The New "Pool House" of "El Marro", Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima: Hiding in Plain Sight

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Vanguardia

                The property is located within the community of San José in Celaya, Guanajuato:

This is the 'Pool House', the paradise of ''El Marro'' ... the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato. This "pool house" (thus baptized) should not be confused with another mansion, with a pool and palapa, also owned by  "El Marro" , which was seized in March this year and whose images were then disclosed.

Through photographs taken by authorities of the government of Guanajuato, disseminated exclusively by El Universal in the Carlos Loret de Mola column , a residence is shown that “looks more like a club than a house”.

In the town of San José de Guanajuato, 20 minutes from downtown Celaya and 4 hours from Mexico City, the "pool house" seems to be alone and abandoned. It is an ostentatious, but uninhabited paradise. Its owner is one of the most wanted men by the Ministry of Security, the Army and the Navy.

José Antonio Yépez Ortiz , aka " El Marro ", who is the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and the most relevant criminal in the crime of huachicol, as he is called in Mexico to the theft of large-scale fuel.

Since December, the Mexican government has proposed the dismantling of this organization as a top priority. However, in the purest style of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, "El Marro" managed to escape several times through a series of tunnels that connected four properties, and so far, the Government has not been able to stop it.

Although "El Marro" has been dedicated to fuel theft for a decade, it gained notoriety in October 2017, after sending a strong warning to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Since then, the bloody war between the two groups for the control of Guanajuato has plunged the state into the most violent period in its recent history .

The house, recently discovered by the authorities, has seven swimming pools on platforms of different levels, large gardens, interiors with finely worked wood walls and some opulent ornaments such as the lion sculpture that rests at the main entrance.

This luxurious house, which has a plot with 7 pools, large gardens, and interiors with walls, light wood ceilings, lounge chairs, umbrellas and bushes cut with designs , is the house of José Antonio Yépez Ortiz , aka “El Marro” , leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato and the manager of the huachicoleo in the "red triangle."

“El Marro” is identified as the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel , named because it is presumed that Yépez Ortiz is from that municipality of Guanajuato; the location of the new identified property has no visible number, so it is located on a neighborhood dirt road that makes a corner to the north with the private street Renovación, two kilometers north of San José de Guanajuato Avenue, in the community San José Guanajuato, belonging to Celaya.

Just yesterday, columnist  Héctor de Mauleón , published in his column about how “El Marro” managed to escape during an operation carried out last March by some thousand federal and state elements.

By: Carlos Loret de Mola:

The most important "huachicolero" leader in the country had a paradise for his personal enjoyment. A country house with seven pools on platforms of different levels, large gardens, and interiors with walls and ceilings of light wood that ends in a bar with what appears to be a space for cooking. Between the pools there is a bridge, green areas and a palm tree. Lounge chairs, umbrellas and shrubs cut with design. Finished the sculpture of a lion.

The photographs we present today exclusively, captured by government authorities in  Guanajuato , whose elite body seized the mansion a few weeks ago in an operation, show a residence that looks more like a club than a house.

The federal and state governments have located  José Antonio Yépez Ortiz alias “El Marro” , and named him as the main "huachicolero" of Mexico, leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, thus identified because he allegedly has his stronghold in the Guanajuato municipality of the same name.

It is attributed to him that executions in that state were sixfold, between 2017 and 2018. This year they have fallen, but barely.  The government of Guanajuato , its Prosecutor's Office, also the Ministry of Security, as well as the Army and Navy, have as a priority breaking this cartel since December last year.

In the official report of the Guanajuato authorities, to which I had access, it is noted that the house has no visible number, so they locate it as follows: “On a dirt road, which is on the north corner of the street Private Renovation, and is located 2 kilometers north of San José de Guanajuato Avenue, in the community of San José de Guanajuato, which belongs to Celaya ”.

According to the intelligence report I had access to, the paradisiacal property is next to an imdustrial trailer parking lot that is entered through a blue gate . It is an allegedly facade/ shell  company, used by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel to launder money from its profits from stolen fuel traffic.

This "pool house" (thus baptized) should not be confused with another mansion, with a pool and palapa, also owned by  "El Marro" , which was seized in March this year and whose images were then disclosed.

The federal and Guanajuato authorities have access to the same intelligence information. I have spoken with high-level sources of both instances and they agree that their expectation is that   “El Marro” will fall in a matter of days, but they also downplay his capture, since they ensure us that the important thing is the weakening of the structure of the organization criminal. Its leader, these sources tell me, is already living in a slaughterhouse, hiding in houses that change every one or two days, even sleeping in caves where he seeks to evade the action of authorities. 

With information from Radio Formula and El Universal and Infobae