Cartels' Deadly Fight To Place Corrupt Officers In Key Positions in Tijuana

"HEARST" and "Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

There is a larger meta game going on with the major cartels in Tijuana, Baja California, that goes beyond the daily execution of small-time corner drug dealers who have simply strayed too far out of their territory. 

Within Tijuana, the power balance between the cartels  (like the Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, and Cartel Arellano Felix) is primarily fought not in the streets but in the halls of the precincts, defined entirely by which cartel’s corrupt police officer has been placed in key positions of power. 

When a major upheaval of city government occurs, and therefore an upheaval of all police appointees, as it did at the beginning of October 1, 2021, the series of violent incidents that follow can become a confusing cacophony. 

The following is an attempt to highlight recent key events that occurred in Tijuana that give us insight into the way the meta game has changed. 

In the month of October 2020, little more than a year ago, the mayor of Tijuana, Luis Arturo González Cruz,  chose to run for governor for the state of Baja California. Part of running for governor requires the candidate to step down from his position, so Arturo González Cruz requested and received approval from the Tijuana City Council to step down from his position as mayor, as a “leave of absence”. 

Karla Patricia Ruiz McFarland was appointed to be the mayor in his stead. She was selected because she was Arturo González Cruz’s alternate on the mayoral ballots in the election which won Arturo his seat.

Karla chose to appoint a new Secretary of Municipal Security and Protection (SSPCM) in February 2021, selecting Pedro Cruz Camarena. Karla also appointed Hector Villegas Barquero as the new Director of Municipal Police. 

Then, in the elections held at the beginning of June 2021, a new mayor was voted in named Montserrat Caballero Ramírez. She was scheduled to officially take over the position of mayor on October 1, 2021.

However on September 29, 2021, the former mayor of Tijuana Arturo González Cruz was able to temporarily resume his position as mayor for just 44 hours as part of a political dispute, due to a technicality related to his stepping down to run for governor and the nomination process. 

During this 44 hour timeframe, Arturo González Cruz dismissed the current Director of the Municipal Police, replacing him with Javier Castellón González. Arturo also dismissed the current Secretary of Municipal Security and Protection (SSPCM) and appointed Miguel Alejandro Cabrera Medina for the position.

Mayor González Cruz knew that his appointees would last only a few days, a week at the very most since it was widely known that the incoming mayor had planned out her own appointees for the two positions. And in the end, Cabrera Medina lasted one day in office and Castellón González spent less than a week as director of the Municipal. So what was the point? 

Well, during the brief window of opportunity when Cabrera Medina and  Castellón González were in charge of the municipal police they managed to make more than 120 changes, new appointments and assignments.

Although the changes were only officially signed by Castellón González, officers told Zeta that Cabrera Medina and Castellón González worked on the 120 changes together. 

Cabrera Medina’s reputation for corruption allegedly preceded him, causing officers to complain within hours of Cabrera Medina assuming the position. According to officers that spoke to Zeta Tijuana "He is corrupt, he loves money, making his deals and asking for it in dollars".

"They charged the policemen between $2000 and $3,500 pesos each for giving them new positions in specific departments or delegations,” said another officer who spoke to Zeta.

On October 1, 2021, Montserrat Caballero Ramírez officially became mayor. Shortly after assuming the position and as expected, she got rid of Arturo González Cruz’s two appointees, Cabrera Medina and Castellón González. She selected José Fernando Sánchez González as the new Secretary of Municipal Security and Protection (SSPCM) and Rafael Vázquez Hernández as Director of Municipal Police. 

But again, how effective was this stunt to retake power for 44 hours and get corrupt appointees in if they are going to be replaced within a few days? 

Surely the new Secretary and Director are aware of the 120 total appointees and position changes that had just occurred and the payments that were exchanged to ensure that everyone got the position they wanted, right? One might expect that as the new leaders, the first order of business when they take office will be to review and undo a majority of these blatantly corrupt position changes. Well, it seems a reversing has largely occurred, although reports differ on just how many of the 120 changes were reversed (even within the same article, at certain news sources). 

Zeta reports that the new Secretary and Director “reversed these changes - to investigate how they were made and the interest of the relocation - and also returned the police to patrol the streets in different delegations than the ones they requested.”

Another change reversed by the new leaders was that Cabrera and Castellón had left three police stations with only two patrols per shift: San Antonio, Sanchez Taboada and Playas de Tijuana, and these were returned to the usual (yet still insufficient) number of four patrols per shift.

They also began a few controversial changes of their own. They also reassigned 100 of the 195 officers assigned as bodyguards or security detail, and opened investigations into their assignments. They are in the process of changing the three commanders responsible for each of the four delegations.

