CAF/Chapitos Leader "El Lobo" or "Cabo 20" David López Jiménez Arrested in Nuevo Leon

 "Socalj" and "HEARST" for Borderland Beat

David Lopez Jimenez also known as El Lobo is shown here in his 2020 arrest photo.

Baja California authorities announced that David López Jiménez, aliases "El Cabo 20" or "El Lobo", has been arrested. 

El Lobo was arrested in the municipality of Apodaca, in the state of Nuevo León, on Avenida de la Concordia street in the Centro neighborhood, at 8:25 am on August 24, 2022.

According to Prosecutor Carpio Sánchez, El Lobo was hiding out in Nuevo León under a fake name in an attempt to avoid being arrested by Baja law enforcement. 

"He is being detained as the intellectual author of the photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel and other crimes will be sought," Carpio added. 

Who is El Lobo/El Cabo 20?

El Lobo has had a criminal record ever since he was 22 years old when he was arrested for armed robbery.

This robbery according to a February 2019 Zeta article profiling El Lobo, occurred when he and a friend, armed with knives, broke into a home as part of a robbery then injured a woman who was carrying a baby in her arms. He reportedly spent a stint in prison in 2010 for this. In 2014 he was arrested for armed car theft.

At some point, El Lobo switched from being a member of CDS to becoming a member of the CJNG and began working under Juan José Pérez Vargas, alias “El Piolin”. On September 19, 2017, his boss El Piolin was arrested while in Guadalajara, Jalisco. El Lobo later told investigators that he believed that fellow CJNG member El Gallero had tipped off police to get El Piolin arrested.

El Gallero at that time was said to be heavily using drugs and was paranoid about his fellow cartel members betraying him as a result of drug addiction. Piolin’s arrest and El Gallero’s erratic paranoia caused division within the CJNG Los Cabos and led some CJNG members to defect and join other cartels.

The arrest and eventual homicide of El Piolin was actually part of a larger move, a kind of internal “clean-up” that occurred between 2016-2019. This clean-up included El Gross who was executed in November 2016; El Piolín who died in Puente Grande prison in May 2019; and El Gallero who was kidnapped and disappeared in April 2019.

All of those listed were killed while they were in Jalisco state and are widely considered to have been killed by the CJNG they served. On June 10, 2018, El Lobo (who had been long rumored to be dissatisfied with the CJNG) was officially and publicly declared an enemy of the CJNG when they left two severed heads accompanied by a sign threatening El Lobo.

By 2020, El Lobo was reportedly working under El Flaquito’s CAF group which is repeatedly said by Zeta Tijuana to be working on behalf of CDS' Los Chapitos.

What the Police Are Saying 

“He is the one who brings all the chaos, he is working (committing crimes) for everyone, and throughout the Coastal Zone. He pretends to be a new 'Teo', kills people, and blames the opposing cell," said a police chief.

“Every day, Jiménez pulls people from the Jalisco Cartel to his team,” said the investigator.

But it is not just Lobo who is recruiting people from Jalisco for the CAF off-shoot group allied with Los Chapitos. Even in the East Zone, he has managed to recruit criminal operators from the Los Uriarte cell from Sinaloa."

Murder of Photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel

Margarito Martínez Esquivel worked as a journalist and “fixer” assisting international outlets including the BBC, as well as for The San Diego Union-Tribune and Los Angeles Times, was shot three times outside of his home, according to his wife, Elena.

A month before his homicide, Martínez had made an official complaint about threats he had received via Facebook pertaining to his work as a journalist in order to receive specially allocated protections offered by the government.

The gun used to kill photojournalist Margarito Martínez was used in five previous 2020 shootings that were associated with the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation (CJNG). Margarito had also recently gotten into a dispute with a man allegedly involved with a CAF group led by El Lobo.

Sources: Borderland Beat, Zeta Tijuana, Borderland Beat, Borderland Beat

Graphics by HEARST