Collaborator of Nueva Plaza's El Marino Was Charge For Role in Tonala Massacre

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 

A man named J. Jesús M. has been charged for his alleged involvement in the Tonala massacre. Some have speculated that he is the Cártel Nueva Plaza lieutenant known as “El Marino”, or at the very least a close collaborator of El Marino. 

A brief overview of the war Cartel Nueva Plaza waged against the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) for Guadalajara municipalities includes details about the time El Mencho himself spoke to police officers on the phone, asking that certain detainees be released without charges, in a story detailed by the Jalisco Attorney General himself.

Warning: Graphic images below this point. 

J. Jesús M. Charged with Involvement in Tonalá Massacre

The state Attorney General’s Office (FGE) has announced that a man believed to be involved in the Tonalá massacre, in which 11 construction workers were killed in February 2021, has been charged and will go to trial over his alleged participation. 

The Tonalá massacre was one of the most infamous acts of violence associated with the group Cártel Nueva Plaza (CNP), a group which opposes the dominant cartel force in the area, the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). 

The FGE released a statement on April 14, 2022, which read:

“The investigation and integration work carried out by the agent of the Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the homicide of eleven construction workers in the La Jauja neighborhood, in Tonalá, has led to the indictment of a man for this crime.

J. Jesús M. will be remanded in custody for one year as a precautionary measure, imposed during the hearing in which the judicial authority decided to prosecute him for aggravated homicide and attempted homicide…

In these investigations they were able to identify one of the persons involved in the crime, and once the Public Prosecutor's Office gathered evidence that presumed the probable participation of J. Jesús M., an arrest warrant was requested against him.

 

This subject was arrested after the crime because he had an arrest warrant for a different homicide and he was recently charged for what happened in La Jauja.

 

The State Prosecutor's Office is continuing to investigate the case in order to find the whereabouts of the others implicated in the crime.” 

It is generally believed that a CNP figure who goes by the alias “El Marino” was responsible for the Tonala massacre. El Marino’s real name remains unknown, which has led some to speculate that the man in custody, J. Jesús M. is El Marino. 

That being said, it is also possible that J. Jesús M. is simply a hitman who worked under El Marino and El Marino is actually one of the “others implicated in the crime” that the FGE statement alludes to at the end of the press release.

Brief Overview of Cártel Nueva Plaza

Cártel Nueva Plaza (CNP) emerged after Carlos Enrique Sánchez, alias “El Cholo”, who was an alleged confidant of CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”, reportedly had a CJNG financial operator who went by the alias “El Colombiano” executed in March 2017. 

According to local media, El Colombiano died during a firefight in March 10th, in Puerto Vallarta, inside the parking lot of a Walmart store located in Blvd. Francisco Medina Ascencio.

Mencho and other CJNG leadership seemed to judge this decision by El Cholo as a serious mistake and they decided to eliminate El Cholo for it. El Cholo, in turn, left the CJNG and formed his own group called Cártel Nueva Plaza (CNP). 

An August 2017 article by Proceso magazine asserts that a CJNG lieutenant who goes by the alias “El 2” was tasked by higher leadership with eliminating CNP influence in the municipalities they had members within, which were at the time Guadalajara, Tonala, San Pedro Tlaquepaque and Tlajomulco de Zuniga. 

The real name of this El 2 is unclear. Mencho’s son and the successor to his organization, Rubén Oseguera González was generally believed to have this alias, as it indicated he was second in line to lead. Rubén was even arrested while in possession of a firearm with “CJNG 02 JR” inscribed on it, as further evidence that this alias was associated with him. 

However by the time the El Cholo betrayal occurred, in March 2017, Rubén had been held in prison for two years. Many cartel figures have proven they are capable of continuing their criminal operations even if they are held in prison; however, in February 2017, the US had declared its intention to extradite Rubén and he began a fierce legal battle against an extradition. Whether Rubén was entrusted with clearing out these plazas while he was also having to fight US extradition is unclear. 

