El Jaguar Evaded Capture Again, But It was an "Almost"

"Buggs" for Borderland Beat

 In January of this year, Mexican authorities captured ‘El Jaguar’ in Agua Prieta except 20 trucks of sicarios from "Los Paredes" managed to rescue him at a gas station.

Francisco Arvizu Márquez (image credit: HEARST from Borderland Beat)

The event occurred in Agua Prieta, Sonora when police elements from the states of Sonora and Chihuahua were moving "El Jaguar" to Hermosillo.

In addition to having escaped in at least four other occasions from operations of the Government of the State of Chihuahua, Francisco Arvizu Marquez, “El Jaguar”, managed to be rescued by an armed group after an arrest that took place in the municipality of Agua Prieta, Sonora. This information is based on three separate versions from unnamed sources and confirmed by authorities.

According to information, the arrest of "El Jaguar" happened on January 13, in room 118 of a hotel on Avenida Seis in Agua Prieta, where five police elements of the Secretariat of Public Service (SSPE) of the State of Chihuahua along with 15 officers of the Secretariat of Public Security of Sonora took him in custody.

David Anaya Cooley, head of the SSPE of Sonora, said that there was an operation at the request of the police agency of Chihuahua however the operation failed in the objective to secure the target. He went on to say, “Yes (the operation) was carried out, unfortunately the objective was not achieved. It reached a level where it could be carried out but there were some complications." Also questioned in this regard, Emilio García Ruiz, head of the SSPE in Chihuahua, said "that the operation failed to secure a capture of the target."

The two versions of events that were taken separately, all coincide that the rescue of El Jaguar by a criminal group did occurred during an interception of the police convoy at a gas station that was transporting him to Hermosillo.

The information also alleges that El Jaguar who is the leader of a cell for the Sinaloa Cartel, and whom the state of Chihuahua attributes to being the person responsible for the violence in the Madera region, was arrested at 9:15 p.m.

While the group of agents from the two agencies were travelling with the detainee on the highway from Agua Prieta to Cananea, on the way to Hermosillo, they had to stop to refuel for 40 minutes at which time they were intercepted by a heavy commando of armed men in several pickup trucks. Sources said the prolonged 40-minute wait was considered as "suspicious" by top level officials from the state of Sonora and should be investigated.

While waiting at the gas station, the police convoy was surrounded by about twenty trucks/SUVs with heavily armed men who demanded the surrender of El Jaguar. Police elements seen that they were outnumbered and outgunned, surrender their prisoner. "The scarios kept yelling at each truck of the police convoy, 'Where is the boss? Where is the boss?' And they took him away," said a source that had knowledge of the event.

Questioned in this regard, Anaya Cooley ruled out leaks or corruption of his agency he commands. "In the performance of their duties, I did not see any type of situation that compromised their performance from the state police," he went on to say.

With support from Agua Prieta

Since 2016 the 40-year-old and originally from the municipality of Ignacio Zaragoza, Chihuahua, Arvizu Márquez, El Jaguar, rose in the criminal structure of the Sinaloa Cartel after an internal split (fracture) in the criminal group called La Línea or Cartel de Juárez.

This fracture of La Línea led to an alliance with a cell led by Luis Vázquez Barragán, "El 20" who use to be operators in the northeast part of the state of Sonora, specifically from the municipality of Agua Prieta.

"The 'Sinaloa Cartel' currently has allied groups both in the state of Chihuahua and in the border region of the state of Sonora in the city of Agua Prieta, where there is the presence of the group called "Los Paredes." Los Paredes provide operational, strategic, and financial support to the Sinaloa group led by Francisco Arvizu Márquez, alias "El Jaguar." 

Information from the SSPE of Chihuahua adds that the alleged criminal has managed to evade operations for his arrest on at least four occasions, such as on February 16, 2020, when his brother Jorge Luis Arvizu Márquez, alias El Lobo, was arrested in the municipality of Madera.

He also managed to escape on June 23, 2020, when elements of the state that were patrolling the Agua Amarilla community - in search of former Mayor José Alfredo Vázquez Fernández - had a confrontation with the same criminal group.

Another occasion was on July 11 of the same year, through a dirt road that leads from the town of Poleo to Chuhuichupa, in the same municipality, when a group of approximately 12 vehicles of heavily armed men attacked police forces.

The fourth was between last July 2 and 4, when he managed to evade an operation with the SSPE who sought to arrest him in the Largo Maderal area, in Madera.

Source: Diario de Juarez, Mexican authorities and other unnamed sources