Those who follow after the fall of "El Grande", is this the end of Fuerzas Especiales de Damaso?

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

[ Subject Matter: CDS, Baja California Sur
Recommendation: Read my articles on La China and El Cochi]

After the capture of Abel Nahum Qunitero Manjarrez or Cruz Alonso Lozoya Uriate, intelligence operatives search for Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda "La China" or "La Mely" and Raul Castillo de la Rosa "El Cochi", of the Fuerza Especiales de Damaso.

Reporter: Zeta Investigations and Cortesia

After the detention of the head of Sicarios Abel Nahum Quintero Manjarrez or Cruz Alonso Lozoya Uriate "El Grande" or "El Chucky", which occurred on the afternoon of Thursday 28th of May in the Villas del Encanto Colonia in La Paz, the State security forces, Federal and Military, started an intelligence operation to locate and capture the heads of the "Fuerzas Especiales de Damaso".

The principal objective, according to a member of the Group for Coordination of State Public Security, " is to capture, dead or alive, the heads of Sicarios responsible for the wave of kidnappings, disappearances, torturing, executions, decapitations, and gun battles in the South Californian Capital.

According to experts of SEIDO, these heads have been identified by name, nickname, physical characteristics, and addresses:

1. Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda "La China" or "La Mely".

2. Raul Castillo de la Rosa "El Cochi".

Expert officials indicate that the last participation that these heads of Sicarios had physically in armed attacks and homicides were during the last few violent weeks, particularly from 5th of April to the 20th of May, before the capture of "El Grande", as follows:

*According to testimony, on the 5th of April, "La China" was seen at the execution of Audencio Yobany Lopez Beltran "El H" or "El Hector", perpetrated on the Malecon coast of La Paz.

*Witnesses said that on the 20th of May, Raul Castillo de la Rosa was seen in an armed attack against a Mechanic named "Sixto" in the Los Olivos Colonia in La Paz.



According to to experts in command of SEIDO, these Sicario Bosses are related in a direct manner in no less that 20 homicides, they want to have charge of between four and six Sicarios, arms, vehicles and safe houses, that until now have been hard to capture, because of their criminal network links to Police and the Commanders of the Municipal Police of La Paz.

On the 2nd of June, Melissa Margarita Calderon Ojeda "La China" was on the point of being captured in an operation of the Centre for Strategic Operations of the PGR and the PGJE with the backing of the armed forces.


The Agents located a suspect vehicle a Volkswagen Beetle colored white, with reflective windows, circulation plates CZM-3273, with four people on board, a woman and three men, circulating about Calle Mango in the direction of Indeco Colonia.

The officers immediately turned to follow the suspect vehicle, the woman who was driving sped off trying to flee from the officers, they even made an attempt to get into a house, but did not manage it and the route was closed off by State and Federal Agents.

The officers pointed their guns at the crew and asked to get out of the car, the driver dismounted first, then the passenger, and in the end, the two companions who were in the rear.

According to the officers that participated in the operation, the subject were identified with credentials of the following names:

*Fernanda Judith Bravo Castro, 23 years of age and originally from La Paz, BCS.

* Hector Gregorio Garcia Garcia, 33 years of age, originally from Mazatlan, Sinaloa.

* Erick Uriel Zacarias Lopez, 34 years of age, and a native of Culiacan, Sinaloa.

*Jesus Antonio Quinonez Garcia, 20 years of age, born in Mazatlan, Sinaloa.

The driver of the vehicle got out carrying a black plastic bag, which she was seen removing from a glove compartment in the car, and after a search, the interior of the bag half a Glock 17 pistol in 9mm calibre, serial number YE954, together with a magazine in which were 19 rounds of ammo, along with two spare magazines both loaded each with 17 rounds.

During a search of the vehicle itself, the investigating Agents found in between the two rear passenger seats in the rear a green fragmentation grenade, with a number of dents on the RFX stamp. After proceeding with the search, they found under the driver and front passenger seats the following arms:

two AK 47 assault rifles, 7.62 x 39 calibre with a magazine with 30 rounds, manufactured by Norinco, model Sporter, one manufactured by Romar/Cugir, model WASR-10/63 ( Otis: this is a Romanian Copy of the Russian AKM, supplied with only a ten shot single stack magazine, this one in the article had a 30 round magazine, which means it has been modified by Century Arms International at some point).

On the other side, under the front passenger seat they found six magazines for the AK47's each loaded with 30 rounds. Also two plastic bags with 2300 doses of crystal meth, which amounted to a weight of 115 grammes that's 4.1 ounces for those from the USA.

Once the detained had been identified, the four persons were recognised as part of the criminal cell of "La China" or "La Mely", and that they had been transporting the drugs and guns to a safe house.

