Women criminals in Tijuana, most are accomplices, few are leaders

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

Subject Matter: Lady criminals
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

The participation of women in crime in Tijuana has augmented, but few manage to achieve high positions in criminal groups. Since January of 2017, 17 women have been detained for homicide, 68 for carrying weapons and 154 for possession of drugs.

Reporter: Ines Garcia Ramos
The body was cut in two. The torso in one suitcase and the legs in another. The state of putrefaction was such that the eyes and nose were barely distinguishable on the man's face.
The arrest of those who tried to get rid of the body transpired in the news, but not who ordered the killing.

Early morning of January 10, 2018, agents of the Municipal Police of Tijuana drove on Garcia Avenue in Colinas de La Presa. From the patrol car they observed a gray Chevrolet Aveo car parked on the side of the street and three men unloading objects from the trunk.
As they approached, they spotted two suitcases that the subjects were trying to get rid of. Inside the luggage were human remains wrapped in plastic.

One of the men, Juan Rubén Sánchez Lara, a fugitive after Judge Martha Elvia Luna Vargas released him two days after being arrested, confessed that a woman was behind the crime.
It's about Cynthia Sugey López Luna. The woman offered 5 thousand pesos to the man of 24 years of age to get rid of the suitcases. Nicknamed "El Yiyo", Sánchez was the only one of the detainees with information from Cynthia Sugey, but some corporations place the woman by the nickname "La Mimi", a drug dealer of the Aztec colony.




Like his accomplices, the young man was released because the judge considered that the prosecutor in charge of the investigation did not motivate or substantiate the petition so that he would remain in prison.

Although the other two involved, who said they did not know what was inside the suitcases, returned to a later hearing, in which they were remanded in custody, "El Yiyo" did not return to the Court. The process for the crime of burial and exhumation of corpses remains open, but the murder has not yet been clarified.

From January 2017 to date, 17 women have been arrested in flagrante delicto for homicide in Tijuana. Official figures show that 13 of these arrests occurred last year, the rest in the first quarter of 2018.

However, homicide is not the crime in which more women have participated in the city. The main one is the crime against health - drug possession - with a statistic of 154 in 2017 and 24 more so far this year. The main drugs confiscated in these cases were marijuana and crystal.

Berenice Lorena Bustos and Cinthia Mota Hernández

Vehicle theft follows with 84 cases, 68 recorded in 2017 and January 16 to March 2018.

Then there is the crime of carrying a weapon with 68 cases registered in this 15-month period, during which the seizures of 19 small arms, six long guns and 127 cartridges stand out.

While in 2017 there were counted 34 women arrested for burglary in flagrante delicto and three more in the first three months of 2018, for robbery with violence were 23 apprehended in 2017 and four more so far this year.

However, in terms of illegal deprivation of liberty, 2017 registered eight women caught for this crime and one more in the first three months of 2018. With smaller numbers, the crime of injury (15), human trafficking (2) ) and one more for kidnapping.

ACCOMPANYING OF SICARIOS

Security experts point out that while there has been an increase in the detention of women in high-impact crimes such as homicide and crimes against health, they have not yet reached leadership positions in the criminal organization charts. (Otis: La China is one but she was Baja California Sur)

Most of the time they are used to transport weapons in vehicles or to accompany a group of men who have just committed a robbery or homicide, in order to go unnoticed on board the vehicles in which they travel and so they are not checked by police .

 Jennnifer Rojas Soledad.

For example, there is the case of Joanna Jazmín Delgado, sentimental partner of Juan Manuel González Vega "El Quemado", one of the main killers identified in Tijuana and in prison since 2017.

The woman accompanied "El Quemado" when he was detained in the Terrazas del Valle colony with a 9-millimeter short gun and two .223 caliber handguns, for which he was charged for the crime of carrying a firearm.

It is the same case of Alexa Tello, girlfriend of Tomás Hernández Flores "El Apache", suspect of several homicides, member of the cell of "Los Erres" and drug dealer of the North Zone that accumulates more than 13 arrests in recent years.

Alexa was arrested with "El Apache" on October 21, 2017 in the Madero Sur neighborhood, with several doses of crystal , but as it was a crime for which pre-trial detention was not conducted informally, she was released.

The same happened with Ana Caren Cadillo and Tatiana Aguilar, apprehended with a 7.62 x 39 long caliber weapon and four 9-millimeter short weapons. They accompanied a group of men who identified themselves as part of a cell at the service of the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación (CJNG).

It is also the case of Jennifer Soledad Rojas, detained twice in 2017, the first for carrying weapons and the second for homicide. On August 16, she was captured for carrying a 9mm caliber handgun and an AR-15 .223 caliber assault rifle. When questioned, she said she was Álvaro Javier Franco's girlfriend "El Risas".

Weeks later, on October 6, she was apprehended for homicide in the colony Cañón de Las Palmeras, Delegación Playas de Tijuana. Again she was with her boyfriend and two other men, who had executed José Antonio Zárata Jarquín in a street.

The three men and the young woman were arrested in flagrante delicto by agents of the Municipal Police. Upon reviewing her belongings, the agents found inside her purse the weapon with which the execution was committed.

