“El 80” Tied to the Murder of Miroslava Breach

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: knightscenter.edu

May 26, 2018

See Otis' Post Re: "El 80" from May 18, 2018
and my Post Re: Sonora / Chihuahua  Narco Confrontations from: May, 2018
Material from: El Heraldo de Chihuahua

Mexican authorities arrested Arturo Quintina, known as “El 80,” an alleged drug trafficker suspected of ordering the March 2017 murder of journalist Miroslava Breach, according to El País.

"El 80", arrested on May 17, 2018 in the mountainous  area of ​​Chihuahua by elite elements of the Army and Federal Police (PF) and transferred to Cefereso Number 1, Altiplano, is accused of threatening the journalist Miroslava Breach Valducea, who was  murdered the March 23, 2017.

In addition, he is one of the most sought after criminals of DTO's by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the main generator of violence in the state.

According to a statement from the Mexican Secretariat of the Interior (Segob), Quintana is "the main generator of violence in the state of Chihuahua," which is on the border with the United States. Investigations by Mexican officials indicate him as being responsible for drug trafficking from Mexico to the U.S., and so "is one of the most wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI in the United States.”

The statement from Segob does not mention Breach’s murder. However, as noted by El País, authorities found a "card" alongside Breach’s body after she was killed that was allegedly signed by "El 80".

Breach investigated links between drug traffickers and Mexican politicians in the state. Twenty days before she was murdered, she published a report denouncing how the two most important parties in Mexico, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the National Action Party (PAN), presented candidates related to organized crime for mayor in several municipalities in the region.

She stated that Silvia Mariscal Estada, Arturo Quintana's mother-in-law, would be the candidate of the PRI in Bachíniva, and pointed out that he had already imposed the candidacy of Ramón Alonso Enríquez Mendoza in Namiquipa.

Breach was shot eight times in her car in front of her house on March 23, 2017.

In addition to the note found beside her body, in April of 2017, a second "note" indicating that Quintana was responsible for Breach’s murder was found alongside the body of a murdered man, also in Chihuahua, El Diario reported. The note said that the executed man had murdered the journalist on orders from "El 80."

The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE, for its acronym in Spanish) discarded the two notes as “distractions,” El Diario reported.

                                                                          "El Larry "

At the end of December, Mexican authorities arrested Juan Carlos Moreno Ochoa, known as "El Larry," linked to the criminal group Los Salazares, which operates in the region and is associated with the Sinaloa Cartel, according to La Jornada. 

"El Larry" Moreno was accused of intentional homicide after prosecutors established that he oversaw Breach's execution by Ramón Andrés Zavala Corral, who was allegedly killed in December by Los Salazares criminal group in Sonora, near Chínipas; as reported by Proceso.

In her report on organized crime candidates, Breach stated that the candidate who would appear for the PRI in Chínipas was Juan Miguel Salazar, nephew of Adán Salazar, leader of Los Salazares. According to Proceso, the article's publication forced the PRI to change its candidates in Chínipas and Bachíniva.

In late April, a judge at the Superior Court of Justice of Chihuahua ruled that the investigation into the murder of the journalist should move from the State Attorney General's Office to the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR), according to Animal Político. The judge ruled on the basis that the Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression (Feadle), an agency of the PGR responsible for investigating crimes committed against journalists, should attract the case.

"The Special Prosecutor for the Investigation of Organized Crime (SEIDO) reported that the Special District Judge in the Accusatory Criminal System of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in the State of Mexico, based in Almoloya de Juárez (Altiplano), qualified as legal the detention of Carlos Arturo 'Q' and ratified the precautionary measure of preventive detention against him, "he said.

It was added that the judge granted three months for the closing of the complementary investigation, for which Carlos Arturo "Q", ''El 80" will continue to be held in Cefereso Número 1, located in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico.

"El 80", Carlos Arturo "Q" was the most violent criminal leader in recent years in Chihuahua. He was born in a small town called El Pacifico and achieved fame within the Juarez Cartel for being responsible for dozens of homicides.

Northern Mexicans, ie Nortenos ,  and  affiliated groups give credit to the  power in the northwest area of ​​the Sonora , as evidenced by 6 "corridos" composed for him from 2014 to date, which qualifies and denotes him as a man of honor, sincere, intelligent, clever, a good shot and relentless with his enemies.

His arrest was carried out in Namiquipa, an area in which Narcos  established and have maintained a tight control for at least 50 years.

In the State of Chihuahua he was responsible for attacks on police commanders, the death of several ministerial agents , which led to a confrontation against members of the Army in 2009 that left 21 people dead.