Mexicali: Chapitos Leave Body Threatening El Ruso

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A dead body wrapped in a blanket was found with a narco message stabbed into it in Mexicali, Baja California. The message is threatening El Ruso, an El Mayo affiliated character, and is allegedly signed by a Los Chapitos aligned group. 

On June 1 2021, residents passing through the Nuevas neighborhood of Mexicali during the very early hours of the morning discovered a body lying on the ground in a suspicious manner. They called the emergency service line and reported the location at 4:20 am on República de Bolivia Ave where they had seen the body. 

Municipal Police and agents of the State Investigation Agency (AEI) were sent to the scene. When they arrived they found the dead body of a man wrapped in blanket, placed in front of a house which will be used as a polling station on June 6 2021 for the upcoming elections. 

Alongside the body was a cardboard sign with a narco message. The message read:

Anyone who supports El Ruso, Irra, Piña, Pably, Mario Cabezon and Tochin, 

the Wasteko and Omega, 

The same thing will happen to them JG. 

We are "Los Menores" we do not kill innocents... 

We are with the people. You are fighting a lost cause. 

Sincerely, 

La Chapiza 701

Borderland Beat Analysis

The sender of the message “La Chapiza” can be taken to mean they are of the Los Chapitos side within the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS). El Chapo’s children are said to be known as “Los Menores” within Sinaloa state.

As previously covered in a truly fine vintage Borderland Beat, the number 701 is a number heavily associated with El Chapo due to Forbes Magazine’s 2009 ranking of the richest people in which El Chapo came in at rank 701. In the magazine, Chapo’s money was said to be amassed in the "shipping and transportation” business.  “And believe me, he is not mailing ceramic figures on Ebay.”

In fact, both Chapo’s daughter, Alejandrina Guzmán Salazar and his current wife, Emma Coronel have tried to copyright the number 701 for use within their respective clothing lines which draw inspiration from the drug lord. 

“El Ruso” is thought to be the alias of Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix while “El Omega” is thought to be the alias of Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozan. El Omega originates from Sonora and is alleged to be the head of the plaza in the city of Mexicali, directly reporting to El Ruso.

El Omega’s local rivals include Los Garibays, which are alleged to be led by Alfredo Garibay Felix alias “El Wicho”. Other rivals include: Los Salazars, in the service of Los Chapitos, who have been moving into the Mexicali valley area since 2019, and elements of El Nini, a more direct link to Los Chapitos. Los Salazars’ leader is believed to be Crispín Salazar Zamorano.

Both El Omega and El Ruso are associated with the El Mayo side of the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) although newspaper ZETA Tijuana intermittently reports rumors of them having fallen out of Mayo’s favor during the last few years.

The power of Omega within Mexicali is so strongly felt that when a group of his people were recently arrested, the municipal police requested a large security force come to reinforce the police station where the detainees were being held out of fear of a criminal response. 

One of the messages that appeared following their arrest.

And they were not wrong to anticipate such a response because the next day four narco message signs appeared across Mexicali threatening federal forces for “the attack against our organization” saying it was their last warning. The day after the four narcomantas appeared, 9 of the 13 arrested from Omega’s group were released by the FGR.

The Sinaloa Cartel’s internal dispute between Los Chapitos and El Mayo has been playing out in a kind of proxy war within Baja California for years. ZETA Tijuana claims that El Ruso’s disdain for Los Chapitos dates all the way back to the 2019 “Culiacanazo” in which Ovidio Guzman was freed from his arrest after a large criminal force created chaos within the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa.

Warning: Graphic images below. 

Sources: ZETA Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Article 6