Tijuana: The Executors

Original article available at ZETA
Translated by El Wachito

To this date, 1071 executions have been reported in Baja California. This sum has already surpassed the executions in 2014, 2015, and its about to surpass the executions of 2016. The Coordination Group has decided to focus their efforts on the capture of the Cell Leaders, who in their insane war, they have dedicated themselves to fight over the small scale drug sale points. The executors are 3 from "Los Aquiles" and 2 from "Los Chompas" of the Sinaloa Cartel; 2 of the "Pilotos" who belong to CAF; and 3 from CJNG. Only 1 has apprehension orders. 

Víctor Hugo Mejía López, "El Griego". René Arzate García, "La Rana" Alfredo Arzate García, “El Aquiles” , "El Mayor".

With 165 murders in Tijuana and 197 murders in Baja California, May was listed as the bloodiest month in the border city. Then in June, with 206 executions across the state, became the most violent state of the country. In that context, during the last six weeks, the State Secretary of Public Security, Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, has repeated in speeches and interviews that the fact that until July 14 there were 1,071 executed in BC and 824 only in Tijuana, Does not mean that there are thousands of assassins. The reality is that they are a few hitman and most of them belong to three cartels.

De la Rosa has made an effort to point out that those responsible are barely a dozen of traffickers and that their hitmen are not many. He speaks about 60 hitman, but only eight account for the majority of the victims.

According to the Coordination Group, a member of the municipal order explained that the hitmen seem numerous because when arrested or killed, they are quickly replace. "For example, we are realizing that the life of a killer is not very long", and depends on the information that they have.

He explained that the sicario - started as a thief and a drug dealer - then he was ordered a series of murders in which the sicario has no idea who the victim is, or their environment, or relationships, or role, who or what criminal group It represents; they are Only given a description and a location of the person to kill. Sometimes they even provide him with a weapon that he has to return.

"For the fourth or sixth homicide the sicario begins to realize what their boss's intentions are with the killings and then they order his death, and they replace him," ZETA informed.

Some of these thugs are "independent" men and women who commit homicides for the highest bidder, today for a cartel and tomorrow for their competitor. In fact, as in previous years, to date it is investigated if there is any criminal who is renting weapons for the various cartels to execute; Including weapons that have been stolen from officers of this and other states.

The Coordination Group has decided to concentrate its search of the perpetrators of the murders. The drug trafficking cell leaders of the Sinaloa cartels, Arellano Felix (CAF) and Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). Since early June, they have requested collaboration from the federal authorities, who responded negatively, despite the fact that these men are engaged in federal drug trafficking offenses, and as evidence, cargoes of kilograms, liters and / or tons of marijuana, cocaine and heroin have been confiscated.

Juan José Pérez Vargas, “El Piolín”, “R7”, “Jp”. Edgar Alejandro Herrera Pardo, “El Caiman”, “El Zame” Israel Alejandro Vázquez Vázquez, “El 50”, “El Goofy”.

The government forces of President Enrique Peña evaded their responsibility of investigation because the subjects in question do not have arrest warrants, which they lack because the Attorney General's Office does not even investigate them for their drug-trafficking activities.

Thus, since June, the Federal Government has left all the work to the local authorities, the responsibility remains for the operative forces of Baja California, state and municipal police - supported by the Army in the basis of operations - and the challenge is to Surprise the leaders of the criminal groups in flagrancy in order to apprehend them.

Francisco Javier Mendoza Uriarte “El Chapito Uriarte”.José Luis Mendoza Uriarte, “El Guero Chompas”.

The Executors: Ten top priority ...

At this time, the most wanted men are the same subjects that for several years have been identified by the Coordination Group as drug trafficking leaders in Baja California, some of whom have even been arrested and released. These are nine men who have no warrant for arrest, and one more, the only one in which the Federation showed interest because it has an arrest warrant.

According to intelligence reports from the Baja California Coordination Group, most of the security houses of these alleged offenders are in private subdivisions, making it difficult to enter and surprise them in flagrant criminal acts. Even more difficult: they spend most of the time in other states of the Mexican Republic.

