Sinaloa Cartel Infighting in Ensenada, Baja California: Homicides and Threats

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

Manuel Torres alias “El Torres” (left) and Salvador Gómez Ornelas, alias “El Junior” o “El Chavita” (right). These two men were high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel members in Ensenada, Baja California (photo credit: Zeta Tijuana)

On the afternoon of Sunday, April 11, two armed individuals entered a property in the rural community of Esteban Cantú in Ensenada, where a clandestine cockfight was taking place, to assassinate Salvador Gómez Ornelas, alias "El Junior" or "El Chavita", and his companion Manuel Torres, alias "El Torres". These two men work for the Sinaloa Cartel in Ensenada.

El Chavita died after the attack, while Torres was injured and taken to the Ensenada General Hospital, where he remained in custody.

Information revealed by Baja California state authorities indicates that both victims were high-ranking criminals in he Guadalupe Valley and were being investigated for drug dealing activities within the Sinaloa Cartel.

This is the second attack that has been registered inside an illegal cockfighting event in the last five years. The previous one was in a place called El Póker on Saturday, January 23, 2016, when eight members of the Sinaloa Cartel entered the premises and killed four people and injured fifteen more.

According to the Intelligence Unit of the State Attorney General's Office (FGE), Leopoldo Lizárraga Ochoa, alias "El Pantera" and/or "El Polo", was the perpetrator of Sunday's attack.

El Polo has been on the government's radar since 2015 and has been identified as a second-level criminal operator of the Sinaloa Cartel. He is part of the cell headed by the brothers René and Alfonso Arzate García, who have protection agreements with elements of the different policemen in Ensenada. El Polo has a record for car theft in Sinaloa in 2012, and for an attempted robbery with a man named Elvis Daniel Aguirre in November 2015. Both were released.

While El Chavita is from the faction of Hernán Niebla, successor of his brother Alfonso Niebla "El 90", murdered on February 3, 2019 at his home in Valle Dorado. El 90 was the head of a cell in the Sinaloa Cartel in Ensenada and had ties with people working for Carlos Adrián Casas Reyes, alias "El Mercenario" and/or “El Tragedias”.

Intelligence reports reveal that between 2015 and 2020, El Chavita and El Polo's cells operated together.

El Torres and El Chavita shared several criminal charges, including one involving the murder of a cockfighting breeder who was killed in February 2021 in Ensenada. 

In his statement, El Torres stated that he could not identify the subject who shot the man, describing him only as a man "about 30 years old." El Torres told investigators that he did not have issues with anyone and was unsure if anyone wanted to hurt him.

According to state police reports, the violent events that have occurred in the Guadalupe Valley are due to a turf war for the control of the local drug trade. The clash is between the Lara crime family - based in that area - with people working with Hernán Niebla's faction.

The valley area is also regarded by the police as a breeding point for fighting cocks for clandestine events.

The land where the cockfight was held on Sunday, April 11, is on the way to La Bufadora rural community and is often used to organize bets. The cockfighting arena is prepared with tarps, chairs, and tables for participants and spectators.

In the attack, six other people were injured and sent to different hospitals.

Recent narcobanner found in Ensenada, Baja California

Two narco-banners stolen and burned

The second week of April there were a series of attacks that generated a strong police mobilization in Ensenada. These attacks included a number of homicides, the shooting of a police officer, and the placement of a narco-banner (narcomanta).

With 146 murders between January and the course of April 2021, Ensenada adds a historical number of violent deaths. On Monday, April 12, a narcobanner was left on a bridge between El Gallo and Esmeralda streets.

When police officers arrived, approximately five homeless people who were under the bridge said that they took down the banner and burned it, for which they did not reveal the message. On April 14, four more narcobanners were placed outside of a home. The owner chose to remove them and did not hand them over to the authorities, the FGE reported.

There is an image of the supposed banner, almost illegible, in which one can read a threatening message against the people of "El Mercenario".

"Those who keep working for El Mercenario are fucked."

The latest threats issued against "El Mercenario" through narcobanners were signed by the Ensenada Cartel, whose members are part of an alternate cell of the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, alias "El Flaquito".

Conflict for the inheritance of "El Chatarras"

Eight months after the death of Víctor Manuel Murillo Padilla, alias "El Chatarras" or "El Negro", identified state officials as one of the main traffickers of the Sinaloa Cartel in Ensenada, the Sinaloa Cartel continues to fight against each other for control of Ensenada.

The group once headed by El Chatarras is competing against criminals working for "El Flaquito", a former criminal of the Tijuana and/or Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) and recently affiliated with Los Chapitos. This internal war has led to multiple kidnappings and deaths from both factions.

El Chatarras was responsible for controlling the drugs that arrived at the Ensenada port and hiring hitmen to operate in kidnappings or murders. In addition, he supervised a huachicoleo (oil theft) ring that illegally tapped in Pemex pipelines in Baja California, mainly in El Hongo area. He also owned two businesses for the purchase of scrap iron in El Sauzal and Munguía neighborhood.

Throughout his criminal career, he was linked to the Sinaloa Cartel under Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and with the CAF. There are also unconfirmed reports that he may have collaborated with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG). 

Source: Zeta Tijuana