CJNG vs Sinaloa: Tijuana Police under threat and attack as violence explodes -part 1

Borderland Beat Article translation by BB Contributor "Benny Juárez"
Republished from ZETA part 1 of 2

"The image she was exposed to was horrifying,  a mess of blood and human flesh that crashed into her car’s front windshield...
it was the torso of a man"

Click on any image to enlarge

The experience that a 59 year old woman lived through during the first minutes of Saturday, September 3 of 2016 in the Benitez of Tijuana boulevard was terrifying, when from a bridge a severed body of a man fell on her windshield which in turn caused her to lose control andcrash against against an asphalt fence. The mutilated cadaver was part of a threat from the Sinaloa cartel against the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

Three days later, Tuesday September 6, local authorities received an alert from their counter part agency in the United States government. They had information about a threat. Members of CJNG had decided to attack the Preventive State Police (PEP), supervisors and personnel that had recently been re-assigned “…"Everyone that is not aligned”.

These recent criminal acts are part of a bloody conflict that the Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG headline since 2010 in the country, which shows that while other criminal groups have been depleted, the Jalisciense Mafia has been greatly strengthened,  during this current 6 year presidential term. called Sexino)

This new war began in Baja California last year, between 2015 and 2016, thanks to the support of the Cartel Arellano Felix (CAF), and the disdain and irresponsibility of the authorities that insisted in denying the presence of this dangerous cartel, same that now part of the East zone of Tijuana is now territory of the guys from Jalisco; The criminal group feels that it has the power and enjoys enough impunity to threaten the life of the authorities, while the conflict in the streets threatens the tranquility and safety of its citizens that are not colluded in criminal activities.

“We have lived through this in other years...”, said the secretary of the state’s public safety department, Daniel De la Rosa, in a press conference that took place at the “Confederacion patronal de la Republica” (COPARMEX) Tijuana on September 7^th.  “..when  criminal cells start gaining strength”,  he was explaining that the increase in homicides is due to the increased arrival of drugs and the power struggle between criminals to gain power of the territory. “The more increase of drugs, results in a greater  conflict” he explained.

There are some drugs which confiscation increased 800 percent, some other 200 percent, and that’s just counting seizures made by the PER only, the official explained.

Threats written with blood

Past midnight, in the first 20 minutes of Saturday September 3^rd there was a complaint call; subjects were hanging a banner and a bundle on the walking bridge located in front of the building of the Electricity Federal Commission (CFE),  which is located in the boulevard of Federico Benitez and Calle Castro in the Residential development Castro de Tijuana.

The Municipal Police were responding to a fight at the 2016 Tijuana Fair and the complaint of an armed man who was trying to enter the Bar Colibri  (Humming Bird bar), a supervisor who was near that zone was instructed to approximate and confirm the citizens complaint.

The official Report indicates that while he was nearing the driving bridge Manuel J. Clouthier, located to the south, he could see there was a banner and a group of people were carrying  a bundle from the walking bridge. Via radio he confirmed this and headed to that point, he entered the zone from the lane north to south but going against traffic, the criminals saw the patrol car and ran; in their escape the bundle that was hanging fell.

In that moment, a 59 year old resident of Tijuana, retired ex-worker of the city hall, was driving her car over the boulevard Benitez heading south, when she could see the bundle hanging from the bridge was plummeting.

The image she was exposed to was horrifying, a mess of blood and human flesh crashed into  her car’s front windshield, it was the torso of a man between 30 and 40 years old, his head had received severe trauma from blows.  in his neck there was a wound and he was tied with a gray nylon rope. His four extremities had been amputated.

From his moving patrol car while he was nearing the place, the supervisor was able to see how three subjects with youthful appearance were escaping aboard a sedan automobile towards La Joya, since he was alone, due to the amount of criminals, he didn’t follow them. When his partners arrived and although they placed checkpoints,  they did not apprehend anyone.