Here is the list of the Executors:

Cartel of Sinaloa / Cell "Los Achilles"

1. Alfonso Arzate Garcia alias "The Achilles" or "El Mayor ". Marked as the number one target, he has an active arrest warrant for homicide since 2012. He is 44 years old and, according to intelligence groups, is not in Baja California; Is kept in motion in several security houses in Sinaloa and Sonora.
2. René Arzate "La Rana" or "El General". Alfonso brother and ten years younger, started as head of the "Aquiles" hit men and climbed to a senior position in the cell that transports drugs to the United States. In 2007 he was investigated as alleged responsible for injuries and attempted homicide, and in 2008 they opened a file for aggravated assault by reason of kinship, he shot his wife.
3. Víctor Hugo Mejía López "El Griego". In 2013 he was arrested twice, the crime he attributed and for which he was released was possession of weapons exclusively for the use of the Army, he was even investigated for the murder of municipal police Jesús Hurtado in March 2012, but was never charged . Authorities place him as the middle command under "The Aquiles," however, versions of uncorroborated criminals indicate that the 29-year-old could be involved in the large-scale drug trafficking run by La Rana.

Cartel of Sinaloa / Cell "Los Chompas" and / or "Los Uriarte"  

All related to Raydel López Uriarte, arrested in February 2010:

1. José Luis Mendoza Uriarte "El Güero Chompas". He is 37 years old, in 2009 he was captured with possession of weapons for exclusive use of the Army; In 2011 and 2012 he was arrested for manslaughter, criminal association and possession of stolen vehicle; In 2014 he was arrested with guns and a grenade and,  February 2017, he was released. According to the Coordination Group, he fights against the CJNG for the criminal control of the Eastern Zone of Tijuana.
2. Francisco Javier Mendoza Uriarte "El Lucas" or "El Chapito Uriarte ". The Coordination Group was looking for him since the end of 2015 for drug trafficking and homicide issues, it was one of the 65 priority objectives of the State Security Council. The State Preventive Police (PEP) detained him on Saturday, June 4, 2016, and handed him to the Specialized Investigation Office of Organized Delinquency, as well as the weapons he was detained with: a long weapon, a .380 caliber With chargers and cartridges, as well as just over a million pesos in cash. "El Lucas", currently 33, was released.

Cartel Arellano Félix (CAF) / Cell "Los Pilotos"

1. Prospero Medina Avilés "El Pablito". Almost 43 years old and a former ministerial police officer, he was executed in 2001 in an arrest warrant for abuse of authority and, in November 2006, he was suspected of having participated in an armed attack against municipal police. The most recent public appearance of his name was in a narcomanta hanging on a bridge in Tijuana on February 23, 2016, where alleged CJNG leaders demanded him and 13 other members of the CAF recognize them "... as partners and members of the plaza or a new war would begin ".
2. Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño "El Flaquito ". According to information provided by the Coordination Group, until mid-2016 he was being investigated for an attempted bribery in October 2012, evading a fine for not having a drivers license. Now, the file of the young man of 26 years old includes a prison report by using a weapon marked as "exclusive use of the Army" in 2012.

New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG) / New Generation Tijuana Cartel (CTNG)

1. Juan José Pérez Vargas "El Piolín". With 36 years recently, the Mexican American has a record on both sides of the border: in 2007, at the age of 26, he was arrested in Tijuana for violent robbery and firearm possession; In 2011 he had a penitentiary income for possession of a weapon of exclusive uses of the Army; And since 2015 operates as head of the expansion of the CJNG in Tijuana.
2. Israel Alejandro Vázquez Vázquez "El 50" or "El Goofy ". According to reports by the authority, he is 42 years old, he had already committed criminal offenses for other cartels, but his file only includes two prison admissions: one in 2010 for vehicle theft and another in 2012 for violent robbery. In 2015, the Jalisco cell was integrated as an armed wing and considered violent. In November 2016, when his photograph was first published in the 2222 edition of ZETA , investigations and wiretaps detected that this assassin ordered, as a warning, an armed attack on the offices of this Weekly during non-working hours, which To be detected by the authorities and exhibited by the press, was not executed.
3. Édgar Alejandro Herrera Pardo "El Zame" or "El Cayman".  30 years old, and in the criminal organization chart of the Coordination Group they have link him as a subordinate of Arturo Gómez Herrera "The Gross" , assassinated in October of 2016 in Jalisco and considered chief of hired assassins of the CJNG-CTNG.