Alleged Identity of CJNG's El RR Published by La Voz del Pueblo

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On October 18, 2022, the cartel news twitter account La Voz del Pueblo posted an image which allegedly shows personal identifying details and the real face of the CJNG leadership figure Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, alias “El RR”. 

It also included the following details of information not previously published. 

Name: Ricardo Ruiz Velasco 

Alias: “JR”, “El Tripas”, “El Chino”, “El RR”, “Doble R” 

Organization: Leader of the cell Grupo Elite of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación “CJNG”  

Stature: 1.65  

DOB: September 13, 1984 (Making him 38 years old in the year 2022) 

Originates: Guadalajara, Jalisco 

Schooling: Just primary and secondary

Family:

Father - Ricardo Ruiz Herrera (deceased)

Mother - Maria Teresa Velasco Valadez

Brother - Juan Ruiz Velasco, 46 years old (He has a criminal record for possession of a firearm and property damage)

Brother - Javier Ruiz Velasco, 45 years old (He has a criminal record for drug charges) 

Sister - Claudia Ruiz Velasco 

Half Brother: Guillermo Rodriguez Velasco

All the Boring Little Details 

For many years, RR’s identity has been debated - and for good reason. There have been this many photos used to depict RR over the years - many of which clearly show different men from one another. 

Some locals even argued that “El R2” was not Ricardo Ruiz Velasco at all but could instead be the alias of Rafael Álvarez Ayala, a longtime CJNG member said to be close to Mencho, who used to go by “R2” before being captured. They alleged he was quietly released from prison and retook the title of “R2”. A Narco.News article compiled the following photos and detailed the circumstances surrounding each one. 

December 2014

The first photo alleged to show RR shows a man who was arrested in December 2014 in Calvillo, Aguascalientes, on nine charges of homicide. Excelsior wrote that the man’s name was Ricardo Ruiz Velazco and his alias was “El Tripa Seca”, which is one of the many aliases associated with El RR. 

October 2018

In October 2018, the cartel news Twitter account Alerta Guadalajara  posted the photo seen below as part of their coverage of the supposed arrest of El RR in the state of Jalisco. Websites such as Borderland Beat subsequently used this photo in their coverage of the alleged arrest. 

July 2020 

Then, in July 2020, the CJNG released a video which included footage of El RR speaking directly to the camera while wearing a mask around the lower half of his face. 

Now, the CJNG could always choose to misdirect attention away from the real RR by hiring an actor for this role. However, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, the head of the Army (SEDENA), later featured the man seen in this video during a press conference and described him as “El Doble R”, one of the leaders of Grupo Elite, according to the official transcript and official video. This appears to imply that federal intelligence believed the man in the video was the real El RR. 

August 2020

The newspaper La Silla Rota used the image above in an August 2020 story about a recently arrested  CJNG member in Guanajuato named Antonio, who they said had the alias “El Tripa”. Antonio was said to operate in the municipalities of Moroleon, Uriangato and Yuriria. Antonio was subsequently indicted. 

They included what appeared to be a current booking photo and a second photo of the same man, which they wrote that came from the Guanajuato Attorney General's Office in 2018. 

The next day, La Verdad Noticias covered the same man arrested in Guanajuato and wrote that he was “known only as Antonio, alias ‘El Tripa’ or ‘El RR’ or Ricardo Ruiz Velazco”, which just further deepens the mystery. 

The Trouble with Options

But this Antonio from Guanajuato may be one candidate we can eliminate and here’s why: 

According to publicly-available arrest records there was a man named Antonio Martinez Calderón arrested in Guanajuato on July 26, 2020.

Then, a new CJNG video was released in which El RR made mention of the recent arrest of El Marro, who was arrested on August 2, 2020. 

So, Narco.News argues that the CJNG figure featured in the videos, who was confirmed by the head of SEDENA to be El RR could not be Antonio Martinez Calderón, so his two photos we can eliminate from the possibilities. 

Of note, in August 2022, there was a failed attempt by the military to capture El RR and Gerardo González Ramírez, alias “El Apa”, another CJNG leadership figure, led to a massive wave of CJNG roadblocks across at least four different states. For more on this, please see these two previous stories. 

In the coverage of this attempted arrest, publications could not seem to agree on what photo to use  for El RR and all of the various images we’ve discussed were used in articles at one point. 

Sources: La Voz del Pueblo, Narco.News, Excelsior, Alerta Guadalajara, Official Press Conference Transcript, Official Press Conference Video, La Silla Rota, La Verdad Noticias