The last trip of El 'Chino Antrax': Vengeance and Treason

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  RioDoce

The main door has both entrance and exit bullet impacts, a sign that there was resistance.  Chino was not alone: ​​late at night his sister Ada Jimena Aréchiga and his brother-in-law Juan García had arrived at the house. Minutes later the arrival of the commandos, the two men and the woman were forcibly removed and forced into  vehicles and receded. 

                                                         With Mayito Gordo

José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa was the last Anthrax remaining.

The others of his gang, died in clashes with federal forces or with the armed cells of Joaquín Guzmán Loera ... and in recent years with which his children command. And if two or three walk around like the Changuito, the Cheyo, the Monkey, the Cali, they are  integrated into another structure.

He never became more than a gunman. He took care of Ismael Zambada García's family. That was its function. He had hitmen, pointers, hawks, taking care of the Zambada family properties. Safe houses, vehicles, weapons, drugs for "the plebs".

He adopted the name Los Antrax to symbolize his apparent lethality. He commanded the  making of  northern corridos that elevated his figure far beyond what he really was.

He did not form a professional group of hitmen, nor did his hands spread around the world, as some apologies for his criminal record affirm. On the contrary, his influence was very “culichi” and the results were never good when he tried to get out of his control zone.

                                                       Tubutama, Sonora

There is the Tubutama massacre, Sonora, in whose shooting (2010) several (29) of his gunmen died in a confrontation against the Beltrán Leyva, once the war broke out inside the Sinaloa Cartel.

Chino Antrax did not know how to manage the power he had; he squandered it in sumptuous parties, in endless partying, in extravagant luxuries, in media shrillness using social networks, in champagne, branded clothing and footwear, cars, trips, gold plated weapons, live music even in his bedroom ... and women. What would later be called the “buchona show business” in Culiacán, is largely due to Chino Antrax.

He had no limits because those he had to protect. Photographs of him abound with the sons of Mayo Zambada. Ismael Zambada Imperial, the Mayito Gordo, arrested in November 2014 by the Navy, did not miss one of his parties. Like Serafín Zambada Ortiz, also prone to noisy environments and narcoglamour.

                                                                 Zambadas

Serafín was arrested in November 2013, at the pedestrian crossing in Nogales, Arizona, when he intended to cross the border with his wife Karime Ellameli Torres Acosta, daughter of Manuel Torres, El Ondeado, one of the most bloodthirsty drug traffickers that Sinaloa has had.

Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa fell five weeks later in Amsterdam. When the gunman arrived at Schiphol airport, police officers from that country were already waiting for him.

He first identified himself with a passport in the name of Norberto Sicairos García - who belonged to a friend of the gang who had already died - but the police went for him and identified him for who he really was.

Six months later, Chinese Antrax was extradited to the United States, where he was prosecuted in a San Diego court. But the trial was sealed and only the accusation and sentence were made public, not the details of the case.

El Chino reached plea agreements with the Prosecutor's Office. This is explained by the fact that he was punished with a minimum sentence of seven years in prison and that he had been sent to house confinement. According to indictment CR-4517-DMS, he was accused of drug, methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine trafficking. If he had defended himself and lost in court, he could have been sentenced to life in prison. But he pleaded guilty and then went on to collaborate with information, and was released on “supervised release”, and the privilege of being confined in a private home.

What interests affected, from which cartel, from which boss, that only he and the North American authorities knew. There are dozens of accusations leveled against many Mexican and Sinaloan drug traffickers in the courts of the United States, of which Aréchiga Gamboa had precise information that could strengthen the charges of the gringos.

The last trip

The Chino came straight to Culiacán. It is not known until now how it got there or if he was moving around and hiding in other houses.

The truth is that on the night of Friday the 16th, he received the visit of dozens of assassins who watched the house of Baltazar de Obregón 2804 all day long - one block from Francisco I. Madero and two blocks from Avenida Revolución, in the Guadalupe Victoria neighborhood- from one corner in a compact car and from the other, some guys on top of a truck . Chino was there several days there and as far as is known he had seen few people.

Some sources claim that he was already recruiting assassins.  Also that he had tens of millions (it is not specified whether in pesos or dollars) that “he needed to move”.

The visit came at 11:00 at night. They did not ring the bell, they blasted their weapons for a few minutes in causing the neighborhood to panic. Gunshots, rapid fire of 40-caliber rounds, grenades evoking screams.

The main door has both entrance and exit bullet impacts, a sign that there was resistance.

