The Acosta Family Massacre

Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from Zeta Tijuana

Photo: Archivo.- Jorge Humberto Acosta Gallegos, “El Güero Leches”

The Acosta Family knows who is behind the deaths of the mother, youngest son, and uncle of the family, that's why they left Baja California. Authorities warn that the perpetrators could be former criminal partners of the Father, Jorge Humberto Acosta Gallego "El Güero Leches", imprisoned for two years and seven months. The murderers shot their victims and took the shells.

Jorge Humberto Acosta Gallegos "El Güero Leches", in prison since December 31, 2015. Theoretically, due to his confinement, it wouldn’t be possible for him to exert his criminal influence and operation,  but even inside prison his enemies want him dead and gone, so on August 5, 2018 they killed his wife, his 7-year-old son, and his brother-in-law.

"El Güero Leches" was included by Baja California authorities to be in the Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) criminal organization chart starting in 2007. As of September 2008, his name was recorded as cell leader, and intellectual author in several homicide cases. In the same year he was considered responsible for the control of drug trafficking and crimes in the Valle de Guadalupe and Tecate, as criminal lieutenant of Eduardo García Simental "El Teo", who split off from the CAF and allied with Sinaloa. After the capture of Garcia, Acosta was grouped with the Alfonso and René Arzate Brothers, on the side of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

As for the investigation of the motives of his enemies to massacre his family, the Intelligence gathered shows minimal progress: "... on the street the version is that he owed something, there is no greater data". They charged him and he refused, or could not pay. That is why they killed members of his family and caused the rest of his children and relatives, this week, to leave their ranches and Baja California. 

Since they were not able get to him, due to being housed in a special area in the Social Readaptation Center (Cereso) in Tecate, on Sunday, August 5, 2018, the criminals decided to attack the family.

Displaying baseness and cruelty, they went for the weakest. A boy who had just turned 7 in December, white, thin, small. The only problem Adam Archivaldo had was being the youngest son of the capo. Due to that relationship, he was shot twice, including the coup de grace to take his life.
 

Although in recent years several children, sons, stepchildren, or nephews of drug dealers have been murdered in Baja California, minors have generally fallen victim to collateral attacks on their parents or relatives. In contrast, Archivaldo became the first intentional killing of a child, amid the current battle between drug traffickers in BC. 

The most recent antecedent dates from the early morning of September 17, 1998, when a command led by Lino Quintana, for a drug debt, murdered 19 members of three families in El Sauzal in Ensenada. Among the victims were six children between 1 and 9 years old, and five adolescents between 12 and 16 years old.

Little Archivaldo was massacred in the same homicide operation that ended the life of his mother Ada Lilia Buenrostro, who was close to turning 45; where the assassins also riddled Luis Humberto Carrillo, who was staying at his sister's house. 

According to the initial versions of the authorities, in spite of being a close family and benefiting from Acosta's dealings, they still cannot find evidence to suggest that his wife or brother-in-law were involved in the illicit activities of "Güero Leches". 

Background of Recent Tecate Murders

In a span of two days, Tecate registered eight intentional homicides, being the most violent week of the year, despite the increase in operations and arrests made by the State Attorney General's Office along with the other corporations in the city. 

The most significant event occurred on August 5, when five corpses stacked on a dirt road in the Lombardo Toledano neighborhood were discovered near a cell phone antenna. To the side there was a narcomessage. 

The official report was made at 6:53 pm. The bodies showed severe signs of putrefaction, though the researchers ruled out that the victims had been dead for more than 24 hours. One of the bodies was without clothes. 

The message, written on green poster board, held down with stones, read:  

"Ponchin continue sending your trash here I'll leave you Los Akiles they don't want you here either and you hang out with suck ups when you're no longer in charge there they'll put you back in your place pendejo att your friend". 

Among the victims are brothers Eduardo and Jorge Manuel Espinoza Quiroz, as well as Armando Acevedo and Sergio López. A fifth body is still unidentified. 

The same Sunday, at eight o'clock in the morning, on the main street near the Las Auras dam, near a factory called Ceramic Tecate in the San Pablo neighborhood, a body was located burned from from the waist down. 

