Tijuana, Baja California: The Narco Trafficker Turncoats

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Leaders of "Los Cabos", an armed group recruited and integrated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Baja California since 2015, betrayed "Mencho" and went over to "El Mayo" Zambada. Among the renegades the following stand out: "Cabo 50", "Cabo 27" and "Cabo 100", who are assassinating their former companions. They strengthen the Sinaloa Cartel and weaken the Jalisco Cartel

The “turncoats” of the cartels that are currently generating the most deaths and violence, according to the version of authorities in the Coordination Table for the Construction of Peace and Security of Baja California are: Israel Alejandro Vázquez “El Goofy” or 'Cabo 50', Jesús Rafael Yocupicio "El Cabezón" or "Cabo 27", the still unidentified "Cabo 100", and Edgar Pérez Villa "Cabo 89", informed ZETA from the Peacebuilding Coordination Table and Security of Baja California.

Pedro Stanley Herrera Jelinek, “Piter Jr”, Sinaloa cartel, generator of violence Playas de Tijuana District

"These went from the CJNG to Sinaloa with Los Mayos," stressed a commander.

"But there are others like 'El Peinado'-Jonathan Sánchez-, who strangely went from Jalisco to Sinaloa in Tecate", he pointed out; “…many are changing, but the ones that make an impact are the ones that have people and control.”

On September 1, a group that committed crimes for “El Ranchero” in the Alemán neighborhood of Tijuana tried to kill Marco L. Gámez, he said, “because they didn’t want to align themselves with Sinaloa,” but their four attackers were later arrested. Led by by Jaissy Calzada, they assured that they attacked him because he switched sides from “Los Erres”. Calzada left the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) last year. And he assured that Sinaloa, in addition to sending them reinforcements, they send them to the hills, to learn how to handle weapons, to shoot on the move, and in urban combat.

“Who better to recruit them or assassinate them if they refuse to change their cartel, than the people they already know as leaders of their groups, 'for the wedge to tighten they have to be of the same suit', they are cell leaders with power, who know the other bosses, their families, the vendors, the points of sale, the safe houses and that is why they are so dangerous”, highlighted a researcher included in the operating tables.

"The risks of a rebound in violence are latent, because, in addition, both Sinaloa and Jalisco are bringing criminal reinforcements from other states," he added.

Cristian Leonel Thing Taylor, “El Yogui”, Sinaloa cartel, instigator of violence in the La Presa Rural District

"Intelligence work revealed that after the capture, in Sinaloa, of those responsible for the fires -burning of cars and trucks in 5 municipalities of Baja California between August 12 and 15, 2022-, of several cell leaders and operators. They decided to stop receiving orders from 'Los Erres', criminal instigators of the CJNG - Javier Adrián Beltrán Cabrera and Isaac Alhiu Chávez Cabrera-, and are trying to join the other cartels like some of their previous bosses or commit crimes independently,"Attorney General Ricardo Iván Carpio Sánchez said. 

"But it is a process that takes little time and continues, so at this time it is still difficult to define the final result of all the changes," added the Prosecutor, regarding the reorganization, which is obviously strengthening the Sinaloa Cartel in the State.

“LOS CABOS”, THE BETRAYALS AND “EL RANCHERO”

“El 50” or “El Ranchero”

Unofficial versions of the Israel Alejandro Vázquez cartel change began in April 2021. However, they were not corroborated within the Coordinated Table until recently.

The same data reveals that this assassin may be the Sinaloa Cartel operative with the nickname "El Ranchero", included in the criminal map in May 2022.

When the statements that the local, state, federal and municipal authorities were receiving from the detainees were shared, they were compared with the information held by the investigative agencies in the United States, where "Cabo 50" faces an investigation as a member of the CJNG, for “Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances for Importation and Conspiracy to Import Controlled Substances” (heroin and methamphetamine), together with his former partners Edgar Herrera Pardo “Caimán”, Carlos Lorenzo Hinojosa Guerrero “Cabo 96”, Edgar Pérez Villa “Cabo 89, who also switched cartels. 

