Tomas Tovar Rascon aka Tito Torbelino and the circumstances of his death and its aftermath

Written by Otis B Fly-Wheel

Reporter: Otis B Fly-Wheel

Tomas Tovar Rascon was born on May 24^th 1981 in Phoenix, Arizona. His was descended from parents from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. Living in Phoenix was not easy for him, he had to work at a young age to support his mother and siblings.

At age twelve, he began to learn the accordion to realize his dream of being a Norteno Banda singer. Like many before him, he dreamt of singing corridos and more specifically narco corridos. He longed for the narco trappings, money, pretty girls, money, nice cars, money, gaudy gold plated weapons, money, did I mention the money?, and all the things fame brings.

After learning the accordion to the required level of competence, Tito set about writing his own songs. In the banda style, he began writing corridos. His preference was for corridos based on real events. Carrying on the legacy of corrido writers before him. He would later change to narco corridos as the money began to roll in, and the offers from narco’s became more numerous.

Some of his narco corridos were his most famous songs including “El Comando X”, his tribute to Chalino Sanchez, “Rosalino Sanchez Felix”, and “Mi Clave Es El 01”. The first and last of these are dedicated to the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltran Leyva Cartel.

As has happened before and no doubt will happen many times more, narco corrido singers are often requested to write songs for antagonistic cartel members. To turn down these requests has often been a death sentence in itself.

In his song “El Commando X”, Tito wrote about the high ranking Sinaloa Cartel Capo’s and their bodyguards, including Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, El M1 Ondeado, El Macho Prieto, El Fantasma.

His song “Mi Clave Es El 01” is a dedication to the Beltran Leyva bosses in Sonora, Sajid Emilio Quintero Navidad, “El Cadete”, and “El Chapo Trini”, Trinidad Olivas Valenzuela. On the album he also released “El Muerte de Botas Blancas”, a tribute to the ex-leader of the Beltran Leyva Organization, Arturo Beltran Leyva. He also wrote narco corridos for Pedro Valenzuela, Pedron Antrax and Alfredo “El Junior” Beltran Guzman, all bloodthirsty drug dealers.

After the split in 2008 of the Beltran Leyva Organization from the Sinaloa Federation, Sinaloa and BLO became the worst of enemies, and people had to take sides that were previously friendly with both parties.

Both of these songs were released on his “En Vivo” or “Live” album in April of 2011. On the 5^th of June 2014 Tito was eating in a Chinese restaurant in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, when two men entered the restaurant, blocked the entrance and proceed to shoot Tito from close range firing multiple shots into his chest and abdomen.

The killers left the restaurant and Tito was taken in a police car to hospital but died on the way there. Almost immediately the accusations started to fly. Tito was seen as supporting Sinaloa, he was in BLO territory at the time of the killing in Ciudad Obregon. Also in Sonora were Los Salazar, a family who worked with the Sinaloa Cartel, and who were antagonistic to El Chapo Trini from the BLO.

The BLO had their own narco corrido singer, Alfredito Olivas, who had collaborated with Tito Torbelino. A narco manta, which is a banner with text painted normally on a white cardboard or sheet was hung with a threat to Los Salazar , by the El Chapo Trini mentioning the death of Tito.

It read “ This is a message for all the “Gente Nueva” of Los Salazar, it is better if you leave Obregon, if you don’t want the same to happen to you that happened to your singer Tito Torbellino Atte:

Los Salazar were quick to reply in kind with their own manta:

“Well, we are here and we are not going to go, Chapito Trinis, we are coming for you with full Federal Force Salazar, and the same thing that happened to Tito is going to happen to Alfredito Olivas, fucking Chapo Trini Olivas, an eye for an eye”.

When the initial smoke cleared, Mexican authorities identified Tito’s killer as one Carlos Montes Pacheco, 26 years of age. Soon after the death of Tito Carlos Pacheco was also shot to death in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora.

He had visited a party on July 18^th at the Bella Vista Barrio of Ciudad Obregon, and shot a woman to death, a government employee of the State Investigative Police happened to be on the scene and lamentably shot dead Carlos Pacheco, after being wounded by Pacheco.

Carlos Montes Pacheco

It was by comparison that the State Attorneys Office and the PGR had come to the conclusion that Pacheco was the killer. This doesn’t amount to much evidence, indeed one could point out that it is entirely circumstantial. Pachecos gun was retrieved but information about whether it had undergone ballistic testing to compare with rounds fired into Tito was not forthcoming.

It has been speculated that El Chapo Trini gave the order to Pacheco to carry out the killing, but as Pacheco was then killed himself, unless another killer comes to light, the case died with Pachecho. No information has come forth at this time that confirms that Pachecho was affiliated to the BLO.

This wasn’t the end of events concerning the death of Tito Torbelino, 8 months after his assassination, Alfredito Olivas, who had been threatened in the Los Salazar narco manta, was shot and wounded at a concert at Parral, Chihuahua. 

At the time of the attack, it was alleged that Alfredito had been shot by a drunken man, whose girlfriend had been approached by Alfredito during the concert and who had been taken up on stage and had a song dedicated to her.

Alfredito, was shot multiple times, see video below. He was taken to hospital where he received treatment for his injuries. In a later interview, he admitted that he had himself removed from the hospital before sicarios, presumably in the service of the Sinaloa cartel could come to the hospital and finish the job, as had happened previously to musicians such as Zayda Peña Arjona. While his attacker may well have been upset with the singer for approaching his partner, the attacker may well have been in the service of the Sinaloa cartel.

Alfredito must have had some credible intel on who or whom had given the green light for his murder. As Tito had been killed in BLO territory, so Alfredito had been shot and almost killed in territory known to belong to Los Salazar.