So far the deceased has not been identified, although it is known that he was not killed with a firearm, but with a screwdriver, which was found next to the body. 

Previously, at 6:54 am on Friday, August 3, a double homicide was committed in an apartment complex in the Cucapah neighborhood. The victims, shot with a .233 caliber weapon, were David Cazares Fregoso, 29 years of age and with long criminal history; and José Enrique Morales Jiménez, 21. 

The Tecate Zone Ministerial Police reported that in the first nine days of August they made eleven arrest warrants and recovered six reportedly stolen vehicles. One of the most prominent cases is that of a man identified as José Alejandro, who was charged for the crime of attempted femicide, for an event that occurred on the night of July 30, when he hit his partner in the back and then on the head with a baseball bat, then tried to drown her in a water tank and, finally, ran her over with his 1989 Grand Cherokee pickup.

After receiving the complaint, ministerial agents obtained an arrest warrant against the accused, who is in prison while his criminal situation is resolved. 

The remainder of the arrest warrants correspond to crimes of vehicle theft, violent and non violent robbery, injuries, abuse of trust, and violence.

THE ATTACK 

There is an unofficial version that the eldest son of the Acosta Family received a call informing him of the murders prior to the incident, and that the contact was made from his mother's phone. However, this is not officially contained in the investigation as the family have not been questioned and have left the area. 

According to the file, on the day of the triple homicide, the victims were alone in the ranch of "Leches", which in the Public Registry of Property and Commerce and documents, has three names: "La Sierrita", "El Eucalyptus" and "Santa Anita." It is at Kilometer 33 of the Tecate-Ensenada Freeway, or at Kilometer 70 of the Ensenada-Tecate Highway, Delegación Francisco Zarco, as those both addresses are on file. They were alone despite the fact that, officially, in documents, Acosta's three children, his mother-in-law, his mother, and his deceased wife, lived at the same address.

Authorities received the emergency report at 5:41 pm on Sunday, August 5, and sent a patrol. The report was made by Acosta's eldest son, who had arrived at the ranch and found an unconscious man who needed medical attention. 

Upon arrival, the officers realized that the man had a firearm wound and reclassified the report to "injured by firearm", later realizing that he was dead, and by protocol called the ambulance so that the paramedics could testify to the death.

The body of Luis Humberto Buenrostro Carrillo was found inside the ranch, approximately five kilometers from the Ensenada-Tecate highway. 

The uniformed men then searched the property in search of the perpetrators of the attack. The child’s body was found 170 meters to the southeast of the body of the uncle. Later,  four kilometers from her son, they found the lifeless body of Ada Lilia Buenrostro, according to the information sheet of the Attorney General's Office of the State (PGJE). The three were lying in the bushes. 

In interrogation, the oldest of the Acosta children said that he lived in Tecate, did not give details for the reason of his visit to his parents' ranch, but explained that when he arrived and saw his uncle wounded, he decided to call the emergency services, but because there is no phone signal on the ranch he had to go back towards the highway to do it. 

When the bodies of the woman and child were found, he was asked why he had not commented on the absence of his relatives, to which he only replied that he believed that "they had been taken".

GUNSHOTS

Regarding the causes of death, the necropsy does not reveal any type of physical torture, and in all three cases, the death was caused by gunshots, and all were left in the middle of a pool of blood. The caliber of the bullet is not known because none of the projectiles lodged in the bodies, and the murderers also took the shells from the crime scenes, "but the wounds are extensive." 

Luis Humberto Buenrostro Carrillo, 58, died of a hypovolemic shock secondary to a firearm projectile wound penetrating the chest.

Ada Lilia Buenrostro Carrillo lost her life due to a hypovolemic shock secondary to a firearm projectile wound in the skull and thorax.

The cause of death of little Adam was laceration of the brain as a result of projectile wound penetrating the skull and thorax, shot from top to bottom. The head wound was large in the parietal temporal region of the right side. The little body presented a bullet wound in the part of the spine, above the right gluteus, from the back.

One and a half days after being murdered, the bodies of the three victims were claimed at the facilities of the Forensic Medical Service of Ensenada; the PGJE confirmed on Tuesday, August 7, that at noon the bodies were released.

