El Omega's Brother Taquiza Killed & Found in Sonora

"HEARST" and "Enojon" for Borderland Beat 

El Omega's brother "El Taquiza" was found dead in Sonora, near Chapitos territory. 

A few weeks earlier, a different member of los Omegas was found dead in a similar area. 

So, who is killing off these members of los Omegas and why are some pointing fingers not at Chapitos, but at Omega’s ally los Rusos?

Background Information

In the area of Mexicali, Baja California, there is a Sinaloa Cartel - Mayo group called los Rusos (the Russians) which dominates the area. 

Years ago, Rusos allied with a local cartel group called los Omegas, led by Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozano, alias “El Omega”, and together they cleansed the Mexicali area of other drug traffickers and pushed other cartel groups, like los Garibays, to the south, to the Mexicali Valley. Garibays, in turn, allied with los Salazars and los Chapitos, both rivals of Rusos. 

Currently, Omegas and Rusos report under the overall leader of Rusos: Alfonso Peralta, alias “El P1”, who is mentored by Juan José Ponce Félix, alias “El Ruso”, the founder of Rusos.

Law Enforcement in Mexicali

In May 2021, police officers stumbled upon a group of unknown armed men, who they attempted to detain, but they were prevented from detaining one particular man by two federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) agents who were acting as his bodyguards. This man, it would turn out, was actually El Ruso himself. 

After police realized who they had just run into, they released the other armed men just days after they were taken into custody. These hitmen gleefully showed off how they were released on social media.

Police also conveniently avoided reviewing evidence which they seized that day, such as El Ruso’s driver’s license, for 2 years straight until the state’s Security Board finally forced their hand.

In December 2021, El Omega and his younger brother Cristian Jael Barajas Lozano, alias “El Taquiza”, were arrested in Mexicali by state police officers. Locals claim that law enforcement is so thoroughly corrupted by Rusos, that the arrest of El Omega could not have happened without Rusos approval.

We know that Taquiza was later quietly released from custody but his brother Omega remains in prison and he is currently awaiting trial for a murder committed in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

In November 2022, another Rusos figure named Cristian Alexis Mendoza Guillén, alias “La Plaga”, was arrested soon after he grabbed a bit too much attention on social media for showing off his narco antics. But within one year, he was released and on the streets again, as reported by Luis Chaparro.

Locals imply that arrests in Mexicali can mean one of two things. Either an officer stumbled into something blindly or los Rusos allowed law enforcement to arrest their own cartel members when they’ve been getting too violent or showy, as a kind of punishment. 

These “punishment” arrests serve a dual purpose. On one hand, it penalizes their members for drawing too much attention to themselves and encourages other cartel members to stay in line. On the other hand, it gives law enforcement in Mexicali the appearance of “tackling organized crime” and obfuscates just how deeply they collude with Rusos. 

All of this is an important context to keep in mind, because it demonstrates that things are not always how they appear when it comes to the crimes of los Rusos and it highlights that there are some quiet rumors of tension between Omegas and Rusos.

El Corico Killed

On January 8, 2024, an Omegas member named Ricardo González Valles, who went by the alias “El Coríco”, and another man went missing from the small town of Netzahualcoyotl, located west of Mexicali. 

On January 9, a pickup truck from the Mexicali Valley area drove to the town of Islitas, Sonora. Two dead bodies were thrown out of the pickup truck near a baseball stadium but, according to Mayor Santos González Yescas, the pickup truck was spotted by police officers, who chased after the vehicle. 

Radio Patrulla reports that “the driver began to flee, crossed towards the Nuevo León neighborhood, then entered Mexicali, already [making it into] in Baja California, where they were chased by municipal agents, who finally lost them in the direction of the Hermosillo neighborhood [of Mexicali].

The two dead bodies thrown from the pickup were examined and it was quickly determined that El Coríco was one of the deceased. 

In photos of the remains, Coríco’s face is seen to be smeared with blood and a narco message sign had been stabbed into his chest which read “Your time has come, Corico, for being abusive.” The other man who had gone missing was found lying dead beside him.

Social media videos of El Coríco show a seemingly jovial and normal family man, but this of course, doesn’t mean he wasn’t ruthless or cruel when it comes to “business” with Omegas.

Coríco, much like many cartel members, made grand displays of giving out toys to local children for holidays. Videos of his gift giving can be seen below.

El Coríco had previously worked under the Sinaloa Cartel member Vicente Martínez González, alias “El Guilo”, but the news publication Zeta Tijuana reports that he started working under Omegas after they allied with Rusos and cleaned out other cartel groups.

Coríco was arrested in 2008 and 2009 for vehicle theft, in 2012 for crimes against health, for assault with a weapon in 2015. In 2017, he was detained for injuries to minors and damage to property of others. This charge about “injuries to minors” may in some way confirm the narco message which alludes to abusive behavior. 