El Chino was not alone: ​​late at night his sister Ada Jimena Aréchiga and his brother-in-law

Juan García had arrived at the house. Minutes later upon the arrival of the commandos, the two men and the woman were forcibly removed and forced into the vehicles and receded.

After minutes of atrocious silence, 10, 20, 30, no one knows how, the "government" arrived: municipal, state, army police ... who only took notes and photos as they talked and talked and talked on their devices.

Considering the point where they were abducted and the point where they were found, the gunmen seemingly did not give them much thought. The SUV with the bodies was found on the road that leaves the highway to Sanalona, ​​–Francisco I. Madero connection –heading to the town of Ayuné. 

Straight line to an irrevocable destination: death. 

Whether or not he was wearing the gps monitor when he fled, that was not reported by the US Marshall, who is in charge of the custody of prisoners in the United States and to whom Riodoce asked. The DEA (Drugs Enforcement Agency) did not say anything either because since Chino fled he said that he would not talk about the case.

FBI agents have been in Culiacán disguised as attachés of anything from some American consulate, but you can't talk to them. Weird that DEA hasn't come. They were here recently. Before the Culiacanazo, supervising the destruction of drug labs and promising technological aid to the state government to fight drug trafficking. Or maybe because of that.

Reaping what has been sown   

In reality, Antrax was never a real or specific concern for the Mexican government, much less for the authorities of the United States. They were a band of cholos, almost all dead, some left here to save their skins, and the least are still active inside some structure of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Of the most relevant, Rafael Guadalupe Félix Núñez, El Changuito, had been detained by the Navy in November 2014, but escaped in March 2017 along with four other inmates from the Aguaruto prison, Culiacán, including a son of Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, aka El Azul, Juan José “El Negro” Esparragoza Monzón. (left)

Along with him also escaped Jesús “El 20” Peña González,  the security chief for “El Mayo”, and  of the highest hierarchy and never linked to the cells of Los Anthrax.

René Velázquez, known as Sergeant Phoenix, (below left)was killed by the Army in October 2016, during a confrontation in Culiacán. José Carlos López, the Cali, was injured in the same confrontation,  and after he had recovered,  his whereabouts were no longer known.

Others of lesser hierarchy died in confrontations with Joaquín Guzmán's cells, when  he was still around. While he shared the bread and salt with his friend Mayo Zambada, doing business together.  Irrational attacks on crowds on volleyball courts or on the streets in broad daylight left gunmen and innocents scattered in a war that no one ever understood.

José Miguel Arano Montaño, El Monkey, was also detained by the Navy, just when they apprehended Changuito. Two days earlier, Ismael Zambada Imperial had been detained at Ranchito de los Burgos, a community near El Salado. When the three bodies appeared in the BMW, near Ayuné, it was originally said that one of them was the Monkey.

Eliseo Imperial was with him when a Navy operative arrived. But he was not arrested.

In September 2016, the United States Department of the Treasury designated  four Mexicans for allegedly engaging in drug trafficking and money laundering in the service of the Sinaloa Cartel.

One of those indicated is Eliseo Imperial Castro, the Cheyo Antrax.

Note:

WASHINGTON – On Friday September 23, 2016 the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated four Mexican nationals, pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act).  Eliseo Imperial Castro, a.k.a. “Cheyo Antrax,” Alfonso Lira Sotelo, a.k.a. “El Atlante,” Javier Lira Sotelo, a.k.a “El Hannibal” or “El Carnicero,” and Alma Delia Lira Sotelo have been designated for their narcotics trafficking and money laundering in support or on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel and/or its high-ranking members.  As a result of today’s action, all assets of those designated that are within U.S. jurisdiction or in the control of U.S. persons are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

“Eliseo Imperial Castro’s and Alfonso Lira Sotelo’s narcotics trafficking and money laundering activities serve to expand the Sinaloa Cartel’s influence into California,” said OFAC Acting Director John E. Smith.  “In conjunction with the Government of Mexico, OFAC will continue to aggressively target narcotics traffickers, the laundering of their illicit proceeds, and those who participate in advancing their criminal activities.”

Cheyo, Mayito Gordo and Chino Antrax

The Southern District of California has charged Eliseo Imperial Castro and Alfonso Lira Sotelo with several narcotics trafficking violations involving methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and money laundering.  OFAC is designating Eliseo Imperial Castro for materially assisting, supporting, providing services to, and/or acting for or on behalf of his uncle, Ismael Zambada Garcia, and/or the Sinaloa Cartel.