OLD ACCOMPLICES, NEW ENEMIES  

With a research folder with a small amount of data, ZETA consulted with members of the Coordination Group and their areas of Intelligence, and the only thing that the authorities know for certain is that "El Güero Leches" and at least his eldest son, know who was sent to murder his family.

Since the end of 2015, when he was arrested, Acosta's group decreased. Most of them joined other cells and a high percentage went to Ensenada. "They do not fear revenge because he is locked up, his family will cross to the United States to protect themselves and he does not have a 'bataca' , assassins who take revenge." 

- And his criminal partners?

“Unlikely…he's alone. They're already rearranged. But we can never rule out the resurgence of a struggle between cells." 

Within the State Security Council there are two unofficial hypotheses that came about in the following four days both based on criminal versions on the street:

The First hypothesis points to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and its leaders, mainly the leader detected in the Tecate-Ensenada zone, Jesús Alfonso Trapero Ibarra; followed by Jesús Felipe Olea Sepúlveda "El Felipón" and his armed wing: the José Giovani "El Puma" and Daniel Isaac "El Moreno" brothers, both of Ortiz Covarrubias surnames. 

In this theory, the indication is that the debt that "El Güero Leches" has not paid would have been with members of the CAF [Cártel Arellano Félix]. 

This hypothesis is not ruled out despite the content of the narcomessage left to the Secretary of Public Security of the state, Gerardo Sosa Olachea, on July 23:"We do not get involved with the family even though we know that your son extorts people together with some pepos. We don’t bring anything against you until now and if we brought something it would be with you and not with your family we would not send you toys to threaten you with we would hit you only Att CJNG", after criminals dropped two drones with grenades -inactive- on the Official's family’s house in Tecate.

Second hypothesis: Emerged two days after the homicides, says that "he owed something, but it’s not known if the debt was generated before he went to jail or while already in prison, but he did not want to or could not pay it.” In this case, the Sinaloa Cartel and the partners of the Alfonso and René Arzate Brothers seem to be the ones responsible.

The local corporations explained that all the groups that have operated in Tecate end up "working - committing crimes" together, and have changed the cartel several times more or less peacefully. They were with the CAF, then with Alonso Lira "El Atlante" who operated for CAF and Sinaloa, later they went to Sinaloa and recently to the CJNG. 

"But the ‘loyals’, or criminals belongings to Tecate, are concerning, because as far as we know, Sinaloa was offering drugs and protection, but that was complicated two or three years ago, when the leaders left the state. Then came the CJNG, who sell drugs but don’t give protection, and they operate practically as independents. Although most of the criminals and policemen killed in the last year in Tecate were allied with Sinaloa, that cartel is returning and collecting old debts. Acosta also worked with them, in theory, in the period that he was captured. 'El Leches' moved drugs from the Sinaloa Cartel and had changed to this mafia, when the cell of Eduardo García Simental 'El Teo' split from the CAF,” it was reported. 

In fact, one of the cases brought against him was with a co-defendant accused as "The Three Letters.”

- But the life of a child for a drug debt?, posed ZETA . 

"They are people without values and without conscience, if they’re owed 5 pesos, 25 pesos, they charge with lives", explained a member of the Coordination Group. 

The Intelligence areas reviewed the theory that the "Güero Leches" group had killed a leader's son and then killed his son in return, but at the close of this edition, no criminal activities by the capo’s children have been reported.

FOUR OPEN CASES

Regarding the possibility that the attack was a revenge for having provided information to the authorities, the government denied receiving cooperation from the internal trafficker in the Cereso de El Hongo. 

His file records that with order 2545/2015 he was arrested in December of the same year, as part of the file of a homicide perpetrated in 2010, but Acosta Gallego currently faces four lawsuits against him, all derived from the same file, in which it is revealed that he has received some benefit.

It all started with case 240/2010 that the Tecate First Instance Court has for qualified homicide. And 88/2016, in charge of the Eighth District Court in the State of Baja California after executing - already in prison - an arrest warrant issued on January 7, 2016.

