Colima Leadership: The Former Leader of Los Ántrax Who Now Controls Sinaloa Cartel's Operations in the State

“HEARST” for Borderland Beat

Updated on 4/8/2022: Translation of a phone interview alleged to have been given by El Changuito has been added to the story.

In the wake of the arrest and amparo of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation leader Aldrin Miguel Jarquín Jarquín, alias “El Chaparrito”, there has been a renewed focus on organized crime activity within the state of Colima. So who does current military intelligence name as the active cartel leaders in the area?

The Press Conference

On February 25, 2022, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was in the state of Colima. During the president’s morning press conference, Luis Cresencio Sandoval González, the Secretary of National Defense, gave an overview of the crime rates and various government security programs occurring within Colima. A link to the full morning press conference is located here.

At one point, a slide was shown, from approximately 30:24 until 30:30, which shows the leadership and regions alleged to be under cartel control within the state.

The slide shown on screen during the press conference.

The slide was only shown for roughly six seconds and Secretary Sandoval González did not say anything about it directly, instead he was commenting on the slide that came before and the slide that came after while it was shown.

It is presumed that it represents the current military intelligence understanding of the cartel regions of control, although this was never said outright. 

One of the most surprising names on the chart comes from the Sinaloa Cartel side, as they list Rafael Guadalupe Félix Núñez, alias “El Changuito Antrax”. Despite having been an original member of one of CDS’s most infamous enforcer groups and having escaped the US extradition in a scandal ridden prison break, Rafael Guadalupe Félix Núñez has managed to keep a low profile.

The following is the criminal history of the man who is the current CDS leader within the state of Colima according to the federal intelligence chart presented at the press conference. 

Los Ántrax & The Deputy of the State Police 

Rafael Guadalupe Félix Núñez, alias “El Changuito”, began his criminal career working as a hitman within the Sinaloa Cartel. In the early days, one of the hitmen who he worked alongside  was Alfredo Vizcarra Vega, alias “El Fello”, who just so happened to be the son of Martiniano Vizcarra Burgos, the Deputy Director of the Sinaloa State Police. (Source, Source)

In September 2004, the Deputy Director’s career became mired in allegations of collusion with organized crime after it was discovered that one of his police chiefs was acting as a personal bodyguard for Rodolfo Carrillo Fuentes, the brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, on the night when Rodolfo was executed outside a Cinepolis movie theater in Culiacán. (Source, Source) 

The 2004 execution outside the Culiacán Cinepolis.

The 2004 execution led to the resignation of Deputy Vizcarra Burgos.

The police chief in question still had an official service weapon, police radio and police ID, as well as still being listed on the state police payroll. The resulting scandal forced the Director and Deputy Director to resign from their positions. (Source, Source) 

In 2006, El Changuito got married to the former Deputy's daughter and El Fello’s sister: Ana Lilia Vizcarra Vega. In 2008, following the separation of CDS and the Beltrán Leyva Organization, a new CDS armed wing was founded by Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa, alias "El Chino Ántrax” and René Velázquez, alias “Sargento Phoenix” that would go on to be called “Los Antrax”. Among its original members were El Changuito and El Fello, who became “El Changuito Ántrax” and “El Fello Ántrax” respectively. (Source, Source)

Some sources credit El Fello as being more of a founder to the group than Chino Ántrax, and others credit Jesus Peña Gonzalez, alias “El 20”, as well however there are very few verifiable details surrounding the founding of the group. 

On November 4, 2008, El Chino and El Fello were ambushed by two vehicles of hitmen while they were in a car wash in Culiacán. El Chino managed to escape however El Fello, El Changuito’s friend and brother-in-law, was killed in the encounter. 

Authorities guard the car wash crime scene where El Fello was executed.

Deputy Vizcarra Burgos was later rehired and reinstated as Deputy Director in 2011. El Changuito and the Deputy Director’s daughter, Ana Lilia, reportedly had two children together. (Source)

In April 16, 2013, El Changuito was arrested alongside José Miguel Aramo Montoya, alias “El Monkey” by municipal police officers while they were in the southern part of Culiacán. The pair were found to be in possession of at least four AK-47 rifles at the time of their arrest. The detainees were brought to the Culiacán Municipal Police station and their information was officially entered into the criminal information database known as “Plataforma México”. Mysteriously, the detainees were released from custody and there was no police report filed on their arrest. The only record of their detention was their entry into the Plataforma database, which could not be revoked. (Source)  

Riodoce newspaper alleges that when municipal officers were booking the detainees, a call came in “from a high-ranking member of the State Police, asking for their release.” They write that the police station agreed to the request and despite this, the officers who arrested the men still received death threats for having detained the men at all. The death threats forced multiple officers to have to hide out of state for personal security reasons.  Deputy Martiniano Vizcarra Burgos would later claim that he was unaware that his daughter’s husband had any problems with the law. (Source)

El Changuito was said to have become the overall leader of the Ántrax organization when El Chino Ántrax was arrested in Amsterdam in December 2013, according to multiple RioDoce articles. (Source, Source, Source, Source) 

On September 12, 2014, El Changuito and Ana Lilia obtained a divorce. Later, RioDoce published an article which revealed their marriage to the public for the first time, causing a scandal that the Governor was called to respond to and an internal investigation was launched into the familial relationship between the Deputy of the state police and the leader of Los Ántrax. (Source, Source) 

The Arrest of El Mayo’s Son & El Changuito

On November 13, 2014, both El Changuito and the aforementioned El Monkey were said to be staying as houseguests at the residence of Ismael Zambada Imperial, alias “El Mayito Gordo”. Mayito Gordo is notably one of the sons of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo”. (Source) 

One of the sons of El Mayo, Ismael Zambada Imperial, alias “El Mayito Gordo”.

According to Riodoce, Changuito and Monkey left the residence during the morning to spend time riding in four-wheelers while Mayito Gordo slept in. While they were out riding, the two men were said to have spotted military helicopters hovering above the neighborhood of Mayito’s house. The two men knew that the military was likely moving in to capture Mayito Gordo so “they hid all day and night in the bush, and the next day they came out to the road, where they were picked up by their people.” (Source) 

The home Mayito Gordo was staying at when he was arrested by Navy soldiers in 2014. (Source)

However, the pair were not able to escape Culiacan and during either that day or the next (depending on the newspaper you consult) Navy soldiers successfully arrested El Changuito and El Monkey. They were found to be in possession of a kilo of cocaine and a firearm that was illegal for civilians to possess. Both men were detained inside a Culiacan prison which is commonly known as “Aguaruto”.

The Culiacan prison known as Aguaruto.

A few days later, on November 19, 2014, a judge issued a formal arrest warrant against El Changuito which, in effect, started the legal process of his criminal trial on charges of illegal firearm possession and drug possession for commercial sale. (Source) 

Aguaruto Prison

After hearing that El Changuito was in custody, the US government requested that Mexico’s Attorney General's Office (PGR) provisionally detain him for extradition purposes. A month later, US prosecutors officially filed charges against him for allegedly trafficking large quantities of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana in a Southern California court. The PGR submitted the formal request for extradition to a judge, on behalf of the US. In response, El Changuito’s legal team filed various types of amparo pleas in order to prevent extradition. (Source) 

During El Changuito’s time inside, the “VIP” prisoners within Agurato -such as himself- were held within special cells with lower security and larger dimensions than the others, with some VIP cells actually featuring an additional personal living room adjoining their bedroom. The prison VIPs were said to have had flat screen TVs, cell phones, and regular alcohol and drug consumption, as well as enjoying a more open schedule for visits and the opportunity to remain outside their cell without time limits. (Source)

Photos of the prison cells that CDS leadership occupied in Aguarato in 2017. The photo on the top left shows the interior of El Azulito’s cell. (Source, Source, Source, Source)

In January 2016, the state police discovered a plot which planned to break El Changuito along with El 20 and El Chubas (covered in more detail below), out of prison. (Source, Source) 

In order to prevent this, the three inmates were transferred on January 19, 2016, out of Aguaruto to a prison in Los Mochis. However, within a week of their transfer, all three inmates had to be transferred back because they were all involved in trials which required that authorities go through a formal approval process in order to transfer them to a different prison. (Source, Source) 

According to later statements, state authorities obliged and submitted the formal request for their transfer to a maximum security prison on that same day, January 19. The impending transfer to a maximum security facility may have expedited the plans of CDS to break out some of their leaders within Agurato. (Source)

Of note, just after the inmates were returned and the request submitted, Jose Francisco Martinez Reyes was sworn in as director of the prison but two days later he resigned. He was quickly replaced by Víctor Díaz Bonilla. (Source) 

On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, prisoners within Aguaruto were re-assigned to stay in different modules then where they had previously been. Allegedly all the high-ranking CDS prisoners were grouping up and wanting to now stay in modules close to one another. (Source, Source, Source) 

Reforma newspaper says they spoke to a mother of an Aguaruto prisoner, who requested anonymity, who said "I asked my son why they had changed him and why he had left his things in the other module and he told me that they were orders from someone heavy. Then I told him to tell me who so I could tell him, and he told me that it was from outside, that it had been [Iván] Archivaldo." 

On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, prisoners in modules 5 and 7 hosted a large party which featured drugs, alcohol and loud music. "My husband told me that there were men who wanted to climb over the walls to get to the other modules; that they were talking about 30 or 40 people," said a woman. (Source, Source, Source)

Images obtained by El Universal from the prison surveillance cameras revealed that Agurato prisoners had access to cellphones and drugs, despite both being contraband within the penitentiary.

More El Universal images revealed that sex workers were regularly paid to visit the CDS leaders and were sometimes invited to their parties such as the one held on March 15, 2017.

A rumor spread among the Aguaruto inmate population that they were purposefully trying to create a confrontation. The prisoners in modules 5 and 7 were said to have been shouting threats directed at people inside and outside the prison. And Reforma writes that “it was confirmed that a fight had been created prior to the escape.”

On March 16, 2017, El Changuito escaped Aguaruto prison alongside the following inmates, all associated with the Sinaloa Cartel: 

• Juan José Esparragoza Monzón, aliases “El Negro” and “El Azulito”, the son of Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, alias “El Azul”, and a current CDS financial operator who was considered to be the most high value of all the escapees

• Jesus Peña Gonzalez, alias “El 20”, the PGR identified him as “one of the closest and most trusted men” reporting to El Mayo and in charge of Mayo’s personal security. 

• Alfonso Limón Sánchez, aliases "El Chubas” or simply “El Limón”, who was believed to be the main El Mayo operator in charge managing the cocaine trafficking and sales to the United States. 

• Francisco Javier Zazueta Rosales, alias “El Chimal”, was “considered a violent hitman leader” who commanded Los Chimallis, an armed wing working under Iván Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, one of El Chapo’s sons. The PGR accused of planning the attack on the military convoy which led to the death of five soldiers in order to rescue Julio Óscar Ortiz Vega, alias “El Kevin”.

So how did the five escape the facilities? Well it's important to note that it's possible that not all of them escaped on the same day. According to the State Public Security, in fact, surveillance camera footage only showed two of the five escapees were present within the prison on Thursday, March 16. The three others were not spotted on any of the footage they reviewed from that day. This fact may lend credence to the prevailing rumor that multiple of the escapees left the facilities on Tuesday, not Thursday, as reported by sources who spoke to Ríodoce.  (Source, Source) 

But regardless of how many of the men were still inside, at approximately 12:30 pm, the SSP received an emergency line call which reported that a fight, which was later suspected of being a diversion, had broken out inside the facility and that gunshots had been heard. However prison security personnel told the SSP that there was no fight or gunshots occurring within the prison at the time. (Source)

At 2:25 pm, prison personnel made a second emergency line call, this time they reported that there could have been an escape and that they could not located El Negro within the facilities. The state police began a search operation of the area surrounding the prison, searching places such as the high school of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa. (Source) 

Life After Prison

So what happened to the men after they escaped? For the most part, the men lived quietly and rarely drew the notice of the news. 

In 2017, El Chimal was killed in a gunbattle with federal forces. (Source) And in January 2021, Sinaloa authorities were said to be investigating reports that El Negro had died of COVID-19. (Source, Source) 

Meanwhile, all news reports on El Changuito ceased, bar a few which rehashed the details of the prison break. Between 2017 and 2022, El Changuito was never named or arrested by law enforcement and worked hidden from the public eye.

Update 4/8/2022: In February 2021, El Changuito allegedly gave a phone interview. The audio was presented by Youtube channel Grillonautas in a video, during which El Changuito says, as translated by Sol Prendido:

This message goes out to the city of Manzanillo, Colima. The Sinaloa Cartel informs the population of El Colomo and Manzanillo in general that we’re a serious enterprise. And here whoever owes something will end up paying for it. We’re only coming after everyone who owes something. We don't mess with innocents civilians. 

The townspeople are hereby informed that you have nothing to worry about if you’re not involved with this business and work an honest living. We wanted to avoid this. As of today the human hunt begins.

Any person who has contact with Cesar Gabriel Zepeda aka La Vaquita from El Colomo, his cousin Edwin Zepeda and his assistants are being warned. Rest assured that your days are numbered. Your relatives will soon see you inside of a coffin. 

This is now over for you filthy scumbag, lumber stealing, female murdering, fools who mess with individuals that can't even defend themselves. Just as well the senior citizens you guys killed while they slept in El Colomo. Or the innocent 14-year-old boy. Also don't you remember the Marine you fucked up in El Colomo? 

All of this came about because you couldn't handle the pressure. According to you, you're very brave. And yet you're running away from all of this. But we the Sinaloa Cartel are here to bring order. So that scumbags like Cesar Gabriel Zepeda and your cousin Edwin Zepeda won’t continue messing with innocent civilians.

Worry no more for their time has now come to an end. Sooner or later everyone falls. 

 

Sincerely, 

Changuito Anthrax and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Then, following a major uptake in violence in Colima, Changuito reappeared for the first time, being shown as one of the active leaders of Sinaloa Cartel operations within the state on the federal intelligence chart. 

On the chart, there appears to be a more recent mugshot of him wearing a green polo although the quality of the image is small. As the press focuses more on the organized crime activity in Colima, we can only hope that more details on Changuito’s years after prison emerge. 

Up next, the criminal history of El Sky, one of the alleged CJNG plaza bosses of Colima. 

Sources: Official Press Conference Transcript, Official Press Conference Video, El Universal,  Politica Expansion, La Jornada