At the scene, investigators opened the incident 1944632/2016 and requested police guards to avoid being attacked. They took down the banner which read:

Note* the banner had Mexican slang words that I have changed for context

“Here is your doll from Jalisco  they were in fact whore dolls with me they sit down whore girlies and that is for you too assholes – Arturo Herrera Gomez El Gross –  Jose Juan Perez el Piolin (Tweety Bird) Zame- Edwin Huerta Nunoel  El Flaco (skinny) – Edgar Alejandro Herrera El Caiman (Gator)

“Fierro Metal”

*note– Fierro is Sinaloa slang meaning “let’s go with everything” or “let’s go with full force” 

On the bridge floor they found a blood stain, and tied to one of the metal tubes of the bridge a black plastic bag.

The workers of the PGJE also recovered the torso of the man who fell on the car of the retired lady, the contents of three bundles, a black bag and two other bags, one was covered with a beige blanket and the other one with a brown and blue blanket.

In the bags there were two more torsos one with a slashing wound in the left shoulder and the other one with a wound in the buttocks. These cadavers, not only had the arms and legs severed but also their heads. Separately they found six legs, six arms and two heads.

The PGJE investigation in this case so far,  has only resulted in the identification of one of the mutilated men. This was done thanks to a tattoo, and that his head still kept its features and that the man had a criminal history. It was Carlos Fajardo Saucedo, 45 years old, with residence in the residential development El Lago and had 3 previous open investigations against him; one for theft with violence, one for property damage, and one more for simple theft.

The detainment of "El Lago"

Precisely on Friday, September 2, the Municipal Police reported the capture of three subjects in possession of drugs and firearms, short and long, a citizen complaint led the authorities try to apprehend the men while they were traveling in a Suzuki van, as they drove along the residential development El Lago (The Lake). They decided to flee, and they were pursued  and arrested them in the Colonia El Chamizal.   

It was Cristian Siciliano , David Garcia and Roberto Carbajal alias Julio Vital, who expressed they had been sent by Juan Jose Armenta Soto, the leader of their cell, to El Lago to kidnap  a man, " ... to put down a dude from CAF". Hours later Armenta was captured,  the weapon he carried tested positive matching for two homicides. “This is part of the conflict” said one of the authorities involved.

Sinaloa Cartel against CJNG-CTNG

With the contents of the banner on September 3rd, the State Security Council Baja California placed the attack immediately, "Fierro Metal" they recalled is the "signature" and "he has used since last year," as if it was an advertising slogan, Victor Hugo Mejia Lopez "the Greek", who they have placed in the criminal organization as an assassin at the service of the Sinaloa cartel fraction led by Alfonso and René Arzate since 2013.

On August 7, 2015, investigators had already read a very similar message to the one in the morning of September 3, 2016, but it was written on a cardboard , it provided the names of these same criminals belonging to CJNG and was signed "Fierro Metal " last year the message was draped over the bodies of men in an advanced  state of decomposition. –One had been strangled, the other one decapitated-. They were thrown behind Plaza Roca shopping center, between “Benitez Boulevard” and “Rapida Oriente” highway.

Records show that this group usually dismembers their victims. The difference identified by the authorities in their modus operandi is that in their most recent message, "is that they speak to their opponents as if they were women, with the intent to offend," said an investigator.

Only between August 16 and 20^th of this year , the police Office opened proceedings for the murder of two men shot to death , one beaten to death,  two dismembered and one bar which had been burned. All of them as part of the escalating conflict between these two groups.

Hugo Mejia Lopez, the alleged criminal most identified in this war, has been captured and released twice, first in May of 2013 and the second in June of 2015, three years ago on suspicion of murder and last year for possession of weapons and drugs. He was identified by authorities as possibly suspect for the murder of Jesús Alberto Hurtado Estrada a municipal cop which was committed on March 29, 2012, but the suspect remains at large and although he is mentioned in several homicides, the PGJE has not processed any of the records, or obtained an arrest warrant for him.

Authorities in Alert

State and municipal authorities that were consulted confirmed the existing threat to the police forces. The PEP details that from the American side they were alerted not only of CJNG s threat. "We also received from the Sinaloa Cartel, who openly say is because we are playing the investigator.

In the municipal corporation, they stated that the threat was not against them but were on alert to support the PEP and the Ministerial, so far only the experts of the PGJE have requested support to give them security while working in criminal scenarios. Also within the PGJE there is concern. The warnings from the criminals have indicated "are because of the investigations".

End of part 1

Part 2 on Thursday