Blood for Blood: The History of “El Macho Prieto”

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Infobae

    Blood for blood: the story of "El Macho Prieto", the hitman who executed a son of "El Chapo"

He worked under the orders of "El Mayo" Zambada and "El Chapo" Guzmán himself, became one of the best assassins of the Sinaloa cartel, but one day he made a mistake for that which he would pay dearly.

Before the so - called “Culiacanazo”, on October 17 of this year, Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, had already lived a violent day in which for fear of being innocent victims of a war, the inhabitants decided to stay in their homes. The "Culiacanazo or Jueves Negro" was the day of the botched attempt to arrest Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of "El Chapo".

On May 8, 2008, in the parking lot of a shopping center, an armed commando executed three young men: Arturo Meza Cázares, son of Blanca Margarita Cázares Salazar, aka "The Empress", who had been designated by the United States government as the head of a money laundering network, a  product of the profits of the organization; César Ariel Loera Guzmán, and Édgar Guzmán López, 22 , son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.

The young men, all in their 20's, accompanied the girlfriend of one of them to a store where he would buy some groceries, and waited for her in the parking lot where they were surprised by hit men who ended their lives.

The lifeless body of Édgar Guzmán López, son of "El Chapo" Guzmán lying on the floor of a supermarket parking lot in downtown Culiacán, Sinaloa (Courtesy: Diario Noroeste)

A report by the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Mexico indicates that at least 500 AK-47 shots were fired that night , as well as one with bazooka that hit a sign on a wall, which caused panic among those who were currently shopping and the general public.

According to testimonies published by newspapers of the time, the young people were talking in the parking lot when they were surprised by the arrival in five vans with at least 20 men with bulletproof vests and long weapons.

The panic broke out when a loud bang was heard and the fire appeared on a sign on the upper wall of the mall, firing with a bazooka the gunmen had announced their arrival.

                                      Édgar Guzmán was executed at age 22 (Photo: Special)

There are two versions of the events: one that was a revenge of the Beltrán Leyva cartel and the other is that they were killed by mistake by the same sicarios of the Sinaloa Cartel, since the  darkness confused them with people from the Cartel de the Beltran Leyva who had by then ceased to be an ally of the criminal organization, the Sinaloa Cartel.

The murder of "El Chapo's" son had occurred in the context of the capture of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, "El Mochomo", in January 2008, which marked the rupture between the two cartels amid versions that 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera had delivered him.

The second version, it was noted that the attack was perpetrated by a cell of hitmen who was under the command of Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza, "El Macho Prieto'', chief of the gunmen of "El Mayo" Zambada.

The version is that "El Chapo" asked "El Mayo" to execute a young man by the nickname of "El Guacho", but the hitmen made a mistake and executed Édgar Guzmán López.

But the power of Inzunza Inzunza collapsed on May 8, 2008 when, as the commando in charge , he located the group of young people chatting in the City Market parking lot and reported it to his superiors. Data, questions and orders were crossed through the radios. The young people were confused with the opponents and the order to shoot was given.

From then on, life was complicated for "El Macho Prieto", who would have been protected by Ismael ''El Mayo" Zambada.  He had to leave the state to flee to Baja California and then to Sonora, where he remained until December 18, 2013, where, according to the weekly Zeta , he was shot down by elements of the Navy thanks to a betrayal of high command of the organization he worked for.

The monument in honor of Édgar Guzmán who remains in the parking lot where he was executed 

From heaven to hell: Inzunza Inzunza "El Macho Prieto"

His father, Don René Inzunza, was originally from La Vuelta, located five kilometers from the municipal seat and dedicated himself to the drug business when drug traffickers were still called gomeros.

From a middle-class family - he studied Primary and Secondary at the Sinaloa College, run by nuns - residing in the Guadalupe residential neighborhood, fate put him on the threshold of crime.

Born on August 17, 1970, he was a teenager when his father died. He left a Grand Marquis and a squad gun as inheritance. He fiddled with the gun until he decided that it should have some use. One night, during a house party, he killed a young man who was making fun of him. It was the first crime he committed. They were each at the ends of a table and Gonzalo Inzunza had his pistol held under the tablecloth. He let go five shots and the guy fell on his back with everything and chair, bathed in blood. The party ended and half an hour later elements of the Municipal Police arrived in a patrol car and took the body to throw it on the outskirts of the city. He was 19 years old.

Later he moved to the neighboring state of Sonora where he began to traffic drugs, but there, according to the weekly RioDoce newspaper, he became enemy with a drug dealer also from Sinaloa named Jesus René Delgadillo Meza. It was he who accused "El Macho Prieto" of stealing a ton of marijuana and a million and a half pesos.

Delgadillo Meza went to hide in Culiacán and  Inzunza arrived in 2001 to execute him along with a group of gunmen at a children's party, however, he managed to escape.  On June 15, 2001, in the Las Quintas neighborhood, a group of gunmen under his command broke into a children's party where René Delgadillo was and tried to kill him. Two police officers from the State Office of Private Protection and a young girl, Mirella Urquiza Benítez, died, but their enemy managed to escape.

Right: Jesus René Delgadillo Meza, Houston, Texas

When "El Mayo" Zambada learned about the revenge of ''El Macho Prieto" and arranged a meeting in which he offered to work for him with the Sinaloa cartel. “He worked for him for many years, but always with levels of autonomy that also allowed him to traffic drugs on his own. "El Mayo" called him "El Apache", because of the way he wore his hair, with a split in the middle and his brown skin, ” said Río Doce. 

On May 5, 2005, Gonzalo Inzunza would be admitted to the Oceanic rehabilitation clinic, located in Mazatlan. He had a strong drug addiction problem and wanted to solve it. He moved with a group of his gunmen to the Port city. The gunmen were traveling in a Jetta vehicle and a Ford Wolf truck, where they also carried an arsenal. They were arrested and the arsenal secured included a bazooka, two AK-47 rifles, two AR-15 rifles, one of which had a grenade launcher; three guns and seven grenades for rifle.

The detainees said they were called: Cándido Roche Ortiz, José Miguel Castro González, Alberto César Acosta Chaires, Fabían Montes Aragón and Abraham Alberto Salcedo Hernández, 20, 22, 23, 26 and 26, all from Culiacán.

They also secured 185 ammunition for "goat horn" rifle, 138 cartridges for AR-15 rifles, chests, several normal and disc magazines, in addition to dollars and various jewels. There are various versions of what happened there with the police and the charges, even who and how many were actually arrested.

                          August 17, 1970 - Dec 18, 2013  Killed in shootout in Puerto Peñasco

"El Macho Prieto" was blamed for more than 80 murders and at the time was designated by the United States government as one of the most dangerous criminals in Mexico. Gonzalo Inzunza had been placed on the Kingpin List   by the Treasury Department in 2011 together with Manuel Torres Felix.  At that time, the United States placed both characters as major traffickers in Sinaloa cartel structure.