The newly arrived police leaders changed the Deputy Director of Operations Arturo Ascorve Ruvalcaba from the night shift to the morning shift, and then appointed Omar Green to the now vacant night shift. They are in the process of changing the three commanders responsible for each of the four regionals zones.

The change of Arturo Ascorve to the morning shift was not well received among the officers. They began to recall versions from the early 2000s, saying that he was one of the first generations of Academy police officers. 

"In those times, he, like everyone else, made agreements with the brothers -Arellano Felix- and with Jesus Labra, but after that nothing was heard of illegal activities. Even, at one time, when he implemented an operation against criminals in Sanchez Taboada, he was removed because he made more arrests than the bosses wanted."

The Fallout of the Changes

October 11 2021 

A narco message sign was left on October 11, 2021 in Colonia Real de San Francisco in the city of Tijuana, next to human remains. The sign read, as translated by Sol Prendido:

Miguel Ángel Sánchez Martínez, aka 015 or X33,

This will be your fate if you keep backing the Aquiles’ crew. You’ve already been located.   

 

Sincerely, 

El Hibrido 

 

Come on out to face the bull. You’ve already been located you fucking coward. 

Officer Miguel Ángel Sánchez Martínez had been named before in narcomantas. He was threatened in 2019 by criminals in the delegation and accused by drug traffickers of both threatening cartel members and planting drugs on criminals. 

Agent Sanchez Martinez spoke to a Zeta reporter about the narcomanta, saying "... they threatened me a week ago and I would like them [the SSPCM] to support me with clearing my name. In these 16 years of service I have not been involved with any criminal group. I have been recognized on different occasions and these threats come because I am deputy chief of an operational shift and I have made important arrests in this district. I have even been attacked with bullets."

He added he has received official recognitions "that I have earned with effort and dedication in my police career. The SSPCM, instead of supporting me, already indicated to my immediate boss to remove me from command and put me at my disposal, and most likely, they will take away my weapon and I will be an easy target for these people that I have been bothering.”

So who was behind it? 

Unknown. Although the message was signed “El Hibrido”, there are few publicly known details about an El Hibrido operating in the city of Tijuana.

The writer is claiming that Sánchez Martínez is in league with Los Aquiles. Alfonso Arzate González, alias "El Aquiles", reportedly leads a Sinaloa Cartel (Cártel de Sinaloa, CDS) group in the state of Baja California alongside his brother René Arzate García, alias “La Rana”. Their group falls on the El Mayo side of CDS, as opposed to the Los Chapitos side. 

The writer is presumably a cartel group who is a rival of Los Aquiles, of which there are many, some of which include the CJNG and CAF groups working under Los Chapitos.

October 16, 2021

The Tijuana Municipal Police’s Head of Intelligence Luis Juan and his second in command, the deputy director Antonio Rodríguez Rincón have also been targeted. Whether they are new to the positions they hold or recently appointed is unclear. 

At 9:30 am on October 16, 2021, the Deputy Chief of Intelligence Javier Antonio Rodríguez Rincón left a private residence in the Santa Fe subdivision of Tijuana. Due to a threat that he received last March, he had been assigned an armored vehicle, but in recent months Rodríguez Rincón had ceased to use the armored vehicle. 

At some point Rodríguez Rincón stopped at a stop light and a Chevrolet Malibu crossed the street in front of his vehicle. One of the co-pilots of the Malibu got out and multiple armed men began firing high caliber weapons at Officer Rodríguez Rincón.

Rodríguez stepped on the accelerator and made a sharp turn to the right, managing to drive out of the way of their gunfire. Rodríguez began speeding away from the area but after a few minutes he realized the attackers had given up, re-entered their vehicle and were fleeing the scene. The officer made a U-turn and began now trying to chase down the vehicle which had just attacked him. 

Rodríguez got on police radio during his pursuit of his attackers and began reporting what had just happened, as well as a full description of the vehicle in which the aggressors were fleeing in as well as their approximate location. These events were recorded in both surveillance videos and audio records.

Eventually, officers of the Tijuana Municipal Police and the State Security and Investigation Guard (GESI) joined the chase. GESI agents managed to intercept the attackers vehicle and those onboard tried to flee by foot but were detained just meters ahead of their parked vehicle. Later that day a narco message sign was placed which alleges why Rodríguez Rincón was attacked.

Translation by Sol Prendido:

This is your last warning you faggot Javier Antonio Aguirre Rincón aka ‘El Calambres’. 

 

You can go fuck your mom along with ‘El Ojendis’. You’re both being protected by your uncle General Rincón. 

