Mazatlán, Sinaloa: Alleged Financial Operator Of El Azul Dies After Being Ran Over

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Warning: Graphic Video

The victim was registered by the US Treasury Department, participated in Motorcycle Week

An alleged financial operator of the late drug trafficker Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, El Azul, died minutes after being run over while riding a motorcycle through Mazatlan's Golden Zone.

This is Martín Humberto Ponce Félix, 57, originally from Culiacán and who participated in Motorcycle Week in this port.

Ponce Félix was blacklisted by the Treasury Department in July 2012, along with other people, including relatives of Esparragoza Moreno, for participating in a network of seven gas stations located in Culiacán, which, according to US authorities, served as a front to launder resources of organized crime.

The apparent accident where Martin Humberto died occurred this Friday at 11:30 in the morning on Camarón Sábalo and Ibis avenues, in the Golden Zone.

The data indicates that the victim was riding a BMW motorcycle when he was hit by the driver of a Jeep truck, which, according to security videos, tried to make a U-turn in a prohibited place.

The Jeep truck hit Martín Humberto head-on, who was thrown and fell to the ground with serious injuries to his legs and arms.

Paramedics went to the site and observed that Ponce Félix had severe head injuries, in several minutes they maneuvered to put a collar on him and he was transferred to a hospital where he died.

The signing

Martín Humberto was booked by the Treasury Department along with two ex-partners from El Azul and some of his children.

María Guadalupe Gastélum Payán appeared on the list, with whom Esparragoza procreated Brenda Guadalupe, Cristian Iván, Juan Ignacio (who died in an accident) and Nadia Patricia Esparragoza Gastélum.

They appeared with properties in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, in Jalisco, in addition to controlling the companies Grupo Cinjab S.A. of C.V. and Grupo Impegoza S.A. of C.V.

The gas stations, on the other hand, were registered in the name of another of her ex-partners, Doña Ofelia Monzón Araujo and her sister Elvira. Ofelia was the mother of Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, El Azulito, arrested in Culiacán and who later escaped from the Aguaruto prison. She died of Covid-19 in January 2021.

In this list of gas stations, Martín Humberto appears together with Ulises Guzmán Ochoa as administrators of this network of service stations.

These companies located in Culiacán, Sinaloa, were sold after being exhibited by the Treasury, but the DEA pointed out that the family and the figureheads continued to operate them.

For a time more gas stations were closed. But after a process of a change of owners they were reopened and currently remain open to the public.

They murder a motorcyclist in the Paseo Claussen thoroughfare 

In an incident that occurred hours after the death of the alleged Esparragoza financial operator, a motorcyclist who was also participating in Motorcycle Week was shot to death on Paseo Claussen, near the corner of Gutiérrez Nájera, a few meters from the Monument to the Fisherman.

The gunfire alerted the authorities, who went to the scene where they found the person dead.

So far, the causes of the attack are unknown.

The body was left on the motorcycle before the eyes of dozens of people and motorcyclists who were in the area.

Transit authorities implemented an operation so that circulation would not be hindered while the body was removed from the site.

El Sol de Mazatlan    La Voz del Pueblo