El 2 reportedly had the following CJNG men working as lieutenants under him: 

• Marcos Antonio Hernández, alias “El Cartón” (sometimes spelled El Kartón), operated within Tonalá, said to have lived in the San Gaspar area within Tonalá

• Daniel Ramirez Rosales, aliases “El Padrino” and “El Tocayo”, who operated within Tlaquepaque 

• A man who went by the alias “El Pipo”, who operated within Tlaquepaque 

• A man who went by the alias "El Tortas", who operated within Tlaquepaque

On the other side, El Cholo reportedly had the following former-CJNG, turned CNP men working under him:

• Víctor Manuel Guevara Lino,  alias “El Manzano”

• Ramón Sánchez Radilla,  alias “El Marro”

• Juan Luis Ramírez Granados, alias "El Cerebro"

• El Gusano

• El Gono

• El Jasso 

• El Rodrigo

• El Marino

CJNG vs CNP

The War Over Guadalajara, Tonala, Tlaquepaque and Tlajomulco

Two state police officers were shot while at a restaurant called El Atorón, in the municipality of Tlajomulco, near the border of Tlaquepaque. One of the two officers died as a result of his injuries. (Source, Source, Source)

Five CJNG members alleged to have been involved with the attack at El Atorón are arrested. One of the men looks suspiciously similar to alleged photos of CJNG lieutenant “El Pipo”, who worked under El 2.  (Source, Source)

 

The CJNG may have applied pressure on law enforcement to release the man who looks similar to El Pipo. 

NTR Guadalajara reports that “about 20 people demonstrated outside the Prosecutor's Office… demanding the release of one of the detainees in this case. The Attorney General of the State, Eduardo Almaguer…  emphasized that they will not allow pressure in this investigation. One of the detainees has two arrest warrants for qualified homicide.” (Source)

A house located in Villa Hermosa neighborhood of Guadalajara that is associated with the five arrested CJNG members was raided after a judge approved a search warrant. Various firearms and quantities of marijuana were found inside the home. (Source, Source)

The protests insisting that one particular detainee be release grew violent and five protesters had to the arrested in order to calm the scene outside the prosecutor’s office. (Source) 

Three CJNG hitmen who were smuggling firearms in the secret compartment of a SUV were pulled over and officers arrested them in the greater Guadalajara area. The FGE later identified one of the three men as David "N", the new CJNG plaza boss of the municipality of Tlaquepaque. David "N" had allegedly been sent to Tlaquepaque to forcibly take over control of the municipality after its previous plaza boss, Ramón Sánchez Radilla, alias “El Marro”, had flipped and joined the CNP.  (Source, Source, Source, Source)

Attorney General Almaguer Ramírez held a press conference about the detainees and he gave new details about what happened when the three men were arrested. The Attorney General said that when the SUV pulled over, the vehicle’s “occupants refused to get out of the vehicle. And not only that, but they also lowered one of the windows of the SUV a little and they took out a cell phone, handing it over to one of our officers, telling him verbatim-that ‘they should take the call from El Señor,’ who asked for them to be set free.” The detainees would later refer to the man on the phone as El Señor or El Patrón, or The Boss. 

“Someone had told them or had assured them that they could circulate safely in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. They speak and allude to El Patrón. We presume they were mentioning the person who heads this criminal group in Jalisco,” said Attorney General Almaguer Ramírez, outright implying that El Mencho was the man on the phone. (Source, Source)

Jalisco Rojo reports that the police officer who ignored the request of El Mencho to free the detainees, named Esteban Flores Juárez, was shot to death by armed men right after his work shift ended. (Source, Source, Source)  

CJNG’s Marcos Antonio Hernández, alias “El Cartón”, an alleged direct report of El 2, was shot to death while he was driving in his red BMWi8 in Zapopan, Jalisco. CNP’s Ramón Sánchez Radilla, alias “El Marro” was reportedly the organizer of the hit that killed El Cartón. (Source, Source, Source, Source, Source, Source)

CNP lieutenant El Marro, was murdered on the steps of the Pan-American volleyball complex in Guadalajara. (Source, Source)

The right hand man working under CNP lieutenant Víctor Manuel Guevara Lino, alias “El Manzano” was shot to death in the Miguel Hidalgo neighborhood in Guadalajara.  (Milenio) 

Two relatives of CNP’s El Marro are kidnapped, allegedly by soldiers of the Navy (SEMAR). The two relatives are named Eligio Sánchez Radilla and Lázaro Edgardo Sánchez Robles. 