These circumstances are repeated with Wendy Yahaira González and Jessica Bonilla Morales, arrested in flagrante delicto with Víctor Manuel Bermúdez, after the murder of a man identified as José Diógenes de Jesús Gatica, on February 11, 2018.

Gloria Isabel Espinoza, "La Trexa".

At the time of their capture, the three were on board a vehicle in Las Huertas neighborhoods, the 9-millimeter firearm with which the victim was killed was located on the ground.

Tania Yiselt Fernández was also arrested for murder on April 30, 2017 at the Pacífico Industrial Park. She accompanied Agustín Villaseñor Hernández moments after executing one person and leaving another wounded. In the car they were traveling in, there was also the pistol with which the armed attack was committed.

While for participating in the killing of the ministerial agent Jesús Enrique Andrade Lugo, Celia Beatriz Pérez Aranda, 49, was arrested. On April 19, around 7:30 am, he was attacked with bullets in the Simón Bolívar Boulevard inside the Los Venados neighborhood.

Although Brayan Torres Torres was identified as the person who carried out the execution, the woman was arrested when she tried to flee with him aboard a Durango truck . According to a first interview, he explained that a group of people offered him $ 100 to pick up the vehicle from a street in the La Presa delegation and take three men, including Brayan, to " make a jale ."

In the history of Andrade Lugo as a public servant, is his detention as a suspect of kidnapping on June 9, 2016, when along with another former minister, Mario Alberto Ocampo Siveriano, was looking after a safe house where Candelario Arceaga Aguirre was kidnaped.

Arceaga Aguirre had been detained by members of the Army in June 2009 in the port of Ensenada and presented as operator of the drug dealer Teodoro García Simental, charges that were not granted to him.

On the other hand, also as companions, Norma Beatriz Arellano and Berenice Lorena Bustos appear. The first one, apprehended with a .223 caliber weapon, together with Abraham Aaron Parra, César Zepeda and Ismael Alejandro Galaviz, on January 6, 2018 in Los Olivos colony.

The second, also detained with a .223 long caliber weapon and a 9-millimeter short weapon, in the Xicoténcatl Leyva colony, on February 16. In addition to possession of a firearm, she was charged with trespassing together with a companion.

 "LA BETSY", FROM THE CÁRTEL DE SINALOA

One of the few women that appears as a leader in organized crime cells is Alma Mondragón Flores aka "La Betsy", "La Moñitos" or "La Güera".

According to information from the Attorney General's Office (PGR), this woman worked under the orders of brothers Francisco Javier "El Chapito" and José Luis Mendoza Uriarte "El Güero Chompas", through its operator José Loreto Capoema Rivera "El Versi".

Although still far below other cell leaders, "La Betsy" accumulated several arrests for crimes ranging from robbery with violence and possession of drugs, to carrying firearms.

Alma Mondragón Flores, "La Betsy".

On December 17, 2016, she was arrested for theft of a vehicle, on May 14, 2017 for possession of two 9-millimeter and .40-caliber handguns, as well as a 9-millimeter caliber handgun and 210 grams of crystal .

Prior to this, on February 17, 2014, she was arrested for robbery with violence; on March 12, 2007 for vehicle theft and in 2009 for firearm shooting. She was later arrested for possession of drugs: one in December 17, 2016 and June 14, 2017.

Despite being one of the main recidivists identified by the authority, she continues to obtain her freedom every time she is arrested.

Another example of women involved in high-impact crimes is Cinthia Mota Hernández, detained on June 1, 2017 along with three men, who were trying to get rid of a decapitated body in the Xicoténcatl Leyva colony.

They carried with them a narco cartulina with the message "here are your 4 pounds and you follow your parakeet" The Green Devil ", reason why authorities related the homicide with one more case of drug trafficking.

The woman, as well as Víctor Manuel Dávila, Carlos López Félix and Luis Antonio Valenzuela were put at the disposal of the ministerial authority for the crime of homicide. In 2008, Mota Hernández had already been arrested for robbery of a passerby and that same year she was served with an arrest warrant for theft.

For illegal deprivation of liberty, Alicia Zamora was arrested on July 31, 2017 in El Florido, along with Gerardo Reyes Reyes "El Lalo", Roberto Carlos Arroyo, Arturo Santos Tenorio "El Chucky" and Oscar Alejandro Sifuentes Mendiola "El Flaco "

The group were guarding someone that had been kidnapped inside a home, where they found bulletproof vests and a short weapon.

While in the North Zone, Gloria Isabel Espinoza Barrera "La Trexa" was arrested for ordering the homicide inside the Casa Refugio Mica, on November 17, 2017.

Weeks before, four people had been executed inside the place that functioned as a shelter, but that is now identified as the place of operation of the "Los Monos" cell, at the service of the Arellano Félix Cartel.

A man nicknamed "El Negro", whose face was disfigured due to beatings and handcuffs, was about to be executed when he was rescued by the authorities.

"La Trexa" admitted having ordered the homicide because the victim had stolen some tennis shoes inside the shelter and had sold them to someone else. Among the woman's criminal record, there are two arrests for possession of a firearm that date from July 1 and September 11, 2017.