Five men were arrested in the state of Baja California for operating a kidnapping cell. The men allegedly belong to the Tijuana Cartel faction currently run by Fernando Sánchez Arellano, alias El Ingeniero (the engineer) and were captured after an investigation into the kidnapping of 4 students led to their arrest. The head of the cell was identified as former State Judicial Police officer Mario Moreno Lizarraga originally from Sinaloa. In a conference held yesterday the Attorney General for the state Rommel Moreno Majarrez gave the details of the case:
On September 15th four students, three men and one woman, were traveling in a car around 3 a.m. When they were stopped by armed men who were driving a vehicle equipped with sirens and emblems of the state police. The phony officers ordered the driver to pull over and turn off the engine. Soon, more men arrived and the four were split into pairs and taken aboard different trucks until finally arriving at a safe-house in colonia Jardin Dorado.
On the 18th the kidnappers made one of the young men contact his mother and explained he had been abducted and the amount of cash it would take to get him back. They would call her in eight days to come up with as much money as she could. On the 24th when the kidnappers made contact for the second time she only had $107,192 pesos ($8700 USD) but said she couldn't come up with anymore. They explained they could only accept a minimum of $3 million pesos ($239,095), otherwise they would kill her son.
By the Wednesday the 29th agents from the anti-kidnapping division had located two safe-house's the abductors had been using recently. An undercover agent was able to make his way into the house and detained one of the suspects Venacio Betran, age 50, in the living room. In the hallway closet the agent located one of the victims who was blindfolded, with his hands tied to his feet. The three other students were also found alive and in the same condition.
After a short interrogation, officers arrested Moreno Lizgarra who was driving an unregistered 1999 mercury with a 9mm handgun tucked in his waistband. A search of the safe-house yielded two AK-47's, a 9mm Uzi sub-machine gun and several handguns and ammunition clips. The Attorney General stated that ballistics reports indicated at least two of the weapons had been used in previous homicides and all five cell members have been implicated in 15 violent murders, but gave no further details.
In addition, Moreno Lizgarra confessed to two decades of membership in the Tijuana Cartel, but since the arrest of Teodoro Garcia Simental, alias El Teo this past January he had branched out and formed his own unauthorized subset of the organization. He admitted was receiving his orders from a high level sicario known only as El Ciego who is currently being held in a maximum security prison and within the last few months decided to reintegrate himself with the estranged faction of the cartel run by El Ingeniero.
I hope these kidnappers get what's coming to them. If I had to get rid of one of these violent acts, between Narco Traffic and Kidnapping, which is actually the lesser of two evils?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to lovely mexico for my next vacation.
ReplyDeleteGood to read some info about tijuana........There is definately action going on there it is a major border crossing
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, El Ingienero doesn't like kidnapping, and fell out with El Gordo Villareal and cut him loose because of it, I'm not saying it's true, just something I've heard/read. I know the official reason behind the Teo.Inge fall out was Teo's incessant kidnapping of Tijuana's ipper class. So, this guy being a former El Teo operative and independent, doesn't really make him part of CAF.
ReplyDeleteEither way, why do these idiots continue to kidnap? I guess it's easy, or they lack the resources/capital to move product across the border, but with all the anti kidnapping units formed, you'd think they would move on.
The Mexican culture needs to understand that bribery is not OK. Even in a small traffic violation police who engage in this activity should be put in jail. Start small and the corruption will stop dramatically.
ReplyDeleteget out the bats.....man i wish i could give these culeros a couple of hits...life ant fair
ReplyDeleteI agree J, if El Inge doesn't want his career to be short lived, he should distance himself from kidnappings. I also thought the current CAF had stopped resorting to kidnapping to make up for lost profit, but who knows what's currently going on.
ReplyDeleteEl Chapo ready to take TJ in 2011?
ReplyDeleteScary shit..the next Juarez? God forbid
http://www.mundonarco.com/2010/10/alista-el-chapo-guerra-en-tijuana.html
The Zeta did a big write up on El Inge this week, I guess the first arrest warrant was sworn out for him in Baja, and he's still not under public indictment in the United States. That doesn't mean he can move freely over here though does it?
ReplyDeleteGood article, a lot of information about Ingienero.
I truly hope not. I hope Chapo even realizes it's too much, too much killing, death, and suffering, and he hasn't even secured Juarez. Still has the Zeta's on the loose, and owns Mexicali. One of these moves will be his downfall, no one is one top forever.
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