Los Garibay Exiled From Mexicali Valley By Los Rusos

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 

A new Zeta Tijuana article is alleging that the recent uptick in cartel extortion in a small town in the state of Baja California is further proof that Los Garibays have been successfully exiled out of Mexicali by Sinaloa Cartel’s Los Rusos, who are El Mayo aligned. 

Recently there have been many reports of extortion filed with the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) made by owners of small businesses in the town of La Puerta, which lies significantly south of the the city of Mexicali. The business owners report they have been held at gunpoint and forced to pay a protection fee by cartel members. On October 12, 2021, Centro prosecutor Hiram Sanchez Zamora confirmed to reporters that the FGE had received a significant number of these reports but he offered no further specifics. 

According to insiders within the FGE that spoke to Zeta Tijuana, the FGE believes these extortion attempts come from a group of small time criminals from the town of Zacatillo but the FGE is also investigating the possibility that this small time group is in fact working for the larger cartel group Los Garibays. 

The FGE is investigating if three key Garibay leaders are involved. These men are: Luis Alfredo Garibay Felix, alias "El Wicho", Samuel Ibarra Peralta, alias "El Pía", and El Pía’s son, Jesús Aurelio Ibarra Ramiro. All three of these Los Garibay men are believed to have been forced out of their native Mexicali by Los Rusos forces, according to the FGE insider.

In response to being strong-armed out of Mexicali, Los Garibays allegedly forged a new alliance with Los Salazars and Los Chapitos of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to government intelligence reports in early March 2021. Los Salazars reportedly needed the aid of Los Garibays if they wanted to successfully expand out across San Luis Rio Colorado towards Mexicali. 

This area contains vast tracts of land, that are flat, with few escape routes. The region’s drug smuggling is highly dependent on knowledge of the numerous rural roads and the many difficult access points that are known only to the historic family criminal native to the Mexicali valley. El Omega had been able to block Los Salazar for two years prior due to his superior understanding of the difficult terrain so Los Salazar saw a valuable ally in Los Garibays, despite the fact that Garibays had shrunk to be a shell of their former selves.

El Wicho, El Pía and his son now reportedly work in the Gulf of Santa Clara for Los Chapitos. They lead a drug smuggling route in the “gaps” between the state of Baja California and Sonora until they reach the town of La Puerta, where they load up small airplanes with drug shipment on a clandestine air strip.

El Wicho is a direct descendant of the historic Garibay crime family. The Garibays have operated drug trafficking and kidnapping for many years in the South Zone (la Zona Sur) of the Mexicali valley. He was born in the US in Santa María, California. By at least 2012, it is believed that El Wicho began leading a drug dealing and kidnapping operation in Mexicali under Los Garibay, who is led by his uncle Manuel Garibay Espinoza, alias “El Meño”. 

El Wicho’s group was believed to be behind the theft of firearms from the Municipal Police station of the town of Nuevo León in the Mexicali valley in 2012, an event where cartel members broke into the police station and subdued the officers inside by force. The men then reportedly stole various weapons from the station’s armory, weapons that have still not been recovered to this day. 

El Chinto, the bodyguard on left, El Wicho on right 

El Wicho was arrested later that same year, in September, while he was traveling aboard a vehicle in the company of José Luis Mora, known as “El Chinto”, who elements of the PEP identified as his bodyguard. El Wicho was found to be in possession of a .9mm firearm. 

Following this 2012 arrest however, Zeta Tijuana wrote that “El Wicho was turned over to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) where the accusations against him practically vanished.” El Wicho was released from custody within 48 hours of his arrest, since neither the state attorney's office nor the PGR had a single file against him. 

Please note, the photo above was previously misidentified as El Wicho on a previous Borderland Beat story. The man pictured above is actually believed to be El Chinto, not El Wicho. 

His bodyguard El Chinto was prosecuted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for a double homicide that occurred in the Mexicali Valley. However, even El Chinto was able to circumnavigate the system and he regained his freedom from the prison sentence through appeals.

Then El Wicho was arrested again, this time in 2018 in Mexicali municipality by officers of the State Preventive Police (Policía Estatal Preventiva, PEP). State police officers had spotted El Wicho and a bodyguard named Gerardo in the town of Chiapas Dos (also called Las Cachoras) walking near a Chevrolet Suburban SUV.

El Wicho seen on left, Gerardo seen on right

The officers, unaware of who they were, simply observed that the men walking were in possession of AR-15 style firearms so they requested both men stop for a search. The men reportedly dropped down a nearby irrigation canal, and using it as cover, began shooting at the officers who then repelled the attack. El Wicho and Gerardo tried to flee into nearby farmland, hiding in the fields; however, officers managed to disarm and arrest them. El Wicho was found to be in possession of two AR-15 style firearms and 100 kilos marijuana. 

El Wicho being taken to the hospital

El Wicho reportedly suffered  a type of chemical reaction, or poisoning, due to the chemical fertilizer that had been used on the fields that they hid within and had to be treated at the Mexicali General Hospital immediately after being arrested. 

Somehow, despite Los Garibay being named a priority target of Baja law enforcement efforts, El Wicho was released from police custody after he recovered from the fertilizer reaction at the hospital. Zeta wrote “The argument obtained unofficially through the federal agency is that there were no elements to present him before a judge, so only his accomplice, Gerardo Rodríguez González, was tried and sentenced for the crime of carrying a firearm.”

Hospital treating El Wicho being guarded by members of law enforcement and the military.

