CJNG Threaten Officer In Narcomanta, Then Kill Him 12 Days Later, Baja California

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

This Saturday, a Rosarito municipal police officer died after being attacked with bullets in Tijuana, Baja California. This same officer was named and threatened in a Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) narcomanta earlier this week, making it seem as if the CJNG made good on their promised threat. 

The Shooting

                              

Riodoce writes that at around 2:18 p.m. on Saturday, September 11, 2021, it was reported to the 911 emergency number that gunshots had been heard being fired near Plaza Montana, in the Santa Fe neighborhood of Tijuana. 

An off duty cop from a neighboring town south called Rosarito was allegedly at a food stand set up in a tent accompanied by his wife and child. As the officer, named Erick Geovanni Ureña Chávez, left the tent, cartel hitmen who were waiting for his exit began to shoot at him in the back, firing at least four times. Ureña Chávez crumpled to the ground after being shot, right near his black BMW 3301 vehicle and with California license plates, according to El Mexicano.

Francisco Arellano Ortiz, the director of Municipal Security, later confirmed to Punto Norte that it was a direct attack, in which no member of the officer's family was injured.

The hitman who had just shot Ureña Chávez ran on foot towards a vehicle, a gray sedan-type car, and drove away, successfully fleeing the scene before officers arrived. 

Paramedics arrived and Erik Giovanni Ureña Chávez was placed inside a Red Cross ambulance. He was then transferred to a hospital in the Tijuana metropolitan area and admitted in serious condition. He later lost his life while undergoing surgery. Why his black BMW vehicle was towed when his wife survived the attack uninjured is not entirely clear. 

The CJNG Narcomanta 

                            

Later, once the officer’s full name was released to the press, it became clear that this officer had been publicly threatened by members of organized crime prior to his execution in the streets of Tijuana. 

On August 30, 2021, twelve days earlier, the mayor of Rosarito and a number of municipal officers including Officer Ureña Chávez were mentioned in a threatening narcomanta (narco message sign). The narcomanta was placed on a bridge, denouncing how the mayor had been "bringing criminals dressed as policemen into the corporation." 

The Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) immediately removed the banner. But that did not prevent some early morning motorists from observing it before the municipal agents were able to take it down. One of the motorists managed to take pictures of the narcomanta, although due to the distance and the number of letters it was not possible to clearly read the message. 

Officer Erick Geovanni Ureña Chávez

Rosarito Notiavisa, the only source to comment on what the narcomanta said, writes that it mentioned Silva, Quiroz, Villa and Sierra, the latter referring to the Secretary of Citizen Security. It also mentioned two “new names”: Natali and Ureña. 

The narcomanta alluded to a visit to the state of Sinaloa by Rosarito police chiefs and the Rosarito Mayor herself, where they agreed to clean out La Rana's plaza. As part of the threats, it said that even with the National Guard patrolling the streets, "we are going to kick their asses".

The Context Behind The Crime: The Rosarito Municipal Police 

These have been complicated days for the Rosarito Municipal police department. On September 6, 2021, Zeta Tijuana Weekly wrote an expose in which they detailed the corruption of the Rosarito department, outright accusing them “of serving the Sinaloa Cartel and delivering members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel [to them] to be executed.” 

The details of the Rosarito officers’ crimes which eventually led the State Attorney General to open multiple investigations into the police department and to the disarmament of the department by Army soldiers, were detailed here on Borderland Beat. 

Then just on Thursday, September 9 at dawn, two Rosarito Municipal officers were arrested for “usurpation of functions”, when they were detected “detaining” a group of people in the La Sierra subdivision, in Tijuana.

According to Tijuana En Linea, the officers say they were conducting an inspection of a vehicle in the Monterrey neighborhood, near Cuauhtémoc Boulevard. According to Pedro Cruz Camarena, Secretary of Security in Tijuana, a Tijuana patrol was passing through the areas when they observed a Rosarito police unit “intervening” in a citizen's vehicle. 

After seeing said “intervention”, the Tijuana officers proceeded to arrest the two Rosarito Municipal officers. 

Punto Norte writes that later the Rosarito cops claimed, according to the Secretary of Security, they were responded to a call for help from a fellow police officer who lives in Tijuana, however, the officers did not notify Central Radio that they would cross the municipal limits of Rosarito, which they are not allowed to do and constitutes a crime. 

The policemen were placed at the disposal of the Public Ministry for their crime, while the State Prosecutor's Office began looking into the event.

Sources: Riodoce, La Jornada, El Imparcial, El Mexicano, Uniradio Informa, Esquina 32, ZETA Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Punto Norte Article 1, Article 2, Tijuana En Linea, Infobae, Rosarito Notiavisa