Los Aquiles: control the criminals and the Police

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

[ Subject Matter: Los Aquiles, Arellano Felix Organization
Recommendation: Read this article on Reorganization within the CAF and its dispute with CDS]

In the last few weeks, the assassination of Policemen and ex Policemen has continued: the Arzate brothers expand their criminal territory as their opponents inform on them in an attempt to have them located and arrested. In addition, Police Chiefs in the districts of Tijuana have been implicated in corruption.

Reporter: Zeta Investigations and Cortesia
Controlling the narco trafficking that happens in Tijuana from Sinaloa, Alfonso Rene Arzarte "El Aquiles" and his brother Rene, continue to expand their sphere of criminal influence.

An investigator explained to ZETA the criminal premise:

"It appears that the people of "El Aquiles" are killing people from all other groups, like "Los Chapitos", that before were with them. But also there exists a precedent where all the smaller groups leaders are now joining him".



Is it logical?

"No, if they stay with another, they will be killed".

The Agent, who wishes to remain anonymous, gave an example:

"Following the first few days of this week, a killing in the East Zone (Juan Manuel Esteban, on the 1st of July) and his friend from Otay (Pedro Hidalgo Perez, killed on the 2nd of July), were couriers of drugs from Arzate to the United States, so they are taking hits too".

That is the analysis after the recent violent events, carried out by 2 investigators.

For the most part, the killings are increasing. In the nine days so far in July, there have been 18 killings, on top of the 69 registered in June, 70 in May, 54 in April and 91 in the first three months of the year, giving a total of 312 violent assassinations in 2015 so far.

Additionally, the assassination of the ex Policeman Blas Enrique Leyva Esparza. who they shot on 2nd of July and died in hospital during the night, generated concerns the same Thursday night in the Municipal Transit Police, which were amplified when the ministerial Agent assigned to Rosarito Saul Colmeneros Martinez was fired upon in the delegation of San Antonio de Los Buenos in Tijuana.


Following on the night of 4th of July, Antonio Diaz Ponciano, of the Special Operations Group was attacked by gunfire in the Obrera Colonia. Even though it was suspected that the aggressor could have been an ex boyfriend of the girlfriend of the injured Agent, but equally one could argue that it should be treated as a narco related crime.

"The attacker had just left prison, someone in the drug dealing zone gave him a rifle to carry out the assassination, and the permission to carry out the hit", he explained.

Elements of the Municipal Police manifested their worry in the form of a threat to escalate the levels of corruption to the Interior of Secretary for Public Security.

This week the Mayor (Horge Astiazaran) declared before the press that every time it is more difficult to detect the Police infiltration: that they ask for troops and wait for them arrive but nobody has", he claimed.

He refers as an example the funeral held for the Municipal Juan Gualberto Jauregui Ruvalcaba, who his colleagues knew he was a rogue Agent. Close relatives testified in the investigation of his death that he sold drugs, and even became involved in the planning of the murder of Policemen.

He remembers September of 2014, when Agent Marco Antonio Vidal, who refused to release some drug dealers, because they were Policemen, members of the troop, made a failed assassination attempt on the Agent.


Now they assume that the heads of the delegations are corrupted, we are investigating the head of Otay, the head of the Presa Rural and the head of C4, which brought no prosecutions, but there is a very close person that is well placed inside organized crime, they don't have to believe it, but we have nothing more  that we want to investigate", say the Agents.

Police, Ex Police and the Narco Manta

The assassination of the ex policeman Blas Enrique Leyva Esparza, the Police decided to inform that there was a narco manta that criminals left on the morning of the 23rd of June in La Mesa delegation. The Police chiefs blocked the information from public sources, even though they presented it before a Municipal Judge, who said to them, they should write it into a report and submit it to the Public Ministry via an official complaint.

In the manta the anonymous criminals mention two other ex Policemen, "good friends of "El Blas"; Abraham Celis Pillado and Marco Tulio Carrillo.

The large canvas, white in colour and measuring 4 x 2 metres contained the following message:

"Victor Hugo Mejia Lopez "El Griego" or "Checko" bodyguard of Aquiles and head of Sicarios, Juan Carlos Parra Dominguez "El 30" or "Kiko", bodyguard and Sicario in the service of La Rana, ex collaborator of Muletas, is related to multiple homicides Francisco Beltran Espinoza "El Pakito" or Lic de la A, head of Sicarios you have in your service various killers, Abraham Celis "El Silvestre" or "El Gato", ex policeman in the service of Los Aquiles leads a group of killers and are dedicated to extortion and kidnapping and paying corrupt Municipal Policemen like Raul Miranda Ordas "El Alejo" or "El Fenix", head of Sicarios in the service of La Aduana, is the principle cause of the violence in the central zone of Tijuana dedicated to drug dealing".

Marco Tulio Carrrillo "El Marion kidnapper responsible for the wave of violence.

After the investigations about the narco manta, he explained to ZETA

Hugo Mejia was detained together with another man and a woman in May of 2013, in possession of two pistols and drugs. The Municipal Police informed that their preliminary investigations, he confessed to having participated in the assassination of the Municipal Policeman Jesus Alberto Hurtado Estrada, in an armed attack on the 21st of March 2012, when he arrived at his house but was only processed for drugs and weapons and after was set at liberty.



Parra Dominguez, identified as a bodyguard and hit man, has no antecedents or intelligence reports of his activities.

Also Francisco Beltran "Paco Trokas", in July of 2014 was arrested for using false documentation. In June and September of 2009 he was detained by State Preventative Police and Municipals for possession of drugs, and firing weapons, equally he was liberated.

Abraham Celis Pillado was noted as in the service of the Cartel Arellano Felix, also the ex policeman Gustavo Adolfo Rodriguez Magana, detained in September 2009 who later obtained his freedom.

