Timeline of The Mexican Drug War - 2009

2009

• January 2 – Mexican authorities arrested Alberto Espinoza Barron, one of the La Familia Michoacana cartel leaders.
• January 6 – Gunmen fired on and threw grenades at the Televisa TV station in Monterrey during a nightly newscast, causing no injuries. A note left on the scene read: "Stop reporting just on us. Report on the narco's political leaders."
• January 22 – Police arrest Santiago Meza, a man who allegedly dissolved 300 bodies of rival drug traffickers for his boss Teodoro García Simental.
• February 3 – The body of retired General Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñónez, who had been appointed a special drugs consultant to the Benito Juárez municipality mayor, was found near Cancún along with the bodies of his aide and a driver.
• February 5 – Police capture trafficker and lieutenant Gerónimo Gámez García in Mexico City.
• February 7 – The Federal government, along with SEDENA, launches the Operation Quintana Roo, sending thousands of troops to Cancún and several cities within the state. Several police officers in that state where found guilty of drug trafficking, and 'El Puma,' a Gulf Cartel lieutenant, was captured.
• February 10 – Military troops took over a police station in Cancún in connection with the torture and murder of former general Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñónez, who led an elite anti-drugs squad.
• February 12 – Gunmen assassinate Detective Ramón Jasso Rodríguez, the chief in charge of the homicide division for the state police of Nuevo León.
• February 15 – The Mexican Navy, with the help of the United States Coast Guard, confiscated 7 tons of cocaine being transported on a fishing vessel in international waters in the Pacific Ocean.
• February 17 – A shootout took place in the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, between members of the Mexican Army and presumed members of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. The death of the high-ranking Gulf Cartel leader Héctor Manuel Sauceda Gamboa was confirmed.
• February 20 – Ciudad Juárez's Police Chief Robert Orduna announced his resignation after two police officers are killed. Drug traffickers had threatened to kill one police officer every 48 hours until the chief resigned.
• February 22 – Five assailants attacked the convoy of Chihuahua governor, José Reyes Baeza, killing a bodyguard.
• February 24 – Mexican authorities extradited Miguel Ángel Caro Quintero to the U.S, top-leader of the Sonora Cartel.
  • Heavily armed gunmen assassinated Adrián López, mayor of Vista Hermosa, Michoacan.
  • U.S. raids code-named Operation Xcellerator on the Sinaloa cartel in California, Minnesota and Maryland lead to 755 arrests, the discovery of a 'super meth lab' and laboratory equipment capable of producing 12,000 ecstasy pills per hour.
• February 25 – The New York Times report on ATF statistics stating that 90% of traced guns originated in the United States. This promped a resurgence of heated debates in USA concerning the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.
• February 28 – Close to 1,800 Mexican troops arrived in Ciudad Juárez as part of a contingent of 5,000 Federal Police and troops.
• March 9 – The Mexican Army confirmed the arrest of 26 members of the Arrellano Félix Cartel, including Ángel Jácome Gamboa (El Kaibil), one state police officer, one municipal police officer, and other suspects.
• March 10 – The Mexican Ministry of Defense orders 6 Eurocopter EC 725 Helicopters from Eurocopter to transport soldiers in special operations. The deal was finalized behind closed doors between Felipe Calderón and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
• March 12 – The United States Department of Homeland Security stated that it is considering using the National Guard 'as a last resort' to counter the threat of drug violence in Mexico from spilling over the border into the US.
• March 19 – The Mexican Military captures alleged Sinaloa cartel drug boss Vicente Zambada Niebla, son of drug lord Ismael Zambada García El Mayo.
• March 22 – Gunmen killed Édgar Garcia, a state police commander in charge of investigating kidnappings and extortion in the western state of Michoacán.
• March 25 – A Mexican Special Forces Unit captured one of Mexico's most-wanted drug smugglers, Héctor Huerta Ríos.
• March 26 – A US Marshal, Vincent Bustamante who was the subject of an arrest warrant, was found dead in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
  • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the future delivery of an additional 8 Black Hawk helicopters to Mexican security forces.
  • Germán Torres Jiménez, alias El Z-25, a founding member of Los Zetas, was captured in Poza Rica, Veracruz.
• April 2 – Vicente Carrillo Leyva, son of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested in Mexico City.
• April 19 – Eight Federal Police agents were killed in an attack on a prison convoy transporting senior leaders of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel.
  • The Federal Police captured 44 suspected members of La Familia Cartel, including its chief Rafael Cedeño Hernández "El Cede".
• April 22 – The bodies of two undercover federal agents are found in Durango, along with a note saying "Neither priests nor rulers will ever get El Chapo" (referring to Joaquín Guzmán and with clear allusion to the comments of the Archbishop of Durango Héctor González Martínez.)
• May 17 – Gulf cartel gunmen disguised as police officers break into a prison in Zacatecas and free 50 inmates.
• May 27 – Arrest of 27 high-ranking officials including 10 mayors and a judge in Michoacán suspected of collaboration with La Familia Cartel.
• June 6 – A total of 16 cartel gunmen and 2 Mexican Army soldiers were killed during a four hour shootout in Acapulco.
• June 15 – Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza a lieutenant of the Gulf Cartel in Cancun was captured.
• June 26 – Gunmen attempt to kill Ernesto Cornejo, a Partido Acción Nacional candidate, in Sonora, but fail to kill him.
• July 7 – Anti-crime activist Benjamin LeBaron and his brother-in-law Luis Widmar are murdered after armed men storm their house in Galeana, Chihuahua.
• July 11 – Several state police offices are attacked by gunmen in Michoacán, leaving several injured, and 2 members of the Mexican Army dead.
• July 14 – Twelve Mexican Federal Police agents were kidnapped, tortured and killed, and their bodies were later disposed on a mountain highway. The agents were investigating crime in President Felipe Calderón's home state of Michoacán.
  • Julio César Godoy Toscano, who was just elected July 5, 2009 to the Lower House of Congress, was discovered to be a top-ranking member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, and is accused of protecting that cartel. He is now a fugitive.