Coríco worked as a drug distributor for the Oriente and Valle areas. In 2020, Zeta Tijuana listed out a number of street-level drug dealers who worked under Coríco. They were named: 

• Víctor Maya Félix
• Javier Alonso Medina Loza
• Juan Francisco Gómez Zúñiga, alias “El Pancho”
• Eduardo Hurtado Dorame, alias “El Lalo”

Videos of Coríco’s funeral, which was held on January 12, show a band playing music and cock fighting right in front of the casket.

While it’s unclear who killed Corico, messages between his son and an account that appears to be in support of los Rusos were leaked, showing a heated discussion where the son appears to threaten Rusos. This may imply that Corico’s son blames Rusos for his father’s death. 

The messages read the following:

“Los Rusos nos pelan la verga compa… AsÍ nomás se los digo”

“Los Rusos can jack us off friend…I’m telling you just like that”

Furthermore, the mayor mentioned earlier, is quoted by El 5 to Poder as saying Corico and the other man’s bodies were “planted” in Sonora by men from Baja California. 

This would seem to fit with Rusos killing Corico but leaving his body in an area in Sonora contested by Salazars/Chapitos, thereby muddying the waters about who killed him.

Ruso’s Sister Arrested

In the early morning hours of January 19, 2024, a special team of State Police officers (FESC ) entered a town named Coahuila (sometimes called “El Kilómetro 57”), Baja California. 

This town sits on the state border, directly across from the town of Luis B. Sanchez, in Sonora. The combined region of Coahuila and Luis B. Sanchez is known to be one of Ruso’s home-base locations. 

In fact, the December 2022 attack on El Ruso, in which Chapitos sent a convoy of hitmen after him and battled it out with his hitmen, all took place in the town of Luis B. Sanchez. 

Another home-base location for El Ruso is Agua Caliente de los Monzón, a small town north of Culiacan, Sinaloa. All of Ruso’s three brothers and three sisters are believed to permanently reside in Agua Caliente, although they sometimes visit the Coahuila/Luis B. Sanchez area. 

It's unclear why the special team of state police officers were sent to the town on January 19. But what is known is that in the early morning hours, El Ruso’s sister Xochitl Harumi was detained, alongside two other suspects. 

Zeta alleges that one of the suspects accompanying the sister was detained for his alleged involvement in the “storing and safekeeping of weapons.” Two long barrel firearms were seized from their possession. 

The people arrest are: 

• Xóchitl Harumi “N” - 37 years old, from Agua Caliente de los Monzón, Sinaloa 

• Ramón Omar “N” - 43 years old, from Badiraguato, Sinaloa

• César Antonio “N” - 25 years old, from Badiraguato, Sinaloa

Zeta Tijuana writes that they had “tried to corroborate whether the arrest was made inside or outside a home, but it has not been possible to specify the details of the capture with certainty. The only thing that's certain is that a special group of the FESC carried out the operation. At this time there is a property being guarded by authorities.”

The official state version of events later emerged in which a man with a firearm threatened soldiers. A decidedly one-sided article by Columna Ocho alleges the opposite, saying the house was raided without provocation, and that officers proceeded to beat and torture the detainees (a common civil rights defense used in these types of arrests). 

El Taquiza Killed 

During the afternoon of January 24, 2024, the dead body of Omega’s brother, Cristian Jael Barajas Lozano, alias “El Taquiza”, was found on a highway leading from Santa Clara to San Luis Rio Colorado, at around kilometer 50. 

Zeta reports that “it is presumed that the body was left since dawn, but it was not until several hours later when it was located by the authorities.” 

They also write that “little information has emerged about the crime except that the body had gunshot wounds and was wearing a black Hugo Boss brand shirt, had long hair and a black vest.”

So far only one social media account, an instagram account named Notice Culiacán. has posted photos of the crime scene. They included a photo of a second body in their post but it's not clear how it related to the crime, although it may have been dumped in an area nearby. 

Opinions on who killed Taquiza are mixed. Audio clips of Rusos members suggest that they believe, or at least want to be seen as believing, that Taquiza was killed by a Chapitos affiliated group. 

Chapitos are generally believed to control the gulf of Santa Clara, an important unloading point for drug smuggling, so Taquiza’s remains being in close proximity to Santa Clara would certainly support that idea. 

Borderland Beat spoke to someone in from the Attorney General's Office who said “Rusos have been engaging Los Salazar in SLRC, but they believe it [Taquiza’s death] might be internal due to other Rusos killed.”

Background Sources: Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Borderland Beat, Crashout Media

Corico Sources: La Maskar, El 5 to Poder, Radio Patrulla, El SEÑOR Puntero de Sonora

Ruso’s Sister Sources: Zeta Tijuana, Riodoce, Eco_1_LVM, Infobae, UniRadioInforma, AFN Tijuana, Columna Ocho, Semanario Balun Canan

Taquiza Sources: Zeta Tijuana, Notice Culiacán, Sonora Informativo