Eligio's brother and Edgardo's father, Lázaro Sánchez Radilla says that on March 13, 2019, they all went to eat some tostadas and drank a few beers, on Avenida 8 de Julio, and once they finished they drove in his son's truck to his friend Cesar's house.When they were outside César's house, a red Versa car arrived and parked in front of Edgardo's truck, while a second vehicle followed behind. 

"Then they grabbed and identified themselves as prosecutors, grabbed César and my son and threw them into the gray car -the [car] that blocked them in the back- there were four of them. The boys, since they had alcohol on their breath, it was normal for them [to be stopped for committing a traffic infraction]. The other three [soldiers], in the red Versa car, grabbed and took my brother out of my son's truck, and put him alone in the Versa car," explains Lázaro.

He continues: "They were wearing badges, like badges, and apparently they had said that there was a Navy operative, but they were undercover, in civilian cars and dressed as civilians.

Lázaro suspects that it was members of the Attorney General's Office who took his relatives. "Because two days after the disappearance, agents of the Attorney General's Office arrived at my sister's house [..]  she had just changed, and even we didn't know where she lived, the only one who knew was my brother [Eligio].”(Source, Source, Source, Source)

The wife of El Cartón was shot to death in the El Zalate neighborhood, in the municipality of Guadalajara. (Source, Source, Source)

Five people were shot to death while they were inside a makeshift home on Morelos street in Tlaquepaque. The house was said to be associated with criminal activity of stealing vehicles and auto parts. In El Cholo’s later interrogation, he would claim CNP’s El Marino was behind this attack. (Source) 

Four people were shot to death in a Guadalajara park. In El Cholo’s later interrogation, he would claim CNP’s El Marino was behind this attack. (Source) 

In Tonala at around 6:00 pm, armed men in multiple vehicles arrive at an intersection and begin shooting at masons who were sitting on the sidewalk, awaiting their weekly pay. The armed group shot over 70 times at the male construction workers who had just gotten off work, authorities said. The assailants fled immediately after the shooting. 11 men were killed in the attack, including the 12 year old son of one of the men.

Two bystanders, a 35 year old woman and her son were injured by stray bullets. In El Cholo’s later interrogation video, under durress El Cholo said El Marino had lead this attack on his orders. (Source, Source) 

CJNG release a video showing CNP leader El Cholo being interrogated. In the video, El Cholo is handcuffed and surrounded by six masked, armed men. 

El Cholo says he sought out the support of Omar Harfuch, Head of Security of Mexico City Police and that Harfuch had agreed to back him if in return Cholo heated up the plazas near Guadaljara enough that there would be a strong police crackdown. Omar Harfuch would later deny these allegations. 

El Cholo goes on to say he was responsible for "all the crimes in Tonalá, Tlaquepaque, and Tlajomulco" and specifically naming the 11 Tonala laborers who were killed as something El Marino had done on his orders. Cholo also said he was the one behind the grenade thrown at the US Consulate in Guadalajara. Cholo describes personally calling the police to report the crimes. El Cholo names two specific police chiefs, Mario Alberto (alias El 0-3) and Sambrano (alias El 0-2) as collaborators in his efforts. 

Hours after the interrogation was released online, El Cholo's wrapped body was placed on a bench in Jardín Hidalgo, a public park in Tlaquepaque. Two signs were stabbed onto his body with knives, one reading "The traitor: Carlos Enrique Sanchez Martinez alias El Cholo" and another reading "Thank you to everyone who sent me to hell." 

Photos of El Cholo's body in the morgue with the wrapping removed were later leaked online. 

El Cholo's autopsy results showed 3 gunshot wounds and 4 deep puncture wounds from a sharp objects. There were leg fractures at the level of the tibia knee patella and femur. 8 toe bones had been cut, one detached. The tongue had been removed, eyes removed, and some teeth removed. In addition there was evidence of high voltage electrocution. (Source, Source) 

In the town of El Salto, at the corner of San Onofre and Nardo, an associate of El Cholo was found dead along with a sign reading “This happened to me for supporting El Cholo.” 

The two police chiefs (Mario Alberto and Sambrano) who were named in the El Cholo video are suspended pending a State Prosecutorial investigation. (Source, Source)

Sources: FGE Press Release, FGE Twitter Statement, El Occidental

CNP Background Sources: Insight Crime, Proceso

El Cartón’s Death Sources: Debate, La Voz de Michoacán, WRadio, El Occidental, Borderland Beat, Reforma