CDS Investigated for Killing of 3 Innocent Vineyard Workers near Tijuana

"HEARST" from Borderland Beat 

Roughly 550 yards away from the US-Mexico border in Baja California, the bodies of three vineyard workers were found inside a decrepit building. All three had bullet wounds on the back of their heads, the signature of a prototypical execution. Law enforcement is investigating the Sinaloa Cartel’s local group, led by El Max, in connection to this triple homicide and it isn’t the first time this group has been suspected of executing a civilian in the same area. 

The triple murder occurred in Valle Redondo, a Baja California region in-between the cities of Tijuana and Tecate. The Redondo area is vast and largely uninhabited although it is dotted throughout by the ranches La Uvas, La Escondida, El Remolino and land owned by the Dart company. The land falls right below the US-Mexico border and in sections, the double mesh of the border wall ends allowing those willing to trek out there passage through. 

Valle Redondo is currently being used by human smugglers as a crossing point across the border as it is reportedly unmonitored on both sides. This area is also alleged to be used for drug smuggling and is hotly contested by competing cartels. Residents and workers said they have been especially afraid to go out onto the land of Valle Redondo for the last few years due to the danger of armed men and the looming threat of violence. 

Image of four migrants who were rescued by Grupo Beta in 2020 after they were injured trying to cross the border in the area behind Rancho Las Uvas.

"The strangest thing is that this happens every day at all hours, and neither the Mexican nor the U.S. authorities do anything, so we don't know which way to turn, we have asked for patrols and operations in the ranches, but nothing," commented the locals.

It has only been getting worse. In the last four months, employees with decades of experience working in Valle Redondo ranches have been resigning from their jobs and moving away due to being threatened by criminal elements. The ranch owners have been unable to fill their empty positions as applicants are too afraid of the area. In fact, one of the three men who was found executed had actually just been promoted to become "administrator-capatz" because no one was willing to take the job out of fear. 

At 6am on the morning of May 27 2021, three workers, who prune vines on the grape vineyards of Rancho Las Uvas, traveled out to a creek in Vista Valle, in order to turn on an irrigation pump and fill some containers with water. Workers Uriel Mora Vidal, Dagoberto Escalante Olivas and Juan Cuahua Tlehuactle rode out by tractor towards the south. 

At some point in the morning, the three men's relatives saw a gray pickup truck driving through Rancho Las Uvas fields with men inside carrying long barrel firearms. The relatives took shelter inside buildings for the sake of safety. 

Shortly before 11:00 am the relatives grew worried as the men still had not returned and they travelled out looking for them. They travelled south and found the men’s tractor, but the water container were still unfilled. Almost as soon as the relatives found the tractor, they heard gunshots ring out in the valley. They ran back to their houses and immediately called ranch security personnel who in turn called the emergency services line to request help. 

A family member of one of the men called one of the victims and the phone actually picked up. The family member said they could hear his voice but they did not understand what he was saying, followed by the laughter of an unknown woman and then the call was disconnected. 

Around 12:20 pm, residents in the area spotted a gray pick-up driving around the ranch with an approximately 22 year old woman inside.

Map from Zeta Weekly.

National Guard (NG) members and Municipal Police responded to the report from the emergency line, driving out to Rancho Las Uvas. Residents of the ranch told reporters that, curiously, when the officers and soldiers arrived at the ranch, they didn’t approach from the main entrance but instead took the same entrance that the criminal groups always took, from behind the factory, dodging the view of security cameras. After two hours of searching the surrounding area and having found nothing, the National Guard and Municipal Police left the area.  

At approximately 5:00pm, the mother in law of one of the three missing men received a mysterious phone call. The person on the line told her “Don’t even look for them there. They are in the creek.”

Rancho La Uvas administrators called and specifically requested that GESI and FGE agents, rather then National Guard and Municipal police come out and search for the missing men based on the information they received from the mysterious caller. Strangely, the Municipal police report finding the dead bodies of the men inside a black building, partially in ruins, located on a country road in Rancho El Remolino shortly after this call was made.

By 7:40 pm, FGE crime scene investigators made it out to the location and found the three men lying face down with gunshot wounds only in the back of the head. According to the positions of their bodies and blood spatter analysis, they were standing facing towards a wall when they were shot in from behind by a short barrel gun. According to the FGE's ballistic analysis, the weapon or pistols used against the workers had not been used in a previous crime in Baja California.

Friends of the three deceased workers are adamant that they were uninvolved in crime and were doing their normal tasks on the ranch. "They should not have lost their lives when they were only doing their work", and claimed with their passing "They leave three families helpless".

These friends acknowledged they lived and worked in a community very affected by violence, "but we do not understand why they deprived them of their freedom and took their lives".

The primary hypothesis of investigators currently is that a group of human/drug smugglers killed the three men because they mistook them for rival traffickers. The investigators suggested that the perpetrators mistook them due, in part, to being high on drugs and unable to think clearly. This hypothesis may seem like a stretch based on unfounded speculation however investigators may have suggested this because last year, in this exact same area, it was the motive and manner behind the murder of a US official. 

On September 30 2020, Edgar Flores Santos, who worked on research of wildlife health at the US Department of Agriculture went missing in the vicinity of Rancho Las Uvas. By October 1 2020, he was found dead in the so-called “Chupacabras" canyon of Valle Redondo.

The same day Flores Santos’ body was found, a member of the Sinaloa cartel named Juan Carlos "N" (24 years old) was arrested on suspicion of his involvement in the homicide. Once detained, Juan Carlos admitted to belonging to a CDS cell dedicated to human trafficking and that they had confused the American for law enforcement based on his appearance and his pick-up truck. Over the next year, three more CDS cartel members from this group would be arrested who were suspected of being involved in the murder of Edgar Flores Santos. 

Local law enforcement have made clear their primary suspects are members of the CDS cell led by Edwin Antonio Rubio Lopez alias El Max, however it should be noted that the charts created by the Baja California Security Coordination Table, suggest three criminal groups have a presence in the Valle Redondo area. These three are: the aforementioned CDS group, a group led by Daniel Isaac Ortiz Ortiz Covarrubias, alias El Moreno and a group led by Manuel Rodríguez García alias El Profe.

El Moreno is a former CJNG member who has since had a famous falling out with the group. His current cartel affiliations are often speculated about but they are ultimately unknown at this time. 

Manuel Rodríguez García alias "El Profe" is called the “king of the pepenadores”, or “king of the scavengers”. Pepenadores sort through landfill trash for recyclable materials and turn them in for money. El Profe claims to be only a union leader for the pepenadores, however Baja law enforcement have indicated since as early as 2015, that he is also involved with drug trafficking in the Valle Redondo area. 

Meanwhile, El Max’s base of operations is in Las Villas, almost 7 kilometers from Rancho Las Uvas. However, according to statements by his accomplices who have been detained, Max controls groups that commit crimes from the La Presa and Presa Rural districts in Tijuana all the way to Tecate. Max has been implicated in a 2020 quadruple homicide in Tecate so his reach appears to extend beyond even Valle Redondo. 

Sources & Photo Credit: Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Horizonte Informativo, MX Politico, La Jornada, Diario Tijuana, AFN Tijuana, El Sol