Baja California: BC Boss recruits youth to fight in the Ruso vs Nini Sinaloa war

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat   TY GUS  Zeta Tijuana Sin Embargo

The division within the criminal structure of the Sinaloa Cartel between “Los Chapitos”, as the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera and Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix, alias “El Ruso”, Lieutenant of Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, created constant confrontations that culminated in the shooting of El Tepuche, north of Culiacán, Sinaloa. In the 16 victims accounted for in this attack, the death of five young people who are between 18 and 23 years old, residents of the eastern zone and the Mexicali Valley, where Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozano “El Omega” - one of the most faithful lieutenants of El Ruso,  - stood out- he directs drug trafficking operations.

Tijuana, Baja California, July 14 (Zeta) .– The scenario within the Sinaloa Cartel was never the same since the “Culiacanazo”. That October 17, 2019, when the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, submitted to the armed power of “ Los Chapitos”, who for a few hours caused a state of siege in Culiacán as a pressure mounted to demand the release of Ovidio Guzmán López - one of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera's youngest children - began to cause a break within the largest known criminal structure in Mexico.

Some of the hitmen of "El Ruso" joined the ranks of "Los Chapitos", others fled, but his great armed power has kept him firm to fight for the North of Culiacán, where he currently takes refuge from the harassment of opponents and from the state, which has reinforced the military presence in the area due to the constant clashes.

One of the men who remained in the ranks of "Los Rusos” is Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozano "El Omega", in charge of controlling drug-trafficking operations in much of the valley and metropolitan area of Mexicali, specifically in the large residential complex marginalization known as “Los Pueblas”, to the east of the city, whose nickname originates because most of the communities are named after that entity.

Thirty years old, originally from Culiacán, Sinaloa, and with his last house search in the San Marcos de Mexicali neighborhood, “El Omega” has supported his boss “El Ruso” in this fight, to the extent of equipping him with men, mostly young people from 18 to 23 years old who are given weapons to protect their territory and fight.

These were the characteristics of the five young Mexicans killed in the community of El Tepuche, located 20 kilometers north of Culiacán on June 24, when a confrontation between hitmen from "Los Chapitos" and "El Ruso", left as a balance 16 people dead.

Intelligence sources have defined "El Omega" as the main generator of violence in the Valle and Oriente area of Mexicali.

THE MATCH

When the shooting of El Tepuche and Bagrecitos took place on June 24, there was already a trail of confrontations between "Los Chapitos" and "Los Rusos", from confiscations of weapons, drugs and vehicles, to "levantones", shootings and homicides recorded day by day in that area.

Audios of verbal confrontations between members of both groups have been published on social networks, stating that a kind of amnesty will be given to everyone who wants to join the Guzmán brothers, with the exception of “El Ruso” and “El Omega”, who they will not spare their lives. While local media reports indicate that an armed group arrived that day and began shooting at people on the street, killing three individuals. Later they broke into a ranch where they ended the lives of eight people.

While this was taking place in Bagrecitos, on the highway to El Tepuche - separated by 26 kilometers of road and mountain range - there was another attack against a recent model, white, four-door Nissan Hilux pick-up vehicle, in which they were traveling the young residents of Mexicali; most carried heavy-caliber weapons and tactical equipment.

After the ambush, their bodies were laid out around the unit; the faces of several of them were disfigured by high-powered projectile impacts.

Little could be known about them, except that the first was 18 years old, studied at Cecyte High School and who had no criminal record.  In his social network Facebook it can be seen that he led a normal life for a young teen.

Neither Salvador nor Óscar Iván were wanted as criminal targets of the Baja California authorities, but they were recruited and killed in Culiacán, when they were passing through one of the hottest areas of Sinaloa.

THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF “EL OMEGA”

"Like ying and yang, like black and white, they will see me either in the mountains or the desert/I'm from Culiacán, with the Rusos you don't play, less with Alpha and Omega, Mexicali is the border and I'm going to take care, El Sombrero will not move ”.

This is a fragment of the song "El Omega" by the northern group Revolver Cannabis (2018), which is presumed to be dedicated to Barajas Lozano, where he is recognized as a member of "Los Rusos", in addition to "taking care" of this municipality under the support of "El Sombrero", another nickname given to Ismael "Mayo" Zambada in various narco-runs.

Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozano no longer seems to have the backing of “Mayo”, but he still remains under the command of José Alexander Sánchez Félix “El Ruso”, who has become involved in a battle with the Guzmán brothers, so his criminal activity has it divided into supporting it and protecting the Plaza de Mexicali, recruiting young people and cleaning non-aligned drug dealers. In the Valley and the eastern part of the city, a clean-up has been started for about a year and a half, which has been flared in recent months.

Elements of the State Security and Investigation Guard (GESI) responded to the flare-up of the violence and began operations with which they dismantled a cell of alleged hitmen, all of whom were young, but with a significant criminal record.

Among them Brayan Eduardo Angulo Rojo, known as “El Brayan”, 23 years old, arrested for the murder of the agent of the defunct State Ministerial Police, Jesús Rafael Valenzuela Chávez, on July 29, 2019 in the municipality of Tecate, and by that of César Antonio Meza Blanco, perpetrated on May 15 in the El Zafiro subdivision, in the same Oriente area.

Meza Blanco was located as one of the operators of Jaime Cárdenas Pérez, known as “El Viejón”, one of the main drug dealers in the “Los Pueblas” area, who was shot down on May 2 after being fired on from the back with an R -15 outside his house.

The participation of Juan Miguel Villegas Moreno "El Chuky" is added to the killer cell where "El Brayan" operated; Ángel Ulises Valenzuela Rojo, 18 years old; and Cristian Emanuel Ibarra Jaime, of the same age; the last two have already been arrested for their participation in several homicides committed in the same East Zone.

According to intelligence, Meza Blanco was assassinated in response to the shooting down of Juan Carlos Rendón Solano "El Oso", a resident of the Valle de Puebla subdivision, who was part of the "El Omega" operators in the area.

From March to date, several crimes were registered in this part of the city, most of them attributed to the struggles of drug dealers with the armed wing of Barajas Lozano.

THE IDENTIFICATION OF “EL OMEGA” OPERATORS

Above these young hitmen who are practically "disposable" for the drug cartels, there is "El Omega" operators who distribute their operations in the Valle and Oriente areas.

Its armed wing is Maximiliano Aispuro Álvarez “El Max”, originally from Culiacán, Sinaloa, who has been repeatedly detained for crimes against health, in addition to carrying a firearm. However, he has managed to regain his freedom on each of those occasions.

In the same situation is Ricardo González Valles, 24, known as "El Tatuado", "El Rica" and / or "El Corico", a drug dealer who worked with Vicente Martínez González "El Guilo", but as a result of various differences he changed sides to join the operations of "El Omega". He is now one of the drug distributors in the Oriente and Valle zones.

The criminal history of "El Rica" dates back to 2008, when he was arrested for vehicle theft twice that same year and in 2009; He was also apprehended for crimes against health by the extinct Preventive State Police (now GESI) for a fight in 2012; for faults on the side in 2014; for qualified injuries in 2015; and for the crime of injuries against minors and damage to other people's property in 2017.

Another of the alleged distributors are Luis Donaldo Medel Orozco, 25, detained with 83 grams of methamphetamine and a .25 caliber firearm by the PEP, while driving on a van with strobes in the Golden Zone of Mexicali.

According to information from the State Cyber Police, Luis Donaldo uses a page on the Facebook social network called Oneweek Driving School to offer drugs.

Through the work of this police group, his capture was achieved, but he was released soon after.