Gulf Cartel's Grupo Scorpions Beheads Two Men in Cadereyta Jiménez, Nuevo Leon

"HEARST" and "Itzli" for Borderland Beat 

The Gulf Cartel’s Grupo Scorpion beheaded two men and left the decapitated head of a man on top of a sign in the city of Cadereyta Jiménez, in Nuevo Leon, along with a narco message sign.

Warning: Graphic images below this point.

The Decapitated Bodies

During the early morning of Tuesday, April 12, 2022, government employees who were arriving to work at the municipal DIF facilities noticed that about half a block away a suspicious SUV had stopped on Mutualismo Street and a couple of men had exited the vehicle. These men took out a couple of large bags and a tarp, placed them on the sidewalk, then re-entered their vehicle and then drove away. 

The DIF employees alerted the police to what they had just seen and officers arrived to find that the tarp contained a narco message from the Gulf Cartel subgroup Grupo Scorpion. The clear bags that were unloaded contained the dead bodies of two males. Both of the bodies were said to have evidence of being tortured and there were plastic bindings on the ankles and the wrists of each. Both of the males were said to have been beheaded and one of the men’s heads was placed separately on top of the tarp. 

"I had never seen anything like this before, I was passing by the place and there the headless bodies were lying a block away from the health center," said a witness to the incident.

The part of Mutualismo Street where the human remains were left, between Morelos Street intersection and the Escobedo intersection, were temporarily closed to traffic while forensic experts from the Attorney General’s Office collected evidence. 

In photos alleged to show the crime scene, the message reads as follows, as translated by Itzli: 

Attention, with all due respect to all the citizens in general, the problem is not with you nor the consumers [of drugs] nor the government, be it municipal or state. 

We are tired of the municipal police like the coordinator Martin Alejandro Flores Guevara (Romeo), Alejandro Gonzalez (Peluche) Luis Miguel, Juan Martinez transit coordinator and all their orders and the resulting deviations like the charging of extortion fees and the selling of crystal. 

And we are a cartel that is unhappy with all the irregularities of the municipal police supporting Juaquin [sic] Arzate (Chimuelo), Antonio Herrera Flores (Pollero), Cruz Alberto Garcia (Cruzito) so if all the “Chapulines” and independents do not align this will be happening so get to work, did we not tell you that if you don’t want to run with us then don’t. 

It’s just that don’t mess with our people because you all are next. This is the last call and the security and tranquility of Cadereyta Jiminez, N.L. depends on you all

Sincerely, 

Cartel del Golfo 

Grupo Scorpions

The Cartel Landscape of the Area

The municipality of Cadereyta Jiménez in Nuevo León, is a part of the greater metropolitan area of the major city of Monterrey. 

The most current, verifiable information we have on who controls the areas around Monterrey comes from a June 2021 State Investigation Agency (AEI) report which says the regions are controlled by “in the south, in the Independencia and Sierra Ventana neighborhoods, the Sinalocos. In the east, in the municipalities of Juárez and Guadalupe, a gang controlled by an inmate of the Apodaca prison; to the west, in Santa Catarina and García, Los Billys.” 

The Sinalocos refers to a group working for the Sinaloa Cartel. Los Billys are an independent group with no alliance to a larger organization. Los Billys are covered in more detail in this previous story.

El Billy was executed at the end of December 2021. For more details, please see this previous story.

The “inmate of the Apodaca prison” mentioned in the AEI report refers to “Cártel Independiente de Nuevo León”, or the Independent Cartel of Nuevo León, which is led by Joel Rodolfo Ramones Barda, alias “El Rodo”. El Rodo’s group is working on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel, as evidenced by the MZ hitmen who gave him a video shoutout in September 2021. 

We also know that the recently arrested Sinaloa Cartel boss Alan Ervey Juárez Castillo, alias “El Cano”, was said to have hitmen operating in the municipalities of Escobedo, San Nicolás, Apodaca, and General Zuazua, as well as some level of presence in Santa Catarina and Monterrey municipality. 

