El Ranchero, the Main Executioner for CDS Los Arzate in Tijuana

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

Franklin Ernesto Huezo Hernández, alias “El Ranchero", is alleged to be the main executioner for the Sinaloa Cartel - Mayo group 'Los Aquiles'.

He reportedly plans out the logistics behind carrying out the hits ordered by the group's leaders the Arzate brothers - Alfonso Arzate, alias "El Aquiles" and his brother René Arzate, alias "La Rana", in the border city of Tijuana. 

The Criminal History of El Ranchero

The weekly magazine Zeta Tijuana recently profiled El Ranchero, revealing that "according to intelligence reports from state Security Roundtable, he is currently the leader of the enforcement group reporting under the brothers René and Alfonso Arzate."

So let's review the crimes that Zeta has tied to El Ranchero in more detail in order to get a better understanding of who he is, where he started, and the current rival group he's focused on. 

March 2015

Although it's rumored that Ranchero arrived in Baja a few years ago from another state, or from a country in South America, he's actually been living in Baja since at least March 2015. 

We know this because he allegedly "co-participated" in the murder of Eduardo Luévano Chávez on March 6, 2015. On that day, Ranchero was practicing shooting at a local landfill alongside his friend Francisco Javier Meza Fong, alias "El Javi". Both Javi and Ranchero both worked under the jailed cartel figure Armando Villarreal, alias "El Gordo".

As the two men left the landfill, they spotted a man, Eduardo Luévano Chávez, arguing with other people. Javi and Ranchero approached and tried to get Luévano Chávez to calm down, but he didn't let up, so, according to Zeta Tijuana, "they killed him."

Two days later, on March 8, Ranchero and Javi were arrested because the police investigation found evidence that they had "co-participated" in the murder. By March 10, they were presented to a judge on those charges, however, a judge dismissed the arraignment due to a lack of evidence. They were later presented on charges of the illegal possession of a weapon, which they were found guilty of. 

Zeta notes that the normal procedure for such a charge would have sent Ranchero to serve time in a prison in Baja California, however, he was strangely sent to a prison in Navajoa, Sonora, instead.

September 2021 

His criminal alias first appeared in a narco message on September 7, 2021, alongside the body of a man executed with a gunshot wound to the head. The discovery was made on Río Amacuzac street in Mariano Matamoros neighborhood of Tijuana.

The discovery was made on Río Amacuzac street in Mariano Matamoros neighborhood of Tijuana.

The narco message read as follows:

This is going to happen to all the turncoats.

Sincerely,

El Ranchero

April 2022

El Ranchero drew the ire of Los Erres , a CJNG cell in Tijuana. In the early part of April 2022. He and a man who worked for him were named in a narco banner hung on April 12, 2022, in a shopping center on Villas del Campo street, in the East Zone of the city.

The message read:

This is for you, Cristian Leonel Ting Thaylor, aka ‘El Yogi', and your boss La Ranchera.  

Stop killing innocent people and come out to fight with us. In the Central Zone, we are in charge.

The war has arrived on your doorstep.  

Sincerely,

The Menchiza

Ranchero seemingly responded by having a man, Arturo Bravo Contreras, executed in the Alemán neighborhood in the Central Zone of the city. 

The hitmen who carried out the homicide left a narco message on a piece of cardboard which read:

The cleansing has begun, you bunch of lunatics.

You don´t scare anyone. You are the killers of innocents, extortionists, kidnappers.

Sincerely,

El Ranchero. CDS.

I’m going to take the little you have left from you.

May 2022

But Ranchero wasn’t done with Los Erres yet – he wanted to hit them harder and damage the cell’s local drug selling, which was overseen by the group’s leaders, Javier Adrián Beltrán Cabrera, alias “El Pedrito”, and his half brother Isaac Alhiu Chávez Cabrera, alias “El Puma”. For more on their criminal history, please see this previous story.

In early May 2022, several CDS-Mayo associated men, who had recently arrived in Tijuana, were given their first order by Ranchero: burn down one of the Los Erres warehouses, specifically targeting the one located in the Castillo neighborhood of the city.

