El Marro's Family Bought Cows From Former Chihuahua Gov. César Duarte; He Wanted to Be a Cattle Rancher

 "stevectpa" for Borderland Beat; Milenio

El Marro's siblings laundered money with the fine cattle that the former governor of Chihuahua César Duarte Jáquez bought in Switzerland

A man hugs a heifer and shows her off to the camera: that's the last image of Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz ("El Marro") in full before his arrest. It shows the facet that he tried to develop but that could no longer culminate in the face of a large government crackdown: that of cattle rancher. The photograph was obtained by state intelligence sources and is in the possession of MILENIO newspaper.

It is presumed that it was taken in 2017, the year when El Marro wanted to become a cattle rancher. The image, according to a forensic analysis, was taken at a ranch located in the Torrecillas community in Villagrán, very close to Santa Rosa Municipality. El Marro's sibling’s bought the cattle from former Governor of Chihuahua, César Duarte Jáquez. MILENIO announced that Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) detected El Marro's money laundering network and its links to Duarte through the company Promotora Ganadera Campestre SPR de RL de CV. Duarte sold fine cattle for MXN$400,000 and MXN$150,000 to El Marro's brother Roberto and sister Karen.

The transfers were made in December 2018 via Banco de México's Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI). Guanajuato authorities confirmed to MILENIO that after the delivery of the cattle in Villagrán, El Marro personally came to supervise their quality and was so satisfied that he even photographed himself hugging one of the heifers. After detecting the exact location through intelligence work, state agents went to search the ranch and found heifers of the brahman and zebu breeds. The image shows the leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel with more weight than on the day of his capture; he was wearing a shirt in blue and white, blue jeans and black tennis shoes.

According to the UIF, El Marro presumably bought the cattle with the money obtained from the theft of fuel, extortion and kidnapping. However, these were not the only images that give a glimpse of El Marro's criminal empire. Unpublished videos, obtained by MILENIO, detail the beginning of the end of El Marro. On March 3 of this year, when the law enforcement campaign Operation Timón Coup began, El Marro was last seen in Santa Rosa Municipality. After his escape that morning, he never set foot there again.

Images of that night recorded by state authorities showed how El Marro's associates set vehicles, passenger buses, bicycles and motorcycles, tires and furniture on fire to prevent the access of security forces to the vicinity. In one of the videos, a state agent managed to record a crowd of people behind a burned vehicle. They were preventing security forces from entering Santa Rosa Municipality. The crowd included men, women and children. Investigators say that they were families that worked for El Marro.

That night, 720 state and 280 federal agents participated in the offensive to capture El Marro. After a four hour standoff, they managed to enter Santa Rosa Municipality. Although they could not arrest the leader of the cartel, they apprehended Jorge Enrique Peña Cuevas ("El Hulk"), an active policeman from Villagrán who was responsible for managing El Marro's bodyguards. They also captured Israel Lara Ruiz Castro ("Nacaro"), one of El Marro's most trusted men, and Martín Reyes Patiño ("Bala"), who was responsible for procuring firearms for the cartel in the U.S.