They further add that “The case file established that the officers entered a property to detain them after the shots were fired, but they could not prove the shots with physical evidence, whether shell casings, activation of the weapon or even a photo showing that their unit was perforated by projectiles.” 

Gerardo Rodríguez González then could not be convicted for the kilos of marijuana or one of the two Ar-15 style firearms, as the prosecution could not prove that these items belonged to Gerardo and not El Wicho, who they were choosing not to present before the judge.

The Mexicali corridor is a profitable and key area for drug smuggling across the US-Mexico border. According to both Zeta Tijuana and Insight Crime, it is currently primarily controlled by the group Los Rusos, which are a faction under the El Mayo side of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

Of note, historically Baja California has been more the domain of Ismael  Zambada, alias “El Mayo” within the Sinaloa Cartel structure rather than Joaquín Guzmán, alias “El Chapo”, who has more ties to the Sonora area, or at least this was the belief during the time prior to Chapo's final 2016 capture by Mexico and his subsequent US extradition.

The leader of Los Rusos is allegedly Jesus Alexander Sanchez Felix, alias "El Ruso". His second in command and right hand man is believed to be Eduardo Barajas Lozano alias "El Omega". With some of his top Baja lieutenants being Alfonso Peralta / Alfonso Amaya, alias "El P1" or "El Poncho de la Lima" as well as a lieutenant known only by his alias “El 80”.

It is generally believed that El Ruso himself is more involved in leading the fights in Sinaloa against the Los Chapitos side of the Sinaloa Cartel. These fights are seen most often in areas north of the city of Culiacán, such as the recent October 20, 2021 battle in Tepuche and the July 13, 2021 battle in Tecolotes. El Ruso is also, at times, actively involved in the fights in Sonora, especially in San Luis Rio Colorado according to Animal Politico. While El Rusos is preoccupied with the power struggles in Sinaloa, El Omega is reportedly left to take care of the Rusos fights in the state of Baja California.

Rusos are primarily contested by a different faction with the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Salazars, who are Los Chapitos aligned and stronghold the western US-Mexico border crossings of the neighboring state of Sonora. The nearby city of San Luis Rio Colorado, a key Sonora port of entry to the US, is often used as a launching point for Los Salazar attacks on Rusos cartel members, as Salazars try to build up their influence within Mexicali. 

The overall head of Los Salazars is allegedly José Crispín Salazar Zamorano, alias “Tío Pin”. The Salazar lieutenant thought to be tasked with leading this campaign to take Mexicali is Eduardo Molina Flores, alias “El Zabe”. 

Los Garibays are a crime organization centered around the Garibay family, with historic roots in the city of Mexicali. They began working under the Arellano Felix Cartel (Cartel Arellano Felix, CAF) but sometime during the 1990s they had a dispute with the Arellano brothers over who would pay for a drug shipment headed for the Los Angeles area that got lost in transit, with the Garibays refusing to pay for the shipment. At least, this is what Manuel Garibay Sr. described as the origin of his dispute with the CAF and what he said eventually led the Garibays to switch sides to join the Sinaloa Cartel. 

The Garibays served under the Sinaloa Cartel for more than a decade but when one of their prominent leaders, José Manuel Garibay Félix, alias "El Manuelón", went to jail in Puente Grande prison, located in the state of Jalisco, there were rumors of a growing distrust between Los Garibays and the Sinaloa Cartel. Of note José Manuel Garibay Félix, alias "El Manuelón" is the son of the aforementioned Manuel Garibay Espinoza, alias “El Meño” according to a 2013 Zeta article, which also makes him El Wicho's cousin.

In fact, upon El Manuelón’s 2012 prison release there were widespread rumors that he might defect to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation (CJNG). El Manuelón did in fact return to Mexicali after serving his time and he began trying to contest control of Mexicali from its primarily holder at the time Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza, alias "El Macho Prieto" and Cenobio Flores Pacho, alias “El Checo”, who was a part of the same Sinaloa Cartel that El Manuelón technically still served under.  

El Macho Prieto had been living in Mexicali since 2010, where he gave orders and oversaw the Sinaloa Cartel’s campaign in Sonora against the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO). However on the day of El Manuelón’s release from prison on June 12, 2012, El Macho Prieto was hiding out in Tijuana, having been forced to leave Mexicali because Manuel Torres Félix, alias “El Ondeado”, had declared Macho persona non grata, due to Macho having killed Paulo Osorio Payán, alias "El Pablo", one of Ondeado’s subordinates. 

With Macho Prieto having to lay low outside of Mexicali, El Manuelón’s grand return to the city posed a significant threat to the influence Macho could maintain. However, El Ondeado was killed just a few months after El Manuelón’s return to Mexicali which allowed Macho Prieto to safely reenter the city and fully contest Los Garibays for the area. 

A full scale war occurred between the two groups but ultimately Macho Prieto’s group came out on top as El Manuelón was found dead on February 23, 2013. However this victory was not enjoyed by Macho Prieto for long as he himself was killed later that year, in December 2013. It should be noted that the death of the CJNG associated El Manuelón was one of the key escalating factors that led the CJNG to break away from the Sinaloa Cartel. 

Alleged crime scene of Macho Prieto's death.

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

Sources: Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5,  Insight Crime Article 1, Article 2, Justice in Mexico - Los Salazars, Animal Politico

El Wicho Sources: Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5 

Further Reading: 

Los Garibays Form Truce with Salazars

Chapitos vs Rusos in Tepuche

Chapitos vs Rusos in Tecolotes