Sinaloa Cartel Offers Military 3 Million Pesos To Free El Jaguar, Leader of Gente Nueva del Jaguar

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A new video has surfaced which allegedly shows people working on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel’s Gente Nueva del Jaguar attempting to bribe military authorities with 3 million pesos in exchange for releasing the captured cartel leader El Jaguar. 

Context

As covered by Sol in a previous article, on October 22, 2021, the leader of Sinaloa Cartel’s Gente Nueva del Jaguar, named Francisco Arvizu Márquez was captured after an Army (SEDENA) operation in the town of La Norteña in Madera municipality, Chihuahua. 

In the operation, Francisco Arvizu Márquez, alias “El Jaguar”,  himself was seriously injured with gunshot wounds to the right shoulder and forearm, so immediately after being presented to the FGR,  he was sent to the Salvador Zubirán General Hospital in Chihuahua city.

He is still currently being kept at this hospital while under heavy guard by SEDENA and National Guard soldiers in order to prevent El Jaguar from being released or, if necessary, to prevent an attempt on his life. 

On October 23, 2021, the military officially announced to the public that El Jaguar had been arrested. The three other cartel members arrested alongside El Jaguar were placed under arrest and were handed over to the FGR for further sentencing.

Video Referencing the Bribe 

Now a new video has surfaced in which a group of primarily women, alleged residents of the town of La Norteña, offered state police and soldiers three million pesos to free El Jaguar. The video below was allegedly shot in La Norteña, shortly after El Jaguar was captured. The cartel leader was allegedly being held nearby in custody at the time of the filming.

The security forces seen in the video were a part of the detail protecting the target during this critical time period in which the detained cartel had not yet been transferred to a secondary location, and therefore was at risk of being freed by local forces loyal to him who may have just heard of his arrest. A military helicopter was allegedly already on its way to the area in order to extract the leader as this sort of local resistance was expected. 

In the video, a group of primarily women, who are described in some articles as “protesting” and “demonstrating against the military”, can be seen speaking with security forces. 

One woman is heard saying “Think about it, what would you do with 3 million pesos to release El Jaguar and bring him here?” Implying that a bribe of 3 million pesos (roughly $148,900 USD) had been offered off camera to the soldiers prior to when the filming began.

Photo alleged to show one of the Molotovs thrown by the group.

Immediately following the events seen on camera, El Puntero news reports that the group began throwing stones and homemade explosive devices (molotov cocktails) at the security forces. Reportedly no soldiers or officers were harmed in these events and the situation was successfully diffused following El Jaguar’s extraction.

Another photo alleged to show one of the Molotovs thrown by the group.

The newspaper El Sol de México writes of the video that “residents of the Norteña community, allegedly gunmen of the detainee, offered three million pesos to personnel of the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA).” 

The group of people who are seen speaking on video do not match the typical look of cartel gunmen, rather they look more like a typical halcone, or hawk, which is a term used for cartel lookouts who are paid to provide information on the movements of both law enforcement and rival cartel groups, amongst other tasks. 

But the El Sol de Mexico article asserts twice, once in article text and once in the subheading that “Supposedly, the people who offered the money to the military were allegedly gunmen of the detainee;” calling them the Spanish “pistoleros”, or gunmen, specifically. 

The utilization of non-traditional looking cartel members, especially of women and non-threatening looking town residents, to give the appearance of a ground swelling of support which is rising up against military figures is not an uncommon cartel tactic. Most recent well-known examples have occurred in the state of Michoacán, where Carteles Unidos groups allegedly often employ similar tactics as a way of pressuring military elements without the outward appearance of being involved. 

State Attorney General Roberto Fierro Duarte being interviewed about El Jaguar's arrest.

The State Attorney General Roberto Fierro Duarte was questioned by reporters at a press conference about the 3 million pesos bribe seen in the video. In response Roberto Fierro said that he had knowledge of the situation the reporters referred to and confirmed that at the time of the capture there was “an attempt with the inhabitants of that area.”

"This is a social problem that we have of these criminal leaders that, at the end of the day, there are people who may be defending them," said the Prosecutor. He added that it is most likely that El Jaguar will be transferred to a prison in another part of the country following his hospital recovery.

Background on El Jaguar 

Francisco Arvizu Márquez, alias “El Jaguar”, leads the Sinaloa Cartel group Gente Nueva del Jaguar (sometimes just called Los Jaguars) which contests municipalities on the Chihuahua and Sonora state border such as Madera, Yecora and Sahuaripa. In the last year, at least 147 people who were detained in either Chihuahua and Sonora have acknowledged working under his orders according to Puente Libre.

Bad Blood with La Línea

The bad blood between El Jaguar and La Línea has some important history behind it. El Jaguar used to be a member of La Línea himself, during the era when the overall leader of La Línea named Jesús Salas Aguayo “El Chuyín” was still in prison and Carlos Arturo Quintana Quintana, alias “El Ochenta” (or El 80) was leading the organization in his stead.

