"El Zorro" Brother of Gente Nueva Leader, Arrested in Sonora

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

El Zorro was arrested after two search warrants were issued by a judge. Although the security officers searched a property in Culiacán, Sinaloa, they found the alleged brother of Francisco Javier Arvizu Márquez, the Jaguar, in Agua Prieta, Sonora.

José Dolores Arvizu Márquez, El Zorro and/or Tío Zorro, was detained in Sonora by agents of the Attorney General's Office (FGR) and the Armed Forces, he is identified as an operator of Gente Nueva, an armed wing of the Cartel of Sinaloa.

This subject was arrested along with a woman named Verónica Vargas Botello, alias Vero and/or Brie. The two, the official report points out, would be responsible for a criminal group dedicated to the transfer of weapons and drugs. According to the FGR, the couple was arrested by elements of the National Guard, ministerial staff of the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, experts from the General Coordination of Expert Services, and agents of the Secretariat of National Defense.

The subject would be a relative of the Jaguar, who was arrested on October 23 along with three of its operators after a strong confrontation with the Army in Madera, Chihuahua. A control judge attached to the Federal Criminal Justice Center in Sonora, with residence in Hermosillo, granted the arrest warrants against the couple on September 25, 2021. They are included in the same case as other alleged criminals.

At the Culiacán home, Army agents only located five cell phones, a portable computer, and an electronic tablet. While in Agua Prieta, Zorro and Vero were in possession of three cell phones and various documentation.

After being arrested, they were transferred to a prison in Sonora where they will have their initial hearing and later, it is expected that they will be linked to the process and imposed the precautionary measure of informal preventive detention.

Gente Nueva, led by El Jaguar, is an organization with operations in the municipalities of Naco, Agua Prieta, Hermosillo, and Cananea. Although it also extends to the limits with Chihuahua. In that last region La Linea disputes territory. Its main criminal activities are the trafficking of firearms and cartridges from the United States to Mexico, as well as the trafficking of drugs that pass through the borders of Sonora.

With the arrest of Zorro, three of the Arvizu Márquez brothers have fallen and the Sinaloa Cartel has suffered consecutive blows for its operations in the north of the country. Last July, authorities reported that the Jaguar escaped for the fourth time in 2021. After hours of searching in Largo Maderal, the hawks under his command managed to alert the criminal organization and all fled through gaps and roads with difficult access to the border with Sonora, where they blocked the passage with vehicles.

According to the investigations, Francisco Javier Arvizu disputed the territory in which the Bavispe massacre took place in November 2019, while his enemies from La Línea, from the Juarez Cartel, participated in the confrontation in order to heat up the plaza and assassinate innocent people from a Mormon family.

Jaguares belonged to La Línea five years ago, as they are identified as successors of Luis Barragán. But internal disputes led them to align themselves with the Sinaloa Cartel. El Jaguar would respond to the interests of the Sinaloan faction that operates in Agua Prieta, Sonora. The dispute over Chihuahua stems from drug trafficking routes through Casas Grandes.

Upon his arrival in the narco-war, Francisco Javier Arvizu Márquez began a process of extermination of rivals that included the assassinations of police officers related to La Linea. His brother, Jorge Arvizu Márquez, El Lobo, was arrested in February of last year in Madera and is currently undergoing legal proceedings.

Previously, local media reported that the Jaguar had been rescued after authorities managed to arrest him on January 13, 2020, in Agua Prieta. The officers were forced to release him at a gas station on the highway from Cananea to Hermosillo. Presumably, the security convoy was intercepted by 20 vans and a large number of hitmen, who took their boss away.

Los Paredes, a cell that operates within the limits of Sonora, is positioned as the one that provides financial, strategic, and operational aid to the Jaguares.

Source Infobae