Is El Fantasma Dead or Just Another Ghost Story?

The National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) is contradicting version given by the Sinaloa Attorney General who yesterday afternoon said that the alleged chief of the security detail of "El Chapo" was killed in a gunfight.

Note:
Well yesterday Borderland Beat, along with many other media sources in Mexico, reported the death of Jonathan Salas Aviles aka "El Fantasma." However as information develops, news gets more sketchy and the different levels of government start contradicting each other. We felt that at the time of the decision to run the story the information was credible as it was released by the Sinaloa State Attorney General and reported by many reputable media sources. If anyone has any credible information on the events or the real deal on "El Fantasma" please do post it on the comments section. We are watching these events very closely and will update you all with further information as it becomes available. As is customary we will report information that has a level of validity, although I don't have to tell you is hard to do with information coming out of Mexico, but in the mean time, here is the latest:

Sources at the National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA) are now saying that in the confrontation near Quilá, Sinaloa, where possibly two or three narcos were killed, there is no evidence that "El Fantasma" or Jonathan "N" boss of the security detail of Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman Loera was among the dead. They did not elaborate nor have provided any formal press release on the matter to date.

However yesterday afternoon, the state attorney general, Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez had announced that in the confrontation near Quilá Jonathan "N" known by authorities as "El Fantasma" the same alleged security chief of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera was in fact killed.

Higuera Gomez went on to say that the identity was made by forensic examination of the evidence and data collected in the first investigation of the incidents that occurred last Thursday night, but the federal authority would have to make the confirmation.

Even the Governor of Sinaloa Mario López Valdez announced that the death of "El Fantasma" will bring "little bit of peace and tranquility" to the state of Sinaloa. The Governor noted; "I think that more than anything, considering the fear of potential consequences, it must bring a little more tranquility and peace, because that is how things are, there will be less of those who will be in the business of crime."

 The Department of Defense announced that military personnel assigned to the Third Military Region upon conducting reconnaissance and following up on information they received near the town of Quila, they were attacked by gunfire with high power firearms from an unidentified group and they repelled the attack.

On this incident two of the assailants were killed and another was wounded, who was evacuated by civil authorities to a hospital in the city of Culiacan for medical care, but later died.

 In the region where the incident occurred, they located two abandoned vehicles where they managed to secure various weapons, the vehicles and other equipment.

 "In a sense military and air forces deployed in the area and are continuing to locate more members of the criminal group," said the Department of Defense in a statement.

Source: El Universal, El Milenio, Proceso and El Noroeste.