"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.
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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.
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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
Hey did you guys hear about the money laundering indictment in the US?? Chinese and mexican underworld.
ReplyDeletePLEASE TELL US
DeleteDID YOU KNOW I HAVE 8 MILLION DOLLAR HOME
BC ASSESSMENT. so damn strange to have $389,000 debit balance.cottage
#sunshinecoast worth 1.5 million #woodgundy dont me well.GAUDYblkMKANADA
Not surprised about these cartel fags
ReplyDeleteBUT,,,BUT,,,,, CDS DOESN'T KILL INNOCENTS......
ReplyDeleteHow dare anyone write CDS kills innocents! Im appalled
ReplyDeleteI said this in a post a while back CDS, lots of friends and family in Baja been saying CDS has changed and is killing lots if innocents and charging piso to business owners! CDS is Zetas 2.0
ReplyDeletesería Zetas 3.0 el 2.0 es cjng
DeleteSt. Mencho the 1st,
ReplyDeletePlease protect thee who cant defend theyselves, be our light in the darkness brought upon us by thy snitches, ye strengthen us o' powerful mencho
Amen,
Amen
DeleteAmen
DeleteAmen
DeleteImpossible, CDS doesn't harm civilians
ReplyDelete@sicaria006 this is the trash that you cheerlead for. By the way why do all snitchaloa cartel members wear skinny jeans??
ReplyDelete@10:15 Sicario 006 is a troll, are you that slow.
Delete@12:13 is the same stupid asshole that is always using, @@@@, emojis,smh,SMH, terms like, "look buddy". THIS is the loser that lives in his mamas basement and has never been laid. This dick makes shit comments on here day and night.
DeleteDoes Tijuana have street gangs like cd juarez mexicles aztecas AA empresa or is Tijuana just major cartels?
ReplyDeleteTj is infamous for street gangs ... you are 10 times more likely to run into a loco tijuanero before you spot a big cartel guy ... but they all work together kinda like they do in Juarez
DeleteYea, there are THOUSANDS of deported gang bangers THAT just got STUCK in TIJUANA so they sell drugs and kill for CARTELS to make a living.
DeleteAztecas Mexicles and AA in Juarez are prison gangs. Not street gangs.
DeleteThe Empresa punks are the ones hiring kids as young as 14 years old off the street to do their work and are getting killed in the name of that gang and Linea cartel that formed them.
This cant be! Cds are the good guys! Cjng are the bad guys! Jajajjajajaja pinches snitchloas son igual que wl cjng! Theres no good guys in any cartel!!
ReplyDeleteTijuana gangsters are crazy!
ReplyDeleteMexico is like US mafia wars in the 20s 30s
ReplyDeleteLmao the us never been violent like Mexico. Fucking soft ass countries. Mafias ain’t killing like cartels are bitch boy
DeleteSinaloa cartel and CJNG are the most ruthless and powerful criminal organizations in the world!
ReplyDeleteFuck CDS fucking baby killer cartel fucking sissies
ReplyDelete"Aww,and the US looks on and does nothing"
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was the CIA cause we all KNOW the CIA cause all the trouble in mexico.How dare they put a wall up?
Mod,moderate comments that suit,this one is easy
You're so right! Those thousands of cartel members are all actually federal agents of the US government in disguise! It is completely impossible that these people are real cartel members perpetrating the industrial scale slaughter of their fellow citizens for personal gain.
DeleteThank you good sir, for informing us with literally every single article, that the only crimes that have ever been committed by anyone worldwide were of course perpetrated by the US government.
If only the US government had some way to print their own money or something. 🤔 Then those evil, white, MEN could stop destroying other countries just to steal THEIR money!
Death to the colonizers!
This has been a public service announcement brought to you by...
- Lefty McShitbag
. (he, him, his)
and don't fuck up my pronouns or anyone else's or I swear to God the "Social Justice Re-education Army" will burn down the fast food restaurants and loot the Walmarts again!
1145
DeleteWhat are you gibbering about?
Dayum you is weird
Deletethanks HEARST.
