CDS Chapitos vs Rusos Shootout Leaves Woman Dead and Five Detainees in Tepuche, Sinaloa

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Video footage captured a shooting between alleged members of Sinaloa Cartel's Los Rusos and Los Chapitos left a woman killed, a man injured and four additional cartel members detained in Culiacán municipality in the state of Sinaloa. 

At approximately 11:00 am on October 20, 2021, an armed shootout between rival cartel groups occurred at a property located in the area of Agua Caliente, near Tepuche in Culiacán municipality. 

The shootout reportedly occurred at a cartel safehouse. The Undersecretary of Public Security, Carlos Alberto Hernández Leyva confirmed in an interview on the site that an armed group entered the town this morning and attacked another group of gunmen who were stationed at a home, presumably a safe house. 

The safehouse is described by newspaper El Sol de Tijuana as "a yellow house with a white door." Neighbors report that the cartel members who had arrived and attacked the safehouse pulled into the area in a box truck, a Toyota Tacoma SUV and an unspecified make model SUV. 

According to the news publication Debate, neighbors who lived near the safehouse sheltered inside immediately once the gunfire erupted. They called the 911 emergency phone line to report the gunshots that they were hearing but the dispatch operators "asked them for evidence of the facts."

A Navy commander confirmed this, stating "We arrived here to this sector, where we were able to verify that it was indeed a confrontation between civilians. As far as we have preliminary information right now, they were sheltering in this house and other people arrived to shoot at them with firearms. They also had firearms."

The Debate article details that neighbors were distressed by the seemingly slow response of law enforcement officers. Some neighbors even reported that the attacking gunmen, after having finished shooting up the safehouse, stopped are a local convenience store and ordered soft drinks before leaving the area. In the end, the group of attacking gunmen managed to flee the area when the Army, National Guard, State and Municipal Police operations arrived.

These residents report that the Army (SEDENA), National Guard and police officers arrived almost two hours after the confrontation, which lasted only about half an hour.

The Secretary of Public Security for the state of Sinaloa, Cristóbal Castañeda later tweeted out the following video accompanied by the message “After a report, authorities of the three orders of government mobilized to the community of Aguacaliente, Tepuche to verify. We are deployed in the area on security tours.”

When members of security forces did arrive on scene, they reportedly found that the attackers has already fled the area and they were only able to locate five people hiding inside a house, along with one deceased female. When the five people inside the house spotted members of law enforcement, they allegedly tried to flee by hopping the fence but they were successfully chased down, and following a brief gunfight, they were detained. One of the men was injured, but is stable with a shot to the shoulder.

When questioned by reporters, the Undersecretary of Public Security, Carlos Alberto Hernández Leyva indicated that the deceased woman did not die in the crossfire with law enforcement, but rather she died before their arrival as she was a part of the group sheltered inside the safehouse. 

The Undersecretary stated that they seized from the property four vehicles and eight firearms, with two of the eight being rifles.

The safehouse shootouts were allegedly (at least according to social media rumors) between Sinaloa Cartel's Los Chapitos hitmen and hitmen loyal to Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix, alias "El Ruso", from the Ismael Zambada García, "El Mayo" side of the Sinaloa Cartel. However, there are no news outlets that confirm these two subgroups are involved. 

A similar shootout occurred in nearby Tecolotes a few months ago, on July 13, 2021. This shootout was also rumored to be between Chapitos and Rusos members. For further details on this shooting, please see this previous story.

Update 11/6/2021: New profile graphic showing El Ruso added.

Sources: Proceso, Noticieros Televisa, El Heraldo de Mexico, Debate, El Sol de Sinaloa Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Grupo Formula, Secretary of Public Security’s Official Tweet