According to the information provided by the Baja California authorities, "El Goofy" has income from Cereso prisons and a previous criminal record - the crimes are ignored - in Sinaloa. And in Baja California he was arrested for robbery with violence in 2003, 2010 and 2012.

In his beginnings inside the CJNG, on November 27, 2016, "El Cabo 50", seeing his face and that of his accomplices in the most recent edition of this Weekly Newspaper -Friday, November 25- had requested and obtained from his criminal bosses, "permission" to attack with weapons, the facilities of this weekly media. A crime that was thwarted after intelligence from telephone conversations were leaked. 

He was also investigated for the murder of police officers in January 2019.

According to intelligence reports on both sides of the border, Alejandro Vázquez received the order to annihilate the CJNG in the Centro, Playas and Otay regions -all bordering the United States-, in Tijuana. And to do so he received reinforcements and a new nickname, “El Ranchero”.

On May 7, six assassins burned down a building used as a CJNG safe house in the Castillo neighborhood, and murdered the man who came out of the warehouse. Minutes later they were captured, they declared that they had just arrived from Sinaloa, that they served the cartel of that state and brought orders to "align the people" and put themselves under the command of "El Ranchero".

Previously, on December 7, 2021, April 12 and 23, 2022, criminals posted narco messages with threats, signed by "El Ranchero", and others against him, in which they exposed Cristian Leonel Ting Thaylor "El Yogui ”, as his operator in charge.

“Cabo 27”

In the Natura district, on September 5, 2022, four young people were arrested by the Tijuana Municipal Police for carrying weapons, fleeing in a white taxi with a green stripe, on their way to kill "El Chore" in the La Esperanza neighborhood. ; They also carried a green cardboard with the following message:

“This is how all the turncoats who are taking independent jobs and charging for a plaza or collecting fees will be left. This land already has an owner and there is no room for cheap fucks. Sincerely, Cabo 27, We are the absolute Cartel de Sinaloa. El 033” [sic]. 033 turned out to be one of those captured, Luis Ricardo Martin Velazco, an 18-year-old from Mexicali, living in Mariano Matamoros, who said he was an operator for "El Cabo 27", "Cabezón", Jesús Rafael Yocupicio, alias José Rafael Yocupicio Hernández, alias Jesús Rafael Miranda Yocupicio, and more aliases: Jesús Rafael Córdova, “El Cabezón”, “El C2”, “Pepe”, “Dany” and “El Cabo 27”.

The threats of “Cabo 27”

According to information from the Coordination Table, he has changed sides 4 times, from the CAF to Sinaloa, then to the CJNG and now back to Sinaloa with "Los Mayos."

Yocupicio was a member of the CAF at the service of the Eduardo García Simental “El Teo” cell, imprisoned since 2010.

The cell headed by García Simental also abandoned the Arellanos and allied themselves with the Sinaloa Cartel, they staged a struggle with the leaders of the Arellano Félix Cartel (CAF) 14 years ago, from 2008 to 2010, which ended up decapitating and weakening the Arellano Félix Cartel. 

"El Cabezón" has a record for crimes of injuries in 2007, against health in 2012. In December 2015 he was arrested for possession of one kilo 800 grams of crystal meth as part of the Sinaloa cell of "Los Hermanos Arzate", he decided to relocate to the Jalisco Cartel, where he spent several years. He was released, and in 2016 he was already part of "Los Cabos" for the CJNG.

