In the first 6 months of 2018, the Mexican Navy (SEMAR) special operations forces (UNOPES) were suspected in at least 47 enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in Nuevo Laredo, including of an American citizen.
The killings and disappearances were condemned by the United Nations and international human rights advocacy organizations and eventually led to UNOPES being withdrawn from Nuevo Laredo.
The Commander of UNOPES at the time was Admiral Marco Antonio Ortega Siu.
In 2016, UNOPES under the command of Admiral Oretga Siu led the hunt that eventually recaptured El Chapo after his 2015 prison escape. Action-packed footage purportedly of the UNOPES raid that led to arrest of Chapo was disseminated in 2016.
UNOPES also trained an elite special operations unit in Tamaulipas, which has since been implicated in two massacres initially reported as confrontations.
On 9 February 2017, a joint operation between SEMAR and the Nayarit State Attorney General's Office reportedly killed Juan "H2" Patron Sanchez and a number of others supposedly in an aerial assault in Tepic, Nayarit. As is so often the case, the killings were rumored to be caused by a shakeup in the underworld following the extradition of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera on 17 January 2017.
As the first reports about the operation started coming in, video footage of the purported confrontation was shared on social media showing a helicopter gunship firing an M134 minigun supposedly at a group of sicarios either inside or close to the entrance of a house in the Ampliación Lindavista neighborhood in Tepic. According to reporting originally in La Jornada, people in the area described several minutes of shooting before the helicopter gunship opened fire. The "confrontation" was reportedly between the narcos and SEMAR, who claimed they had been unable to enter through the roof of the building because they were not a special operations unit trained in fast-roping from a helicopter.
Two videos from different vantages shared on social media showed a helicopter gunship firing a 7-second burst.
Additional footage captured on security cameras was leaked showing short bursts of aerial fire zipping an empty street, hitting a light colored sedan or close to it, and tagging a stationary car parked on the corner, as well as footage of a group of gunmen firing into the air. Curiously, no bidirectional gunfire is seen in any of the videos and no other gunfire besides the M134 minigun is audible in either of the videos of the helicopter firing the 7-second burst.
The bodies of "H2" (with heavy facial bruising) and 8 others were found in and around the house. In total, 15 people were killed in reported confrontations with the Navy in Tepic and the surrounding area over the course of several days.
According to a reporter from Televisa who toured the scene, the second and third floors of the house showed no signs of being inhabited. Further, the footage that was leaked doesn't exactly show what officials claim happened considering the bodies were in perfect view of the security camera. If footage showing the deaths of the gunmen firing on the helicopter existed, why wasn't it leaked if it showed a justifiable shooting? It's remarkable that in spite of the footage of nearly every sequence of the action narrated in the official version, none of it incontrovertibly showed the confrontation that officials claimed took place.
In August 2021, court proceedings unsealed in the Eastern District of New York and reported by Reforma alleged that UNOPES, commanded at the time by Admiral Ortega Siu, had actually conducted the operation. Facing federal charges for drug trafficking and corruption, disgraced former Nayarit Attorney General Edgar Veytia testified that Juan "H2" Patron Sanchez, who Veytia had agreements with permitting "H2" to conduct his business without interference, had been lured to Veytia's house for a meeting.
According to reporting:
'When they entered the meeting house, H2 was stopped by the marines who took him to the second floor. Veytia stayed on the first floor and listened as the marines interrogated and tortured H2. Veytia heard H2 crying. Captain Tigrillo was the highest-ranking officer present during the torture.
The marines interrogated H2 for 45 minutes or an hour […] He was still alive and Veytia saw him leave the house, bleeding, but walking normally. The marines put H2 in a van and took him to the safe house where his escorts were. Veytia believes that the marines took him there to kill him.'
[…]
The former Attorney General narrated that the marines positioned two trucks and an armored vehicle near the house where the gunmen were, who began to shoot and throw grenades. The Navy then ordered a helicopter gunship to reinforce the operation.
'Veytia was a few meters from the shooting. The marines got H2 out of the truck, gave him a gun and told him to start running. As he was running, H2 yelled 'I'm one of Cienfuegos's people!' before he was killed. Captain Tigrillo witnessed Cienfuegos screaming. Veytia believes that H2 was referring to Salvador Cienfuegos, the Secretary of Defense.'
Today it was reported that the former UNOPES Commander, Admiral Marco Antonio Ortega Siu, is being investigated for his role in the fictional scene staged at the Cocula garbage dump, where officials initially claimed the bodies of the 43 Ayotzinapa students were incinerated by a drug cartel in 2014. That story has since been proven false.