The LeBaron Massacre and the G3 Factor

 By Buggs for Borderland Beat

Note: I am going to revisit the events of the LeBaron massacre that occurred in 2019 in Sonora and the background on how it happened. A lot of the details in the information were never made public. I chose not to post this information back then because it would have put some people at risk. But things have changed since then as most of the principals have either been killed or arrested. Be aware that most of the information in this story was told to me by sources that were in positions to know, but also it has not been collaborated or confirmed. 

On November 4, 2019, at about 4:40am my phone started ringing with pending messages. I was asleep and initially, I ignored the messages but then decided to check them. The messages were from a source out of Sonora that I had been talking to about the war between Los Cazadores and the Caborca cartel. This source was based out of Altar, Sonora and was one of the Lugar Tenientes (Lieutenants) of Jesús Humberto Limón López, "El Noveno" or "El Cazador." He had told me that he, along with three other men, had been sent to the US border town of Agua Prieta (AP) to monitor the situation. There had been some internal war in AP between two cells that had been operating there on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS). Things had calmed down when he was sent there but both factions were providing conflicting information as to what was actually happening in AP. My source was told not to intervene or get involved by taking sides but just monitor the situation and report back.

In the message he told me several trucks had entered AP around 3:30AM and got into a shootout with some of the people of Los Paredes/Los Salazar. He told me he thought it might be the Caborca cartel of Los Quinteros. He told me 4 men of the Los Paredes/Los Salazar were killed, but the Mexican authorities later reported that 2 sicarios were killed and some were injured. There was no sign of police or military presence during the shootout. Many people could see the trucks and hear the sounds of gunfire that disrupted the silence of the night.

My source had reported the shootout to his bosses who said they would send reinforcements from southern Chihuahua, possibly people of La Gente Nueva (a Sinaloa cell operating in southern Chihuahua).

Police and military forces finally showed up to secure the area. AP was briefly put on lock down and the US border town of Douglas, Arizona sent out a travel warning.

Travel Warning to AP by Douglas PD

I later learned that the commando that attacked AP was actually people of La Linea. It was rare for La Linea, who works for the Juarez cartel, to dare to enter Sonora. Sonora is and has always been controlled by the Sinaloa cartel. The Caborca cartel that was led by Rafel Caro Quintero (RCQ) had forged an alliance with the Juarez cartel. After the arrest of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán there was a fight to take control of Sonora. The four main groups fighting for the state of Sonora was Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, Los Chapitos, Aureliano Guzmán Loera "El Guano" and RCQ (leader of Caborca Cartel). My thought was that Juarez had decided to move into Sonora to support the Caborca cartel.

Part of this group of La Linea was also present south of AP and near the town of Bavispe, Sonora. They were looking for members of Sinaloa to engage. They came across a three-vehicle convoy of the Mormon family of LeBaron that were on their way to the US for a wedding. The sicarios of la Linea opened fire at the three vehicles thinking it was part of the Sinaloa cartel and killed three women and six children (there were no men in the caravan). Later I was told that the group that attacked the Lebaron family was led by Freddy Calles Romero "El Tolteca" and the group that attacked AP was led by Gildardo Palomino Nieblas "El G3."

Side Note: There was an incident with OG Shadow (of all people), who had a very popular Youtube channel, and his theme was talking about Mexican cartels. He kept telling people during his podcasts that he was located in Culican. I was never a regular viewer of his podcasts. One day my source told me that OG Shadow had been talking bad about Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar. They were trying to find him, and he was asking me where Shadow was located at. My source thought he was one of "my people." I told him he was not one of my people, and in fact, I didn't even have "people." A few days later my source told me that they had located Shadow, that he was in Empalme, Sonora, and they were going to pay him a visit. Apparently, Shadow managed to escape to the US. My source had accused me of giving Shadow heads up. I told him that I did not, as I did not communicate with Shadow and I did not know who he was. I eventually lost contact with this source. Much later, I was also told by someone that my source had been killed in a topon (encounter) with military forces in Sonora.

OG Shadow

Who was Behind the LeBaron Massacre

I also had the occasion to talk to another confidential source who was a family member of G3 and was very close to him. He told me G3 was like a father to him and most of his family worked for him. He said a large part of his family worked for G3 in different roles such as gunmen, crossing people and drugs and even one of them was G3's right hand man. He told me how things unfolded with G3 while working under Los Paredes in Agua Prieta (AP) and how he switched to La Linea.

Basically in 2019 there was a war in Agua Prieta where a very close friend of Gildardo Nieblas "G3", Martín Torres "El Chupón" was killed. It was a strategy by Los Paredes, that with the green light from Los Chapitos, they wanted to take out El Chupón and G3.

They wanted to take him out because G3 was gaining more power and popularity, more than he should have. All the people looked at G3 as the boss, when in reality that power was held by Los Paredes.  That is why they wanted to take out G3 by all means necessary. There were rumors that they were going to kill family and friends of G3 in AP. This forced the family and friends of G3 to leave Agua Prieta, as Los Paredes wanted to kill them to get to G3.