Even though officially they said nothing, an anonymous call alerted them to the presence of "La China" in the same vehicle on the morning of the 2nd of June, but when it was finally located and found, it was being driven by another woman who was identified as her "friend".


During the interrogations, one of the detained said that La China had walked to Salto de Mata and a safe house to hide and avoid capture, because she has information that the armed forces are hot on her heels after the arrest of "El Grande", including that she wanted to flee to the United States, that's why they were hiding the drugs and weapons in a safe house they had just rented.

The detainees, who were recognized to be Sicarios under the command of La China, they accepted that they had participated in the following executions:

Manuel Salvador Cota Olachea and Jesus Pablo Pena Lara, assassinated on the 29th of April in the Calles Michoacán and Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, Colonia Pueblo Nuevo of La Paz.

Location of the killings


 

Victor Manuel Alvarado, executed on the 21st of May in the Estacionamiento of Casino Fortune, on Avenida Forjadores corner of El Triunfo, in the Bella Vista Fraccionamiento.

They affirmed that these persons " were killed under orders of "Los 28", because they no longer wanted to work with them as they were suffering many betrayals all of which were considered to be by his people", their crime being "suspected rats", they had to be silenced. "They knew too many things that could harm them, "now that their identities were known". ( Otis: here endeth the lesson for wannabe cartel supporters, if the enemy don't kill you, and the Police or the Army don't kill you, your own people will kill you, for knowing too much).

According to a dictamen of the PGJE, the ballistics study of the weapons found, tested positive in the executions of Cota Olachea and of Alvarado.

The fall of El Grande

At the moment of being captured, Abel Nahum Quintero Manjarrez or Cruz Alonso Lozoya Uriate "El Grande", was hiding in the store of the business called Sea Food El Vado in the Villas del Encanto Fraccionamiento.

The head of Sicarios was the only one who had run towards the restaurant at the time of the confusion, after an outbreak of gunfire between Police and Sicarios, he tried to hide and go unnoticed, as one of the workers in the restaurant.

In fact he removed an apron from one of the restaurants waiters and put it on, as if he were an employee. He subsequently requested that about 20 people, who were eating sea food at this point, leave the place, then he could take advantage of the confusion, he had hidden his assault rifle with under slung grenade launcher in the store between two boxes, and pretended to be an employee.

The Police arrived inside the restaurant and started identifying all those present dressed as employees, and when they came to him, he said he was an employee of the sea food restaurant, but one of the Agents didn't believe him as he could see a pool of blood on the floor, and when they questioned him, he launched into a series of contradictions until he was finally put under arrest.

Like that, he left the combat area, leaving his Sicarios, "El Grande" was captured by State, Federal and Military Forces, and was immediately transferred to General Hospital "Juan Maria de Salvatierra", in La Paz.

According to the medical report, the killer only had one wound from a .223 calibre bullet that entered his chest and exited out his back, but did not hit any vital organs.

El Grande was driving a white Suburban, when he unleashed the fire-fight. The State Preventative Police located the head of Sicarios driving in the car park of De Plaza Liverpool around 5:30 pm on Thursday the 28th of May.

According to the report, armed persons travelling on board a van with circulation plates CZN2016 of the State of Baja California Sur, Police patrol SSP0775 saw the vehicle leaving the parking lot of the mall, to take the Avenida Pino Payas, at high speed, they accelerated trying to lose their pursuers, one of the Sicarios in the Surburban opened the window and pointed a rifle at them to deter them.

The three officers that were travelling in the patrol car immediately called for back up and advised that the vehicle in which the suspects were travelling in was headed down the Avenida Pino Playas in the direction of the Chedraui supermarket.

The first support to arrive was patrol vehicle SSP4458 which was patrolling in the Villas del Encanto Colonia, who shut off the four lanes of the Avenida Pino Payas and Francisco J Mujica, almost on the block of Sea Food El Vado restaurant.

The Commander and two officers got out of the patrol car and took positions, cocked their weapons and waited for the arrival of the Suburban and the other reinforcements.

About ten vehicles passed the stop, when the Surburban appeared, it had reduced speed until it stopped about 35 to 40 metres from the road block.

In front of the Suburban was patrol SSP4458 and behind them was patrol SSP0775 still pursuing the suspects.

One of the Agents of the Patrol who made the road block shouted " State Preventative Police: Leave the vehicle with your hands in the air, then lay on the ground, we are going to search you".

The four occupants didn't leave the vehicle, so the officer repeated the order. At this point the Sicarios got out of the Suburban, two to the left of the vehicle and two to the right and shouted " We are from Los Damaso, get the fuck out of the way, we are going to pass you fucking bitches, if you don't want to die, get the fuck out of the way".

