Arrest Of 'El 90' In Culiacán Church, For Robbery Of Former Congressman In Sonora

 "Char" for Borderland Beat 

This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE 

WRITTEN BY: GUILLERMO BOJÓRQUEZ 

MAY 21, 2024. 

The Sinaloa Cartel member, apprehended in February 2022 at the Padre Cuco church in Culiacan, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for a separate crime. 

José Bryan Salgueiro Zepeda, el 90 Menor, who was arrested on February 18, 2022 during a mass at the Padre Cuco church in the Las Quintas neighborhood of Culiacán and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the kidnapping of a farmer in Chihuahua, was reportedly arrested not for the crime for which he was convicted, but for the robbery of a house belonging to the deceased ex-deputy Rodolfo Lizárraga Arellano in Guaymas, Sonora.

According to a Sedena report on "Targets detained during the current administration", dated August 2022, Salgueiro Zepeda was apprehended in compliance with arrest warrant No. HER/UC/02506/2022 within criminal case No. 00516/2022 for "the crime of robbery with violence by two or more persons to the house/room of Rodolfo Lizárraga Arellano, ex-deputy of Guaymas and for the crime of criminal association".

For the same criminal case, the document states, Jesús Iván Acevedo Sauceda, Inge and/or Regi, was arrested on February 7, 2022, 12 days before El 90 Menor, in Nogales, Sonora. Said person was a councilman in the municipality of Guaymas, and according to Army intelligence areas, maintained "links with the criminal group Los Salazar, akin to the Sinaloa Cartel or Pacific Cartel with presence in Guaymas, Empalme and San Carlos, Son. Generator of violence."

José Bryan Salgueiro Zepeda is the son of José Salgueiro Nevárez, el Che, one of the leaders of the Salgueiro Nevárez Cartel, which operates in Chihuahua, and the Sedena placed him as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel in the municipality of Hidalgo del Parral.

The robbery of the congressman's house

The attempted robbery at the home of then congressman Rodolfo Lizarraga Arellano occurred on January 18, 2022 in Guaymas, Sonora. That day, according to the Attorney General's Office of that state, armed people entered the property located in the Centinela neighborhood, to try to steal 7 million pesos, which the legislator was rumored to keep in his home.

"That was what awakened the greed and motivated, that is the strongest line of investigation, the assault to this house in search of that resource", declared the governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo. 

For the attempted robbery, on February 4, 2022, the Oral Criminal Judge of Judicial District One issued arrest warrants against five probable perpetrators. The accused were Jesús Iván Acevedo Sauceda, former advisor to Rodolfo Lizárraga and then councilman of the Guaymas City Council; Roberto Palafox Suárez, who was local deputy for the 13th district of Sonora for Redes Sociales Progresistas in 2021-2024 and at that time was legal advisor to the mayor of Empalme; José Luis Angulo Tapia, coordinator of Street Vendors of Guaymas; Bryan Alberto Juárez Ponce, who was reported to be the victim's romantic partner, and Daniel Palafox Suárez.

The day the arrest warrants were released, Daniel Palafox Suárez, Lizárraga Arellano's substitute, was found murdered on the Empalme-Ciudad Obregón highway. He had been reported missing on January 28 of that same year.

The Attorney General's Office announced in February that Jesús Iván Acevedo Sauceda, Roberto Palafox Suárez, Bryan Alberto Juárez Ponce and José Luis Angulo Tapia had been arrested. Nothing was mentioned about the arrest and alleged involvement in the events of José Bryan Salgueiro Zepeda, even though the Sedena indicates that his arrest was in compliance with the same arrest warrant for the robbery of Rodolfo Lizárraga Arellano's house/room and for criminal association.

The prosecutor of Sonora, Claudia Indira Contreras Córdova, stated at the time, that the possible motive for the attempted robbery of the house of the ex-legislator who died on April 1, 2023 due to an illness, was "a possible loan, financing for a campaign, and later the return of that resource was demanded".

"When the offended person (Rodolfo Lizárraga) was not left, the return (of the money) was demanded, later information began to leak that he had a significant amount of money at that address. These people planned, presumably, the possibility of this robbery to obtain these resources in an illicit manner. So far this is the motive we have and it is being investigated".

While in Guaymas, those officially arrested for the robbery of Rodolfo Lizárraga Arellano's house were sentenced, in Chihuahua, José Bryan Salgueiro was on trial for another case. An Oral Trial Court sentenced him last December to 60 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of a farmer in the municipality of Valle de Zaragoza on May 19, 2020.

The prosecution argued that a group under the orders of Jose Bryan Salgueiro attacked the farmer and his father in the municipality of Valle de Zaragoza, who was found murdered on May 20, 2020 on the Chihuahua-Parral highway, and subsequently kidnapped the farmer and took him to a ranch, where he was tortured. The kidnappers obtained for the ransom 50 thousand pesos and the promise of payment of another 300 thousand.

The arrest of Salgueiro

The video of Bryan's arrest on February 18, 2022, during a mass that was being celebrated in the church of Father Cuco in the Las Quintas neighborhood, went around the world.

Like a Hollywood scene, the recording shows two couples standing inside the church at a mass for a baptism, while the priest asks "Do you renounce Satan, do you renounce sin?", a policeman enters the front of the church and grabs Bryan's arm, who was wearing a black suit. Without resisting, El 90 turned around and left with the officers. His two escorts were arrested along with him.

Article published on May 19, 2024 in the 1112 edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

SOURCE:RIODOCE