Cartel de Sinaloa Has An Armed Criminal Cell Of Minors

"Sol Prendido" for Border.and Beat

Francisco Javier Mendoza Hernandez, E Palos arrested for murder on October 11, 2023 / Alex Jair Sanchez Lara, El Cachora, captured in possession of drugs, stolen motorcycle and arrest warrant for murder on October 11.

In a span of eight days, an 8-year-old boy and a 13-year-old teenager were killed by hitmen from a cell of the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Cabo 27. In the same period they tried to kill another 14-year-old minor, who survived the attack.  

The streets surrounding the sports fields in the Camino Verde neighborhood in Tijuana have been converted into areas where criminal groups recruit, where drugs are sold, and where drug dealers meet. They are contested territories and scenes of homicides.

On the night of October 17, at approximately 10:16 p.m., subjects on board a dark sedan arrived at the intersection of Torres Hipódromo and Serdán streets in the vicinity of one of the sports fields of Camino Verde and shot at the vehicle where Christian Oswaldo N, an 8-year-old boy who lost his life hours after being shot in the head, was sitting. In the same attack, the two adults accompanying him were injured.

According to information gathered by authorities, the same group of young thugs had carried out two shootings nine days earlier. On the morning of October 8, they tried to kill a 14 year-old minor who survived the attack with injuries; at night they killed Giovanni N, a 13 year-old Michoacan teenager whose body was left lying on its side on the sidewalk, as if he had just returned from playing sports. He was wearing shorts, a sport shirt and tennis shoes.

According to the investigations, they were shot because they were "friends of Gael or El Birrias, a boy between 16 and 17 years old, son of a man who sells birria in the neighborhood, who presumes and intends to criminally control the area", indicated a member of the Coordination Table for Peace and Security.

As for the specific motive for the shooting that ended Christian's life, the authorities have not yet defined it, but they have found evidence linking the three homicidal operatives to young men in service for the Sinaloa Cartel, which in the past exercised criminal control in that territory and is now seeking to regain it.

"They are teenagers killing teenagers, children killing children they know," explained an investigator. 

Corporations have not confirmed that the minors killed were ere directly related to the sale of drugs, what they did have, he assured, was some kind of friendly or affiliated relationship with people dedicated to that criminal activity.

THE ADOLESCENTS OF CABO 27

The criminal mentioned as Cabo 27, who according to a state agent "is not yet identified (and for a while was mistaken for Jesus Rafael Yocupicio Yocupicio), is also a Sinaloa operator, but (in the past) has turned and committed crimes for the Arellano Felix Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in Baja California".

In the Sinaloa mafia they have identified him since the end of 2019 and as the main opponent of the operators of David Jimenez Cabo 20 - arrested on August 22, 2022 - Rodolfo Lopez Arellano aka El Solecito and Leonardo Robles aka El 45, since these also changed criminal groups from the end of 2018, when they left the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) to gradually join the Arellano-Chapitos alliance.

Between 2021 and 2023, authorities have found several messages with death threats written on poster boards or fabrics, signed by Cabo 27: on corpses, on abandoned human body parts or in the hands of young criminals, secured before leaving some dead or caught fleeing or arriving at a scene of a homicide victim.

In general, they threaten to kill the criminals who do the same as him, changing mafia alliances: "... this will be the fate of "turncoats" who go around grabbing "loads", "this territory has an owner", deadly warnings that are repeated, while calling their opponents "ordinary and incompetent" and accusing them of the same crimes they commit: "Stop killing innocent people" and using their drug dealers as "disposable people".

Cabo 27's activity has been detected by authorities from the East Zone in the Mariano Matamoros subdivision, towards the violent Sanchez Taboada delegation, where the CJNG criminally settled upon its entry in 2015.

In the Camino Verde neighborhood of Sanchez Taboada, this Sinaloa Cartel cell has recruited at least twenty operators, all young, most of them between 16 and 20 years old. So far they’re all identified only by nicknames.

A police officer explained that the individual nicknamed Cabo 27 has two as his messengers, El Apá and El Amá; they are followed by an individual nicknamed El Pájaro, who oversees compliance with the criminal orders transmitted; and a group of more than 15 young people, among whom they have identified, also by nickname: El Sorullo, El Teté, El Papalote and El André.

This cell of young men is fighting for control of the territory against criminals in the service of James Brayan Corona "El Apache," Diego Abel Miranda "El Cateo" and Hector Gil Garcia "El Kado," and others who answer to the incarcerated Cabo 20 and Cabo 45.

WEAPON USED AGAINST CHILD KILLED 8 OTHER VICTIMS

Of the shooting on October 17, 2023, official reports indicate that two adult males and an 8 year old boy were in a car parked on the side of the sidewalk, surveillance cameras could observe when two other subjects arrived in a dark sedan at full speed; the place of the attack is not seen, but the gunshots can be heard.   

According to experts, they fired three firearms, as they found .45, .09 millimeter pistol and .223 caliber rifle casings.

The boy Christian Oswaldo N, 8 years old, was shot in the head and was taken to IMSS Clinic 20, where 10 hours after being attacked, around eight o'clock in the morning of October 18, he was declared dead.