After the shouting finished, the six Agents that were arriving on the other side of the Suburban, cocked their weapons, then El Grande opened fire to his front at the patrol car blocking their way, the officers took cover behind the wheels of their patrol car,
he then turned and aimed at the patrol car behind and fired a grenade from his under slung grenade launcher, which detonated sending shrapnel into the face and left arm of one of the officers.

The Agents repelled the aggression and shot El Grande who fell injured, then left running and firing on a diagonal track.

The head of Sicarios ran into the Sea Food Restaurant El Vado  and his three accomplices made it to some scrub land adjacent the Restaurant. One of them got tangled up running a dropped a grenade about 20 metres from the road, he ran back to recover it and received a hail of gun fire which changed his mind and he ran back to the scrub.

In the immediate surroundings , the Agents were giving support to their injured colleague and sent a call out for an Ambulance, but it was very late arriving, so his colleagues took him in patrol car SSP3763 to a Military Hospital.

Meanwhile units of the Municipal Police of La Paz, Ministerial Police, State Preventative Police, Gendarmerie, Mexican Army and Marines had arrived. After being briefed on the situation, the elements of the Armed Forces entered the scrub land, and fire fight started that lasted approximately 45 minutes, in which the Sicarios Gabriel Antonio Leal Gutierrez, 22 years old and originally from Culiacan, Sinaloa; also Luis Enrique Amezquita Escudero "El Kike", 23 years old also from Culiacan.

The third gunman, who answers to the name of Luis Diego Garcia Villareal "El Luigi", 18 years of age and originally from Culiacan, Sinaloa, stood up out of the scrub with his hands in the air as he had run out of ammunition for his AK47, which he had hidden behind an Oxxo store.

After the confrontation, the PGJE spokesman Adonai Carreon Estrada, announced the decommissioning of the following weapons:

* 2 x AK47 assault rifles
* 2 Assault rifles with grenade launcher attachments
* 4 pistols of 9mm and .40 calibres
* 12 magazines for the rifles
* 2 tactical vests with the legend El Grande
* 2 radios with the frequency of the Municipal Police of La Paz, and the State Preventative Police
* Uniforms and camouflage tactical balaclavas

Inside the vehicle, and at the scene of the crime, dogs of the PGJE found seven fragmentation grenades and 120K pesos.

The two surviving Sicarios of the battle El Grande and El Luigi, were sent to the Arraignment Centre of SEIDO, where they would speak of the bosses, but also of their criminal networks with the Police.

According to the Prosecutor, the head of Sicarios is related to two femicides in Sinaloa, for which he has two detention orders against him, as well as 20 homicides in La Paz.

The denunciations

Of the detained, El Luigi was the first to speak, who said that they had left that day to go and get stationary to make laminated copies of the Municipal Police and State Police radio frequencies.

He added that El Grande was reorganizing the structure of "Los Damaso" in La Paz, and that he wanted to give a copy of the radio keys to every one of the five cells that were operating in kidnapping and crimes, so that they would know how to mobilize to ambush and kill members of opposing groups.

The gun man commented that El Grande or El Chucky had returned from Culiacan, Sinaloa on the 5th of April, on the orders of "Los 28", because it was chaos and everything was disorganized, after the fall of Sicarios and the persecution of La China and El Cochi, who were in hiding and had ventured out infrequently to carry out killings.

During his interrogation, El Luigi remembered having participated in no less than 20 executions in the wave of violence in the last few days, he was contracted at the rate of 7,500 pesos every two weeks.

The crimes were enumerated one by one, and they appear at the end of this article.

For his part, Abel Nahum Quintero Manjarrez or Cruz Alonso Lozoya Uriate, El Grande, laid bare the Fuerzas Especiales de Damaso, and declared that "actually they are operating with five cells, criminally commanded by me, El Cochi, La China, El Oso and El Navigator, who are working on the team to fight for control of the South Zone plaza against Los Pepillos and in the North Zone plaza against Los Mayitos.

In his first declarations he remembered that criminal structure of Los Damaso has been debilitated and with a high risk of leaving operations in this state., because the majority of Sicarios that knew the city, its territory and routes of escape have been detained and already we don't have people that can support the operation logistically.

The criminal head of Sicarios explained that " already I had moved to Sinalao when I knew they were after me, but I was sent for to return, because the Sicarios that were in charge, didn't know the thugs or the movements of the city, and so were engaging in too many battles during operations. ( Otis: see link to article on his persecution).

The Sicario accepted that after the captures of cells like those of Victor Vidal Barraza, El Vidal or El Victor, and that of Jose Antoino Martinez Rosas, El Furby, it began to impact on the operations of the organization that fought for control of the La Paz plazas, and since then we have lost the ability to secure the objective of Los Mayitos in the North Zone and Los Pepillos in the South Zone.