• August 6 – A shootout between police and gunmen leaves over a dozen dead and 22 injured in Pachuca. Some kidnapped Federal agents were found alive, however this confrontation initiated simultaneous shootouts and grenade attacks on police installations around Mexico.
• August 8 – Federal Police arrest Manuel Invanovich Zambrano Flores, a top lieutenant of the Tijuana Cartel.
• August 9 – Mexican police defused an attempt to kill Mexican President Felipe Calderon by the Sinaloa Cartel.

• August 20 – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) disarticulated a large Mexican drug operation in Chicago, and knocking out a major distribution network that operated out of that city. The drug operation allegedly brought 1.5 to 2 tons of cocaine every month to Chicago from Mexico and shipped millions of dollars south of the border.
• September 3 – Gunmen attack a drug clinic in Ciudad Juárez, lining up patients against a wall and killing at least 17. José Rodolfo Escajeda of the Juárez cartel was arrested several days later.
• September 16 – Ten people are killed in another gun attack on a drug rehabilitation clinic in Ciudad Juarez.
• December 15 – As part of the Mérida Initiative, the Mexican Air Force received five Bell 412 helicopters worth $66 million from the United States to use for transport and reconnaissance missions for Mexico's drug war.
• December 16 – A two hour shootout between 200 Mexican Marines and Beltrán-Leyva Cartel gunmen led to the death of Marcos Arturo Beltrán-Leyva, the leader of the criminal organization, in an upscale resort in Cuernavaca. Furthermore, four of his bodyguards were killed, one of which one committed suicide while surrounded by the Marines. Two marines were also injured while another, Navy 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo Córdova, died while being treated for his injuries.
• December 22 – Only hours after the burial of 3rd Petty Officer Melquisedet Angulo Córdova, gunmen break into his family's house and kill Córdova's mother and three other relatives. The shooting is believed to be retaliation for the death of Marcos Arturo Beltrán-Leyva, as well as a warning against the military forces.

For 2009, the drug-related death toll reached 7,724.