In two and a half years, the prisoner was given several deals:

- He was granted a provisional suspension against a Cereso transfer at the end of February 2016

- On January 14 of the same year his co-defendants, Eduardo "El Teo" García Simental and Marco Olmehier’s files were separated

- He was released for lack of evidence in May 2016, but does not specify for which of the charges; in March of 2017 they dismissed an amparo trial against the formal prison order
 

- On December 14, 2017, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, which would count as of January 7, 2016. But the sentence was annulled and reinstatement was ordered.

Violence intensifies in Tijuana: reaches 1,512 murders in 2018 

Counting from the first hours of Thursday, August 9, 1,512 people have been deprived of their lives in Tijuana in the course of 2018. Of that number, 71 victims correspond to the present month.

One of the cases that caused most indignation was the death of 13-year-old adolescent Jesus David Cruz Murataya, who after resisting the theft of his cell phone, was murdered Wednesday night, August 8 in Villas de Baja California. The alleged murderer, a subject of around 35 years old, is already wanted by ministerial authorities. 

Among bullets, bodies burned and abandoned, and human remains, the recounting of the violent events of the last week:

Sunday 5: In the Mariano Matamoros Center the rotten corpse of Ramón Evencio Zamora Arellano "El Gringo", 45, was found inside the trunk of a vehicle. According to witnesses, he was addicted to drugs. In a vacant lot in the Sanchez Taboada the bodies of two men were found. Three putrefying corpses were found in Valle de las Palmas. Jordan Granados de la Torre and Esteban Hernández Rivera, 26, died at the General Hospital. In the same hospital José Carlos Gutiérrez de Valdez died, shot a day earlier. Valentín Oliva Beltrán, 43, was found dead in the seat of a vehicle in the El Peñón neighborhood. In the Pípila neighborhood, Miguel Leyva Felix, 35 years old and Abelardo Olivas Serrano "El Bigotes", 65, were killed. At the scene of the crime, nine 9-millimeter casings were located. Versions indicate that the deceased were engaged in drug dealing, since the former had a history of carrying prohibited weapons and drug dealing. The second one due to injuries.

Monday 6: In Lomas de Matamoros a woman between 50 and 55 years old was murdered. In La Postal, Carlos Alberto Gastélum Huízar, 44, was killed. 

Tuesday 7: On the neighborhood road to Cuero de Venados, the lifeless body of a person was found, handcuffed with a rag on his head. In Campestre Murúa, the corpse of a man in the process of being burned was reported. In the "Maquinitas" business, Fernando Marroquín Scharader, 44, was murdered. In Cañadas del Florido the body of a man with traces of violence was found. In the IMSS Clinic 1, a person died after being shot on July 18. In the Infonavit Presidentes neighborhood, Mirsha Bersy Núñez Urías, aged 33, and Miguel Ángel Machado García, aged 38, were murdered.

Wednesday 8: On Paseos del Vergel, a stranger was found dead. In Puesta del Sol, Edgar Iván Mosqueda Gómez, 24 years old, was riddled with bullets. Those responsible fled in a blue sedan. After refusing to hand over a cell phone to an assailant, a 13-year-old boy identified as Jesús David Cruz Murataya was murdered in Villas de Baja California. With traces of violence and ballistic signs, the body of José Alberto Bastida Burgos was found. A stranger in the Tomás Aquino subdivision was killed on board a vehicle. In Pórticos de San Antonio, a man was shot to death. In clinic 36 of the IMSS, Daniel Fernández Véjar, aged 24, and Avimelet Orozco Sánchez, aged 18, were killed. In Playas de Tijuana a man was killed who, up to the close of this issue, has not been identified.

Thursday 9: In the Francisco Villa Ejido, a 25 year old male was murdered. On the Tijuana-Tecate Free Road, the body of a female was found, wrapped in a blanket and held by her hands with padlocks and her feet with a white belt. Inside a home in El Dorado Residencial, a male was shot in the thorax. Two burned bodies, of age and sex to be determined, were located under the train tracks in Villa del Campo.

According to statistics from the Attorney General's Office in the State and until the closing of this edition, in Tijuana 1,512 homicides have been registered during 2018; followed by Ensenada (142), Mexicali (98), Tecate (53) and Rosarito (51).