Two Dead After Gunmen Attacked Suspected Zeta Extortion Collection Business La Cucaracha

Days after La Cucaracha business deposit in San Fernando was singled out as a Zeta hangout by Valor por Tamaulipas on Facebook, gunmen went to the business and killed the owner and a client, the owner's son was injured in the shooting.

By H. Nelson Goodson

June 24, 2013

San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico - On Saturday, La Cucaracha business deposit was attacked by gunmen after it was exposed by Valor por Tamaulipas (VxT) on Thursday of being a Zeta hangout. The gunmen suspected to be from the Cartel del Golfo (CDG) around 6:30 p.m.went to the business and shot three people including the owner who was killed. Her son was also shot in the attack and a client later died. Two of the gunmen were also killed, according to VxT.

VxT had posted on Facebook on Thursday at 9:20 p.m. that a Zeta leader, Z Goyo Villa Franca used La Cucaracha business to hangout, get mail, where people came in to pay extortion quotas and use it as a meeting place for the local Zetas. VxT posted that it was confirmed that La Cucaracha was utilised by Villa Franca after he threaten the owner.

The owner of La Cucaracha was identified by Lizeth Garcia, a FB user as Imelda Galván Zárate, a teacher and her son Hugo, a dentist. Hugo is expected to survive. 

Garcia wrote that the business was owned the Gonzalez Galván family and the former owner was Hugo Sr. who recently passed away and Imelda later took over the business with her son. The family is well respected and has no ties to organized crime, according to Lizeth.

Another FB user, Vigilante de Lejos Pausini wrote that Lizeth is a fake name user and had used several fake FB accounts to threaten VxT and another user. Lizeth actually used the same photo in the profile of both accounts and was considered to be the same user, Pausini wrote. Lizeth vowed to decapitate another user, according to Pausini. Lizeth hasn't denied Pausini's allegations.

The VxT administrator is taking responsibility for what occurred at the business after it was posted that La Cucaracha was as a Zeta hangout and an extortion quota collection business. VxT is now asking his 240,000 followers, if VxT should continue to expose suspected businesses being operated by organized crime or cartels? 

In this case, several innocent people were killed by gunmen after La Cucaracha business was exposed as a Zeta operation, according to VxT. But many FB users following VxT use fictitious names on accounts to protect themselves from retribution by organized crime. They say, no matter what VxT actually does, innocent people become victims of the cartels and organized crime every day. VxT confirmed, that users have a final say whether the FB page continues to expose criminal activities by organized crime.

VxT had stopped posting for a week and then came back active, but has become more blunt in exposing businesses, people, social gatherings, crimes, extortions, corruption in all levels of the Mexican government, including Tamaulipas and quinceñeras sponsored by cartels or organized crime.

A few days ago, a video was posted on the Internet by a cartel that depicted a woman being killed for tipping VxT about an incident. On Monday, VxT posted, there was no information of any tip provide by the woman killed after checking and reviewing the VxT inbox. VxT does not recognize or remember the woman killed.

VxT indentified both cities of Tampico as the capital of kidnappings and Victoria for homicides.