ReplyDeleteAnytime.
DeleteThe worst thing the US could do is enter Mexico and try to Un Fuck that country.
ReplyDeleteThe U S is the REASON Mexico has a CARTEL PROBLEM..
DeleteIf you knew any better, you would KNOW that The U.S. CREATED the CARTELS.
AMERICA'S thirst for drugs DOESN'T make it any better..
Supply and demand my friend..
Stay all the way away from mexico,they can fix it themselves but dont wish to.
DeleteIts a giant mess always waiting to put more hate on the US.STAY OUT OF MEXICO IN ANY WAY
4:57 PM
DeleteMillie you manic bitch thats you,the vieja perra of hate on BB been spewing shit for years,how fuckin sad are you?
Go get a man who can iron your wrinkles out,an all nighter,ever had one?
@457
DeleteBlow it out your arse
4:57 USA CREATED your poor life? Did UsA invade mom fallopian tube?build beaver dam to stop her exploitation all they did..but,no she got moose head to RIP it apart mmmm moose head tap that beerbeast
DeleteYou are wrong there. The US is not the reason that Mexico has a cartel problem. Yes, the American drug demand is there and contributes, but you forget that American consumption isn't their only source of Income, if Americans were to stop using, the cartels still have clients in every continent, they still make money robbing, extortion, kidnapping, oil theft. And as seen lately their fight for street corners to sell drugs to their own people, they're making money out of Mexicans
DeleteYes the US government has done dumb shit like operation fast and furious, CIA has trafficked drugs but has provided more in the fight and what has the Mexican government done????? They receive millions of dollars, weapons, black hawks from the US to fight the cartels and yet the politicians keep the money. The US modernized the Mexican Marines, even train many of there in the US to fight the cartels and the Mexican Marines do a great job and have captured many bad dudes and the Mexican government releases them for the dumbest reasons, huge disgrace and slap in the face to the Mexican Marines. Corruption in Mexico is why Mexico has a cartel problem, Mexico allows it. If a Cartel offers the government money, they take it. The judges always release them. The government doesn't have the balls to step up and treat them like criminals and fight them. The people glorify them, corridos are popular everywhere, people feed corruption, they get pulled over and right away offer the cops a few bucks, the people are also scared to stand up against them, look at Michoacan getting destroyed by cartels and the people are like whatever, the military goes in and the people throw rocks at them. Those that stood up and fought the cartels ended up forming their own cartel. You see a video of a few sicarios giving away some cheap ass TVs and basic needs during one important holiday and suddenly all the destruction from the rest of the year is forgiven and they say the cartels are good and help the poor.
MEXICO it self is the reason for it's violent problem because they allow, I suggest you stop pointing fingers blaming others for your problems when you ignore your problems. Time to stop playing victim and take responsibility
You cant have a drug problem without drugs and vice versa! Es culpa de mexico por dejarse y culpa de los gringos por aprovechados!!! You guys make it seem like its either white or black but theres always gray in between!
Delete"look at Michoacán getting destroyed by cartels..." If you don't know the reasons why shit is popping off in Michoacán than don't write and try to portray any criminal group as a self defense force. Remember all politics is local and so is the corruption of authorities even if they're SEDENA. If you understand Spanish and are interested in what is going on in Michoacán than I recommend you watch SARGY on YouTube as he has the most complete information.
DeleteSo an unknown woman laughing about three dudes about to be executed, and an approximately 22 year old woman in a gray pick-up. I imagine her pappy is raised her right, just his innocent little girl. "Ok Mija, want to come with daddy and murder some hard working people?"
ReplyDeleteMuerte a sinaloa
ReplyDeleteThis the worse
ReplyDeleteTo kill innocent for sport activity.how do you kill to kill.any Mexican feel this.WHY CAN'T THEY LEAVE INNOCENT ALONE
TO THINK I SPENT 4 MILLION IN 5 YEARS ON MISERY OF OTHERS.NOT DOWN ANYMORE
El Moreno lives in Loma Tova. East of Tecate.
ReplyDelete