El Ciro From The Sinaloa Cartel Was Executed In The Heart of Sinaloa

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A Sinaloa Cartel Los Chapitos plaza boss “El Ciro” or “El 24” was executed and his dead body was dragged to the central plaza of San Pedro and left in a public display in the state of Sinaloa. 

At roughly 6:00 am on September 9, 2021, an anonymous report was received by the 911 emergency number which  indicated that a dead man was lying in front of the town square, between Antonio Rosales and Juan Álvarez streets. 

When they went to the scene, the officers found the body, which was placed next to some benches in the plaza. The body was lying on the sidewalk, just a few meters from the main avenue. Some articles add that this was just a few meters away from a children's playground. 

The officers cordoned off the area to preserve possible evidence and called for investigating agents from the Sinaloa State Attorney General's Office. 

The man’s body presented evidence of a gunshot wound to the back of the skull. In the body discovery location, however, no shell casings were found , so it was presumed that the victim was killed elsewhere and his dead body was later brought to the location of its discovery. 

Although the body was reportedly dumped a few meters from the San Pedro receivership offices, no one came forward as a witness to describe the men who brought the body to the square. 

The deceased was later identified as Ignacio Antonio Meza Soto, alias “El Ciro”, “El 24”, or “El Ciro 24”. According to El Sol de Sinaloa, El Ciro was a 34 year old native to the town of San Pedro and his home was just a few blocks away from the main square that he was found in. 

According to Excélsior, “El Ciro was plaza boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, allegedly in the service of the sons of El Chapo Guzmán”. Excélsior goes on to write that “the subject allegedly controlled the plazas between the borders of Culiacán and Navolato.”

The Graves of the Missing 

In this area of Sinaloa, located west of Culiacan city, the bodies of many missing persons have been found in recent years. A renewed emphasis on the prevalence of missing persons cases, has led to the discovery of mass graves in the larger San Pedro area.

Just recently in January 2021, members of the “Colectivo Sabuesos Guerreras”, a group which searches for missing persons, was shot at by members of organized crime because the group was attempting to investigate a rumored clandestine mass grave site. 

Colectivo Sabuesos Guerreras

This location they were investigating, an abandoned hacienda in Culiacancito, was used by organized crime to dispose of the remains of people who had been executed.

After being shot at by armed men for snooping around the area, members of Colectivo Sabuesos Guerreras returned to the hacienda this time accompanied by police officers. The location was discovered to be “a place of torture and extermination, where they managed to rescue four bodies, but then they began to receive death threats.” 

 The Culiacancito grave discovered by Sabuesos Guerreras being exhumed.

Here’s why this is especially notable and important, members belonging to the group Colectivo Sabuesos Guerreras, who led the investigation that located this mass grave in January 2021 have alleged that El Ciro organized and orchestrated the kidnapping of their relatives. It is unclear if these kidnappings happened before the mass grave discovery or after, as a kind of retribution. 

El Ciro has been linked to the high profile kidnapping of 12 police officers from Sinaloa in 2017. These 12 officers were part of a larger war at the time between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. On one side was the sons of Joaquín Guzman, alias “El Chapo”, known as “Los Chapitos”. On the other side was Chapo 's former accomplice Dámaso López Núñez, alias “El Licenciado”, leading the faction “Los Dámasos”. 

Maria Isabel Cruz Bernal, founder of Sabuesos Guerros, holds up a photo of her missing son, Yosimar Garcia Cruz.

One of the 12 officers kidnapped in this war, Yosimar García Cruz is still missing to this day. His family has been seeking to locate his remains for more than 4 years now, going so far as to even risk writing an open letter to the Sinaloa Cartel in 2018 despite knowing the possible retribution such a public letter might cause them. His family has long held suspicions of El Ciro’s involvement in Yosimar García Cruz’s kidnapping. 

His mother, the founder of Sabuesos Guerros, publicly wrote about the death of El Ciro by saying  "I forgive you from deep in my heart for the damage you did to my family by taking away what I loved the most, for that and for more I will pray that your mother will not be persecuted for the cry of our missing persons..... And of the thousands of mothers who cry for what she gave birth to."

Sources: El Sol de Sinaloa, Excélsior, Sinaloa Press, La Pared Noticias, Cafe Negro Portal, Esto Es Hoy, TV Pacifico, Línea Directa Portal, La Opinion, Debate

Background Sources: News Breezer, El Manana, El Sol de Sinaloa, Proceso