Still, on July 22, 2021, they arrested two adults and a teenager who were carrying a human leg in a bucket and a narco-message against other criminals who left the CJNG and allied themselves with the Arellano Cartel: 

“Cabo 20 aka Lobo or 45 this is due to their incompetence, a gang of hallucinated assholes, stop throwing out your desperation killing innocent people. I understand that they don't bring anything meaningful to the table anymore, all their people are turning away. You finally realized how ordinary and incompetent they are. You hungry fucks. If only you had the balls to confront us so that you and your few remaining disposable men could feel this dick. Because that's how you see your personnel, as disposable people. And operatives are to be looked after. We have old school ways. The Lord of Lords. Sincerely, Cabo 27 CDS”. [sic]

On the same day, they left two other similar drug messages, at different points in the Sánchez Taboada neighborhood.

The leaders of the Arellano Cartel mentioned in the banners are indeed enemies of the CJNG, "but also of Sinaloa," argued the police institutions. Since November of 2021, the Baja California authorities began to refer to the alleged return of Yocupicio to the Sinaloa cartel, this time as a cell head, without the Arzates.

There are even reports from the intelligence areas, in which they refer that "El Cabo 27" was "flirting" with Sinaloa since the end of 2019.

"Cabo 100" and an assassinated soldier

“We have not identified him, but we know that he is the head of the group of assassins who, on July 16, murdered José Sarabia, a soldier assigned to the Second Military Zone in Mexicali, in the Palma Real neighborhood, when he came to Tijuana to visit his mom. There were already detainees, and they said that because of the car – a recent model Ford F150 pick-up – they believed they were from an opposing cartel.”

Nine days later, in the same subdivision, on July 25, the Municipal Police arrested three adults, including a woman (driver), and four adolescents, in flagrante delicto. And in possession of the weapon used to murder another subject. The ringleader was identified as José Jesús López Ávila, 21, alias “El Hindú”, who had a gun inside his waistband. 

Woman hanged on September 1

The aforementioned area, on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel, is criminally controlled by Edwin Antonio Rubio López "El Max" or "El Oso", who is also known by the nickname "El 100", but to date this subject has not committed a crime for the CJNG. He has been identified as a priority target in Baja California since 2013, and since then he has been placed on the criminal organization chart as part of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Even after the capture of the Sinaloans at the service of "El Ranchero" last May, local authorities raised the possibility that "El Ranchero" could be "El Max."

As for the narco messages, the enemies of "Cabo 100" are the same as "El Cabo 27", the former members of the CJNG, David López "Cabo 20" and his henchmen.

THE OTHER DEPARTURES FROM JALISCO; DAVID LOPEZ, EL PRIMERO

The departures from the CJNG began in 2019. David López Jiménez “Cabo 20” or “El Lobo”, mastermind of the murder of photojournalist Margarito Martínez -January 17, 2022-, was the first to leave. He left before February 2019, when the first leaders of Jalisco were arrested or killed and replaced by Héctor Manuel Morales "El Gallero", who disappeared in May of that same year.

Leonardo Fabián Robles "Cabo 45" and José Cristian Gómez Rosales "Pitey" also left with López, in their subsequent arrests they said they left Jalisco because Morales, through Ricardo Antonio Álvarez Olivares "Cabo 39" - murdered in August 2019-, for no reason, he was killing "his operatives and family members."

Since last year, through narco-messages, CJNG criminals have accused other traitors of "Los Cabos 13 y 57", subjects whom the government has not identified. Even Rodolfo López Arellano “Cabo 30”, the lead operator in Jalisco, has been branded a traitor.

And on August 29, 2022, the state force reported the capture, in possession of weapons, of David Jiménez de la Torre "El Tacubayo" or "Cabo 40" with a criminal record in the United States and investigated for homicides committed between the area of Tecate and Mexicali; They reported that when he was arrested he was operating for the Sinaloa Cartel.

"Now everyone is getting the nickname 'Cabos '. What we know about the origin of the cell name is that most of the first bosses were in a soccer team in the Sánchez Taboada neighborhood. And among them there was a soldier, a corporal, and that the number they got was the same that they used on the team shirt. That was the version given by 'Cabo 92', the first from that group that the State Police arrested in 2016, ”recalled a police officer.

Zeta Tijuana