CDG Chismes: El Flaco Arrest & More

 By Itzli. 

Our fourth installment of CDG chismes, where I break down the latest online news, rumors, and gossip about the Cártel del Golfo (CDG, Gulf Cartel) and try to put it in context. This time we’ll be covering stuff from March 27th until today.

Arrest of El Flako

Well I decided to change things up and get to the good stuff first rather than do things fairly chronologically seeing how writing at the end last time that “El Chive” and “El Toñín” are out of jail didn’t get much reaction. Jorge Luis “El Flaco” Chávez Hernández got arrested yesterday, news that’s important enough that major Mexican media like Milenio covered it. Some report it took place in Reynosa, others, in San Fernando. Putting it all together I believe there were searches in and around San Fernando, they found him in a safehouse, immediately took him to Reynosa to be presented and some reporters just assumed the arrest took place in Reynosa.

Alright, so unless you follow this stuff closely you’re probably wondering who “El Flaco” is, especially since some are saying he’s a regional leader of Los Zetas. If you look at all the mainstream articles, besides variation on where he was arrested they all report the same couple of facts:

• Responsible for killing to soldiers and a Guardia Estatal officer in August 2024

• Had a 850 thousand peso reward for information leading to his arrest

From there there’s a few more pieces of information that are in the mix, with articles picking them up piecemeal:  

• Also known as “El Gory”

• Leader/member of Zetas Vieja Escuela 

• Responsible for violence in San Fernando, Méndez, Burgos, Cruillas, Santander Jiménez, Abasolo, Soto la Marina, and Aldama.

• The August 2024 attacks happened after his wife Diana Laura “J” was arrested

Shout out to Hoy Tamaulipas for actually reshaping information by writing: “His criminal influence encompassed key municipalities such as Jiménez, Abasolo, Soto la Marina, and Aldama, later extending to Burgos, Méndez, and Cruillas after aligning with criminal cells in San Fernando and Reynosa”.

For those of you that don’t already know, I’m not a “real” journalist, as you can see they all regurgitate the government press release and call it a day. As a self proclaimed researcher I crave information and context and that’s what I openly share, so here goes.

Circumstantial evidence points to Jorge Luis Chávez Hernández being a native of the Jiménez municipality as that full name appeared on a Tamaulipas state government website in May 2013. Regardless, back in that timeframe the Aldama/Soto la Marina/Abasolo corridor was under the control of José “El Gordo Cachetes Sánchez García, who was connected to Mario “El Pelón” Armando Ramírez Treviño going back to 2010. It looks like “El Flaco” worked under him, on July 10, 2014 there were a couple of operations targeting “El Gordo Cachetes” and in the one taking place in Allende, between Abasolo and Jiménez, Jorge Luis Chávez Hernández was arrested. Reporting from that time described him as “leader of a criminal group in the Abasolo municipality”. 

About a week later Los Panteras, a group that worked under “Mario Pelón” was forced out of Río Bravo and found protection under “El Gordo Cachetes”. Thus was born the so called Centro Faction of the CDG and Víctor Manuel “El Viento” Pérez Rico, code name “Pantera 16”, took over the region after “El Gordo Cachetes” was arrested in April 2015. “Pantera 16” was leader up until his arrest in August 2018 and then under Pablo Misael “El Mezqui” Ramos Lara, code name “Pantera 24”. In August 2022 the Matamoros Faction turned against “Pantera 24” over alleged dealings with the CJNG and he joined up with the San Fernando Faction, made up of Zetas Vieja Escuela (ZVE) remnants and Los Sierras. 

War broke out between the San Fernando Faction and the Matamoros Faction in April 2023, two months later “Pantera 24” was arrested. It seems that “El Flaco” took his place at that point as leader of the remnant Los Panteras/Centro Faction forces that worked alongside the San Fernando Faction and we see him brought up alongside “Chuy 7” and “El Nico” by October 2023. Since then he seems to have focused on trying to recover the old Centro Faction territory that the Matamoros Faction took from them. 