This caused an internal war between Los Paredes and the people of G3. G3 gathered his people to warn them of Los Paredes that were trying to betray them into surrendering. There was a time during the war when Marco Antonio Paredes Jr "Markitos" told G3 to put down his weapons and meet on the banks of AP to reach a truce.

El Chupon

G3 did not agree because something told him that they were going to kill him. He ordered El Chupon not to go to the meeting because he sensed something was wrong. But El Chupon, considering the danger to his family, went ahead and attended the meeting.  Just as G3 had warned, Los Paredes killed El Chupón.

They tortured him to get information about where G3 was and the location of his people. They also wanted to know the location of the money that he had accumulated during the years while he was operating on the border. 

El Chupón refused to tell them what they wanted to know, and they killed him.

Many of the people that belonged to G3 became afraid for themselves and their families and decided to join the ranks of Los Paredes. This included Martin Siqueiros "El Tin Tin" and Leonel Toscano Cuevas "El Tigre."

Los Paredes started to abduct, torture and kill family and friends of G3.

So G3 went to Sinaloa to ask for support from the only person he believed could give him some support and perhaps an opportunity to win that war in AP, which was Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

But Ismael did not want to take any sides and left them alone to fight each other. Eventually, there was a meeting between G3, El Mayo, Los Chapitos, Tin Tin, El Tigre and Markitos to discuss what was going to happen

They could not reach an agreement and only resulted in threats levied against G3. The meeting concluded with the understanding that there would be blood against the friends and family of G3. 

The only option for G3 was to go to Chihuahua and ask for support from the cartel of La Linea. G3 also took Francisco Misael Valencia Villaescusa "El Missa" with him to join with La Linea but El Missa was killed in October 2019 by Los Paredes. El Tolteca, who had also been a leader in AP for the cell of the Sinaloa Cartel would also go to Chihuahua to join G3.

El 32, El Aguila, Tolteca and G3

La Linea agreed to help G3 but they put conditions on him. They would give him people and weapons but only If he cleaned up his plaza in AP. And they sent G3 and Tolteca to kill the adversaries of La Linea, which he did successfully. 

The interest of the Juarez cartel to enter Sonora was to support the Caborca cartel and the interest of G3 was to seek revenge and eliminate Los Paredes. G3 killed people of Los Moritos (Ariel Arvizu) that were part of Gente Nueva of El Jaguar and his Lobos. He opened a path through towns and cities like Casas Grandes, Palomas and small ranches in the surrounding area.

G3 had people in AP and felt confident he could get some of his people back. He arrived in AP in the blanket of darkness on November 4, 2019 and had already alerted some of his people in AP. What he did not expect, is that the people of Los Paredes and los Salazar were already waiting for him. G3 did not sustain any loses and took out the group he encountered. After the skirmish, he was laying low, waiting for his next move. That is when he learned of the LeBaron massacre.

The incident that happened with the LeBarons was orchestrated by El Tolteca thinking they were adversaries but in reality, it was the LeBaron family. The people responsible for the massacre had been working under G3 and that is why they put the blame on him. During the attack, G3 was hiding in Agua Prieta, trying to figure out his next strategy and what was his next move after the attack in AP.

El Tolteca nd El G3 - Hearst

It is said that when G3 and Tolteca had already completed their agreement and it was La Linea's turn to fulfill their Part of the deal, it was around the same time when G3 was arrested.

According to the Mexican attorney general's office, 40 suspects belonging to La Linea had been identified, although some only by their alias. Only 13 suspects have actually been arrested, but only two have been charged with murder. G3 and Tolteca were arrested as part of the 13. The active police Chief of Janos, Chihuahua, Fidel Alejandro Villegas Villegas, was arrested in connection with the massacre. The most recent, was arrested in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was Gustavo Ivan Hernandez-Cabral El Pacquiao.

El G3 (according to my source and family of G3)

G3 came from a humble home from a town in Sonora called San Hidalgo where a few years after being born they left for Agua Prieta to seek a better life on the border. But the situation was very difficult.

Agua Prieta

With many mouths to feed and little money in their pockets, G3 realized that even as a child, he had to financially help his family. He did not have a father and came from an unstable family. He grew up with cousins and uncles who were using drugs and even when he was a child, they tried to get him to try some of the drugs.

G3 was a very good student in school, earning the respect of teachers, even rewarding him to a trip to the United States to visit Disneyland for his good performance in his 6 years of primary school. His dream was to be the pillar of the family from a very young age, thus abandoning school to go sell tortillas that his grandmother made and going to work in a gas company at the age of 12.

In the top row Martin Torres, El Chupon - black cap - on his right side is Gildardo Palomino Nieblas, El G3

He lived a very poor and humble life. He lived in a house with only a kitchen and living room. A total of 8 family members lived in the small house. But after he got involved in the narco life and the first thing he did to prove that he was actually a good person, he built upon that little humble family house. He always put the needs of his family first. He provided for each member of his family, businesses to make a honest living, cars and houses. He was not the best person in the world, but he was not the worst either. Every Christmas people from the neighborhood would line up outside of G3's house to receive money, clothes and tennis shoes.