La Perra's Murder Investigation in Tijuana: They Killed Him for Flipping from the Sinaloa Cartel to the CJNG

"Morogris" for Borderland Beat

High-ranking cartel member Filiberto Parra Ramos ("La Perra") was murdered in Tijuana last month. Cartel members who switch sides are known as chapulines (grasshoppers).

"They killed him for leaving the Sinaloa Cartel and joining the CJNG", explained a Baja California state investigator regarding the murder of Filiberto Parra Ramos (alias "La Perra"), which occurred on the afternoon of April 30, 2021, in Tijuana.

"There are solid indications that La Perra contacted members of the CJNG based in Jalisco," he added.

La Perra, together with Teodoro García Simental ("El Teo", imprisoned) and Raydel López Uriarte ("El Muletas", released), was a part of the Tijuana and/or Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF), but left the group and joined the Sinaloa Cartel. This split marked the rise of the Sinaloa Cartel in the Baja California area, but it also triggered a war that took hundreds of lives between 2007 and 2011.

La Perra's mother, who officially helped recognize the body, said that she did not know that her son was back in Baja California because she only spoke with him by phone. Local authorities confirmed that they were following him since his return three years ago, and then closely monitored since November 2020.

According to state investigators, six months ago, La Perra organized the kidnapping of a metal merchant in Guaycura borough in Tijuana. The kidnappers asked for MXN$1 million, but they later came to an agreement and handed over MXN$25,000.

Authorities were investigating his possible involvement in the kidnapping of a doctor last March in Mariano Matamoros borough.

"La Perra was running his own show [and] beginning to build his criminal structure", an investigator said.

He sold and bought cars because he was doing business with a friend with whom he had a junk yard before he was captured in 2009.

Neither Parra nor his wife had a registered job or legal business, but they lived in a “comfortable” way in a rented house in the Agua Caliente area in Tijuana.

On Friday, April 30, the body of La Perra was found in the middle of a pool of blood, face up, and with the right part of his head destroyed by bullets.

He was killed at an auto shop located in 8912 Avenida Los Pinos, between Rosarito and Callejón San Quintín Streets in the Pinos de Narez neighborhood.

Officers confirmed that when they arrived at the business, they found "... a white-skinned male wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt, black and green sports shoes, with injuries to the head region."

La Perra (right) in custody during his 2009 arrest

Witnesses at the scene explained to the officers that the man was known as "Mario" by the employees of the business. They said that when he arrived, two men in a red motorcycle followed him to the establishment and killed him.

"A gunman got off the motorcycle, entered the premises and shot him", a witness said. The two suspects then fled at full speed to an unknown destination.

Investigators confirmed that the killers used a 9mm pistol to kill La Perra. The weapon had not been used in previous murder cases.

Mario Alberto Gómez Zamudio, as La Perra was known, was the false identity created by his wife Paola Cruz Capuchino, the woman that La Perra registered in legal documents for at least seven years while he was behind bars.

At the car workshop where the crime was committed, the police secured a red GMC Envoy truck with California license plates, which La Perra had put up for sale three days before he was killed.

On Saturday, May 1, his mother and aunt identified him as Filiberto Parra Ramos, age 40. They took a birth certificate to the local morgue to confirm their kinship. Authorities, however, did not hand over La Perra's body for three days because they waited full confirmation from prison authorities, who had his fingerprints and other relevant information.

Background

Baja California authorities implicated him in many murders, including 13 that took place in a April 26, 2008 shooting La Mesa Delegation in Tijuana.

In addition, he was being investigated for the murders of Federal Investigatory Agency (AFI) officials Manuel Alejandro Arellano Figueroa and Guillermo Cuautle Hernández, perpetrated on April 17 of the same year in Tecate, among other executions.

However, none of these accusation were ever proven in court.

Arrested in June 2009 and accused of organized crime, La Parra was admitted to the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya de Juárez, State of Mexico. He was moved around several prisons in Mexico due to his "bad actions and attitudes" and because he was considered a "highly dangerous" prisoner.

He was imprisoned for 7 years and promoted more than 40 legal motions demanding better treatment from the prison authorities.

These motions also included the signatures of other high-profile drug traffickers, including: Miguel Ángel Guzmán Loera, Édgar Valdez Villarreal ("La Barbe"), Mario Alberto Cárdenas Medina, Armando Valencia Cornelio ("El Maradona"), Erick Valencia Salazar ("El 85"), Alcides Ramón Magaña ("El Metro"), Eduardo Arellano Félix, and Teodoro García Simental.

On June 2017, prison authorities confirmed to Zeta Tijuana reporters that La Perra was released from prison. In October and November of that year, state authorities received information confirming that La Perra had resumed his cartel activities in Baja California.

Source: Zeta Tijuana (1); (2); (3)