When his captors asked who was working, El Grande, without reservation accepted that it was for "Los 28" and explained, after the fracture of Los 28 and Los Pepillos, "I took the decision to stay with Los 28, because they offered me more, and offered me more input into the people that were chosen to be killed".

The Sicario related that when the narco war started, "I was working with Los Pepillos in the South Zone, because Los Mayitos in the North Zone, because they had me and Los Arnulfos covered, when they knew we were selling the drugs for less, so we took refuge with Los Pepillos when the war exploded.

After they had killed El Pantera, Los Damaso sent for Los 28, a subversive group who fight in Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas in alliance with the Cartel del Golfo, and they took the fight to Los Pepillos.

And they sent for me, among others, because in certain manner we know the terrain, and started to fight for the plaza, but with time there were disagreements because Los 28 started to sell drugs and take over the dealers of Los Pepillos, which caused the rupture.

During his interrogation, El Grande said to the Police that El 28 was killed in a fire fight, he was not one of the brothers Jorge Alberto, Felipe Eduardo and Carlos Alberto Guajardo Garcia, identified as Los 28.

The killer said that it more or less the nickname that they have designated to some of the Sicarios, because we work with Los 28, we have assigned some keys to very special people like El 20, El 27 and El 28, which are reassigned when they kill or capture some of our colleagues who wore those codes.

In the case of the key of El 27, first it was assigned to Jose Angel Gonzalez Portillo, killed by rivals in a fire fight in Calles Ramirez and Manuel Marquez de Leon in the Centro Colonia.

And after to Jose Manuel Aquilar Lopez, killed by Police and Military in a fire fight around Avenida Santiago Oceguera.

In the case of the key of El 28, it was first assigned to Victor Vidal Barraza, detained in an operation at a safe house in the Calle Gilberto Mendoza of the Civilzadores Colonia, and later to Gabriel Antonio Leal Gutierrez, killed in a battle of the capture of El Grande.

Finally El Grande accepted to have participated in the kidnapping of a Madrina of the PGR, Rafael Banales Osuna, El Capi, who was taken from his home in the Calle Educacion Gratuita between the symbols and coat of arms in the Diana Laura Colonia in the South of La Paz.

The morning of the 24th of May, the informant was kidnapped by an armed group, who, according to his wife, a tall Marine dressed in the Secretary of the Navy uniform, knocked on the door very aggressively, and when asked what it was that he wanted, responded that he had a search warrant and ordered them to open the door.

The lady went to her husbands room and woke him up, he peeked through the window, then went and asked the subject what he wanted, and he responded again that he was from the Secretary of the Marina and he had a search warrant, when he opened the door 7 or 8 subjects entered.

They were all carrying rifles, and dressed in dark blue camouflage uniforms with the Marine blue bibs, they entered the bedrooms and began to check doors and drawers, waking up and frightening two young girls who were asking what was wrong.

The tall Marine asked her husband to accompany them to the road outside, and when she looked out, she saw a white surburban pickup and a grey one of the same model, they put him in the vehicle and drove off.

A day later he returned, and said nothing to his wife. According to El Grande he had sent a message to a delegate of the PGR, because their people were not complying with some business.

The crimes of El Grande

In Sinaloa, Maria Esperanza Zalava Estolano, 62 years of age, in the Guadalupe Victoria Colonia of Culiacan, Sinaloa.

Gemima Marin Serrano, 33 years of age, killed in the Villa del Real Fraccionamiento in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

In Baja California Sur:

Gerardo Geralso Mendez, El Gera, August 2014, La Paz
Luis Felipe Leyva Guzman, August 2014, La Paz
Jose Federico Gaxiola Osuna, El Pikas, September 2014, La Paz
Dany Algarith Castro Avendano, El Guacho, October 2014, La Paz
Francisco Javier Chaidez Perez, El Chinola, October 2014, La Paz
Carlos Antonio Mayoral Hernandez, El Mayoral
Mario Alberto Lopez Garcia, El Junior, October 2014, La Paz
Tomas Antonio Rico Castro, El 3
Ivan Castro Sandoval, El Pelon
Jose Molina Alarcon, El Molina, October 2014, La Paz
Saul David Gutierrez Nunez, El David
Jose Luis Ponce Ruiz, El Ponce
Juan Carlos Morales Vargas, El Pancho, or El Chapo, November 2014, La Paz
Juan Carlos Bareno Aviles, El Juanillo, January 2015, La Paz
Luis Israel Torres Inzunza, March 2015, La Paz
Erick Davalos Von Borstel, May 2015, La Paz
Martin Alonso Alamea Fausto, May 2015, La Paz
Everarado Silvano Monroy Aparicio, El Silvano, May 2015, La Paz

Zetatijuana sources PGJE, BCS

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana