The Arzates and Rusos Alliance That Plans to Take Over Baja California

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According to Zeta magazine, the government’s Security Roundtable discussed an alleged alliance between the Sinaloa Cartel groups los Rusos and los Arzates. The unified force reportedly plans to try to take over the state of Baja California.

The Alleged Alliance

An article covering the San Vicente massacre written by Zeta Tijuana weekly magazine revealed that the cartel groups Los Rusos and Los Arzates have formed an alliance which aims to take control of the system if Baja California. 

Both Rusos and Arzates are Sinaloa Cartel groups associated with the El Mayo side of the organization - their alliance would seem only natural. However, their geographic locations, their organizational goals and the nature of their drug smuggling operations has led to the groups having diverging interests. 

Rusos are currently based out of the border city of Mexicali, in the far eastern part of the state, whereas Arzates are based out of pockets of the border city of Tijuana, in the western part of the state. 

Rusos exert full control over Mexicali, with no significant rivals within the city. The group has been primarily focused on gaining ground in the nearby city of San Luis Rio Colorado, across the state border in Sonora, which is controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel Chapitos group Los Salazars, who are sometimes aided by local groups like los Garibays and forces sent by los Chapitos directly from Sinaloa.

The nature of their conflicts tend to be larger scale and is more likely to involve multiple armored vehicles. 

Meanwhile Aquiles control some sections of some neighborhoods in Tijuana, a city which operates quite differently from Mexicali. Every neighborhood in Tijuana is contested by multiple street gangs. These gangs work under larger cartel organizations, such as CJNG, remnants of the CAF, CDS - Mayo, or CDS - Chapitos. 

Street gangs and individual members will often switch cartel association multiple times throughout their criminal career. Conflicts are usually smaller, hit and run style combat. 

Further dividing the two groups is the fact that the Arzates brothers "do not have the luxury of El Mayo's protection" - implying that the brothers are an autonomous group merely associated with Mayo. These circumstances make the two groups unlikely allies, with their enemies and goals rarely overlapping. 

However, an alliance was allegedly formed between the groups (according to Zeta Tijuana) because the Sinaloa Cartel Mayo faction is seeking to make a larger play to take over the state of Baja California. 

The article claims one of their first big moves was the attack at the San Vicente race which injured 10, and killed 10 more, including Alonso Arámbula Piña, alias “El Trébol.” They say an attempt to kill Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, alias “El Flaquito”, the leader of a CAF-Chapitos group, may have been the main motive for the attack.

The Zeta article specifically mentioned Rusos-associated figures Juan Carlos Félix Gastélum, alias "El Chavo Felix" and (strangely enough) Christian Alexis Mendoza Guillén, alias "La Plaga", who leads a Rusos subgroup called Los Zorros, as if they represented Rusos in these Alliance negotiations.

Plaga had (and possibly still has) a popular social media account where he showed off various aspects of his cartel lifestyle, which was reportedly looked down on by cartel leadership. 

Zeta does not mention Alfonso Peralta, alias "El P1", however it's likely that he would be involved in the negotiations of an alliance, due to his high level position within the Rusos organization.

The article specifically named the Arzate brothers - Alfonso Arzate, alias "El Aquiles" and his brother René Arzate, alias "La Rana", as the representative, naturally, of los Aquiles. 

The Tijuana Meeting

The state Security Roundtable discussed (according to Zeta) a meeting that had previously taken place which was “attended by at least a dozen cell leaders in Baja California.” The roundtable specifically mentioned the following as attending:

• Alfonso Arzate, alias "El Aquiles" and his brother René Arzate, alias "La Rana" 
• Jesús Rafael Yocupicio, aliases “El Cabezón” and “Cabo 27”
• Carlos Adrián Casas Reyes, aliases “El 8” and “El Mercenario”
   
• Edwin Antonio Rubio López, aliases “El Max” and “El Oso”
  
  
• Ángel Antonio Olguín Carrillo, aliases “El Compa Wero” and “El M6”

It's worth noting that all of those listed above are associated with the Sinaloa Cartel Mayo faction and they all operate in the larger region of Tijuana.

The article continues, and writes that “after that meeting, Los Arzates allegedly made a request of [Mayo] Zambada: to unify Baja California under a single command, that of the Arzate brothers, in the same manner that they had previously recruited other groups to work for them, like how they recruited Leopoldo Lizárraga Ochoa ‘El Pantera’ of Ensenada, or Israel Alejandro Vázquez ‘El Goofy’ or ‘Cabo 50’, Cabo 100 and Edgar Pérez Villa, Corporal 89 of the CJNG in Tijuana.”

This quote would seem to confirm that the CJNG figure Cabo 50 has left the organization and began working with Aquiles. This was mentioned in a narco banner back in December 2021 but later conflicted by Zeta articles which continued to list Cabo 50 as a CJNG figure. 

Last we heard, in January 2022, a police investigator said Cabo 50’s switching to working for Aquiles was “still under investigation.” But this latest Zeta article appears to confirm Cabo 50’s long suspected departure from the CJNG.

Returning back to article’s description of Arzate-Zambada meeting, the Arzate brothers reportedly said that if other groups refused to work under them, they’d kill just “the leaders to try to preserve the criminal structure,” implying they’d kill just the leadership and forcibly take over the cell, co-opting the existing structure.

The exact date of this meeting and their request to Mayo is unknown. Zambada’s answer is also unknown however if you believe the Security Roundtable’s reports about the Rusos and Arzate alliance it seems that Zambada did not agree to the Arzates’ request to singularly rule Baja California - rather he said he would support a unified Rusos-Arzate rule over the state. 

It cannot be overstated that Rusos, who control a major border city on and all the drug smuggling which goes through its port, would likely not agree to work underneath the Arzates. 

Furthermore, Zeta’s earlier allegation that the Arzates brothers "do not have the luxury of El Mayo's protection" helps to explain why Zambada might insist on Rusos being full partners in the rule.

Unlike the Arzates, Rusos are quite directly tied to the Zambada family (such as Chavo Felix being married to Mayo’s daughter Teresita. Rusos inclusion in the alliance will give Mayo a way to exert his (and his successor Mayito Flaco’s) influence and decision making.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana Article 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Radar BC, Notas Roja , N+ Sonora