and police operation in charge of security in Chihuahua. He agreed to discuss the list only on condition of not being quoted by name, because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
A turf battle between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels has turned Ciudad Juarez into one of the world’s deadliest cities. More than 4,300 people have been killed over the past three years in the city, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Five men were killed in a Ciudad Juarez shooting Friday, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors’ office.
The five were riding in a car when gunmen drove up beside them and opened fire, Sandoval said. Two of the five were killed inside the car. The others tried to flee into a restaurant but were gunned down in front of panicked customers.
The Attorney General’s Office offered rewards of $387,000 (5 million pesos) each for five other suspects on the list. The other 25 had $232,000 (3 million peso) bounties on their heads.
Officials at the Attorney General’s Office did not responded to requests for more information on the suspects.
Last year, the government issued a list of its most-wanted drug traffickers. It offered rewards of $2 million for the leaders of Mexico’s six major cartels and $1 million for their lieutenants.
Ledezma also appeared on last year’s list, described as a lieutenant of the Juarez cartel. It was unclear if the Attorney General’s Office is offering an additional $1 million reward for Ledezma because of his inclusion in both lists.
Several kingpins named on the list released last year have been caught or killed, including Arturo Beltran Leyva, who died in a gunbattle with marines in December.
Beltran Leyva, the head of the Beltran Leyva gang, was the highest-ranking drug trafficker brought down since President Felipe Calderon deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police across the country in late 2006 to fight the cartels.
Authorities have not said whether rewards were given for any of the drug lords captured or killed.
Drug gang violence has surged since Calderon’s troop deployment, claiming more than 22,700 lives.
On Friday, police found the bullet-ridden bodies of two men inside black bags in Tecpan de Galeana, a town in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.
State police in the northern state of Sonora said Friday that seven bodies had been found on a ranch on the outskirts of the border city of Nogales and that a drug dispute was suspected as the motive.
Six of the men whose bodies were found Thursday had been linked to the drug trade, most as “mules” or drug carriers. Some were identified as drug couriers by their relatives. The other victim was the ranch manager.
And in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of La Condesa, two men were shot death and a third seriously wounded by gunmen. That part of the nation’s capital has largely been spared the violence affecting many other parts of the country.
City prosecutors said in a preliminary report the two dead men were shot in the head by two assailants dressed in black and traveling in another car.
Meanwhile, Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna announced that armored vehicles seized from drug gangs will be used to provide protection for police and government security officials, who have increasingly come under attack from the cartels.
The government also will introduce a law that would assign permanent bodyguards to top officials involved in the fight against drug trafficking. Their families would also be assigned bodyguards.
Story here.