Cadereyta Jiménez was previously believed to be controlled by the Gulf Cartel (Cártel del Golfo, CDG), although which faction of CDG controlled it was unclear but there is evidence that it may be the Metros faction. Los Metros have historically operated along the route of Highway 40, leading into Monterrey, which runs right through Cadereyta Jiménez. It is also an area Metros are believed to be trying to expand their influence within.

This most recent narco sign with the two decapitated men, curiously, was signed by “Cartel del Golfo  Grupo Scorpion”. The name suggests they are related/one-in-the same as Grupo Escorpiones, with “escorpiones” literally translating to scorpions. Grupo Escorpiones is a collection of hitmen known to work for not CDG Metros but instead the CDG Matamoros and CDG Tampico factions. (Matamoros and Tampico are allies of each other.) The modern Grupo Escorpiones are named after the historical CDG group of the the same name, who worked for Tony Tormenta, however they are unrelated to the original. 

The CDG plaza boss for Cadereyta was Gerónimo Hernández de la Rosa, alias “El Gero” (alternatively spelled El Jero). El Gero, however, was killed on December 24, 2021, as detailed in this previous story. Gero had previously survived an assassination attempt by alleged CDN members in March 2021. 

It was also CDN who assassinated El Gero’s predecessor, Ulises Ramsés Lozano García while he was at a clandestine cockfighting arena (“palenque”) in Cadereyta in April 2020. Ulises was also believed to be a plaza boss controlling Cadereyta who was a part of the CDG.

The Three Named Cartel Leaders 

And what do we know about the three specific cartel leaders -"Juaquin Arzate [sic] (Chimuelo), Antonio Herrera Flores (Pollero), Cruz Alberto Garcia (Cruzito)"- who were mentioned in the narco message that was left along with the two decapitated bodies? 

Well, Joaquin Arzate, alias “El Chimuelo” or “Toothless”, has previously been named and threatened in a May 2020 narco message sign that was left in Cadereyta and signed by “El Señor de Los Lentes” or the Lord of the Glasses. 

In that same month of May 2020, he was threatened again in another Cadereyta narco message sign, this time it was signed by “La Maldosa”. The sign read as follows, as translated by Itzli: 

Arzate we are already here and we have already given the first proof, what you do behind our back we do in front of your face. To all the oilfield people that support you the same is going to happen, ball of filthy “Hauchicoleros” and “Ex Zetas” that you bring with you.

Sincerely

La Maldosa

The message mentioned that El Chimuelo was involved with ex-Zetas and the business of petroleum theft. It should be noted that in addition to having Highway 40 passing through,  Cadereyta is a strategic area for cartel groups to hold also because it presents oil theft (or huachicoleo) opportunities because there is a 488 kilometer (or approximately 300 miles), 10-inch pipeline within the municipality. 

Back in 2011, Excelsior reported that there was a group of Zetas members arrested in Cadereyta and one of them Martín Martínez González, alias "El Chimuelo", was the leader of a group of halcones, or lookouts. Whether Martín Martínez González is the same man as Joaquin Arzate and he simply uses a fake name, or if Joaquin Arzate chose the alias Chimuelo because of the history of Martín Martínez González in Cadereyta is unclear.

Antonio Herrera Flores, alias “El Pollero”, has never been mentioned before in new articles. His alias “Pollero” is the slang name for a man who smuggles people across the US -Mexico border so this may relate to the business El Pollero is engaged in. Cruz Alberto Garcia, alias “El Cruzito”, remains a mystery as well, with no news reports covering him either. 

Sources: El Norte, La Prensa, Telediario, Posta, Loba Indomable, La Talacha Noroeste, YankuikMX, Demon G, Clave 20 Monterrey

Background Information Sources: Proceso, BB Archives, Alerta Roja Cadereyta, Reynosa Codigo Rojo, Loba, Excelsior, Noticiero EL Circo