Sinaloa Cartel's El Aquiles Threatens CAF's El Lobo & Leaves Dead Hitman in Tijuana

"HEARST" and "Itzli" for Borderland Beat

Sinaloa Cartel’s Cabo 27 left a message on a sign threatening Cartel Arellano Félix’s El Lobo, along with the remains of a dead hitmen they say worked under El Lobo, in the city of Tijuana in the state of Baja California. Warning: Graphic photos below this point. 

At approximately 8:20 pm on the night of December 28, 2021, the body of a deceased male and a narcomanta (sign or banner with a narco message) was thrown from inside a moving vehicle onto Eridano Street in Sánchez Taboada neighborhood of Tijuana.

According to newspaper El Sol de Tijuana, the body showed evidence of torture. The victim’s identity is unknown at this time. According to photos alleged to depict the body from Facebook group Noticias Sin Censura Tijuana, the victim was still bleeding and his hands were  bound with rope when his body was dumped onto the street.

Alleged photos of the sign read as follows, as translated by Itzli:

Here is your people David Lopez Giménez [sic] or "El 20",

Dirty man starving to death. Stop going about hallucinating. You and Jose Luis let "El Tamal" know just how few ball lickers you have left. 

Sincerely, 

El Cabo 27 

Solely people of Mr. Aquiles

Police were later dispatched to the crime scene and collected the narcomanta. Personnel from the Attorney General’s Office were sent to document evidence and then oversee the transfer of the deceased to the medical examiner’s office where an autopsy will be performed.

“Los Cabos” are a regional Tijuana cartel organization that worked under the Cartel de Sinaloa (CDS) , then a majority of them left to join the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) . Later, some split off further, leaving the CJNG for other groups, such as a  CAF subgroup led by El Flaquito. 

This leaves us with a Los Cabos group still working under a CDS cell led by El Aquiles, with members like Cabo 13, Cabo 27, Cabo 57, and Cabo 100. Some of those listed briefly left for the CJNG, then returned to CDS, while others stayed in CDS throughout.

Frustratingly, the Aquiles affiliated Cabos group has a tendency to sign their narcomantas simply as “Los Cabos”, leaving it up to the reader to determine which cartel they actually work under. 

There is also a Los Cabos group still working under the CJNG, with members like Cabo 30, Cabo 50, Cabo 8 (arrested), Cabo 33 (deceased), Cabo 23 (deceased) as well as Los Cabos members working under a CAF cell, which is working on behalf of a CDS cell under Los Chapitos, with members like Cabo 20, Cabo 45, and Cabo 89 (arrested). 

The narcomanta is addressed to “David Lopez Giménez or El 20”, referring to David López Jiménez, aliases “El Cabo 20” and “El Lobo” (or “The Wolf”).

El Lobo was a member of a CJNG group based out of Tijuana. El Lobo reportedly left the CJNG due to the erratic behavior of one of the bosses Héctor Manuel Morales Guzmán, alias “El Gallero”. 

El Lobo was then persuaded to join the CAF by Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, alias “El Flaquito”, the leader of a CAF subgroup. Flaquito’s choice to “poach” El Lobo to join the CAF (despite him being on the CJNG’s blacklist) reportedly caused tension between Flaquito’s group and the CJNG, which were in an uneasy non-aggression pact at the time. The pact later dissolved and Flaquito’s CAF group is currently thought to be working under the Sinaloa Cartel’s Los Chapitos faction in Tijuana.

El Lobo is believed to be a direct subordinate under El Flaquito, with Lobo leading his own group of CAF men with operations in both Ensenada and Tijuana.

One of El Lobo’s direct subordinates is believed to be Rubén Durante Roque, alias "El R", who was the right-hand man and second-in-command under Lobo’s previous direct report Cabo 89. However, Cabo 89 was arrested around September 15, 2021 and El R has potentially taken up Cabo 89’s position assuming that Cabo 89 was not quietly released without any news coverage, which of course remains a possibility.

Another direct subordinate is believed to be Leonardo Fabián Llamas, alias “Cabo 45”, who is believed to be 28 years old (at the time of this story in 2021). He was still being reported as a member of the CJNG in April 2020. However, in January 2021, a Los Pinos area drug dealer who went by the alias “El 18” confessed that he was working under Cabo 45 , who had left the CJNG and was now a part of the CAF and acting as a subordinate under El Lobo.

The identities of some of Cabo 45’s subordinates have been revealed by Zeta Tijuana to be Jesús Alberto López Barraza "El Clofer", Emilia Belén Gil Rivera "La Naini", and José Manuel Delgado Esquerra “El Tieso”.

Lobo’s final direct subordinate is believed to be Carlos Omar Barva Roque, aliases “El Charly” and "El Romel". 

It is unclear how José Luis Alvisar, alias “El Tamal”, who is referenced in the narcomanta as being connected to Lobo, relates to the group.

The narcomanta is signed “Cabo 27”, which is believed to be the alias of Jesús Rafael Yocupicio. Cabo 27, who also goes by the aliases “El Cabezón” (or “The Big Head”), “El C2”, and “El Pepe”, was reportedly born in Huatabampo, Sonora.

He has reportedly been involved in crime since he was 23 years old and was first identified as working under Jesus Ismael Cruz Lopez, alias "El Tomate ", who committed crimes for a group that split off from the CAF. In 2015, he was arrested alongside Adán Castillo Hernández both were said to be working for El Aquiles at the time. 