Marco Tulio Carillo was sacked for lack of confidence in 2008, for his alleged ties with narco traffickers, he did not initiate proceedings in the Court of Appeal and in 2013, reached an agreement with the City. Last year the Municipals assured that the were recruiting for the Sinaloa Cartel and giving out threats.

Raul Miranda Ordaz "El Alejo" or "El Fenix", in April of 2013, the ex Secretary of Public Municipal Security, Alberto Capella Ibarra, informed that the Policeman had been detained as allegedly responsible for the homicides of Alberto Maciel Pacheco and Luis Orlando Duran Naranjo, after which he was liberated.

The case of "El Blas" without interest

The investigators that were working the homicide case of Blas Enrique Leyva Esparza, the ex Policeman identified as a member of the Cartel Arellano Felix, in the cell of Teodoro Garcia Simental "El Teo", can't see how the case could be more important: "we all know why they killed him".

Dulce, his wife, who claimed his body, also shows no interest in the advancement of the case,, nor to answer questions to resolve any doubts. There had been security cameras in "El Yonke Nascar", property of an assassinated ex Policeman, but when the PGJE demanded the video, they responded by saying "they don't work".

After being interviewed, the employees that saw the killing, assured that they could not identify the killer, save that he was tall, thin with a pock marked face and wearing a hooded jacket.

None of the parties, nor the family, nor the authorities, seem to be interested in the following up of the case by the PGJE. When required to: people didn't want to cooperate, and until this moment they have only one witness testimony of a worker that saw the homicide, he said the killer was travelling on a bicycle and arrived asking for a part for an automobile, and seconds after, produced a pistol, and went to the offices of the business owner. There he stood before Leyva Esparza, who was sitting in a chair and shot him and fled.

The former uniformed officer was pronounced dead hours later at a private hospital at 10pm on Thursday the 2nd of July.

Attacks: Colmeneros and Diaz Ponciano

About the attack on Ministerial Policeman Saul Colmeneros, his colleagues comment:

"he had been warned, that if they wanted to kill him where he was, he would be dead already".

Its evident that they had him under observation, they had identified his hours of working, they knew his face and where he lived, they knew his routes and where he would have to slow down and would be an easy target.

In his statements, Comeneros didn't recognise any threat as such, or that the attack is a by-product of his recent work. His companions did not rank him as the most committed Ministerial.

In the first version of events, he said that he did not hear the original shot, but stopped his vehicle when he felt the vehicle was responding oddly, the first bullet fired at him had struck the tire, when he stopped he heard the subsequent shots.

Later he corrected that version of events, and said that he heard the first shot, and that in the dark night, and with tinted windows in his vehicle, that he had been fired upon from a verge of a street leading to the beach.

In the case of Antonio Diaz Ponciano, Agent of the Special Operations Group, testimony said that his attacker was for a little less than an hour waiting for him, on the day of the attack.

He was crouching near the door of a house of woman with whom he had arranged to meet, knowing that the Agent would have to step out of the car, walk a short distance, and in that space he fired at him, hitting him in the arm and the face, a bullet went through his cheek.

Injured but conscious, the official dived under the car of the parents of his girlfriend, and escaped to the main road where other Agents picked him up and took him to get medical attention.

The reason for the attack? There are three hypotheses inside the corporation: one that it was because of an operation that made seizures and arrests in the North Zone on dates prior to the attack: two, that he was attacked by the ex boyfriend of the woman he was seeing, she was the only person that knew that he would be in that area at that time.

From that, a cell in the service of "Aquiles", commanded by "El Tragedias" and "El Taxista", had participated in his attack, Luis Osvaldo Barraza Ramirez, Erick Ramirez Hernandez, Jonathan Navarrete Chavez, Edgar Eduardo Navarrete and Cesar Chavez Urrea Ramirez, are neighbours of the girlfriend and also drug dealers, they were arrested on July 8th and processed yesterday, Thursday the 9th.

In their first interviews, they admitted the participation in different homicides, and in the case of the Police, only one of them mentioned to have been a "point man", and that Luis Osvaldo Barraza pulled his weapon and shot, however this data has yet to be confirmed.

The other deaths

In the primary investigations of the assassination of Pedro Hidalgo and Ana Cespedes, which occurred on Wednesday the 1st of July, the PGJE clarified that both the Authorities of the United States and the boys family, confirmed that the was moving drugs to the United States, about three car loads per week.

On the day, he was passing a car on the other side of the road, and stopped to talk to Ana on the phone, the youngster said she had graduated in Law, from the Autonomous University of Baja California, and was carrying out her community service in a State Court of Judiciary, and that he invited her to eat.

He picked her up at a shopping mall located less than 100m from where they were attacked. They had pulled up to a traffic signal when a motorcycle pulled alongside and opened fire. Witnesses state that Hidalgo tried to escape the scene, he jumped over his dying girlfriend, then fell out of the vehicle dead. At no time did he try to help her.

The killings of the week of the 1st to the 7th of July numbered 12, he stressed that one, Mr Fernando Pusian, had been killed by two robbers in Valle Las Palmas. At the close of this edition, the weapons used in the attack had not been linked to any other crimes.

"We are sure they are link to other cases, for the way in which they acted, this is not their first offences, we also have the hypotheses that they are criminals from another area, because in that delegation there have been no assaults on transport", officials said.

During this week the following were also murdered:

Marlon Francisco Alfar Bautista
Sergio Trujillo Lizarraga
Aurelio Robles Niebla
Felipe Carrillo Rivera
Noemi Ortiz Alavarez
A unidentified man in Los Pinos and another in Camino Verde.

Original article in Spanish at Zetatijuana

Categories: Arellano Felix Organization, baja california, Los Aquiles, Police Corruption, tijuana