El 25, From CDS Los Memos, Arrested and Flown Out of Caborca, Sonora, By The Army

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

Soldiers and state police arrested Silvano V.T., alias “El 25”, a Sinaloa Cartel figure reportedly from the subgroup Los Memos. He was arrested while he was driving a stolen vehicle filled with four armed hitmen in an area north of the town of Caborca, in the state of Sonora. 

The Arrest 

According to the official press release (which appears to be the only source used by all news publications covering this event) on September 9, 2022, a Ford F-150 vehicle with a theft report was spotted driving in Sonora through unspecified means. 

The vehicle was then tracked as it sped down Federal Highway 2 through “the support of C5i technology”, one of the government surveillance systems in Mexico, which include things like traffic cameras.

The press release goes on to say that “immediately, State Police and Mexican Army personnel followed the vehicle” and signaled for it to pull over. The man driving, however, refused to stop and instead chose to speed up, trying to lose them. This led to a high speed chase heading north, with the Ford F-150 heading north, towards Sonoyta.

The state police and Army soldiers managed to intercept the vehicle near the kilometer 116 marker of Highway 2 (Google Street View link here), just north of the town of Caborca.

When authorities approached the vehicle they observed Silvano V.T. was sitting in the driver’s seat and inside were four other men, along with a number of firearms. The presence of the firearms gave the personnel the authority to ask the vehicle’s occupants to step out. 

The vehicle was then searched. They found five firearms, radios, three tactical vests and ammo which included over 750 bullets. The vehicle’s information was run through the system and it confirmed there was a theft report from July 30, 2016 in Baja California for the vehicle. The five men were then detained.

At some point, personnel discovered that the vehicle’s driver Silvano V.T. was known as “El 25” and said to be a head of hitmen working under a cell of Los Memos, the group formerly helmed by Adelmo Nieblas González, aliases "El Memo" and “G3”. 

All five detainees were then transported to an area where a helicopter extracted them and flew them out of the region. The detention of a figure within a cartel that is local to the area requires a higher level of security. This is due to concerns over fellow cartel members trying to break them out of custody as they are being transferred by doing things like attacking a government vehicle convoy which was moving the detainees to a secondary holding location. 

Video Source: Calvarie Locus

Quick Review of Los Memos

In 2015, the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) subgroup Los Salazars decided to “renegotiate” their agreement with another CDS subgroup called Los Memos, a family originating from Durango. 

Since around 2009, the deal between the two groups was that Salazars could have access to the border crossing locations of Puerto Peñasco, Sonoyta, and San Luis Rio Colorado (SLRC) for the purpose of drug smuggling. In return, they would not try to contest Los Memos and Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza, alias “El Macho Prieto”, for control of the city of SLRC itself, as a plaza.  

But the December 2013 death of Macho Prieto, as well as the February 2014 arrest of Chapo, led to an instability in the Sinaloa Cartel and Salazars decided in 2015 they would rather “renegotiate” their deal with Memos - by fighting them for control of SLRC. 

This led to a bloody war between the two group for control of the territory, with the violence finally waning due to the arrest of Memo’s leader Adelmo Nieblas González, aliases "El Memo" and “G3”, later that year. The war ended with  Salazars now in control of most of the border city. 

A few years later, Memos and Salazars were seen working together as allies during the 2019 - 2020 conflict they shared against Los Paez, as reported by Buggs. Starting around 2020, Memos ceased to be a distinct cartel entity, with most of their members and cells absorbed into other local Sinaloa Cartel groups like Salazars.

So, who is El 25?

All of the sources which venture to mention El 25’s cartel affiliation seem to repeat the same few details, just with slightly different wording. These are, as written by Sonora Informativo: 

One of the subjects arrested was identified as Silvano V. T. alias 'El 25', an alleged leader of the hitmen of the faction Los Pelones and/or Los Memos, which is led by alias 'El Pelón' or 'El 08', a main generator of violence in the region of Caborca, Pitiquito and Sonoyta. 

‘El 25', a native of the state of Durango, was the head of the hitmen, who was responsible for the violence that occurred in Caborca and Pitiquito. He was also involved in human trafficking to the United States along the border between Sonoyta and Lukeville, Arizona. 

The other suspects arrested have so far been identified only as El 25's hitmen.

Extensive googling turned up little else about El 25, although more information about him and his his criminal history may emerge in the coming days.

Sources: Official Press Release, El Diario de Sonora, Proyecto Puente, Diario de Yaqui, Radar Sonora, Pedro967506833, Caborca Informa, Sonora Informativo Post 1, Post 2, Radio Lobo, Etorno Informativo, El Imparcial, Radio Formula Article 1, Article 2, Critica, Michelle Rivera, Ariete Caborca, Descierto

Update 9/17/2022: 

More information on the detainees' identities has emerged, as covered by Calvarie Locus, and the five were featured in a presidential morning press conference.