On the night of May 7, the group of hitmen arrived at the warehouse, and they set fire to the building, burning to death an Erres gunman who was inside.

Later, several of the hitmen involved in the arson were captured.

One of the men, Jorge Luis López Juárez, told police how he was contracted to carry out the attack, saying: “I work in Sinaloa for 'Mayo' Zambada's people, they gave me the order to come to Tijuana and I arrived about eight days ago. All the orders were given to us by phone and they told me to work under the Ranchero's orders, but the truth is I don't know him in person. We were sent to burn down a warehouse that sells drugs.”

January 25, 2023

On January 25, 2023, CJNG hitmen parked a car with two dead bodies just one block away from the home address listed on El Ranchero’s Baja California driver’s license, a house on the street in Los Altos neighborhood of Tijuana. 

The vehicle, a gray Mitsubishi Mirage sedan, was seemingly parked to have the dead bodies in plain view – left with the trunk open, with the limbs of one of the deceased spilling out of the back. The other set of remains with was wrapped in a blanket and placed in the backseat of the car.

A narco message sign had been placed alongside the victim in the backseat. It read:

Stop forcing people to work for you, Ranchero, you fucking scum.

Sincerely,

CJNG

The man found in the trunk was later identified as a local man named Brandon "N", who was 28 years old at the time of his death. According to Brandon’s family, he was a drug addict and had been arrested twice for drug related offenses.

Zeta Tijuana writes that Brandon had told police he worked for Los Erres in April 2021, after he was arrested on drug related charges. This seemingly implies either that Brandon was bluffing about his affiliation or Erres had killed off a drug addict they sometimes employed when they needed a body to send a message.

The body in the backseat was later identified as a woman. Both Brandon and the woman reportedly had “signs of violence” on their bodies.

January 26, 2023

The next day, El Ranchero sent his hitmen to attack a small, unlicensed casino located on Altamirano Street in the Soler neighborhood in Playas de Tijuana. The business was allegedly run by los Erres. At approximately 7:50 pm that night, the emergency phone line received a call reporting gunshots near the casino.

Officers were dispatched to the area. When they arrived, they found several blood stains on the pavement outside of the one-story blue building. The iron gate at the front was left ajar.

As officers approached, they saw the deceased body of Fermín de la Peña Geraldo, 60 years old, who had been shot to death. Near him was another man, who had a gunshot wound to jaw.

Inside the casino, the officers found two more male victims – one was a young man wearing a black jacket and gray “sports pants” who no longer showed vital signs. The other was male with head injuries who survived the attack but died in the hospital the following day due to his injuries.

The CDS hitmen who shot the four men left a narco message inside the building which read:

Here are your enforcers, you fucking sissies of Pedro and Puma, extortionists, fucking crazy people.

You have nothing left, pricks, not even with help are you going to make it through this, sissies.

Sincerely,

El Ranchero

I am going to erase you from Tijuana, you pair of faggots.

CDS Tijuana -  Arzates

February 2, 2023

At approximately 10:00 pm at night, a dead body wrapped in a white sheet was found near the intersection of Matamoros Street and Jiménez Street in the Independencia neighborhood of Tijuana.

The official police report described it as the “finding of a lifeless person with signs of torture, along with a criminal message.”

As of the writing of this story, no news publications have printed what the message on the dead body said. However, Zeta implies the attack was perpetrated by a CJNG cell and it was part of their retaliation against El Ranchero.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana, Zeta Tijuana, Valor por Tamaulipas, AFN Tijuana, Esquina32, Zeta Tijuana, El Imparcial, Punto Norte, Facebook Group, Cadena Noticias, El Imparcial , La Jornada, TV Azteca

Tomorrow: The Arzates and Rusos alliance which plans to unify Sinaloa Cartel Mayo forces in the state so they can make a larger play to take over Baja California

Further Reading

CAF El Lobo Leaves Narcomanta Claiming Police Collusion With CDS Aquiles In Tijuana

Sinaloa Cartel's El Aquiles Threatens CAF's El Lobo & Leaves Dead Hitman in Tijuana

Decapitated Head Left With Banner Of Threats Against Police in Tijuana