He was then identified in 2016 as working under the CJNG. A narco message placed in October 2018 claimed Cabo 27 was responsible for providing the information that resulted in the murder of Alfonso Lira Sotelo, alias "El Atlante", although the group behind Atlante’s murder is debated. 

Currently, it is believed that Cabo 27 directly reports to Alfonso Arzate González, alias "El Aquiles", who reportedly leads a CDS group in the state of Baja California alongside his brother René Arzate García, alias “La Rana”.

Aquiles allegedly began his drug trafficking career over a decade ago. He entered into the drug trade by working as a supplier and collaborator of a CAF cell led by Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano, alias "El Ingeniero" (or “The Engineer”). Following the 2014 arrest of El Ingeniero, Aquiles allegedly joined the ranks of CDS. He is widely believed to be more associated with the El Mayo side of CDS.

Another of Aquiles and Rana’s direct subordinates is believed to be Edwin Antonio Rubio López, with aliases "El Max" and "El Oso". 

Juan Enrique Rochín Cervantes, alias “El Peter Pan” is 32 years old (in the year 2021). He began getting into trouble with the law when he was just 16 years old, getting arrested in October 2006 for "acts that induce vice and prostitution." In November 2016, narcomantas alleged El Petere Pan was working for CDS under El Aquiles. 

 

In January 2020, a drug dealer arrested alleged that "Peter Pan," who moved drugs with the Sinaloa Cartel, had betrayed them and switched to the CJNG.

In January 2021, another captured drug dealer confessed that he sold drugs for the CAF, that "Cabo 45" was his boss. He told police that "Peter Pan" and "El Max" had "flipped" on them and were now "chinolas". Because of the ambiguity, El Peter Pan has been left off the organization chart for now.

This is not the first, nor is it likely the last, narcomanta full of threats between El Lobo’s group and Aquiles’s group. The following is a quick review of the three most recent three narcomantas.

Two narcomantas (narco message signs) were discovered by locals in the Lomas Verdes neighborhood of Tijuana. One was placed on a bridge located on Diaz Ordaz Boulevard and another was placed in front of a supermarket in the same area, as previously covered on Borderland Beat here.

Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño aka El Flaquito, David López Jiménez aka Cabo 20, Jose Christian Gomez Rosales aka El Pitey, Leonardo Fabián Llamas aka Cabo 45, and your dick sucking hoe Emilia Belen Gil Rivera aka La Naining, 

These are the individuals responsible for the execution of an entire family in the La Cienega neighborhood. This was done on the orders of Flaquito and Lobo 20. You filthy gang of cheap fucks who like to kill whole families. 

This conflict is man against man. You gang of filthy flicks are not going to overcome us. Not even with that pair of faggots Edgar Perez Villa aka Cabo 89 or Ruben aka ‘R’ will you be able to achieve anything you ignorant cheap fools. 

When you killed that family it just demonstrates how desperate you are. It also shows how fucking beggarly and pathetic you all are. Soon enough we will meet for that confrontation against you faggots. 

Sincerely, Los Cabos CDS

According to the claims written on the blankets, the cartel members listed at the beginning are accused by Aquiles’ group of Los Cabos to have murdered a family in a house located in the Ciénega neighborhood.

Styrofoam ice chests with animal remains were found, accompanied by narco messages, at three different locations within Sánchez Taboada on September 21, 2021, as previously covered on Borderland Beat here. 

Ruben Duarte Roque or ‘El R’, 

You need to open your eyes and come to the realization that you and your drug addicted men are incompetent. This is the example that you’ve given them. You need to just accept the fact that the La Sanchez neighborhood already has new owners. 

Sincerely, 

Cabos 13-27-57-100

The message is addressed to Ruben Durante Roque, alias "El R". Of note, El R was mentioned in the narcomanta from Aquiles from August 19, 2021. 

A narco banner was placed over the Alba Roja bridge and reported to police on October 17, 2021, as previously covered on Borderland Beat here. 

This message goes out to 02 Ascorbe and the minions of 03 [...]

You placed 03 Madrid in the Floridos-Mariano's sector so that you could order 03 Madrid to release all of Aquiles’ men.

In the same manner you also placed 03 Chaves in Otay Mesa to knock out drug loads that the Aquiles mob set up for you. Which in turn you sell to them. Much like the 60,000 pills that you knocked out of the production line. You only paid him off for 2,000 of those pills. The other 58 thousand were turned over to you by 02. [...]

From,  

El Cabo 20

Update 12/31/2021 3PM Central: El Peter Pan added to El Aquiles section. 

Sources: El Sol de Tijuana, AFN Tijuana, Alfredo Alvarez, Plural.mx, En Linea BC, Noticias Sin Censura Tijuana,  Capturando a Tijuana por Jesús Aguilar

Cabo 27 Sources: Zeta Tijuana, AFN Tijuana, Ensenada.net, Debate, Punto Norte, Rosarito en la Noticias

Background Sources: Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4 , Article 5, Article 6, AFN Tijuana, Punto Norte, PSN en Linea Article 1, Article 2, El Sol de Tijuana 

Header images show photos from articles covering the latest narcomantas, the ones placed on Eridano Street.

Tijuana Courtroom Battles: El Aquiles, La Rana, El Max, El Flaquito

CDS Aquiles Threatens CAF's Flaquito, El Lobo

Flaquito Takes Major Hit, Cabo 89 Arrested

Aquiles' Los Cabos Leave Ice Chests for CAF

Boca de Bagre Arrested, Major Hit To La Rana And El Aquiles

CAF El Lobo vs CDS El Aquiles