 

You excuse yourselves from the barracks to go out and steal. Along with those hungry fuck dumb asses that you have with you. Luis Juan, head of intelligence, on the 23rd of June you stole 23 packets of blow from the Fundadores neighborhood. And on July the 20th you stole 100 packets of blow along with 250 thousand dollars. Later that evening you came back for the vehicles that you stole. 

 

Everything has its owner you son of a bitch. 

So who was behind it? 

Zeta alleges that the group behind the attacks on Rodríguez Rincón were perpetrated by a subgroup of the CJNG in Tijuana called Los Erres who are led by Isaac Alhui Chavez Cabrera, alias "El Puma".

Zeta also alleges that the very delayed response time of municipal officers to attack on Rodríguez Rincón had led most of the Intelligence Unit's personnel to conclude that Arturo Ascorve Ruvalcaba, the deputy director of the morning shift, was complicit in the attack on Rodríguez Rincón. 

October 17, 2021

As previously covered on Borderland Beat, on October 17, 2021, a narco banner was placed over the Alba Roja bridge. The sign was reported to the 911 emergency phone line by 11:36 pm at night and police officers were dispatched to the area to remove the sign.

 The message read as follows, as translated by Sol:

This message goes out to 02 Ascorbe and the minions of 03. Along with all the districts as well. 

02 Ascorbe, we already know that you’ve made a pact with the Aquiles crew and that you want the position as Secretary [of Public Security] since you have told everyone that you were going to be the new Secretary.

You placed 03 Madrid in the Floridos-Mariano's sector so that you could order 03 Madrid to release all of Aquiles’ men.

In the same manner you also placed 03 Chaves in Otay Mesa to knock out drug loads that the Aquiles mob set up for you. Which in turn you sell to them. Much like the 60,000 pills that you knocked out of the production line. You only paid him off for 2,000 of those pills. The other 58 thousand were turned over to you by 02. 

You also ordered 03 Gochi to steal those kilos of cocaine in Playas de Tijuana. 

Here, lately, you’ve been saying that you’re going to take out the Secretary because you have a good godfather. Aside from this, you’re already selling off the districts because you claim you’re going to overthrow the new Secretary and that you’re going to be in charge of all the Tijuana Municipal Police.

02 Ascorbe, remember when you were boss in the Sanchez Taboada borough, and you would ask for help in order to avoid having dead bodies? You were so good at extending out your hand, asking for assistance. 

With all due respect Mr. Secretary watch your back with that cooperating trickster. This problem of ours isn’t against you guys. But it is against Ascorbe, Madrid, Chaves, and Gochi. Furthermore, I will kill off those cooperating tricksters.  

 

From,  

El Cabo 20

So who was behind it?

Well in this case, the signer of the narcomanta tells us exactly who was behind the message. “El Cabo 20”, which is another alias used for “El Lobo”, David López Jiménez. Currently he works under a CAF group led by Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, alias “El Flaquito”. Their CAF group currently serves under CDS Los Chapitos.

October 19, 2021

At around 3:50 am on October 19, 2021, a white cloth narco message sign was reported to the emergency phone line. The sign was found on the “Villa” bridge in the Francisco Villa neighborhood. 

Translation by Sol Prendido:

Saltos Bastida David of patrol vehicle #1919  

You’ve already been warned. You and the rest are thieves.  

 

Garcia Guante of patrol vehicle #2203 and Estrada Herrera of patrol vehicle # 7550. 

 

You need to return the chain, pendant, and the $10,000 that you hungry fuck dogs have stolen. These actions will do you no good. This is your second warning.  

 

We already have everyone of you guys located. It does you no good to have relocated to the field sobriety test division, you son of a bitch. 

Garcia Huante (2203) and Estada Herrera (7550) are active agents in the San Antonio de los Buenos delegation, while David Santos Bastida (1919) was an active agent but he was reassigned to a different division and given two weeks absence when he was previously threatened by criminal groups. 

Zeta was able to learn that all the threatened officers named in this narco message sign are requesting to take home their service weapons, but that is a privilege that only the police chiefs currently have at the moment because the two newly appointed Director and Secretary are trying to investigate police collusion with organized crime and until they have concluded their investigations, they do not want any officer going home with their service weapons.

So who was behind it?

In the case of David Santos Bastida, the officer is believed to be targeted not by cartel members but by his fellow police officers. Allegedly Santos Bastida told a relative of his to file a report on an incident where the relative was badly beaten by three other officers. The three other officers are now under investigation for the incident so Zeta Tijuana says officer retaliation may be behind the move. 

Sources: Zeta Tijuana, La Voz de la Frontera, Periodis Monegro, San Diego Union Tribune, Cadena Noticias, Newsweek Español, TheDailyJournalist, El-Mexicano, Alfredo Alvarez