El Diario de Chihuahua reports that El Ochenta and El Jaguar developed a rivalry within La Línea and around 2016 to 2017 the two men had a falling out which led to El Jaguar leaving La Línea and joining up with the Sinaloa cartel, specifically seeking out the support of the Los Paredes family who hold power primarily in north eastern Sonora municipalities.

According to Diario, in November 2016, El Jaguar led a major incursion into La Línea controlled Madera municipality, Chihuahua. His men attacked municipal police in Las Pomas. Later that month Jaguar's men entered La Simona and abducted six municipal police officers along with two civilians. Two of the officers and two of the civilians were later found dead in December 2016.

La Línea was able to later push out El Jaguar from Madera, then he made incursions back in, leading to a back and forth which has been going on for years. As part of this linea vs Los Jaguars war, El Jaguar's brother Jorge Luis Arvizu Marquez, alias "El Lobo", was killed in April 2020 in Madera which was part of La Línea yet again pushing El Jaguar out of Madera.

Adrian LeBarón Claims

It is barely worth mentioning that recently Adrián LeBarón has been publicly making claims to the press that El Jaguar was involved in organizing the LeBarón massacre, which occurred in 2019. Adrián LeBarón has claimed that over forty La Línea operatives were involved in the attack and he regularly makes headlines every time one of the supposed forty La Línea/LeBarón massacre organizers is arrested.

However, Adrián LeBarón is now claiming that El Jaguar was also involved in the massacre, saying of El Jaguar that he was “allegedly involved in the massacre of my family.”

This comes despite the fact that El Jaguar left La Línea back in 2016-2017 for the Sinaloa Cartel. Jaguar was, in fact, in an active war against La Línea at the time of the 2019 massacre in municipalities considerably south of where the massacre occurred. 

Adrián added the following "I would like to participate in the hearings, it was my daughter, grandchildren, and family who were cowardly murdered, I want to be present in the process that these subjects are followed."

Network of Police and Military Protecting Jaguar

As previously covered on Borderland Beat, there have been at least four attempts to capture El Jaguar by law enforcement which have failed. Some of these attempts have been marred by persistent rumors that law enforcement officers intentionally leaked details to El Jaguar's men about the upcoming operation in order to prevent his capture. 

In January 2021, Chihuahua State Police reached out to the Sonora State Police and requested they perform a joint operation to apprehend El Jaguar based on intelligence they had gathered. This intelligence indicated that El Jaguar was currently located in Agua Prieta municipality, which is in the state of Sonora, beyond their jurisdiction.  

The Sonora State Police agreed and a joint operation was planned. On January 13 2021 at 9:15 pm, a team of 15 Sonora State Police officers and 5 Chihuahua State Police officers successfully arrested Francisco Arvizu Márquez from a hotel on Avenida Seis in Agua Prieta. 

For unspecified and unclarified reasons, the vehicle convoy that contained the detained El Jaguar made a stop to refuel that lasted over 40 minutes. During this 40 minute gas station stop, El Jaguar's men arrived at the convoy’s location and forced the officers to release El Jaguar. Allegedly the amount of Los Jaguars men that arrived so vastly outnumbered the state police officers that not a single shot was fired in resistance and El Jaguar was released without any act of violence occurring. 

Then on July 4 2021, El Jaguar was nearly captured again, this time in Madera municipality, Chihuahua. The operation reportedly involved over 80 members of law enforcement, which had successfully located him on July 2, 2021 and was surveilling his location at the time,  just waiting for the opportune moment to swoop in for an arrest.  However, someone within the surveillance operation reportedly warned Los Jaguars and El Jaguar successfully fled the region. For more information, please see this previous story. 

On July 18 2021, La Linea left two dead bodies in the main square of Ignacio Zaragoza city, Chihuahua with a narco message sign which claimed the bodies were those of two police officers working for El Jaguar, writing “El Jaguar, you fuck! I’ve left your pigs here for you.” For more information, please see this previous story.

On August 5, 2021 unknown armed subjects hung a banner in the main square Benito Juarez in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua which accused and named at least six specific high ranking members of the Army (SEDENA) from the Fifth Military Zone who allegedly worked for El Jaguar’s group. They claim these men were moles, feeding intel on operations (such as those meant to capture El Jaguar) to Los Jaguars members. For more information, please see this previous story.

Sources: El Sol de México, El Heraldo de Juárez, Puente Libre, Net Noticias Article 1, Article 2, El Puntero, Notigram, VozenRed     

Background Sources: Border Report, El Heraldo de Chihuahua, Las Vision Web, Julio Stillero, El Sol de Zacatecas 

Further Reading 

Narcomanta Names Army Captains Working for El Jaguar 

La Linea Leaves 2 Dead “Pigs”, Says They Were Providing Intel to El Jaguar 

El Jaguar’s Miraculously Evades Capture in July 2021

An Overview of Previous Attempted Captures