Christopher, a 38-year-old man described as a coach, was wounded in the right leg. The child's stepfather, identified as 35-year-old Natanael Vázquez, received most of the gunshots, hitting him in the abdomen and the right side of his body -arm, hip, thigh-.

"In this case it is evident that the target is the stepfather, the motive is unknown, but the mechanics indicate that the child was a collateral victim," said an investigator.

In an expert review of the multiple casings at the scene, it turned out that the weapons are related to eight other criminal events, four of these committed in the same Camino Verde neighborhood during 2023:

* On October 17, in the murder of a man between 30 and 35 years of age - unidentified - on Calle Río Amazonas; on the same Tuesday night, an 8-year-old boy was killed.  

* On October 9, in the gunshot wounding of Victor Herrera on Juan de la Barrera and Miguel Hidalgo streets; the man refused to cooperate with the investigation.

* On September 23, in the murder of Francisco Chavez on Miguel Hidalgo Street.

* On August 22, in the case of a woman between 35 and 40 years old, unidentified, who was riddled with bullets on Chihuahua Street. She was attacked around 00:33 hours between three subjects; seven shell casings were recovered at the scene and, according to witnesses, the perpetrators fled towards Oaxaca Street.

The other attacks were committed in different delegations, three in 2023 and one more last year:

* On September 18, in the murder of Mario Coria in colonia López Lucio, Delegación La Mesa, an event for which the Municipal Police detained two suspects.

* On April 21, in the homicide of Sergio González, committed on Calle Ahuehuete de la Privada Sierra de Ayllón in Urbi Quinta de Cedros, Delegación San Antonio de los Buenos.

* On February 9, in the crime against José Martínez, shot in front of Asadero Zamora in Plaza Insurgentes in the El Lago subdivision, Delegación Cerro Colorado.

* On December 2, 2022, in the homicide of an unidentified man, whose body was found in a dirt road in Real del Mar, Delegación Playas de Tijuana.

EL SORULLO AND EL TETÉ BEAT THE FRIENDS OF BIRRIAS

The second week of October, one of the young men from the Cabo 27 criminal cell was arrested and cooperated with the authorities: he assured that he had not taken anyone's life, but pointed to his accomplices,

Exchanging blunt words, he said:

* "El Papalote killed the corn saleswoman for going around selling", which the investigators matched with what happened on September 27 at approximately six o'clock in the afternoon, when a woman in her 60s, a seller of corn at a food stand on Urano Street in the Sánchez Taboada neighborhood, was shot in front of some customers, neighbors and passers-by. However, investigators found no drugs or evidence that the woman was engaged in illegal activity.

El Sorullo and El Teté went to the courts to hit Gael, El Birrias, but they didn't find him and they hit their friends," he confessed in reference to the two armed attacks committed against teenagers on October 8, when a 14-year-old boy was shot at the courts on Avenida Baja California, near Calle Sierra Nacozari in Camino Verde in the morning. The boy survived, but the family refused to cooperate with the investigation.

At 21:45 hours, Giovanni, a 13 year old boy from Michoacan, was shot and killed; 15 shell casings were found at the scene. Witnesses of the aggression reported that the assassins arrived and fled aboard a gray sedan.  "The weapon and the car used to attack these two teenagers were the same," reported an authority from the Security Committee.

At the time of his homicide, Giovanni was standing on the sidewalk, his attackers arrived at full speed, braked and shot him directly from the car.

CAPTURED

Three days after the crimes, the attorney general of Baja California, María Elena Andrade, reiterated to the press that the death of the minor was linked to his relationship with another young man - nicknamed El Birrias, 17 years old - and his alleged illegal activities. She also reported that two youths linked to the death had been detained by the Tijuana Police.

On October 11, two males, one 17 and the other 22 years old, were arrested on Bulevar Palma Real in the neighborhood of the same name; they were riding a motorcycle with a theft report. Alexis Jair Sanchez Lara aka El Cachora, 22 years old, was driving. Among his clothes they found a bag with marijuana and several wrappers of crystal meth. He has an arrest warrant for homicide committed on September 29, 2023 against a woman, allegedly in the company of Francisco Javier Mendoza Hernandez aka El Palos.

He is also being investigated for the murder of Ezequiel Pérez Cruz, a member of the National Guard, perpetrated in the early morning of September 4 during an unreported tour in the Ampliación Sánchez Taboada neighborhood. Several members of the Guardia got out of the unit in the vicinity of a hill, and from a drug selling point, they were attacked with gunfire,  killing Pérez Cruz, a young man from Veracruz.

The other person arrested was a minor.

Prior to these two arrests, on September 18 and after the murder of Mario Coria in the Lopez Lucio neighborhood, Brandon Flores -18 years old- and Casandra Sillas, 29 years old, were arrested, already linked to process.

One of the investigators told ZETA that most of the members of this cell do not have criminal records, except for arrests for minor crimes such as car theft. However, the investigations continue.

Tijuana, Baja California 

Zeta Tijuana