As for the whole August 2024 attacks, what happened is authorities had been after “El Flaco” and it wound up that authorities caught his wife Diana Laura Jasso Orozco along with Olga Alicia Vela Medina and a child. Since she was involved in kidnappings and charging extortion, she was arrested, he got pissed and thus the attack happened.

To feed the skeptical side that feels major arrests don’t just happen out of the blue, there’s video of ZVE forces fleeing to Nuevo Leon due to San Fernando “heating up” on Tuesday, April 2nd. Besides that it looks like there was a clash between cartel forces between Soto la Marina and Aldama on Saturday, April 5th and a cartel attack against Guardia Estatal in Padilla on Sunday, April 6th.

Arrest of La Chiva

In other news, Martín “La Chiva” Elizondo Rodríguez was arrested on Friday, March 28th. Officials say that he was leader of the Matamoros Faction/Los Escorpiones in Ciudad Victoria. So this should be big news but it is being said that he’s actually a low level guy of minor importance. Menny Valdez is one of the strongest ones making these claims, pointing out that he is only being charged with weapons violations and that the true head of plaza is allegedly “K-16”. 

Arrest of “El Pony”

Then there’s the arrest of Fabian “Comandante Pony” Silva Aguirre in Brownsville by the United States Border Patrol. Big news? I can’t find any information about him outside the press release so it doesn't seem like he’s important but hey, an arrest is an arrest I guess.

CDN/Los Metros

The war between the Cártel del Noreste (CDN) and Los Metros continues so here’s a quick breakdown of what’s been happening:

• Report on March 28th of a body “with signs of violence” found in Los Ramones, Nuevo León.

• Brief video from shootout between CDN forces under “Chamuco” versus Los Metros under “La Galleta” near Los Guerra.

• Report on March 28th that a person was shot dead in Linares, Nuevo León.

• Video of CDN “moustros” in Doctor Coss, Nuevo León, which was believed to be controlled by Los Metros.

• Report on March 30th that two people were shot dead on highway near Doctor Coss.

• Report on April 2nd that two members of Los Metros killed after attacking army forces between Reynosa and Díaz Ordaz. Later said to have taken place in the rancho San José  when forces were pursuing “El Roke” and his underlings.

• Report on April 2nd of CDN forces attacking Fuerza Civil in Doctor Coss.

• Report of April 4th of a cartel member killed in a shootout with Fuerza Civil in Lampacitos, Nuevo León.

• Report on April 6th of CDN forces attacking Fuerza Civil in Doctor Coss.

• Report on April 7th of weapons being seized in Parás, Nuevo León, said to be owned by the CDN, who were shipping them to resupply forces in Ciudad Mier and Doctor Coss.

• Report on April 8th of a massive clash in Doctor Coss municipality between cartel forces and Fuerza Civil. Later reported that a “monstruo” truck was seized in La Lajilla, as well as a pickup truck, while others escaped. Initial confusion on vehicles, but it is believed that CDN forces have adopted elements of Los Metros “monstruos”.

El Truco Update

In the CDG Matamoros series I wrote about some of the rumors surrounding politician César Augusto “El Truco” Verástegui Ostos. Despite losing his campaign for governor of Tamaulipas he’s still around and involved in things. A report on March 27th claims that he had a secret meeting with the former mayor of San Fernando, Maybella Lizeth Ramirez Saldivar, as well as meetings with “Chuy 7”. It was pointed out that it would be strange for the meeting to be secret as they are both from the same political party. 

Furthermore, another member of their party, Diana Vanessa Leal López, the current mayor of Cruillas, allegedly had her home searched by members of the army on March 26th. In this version of events, “El Truco” is actually meeting with CDN members who seek to take control of central Tamaulipas and La Columna Armada/Hidalgo Faction of the CDG will potentially be attacked.

El Mante

As discussed in CDG Matamoros Part 15, Luís “La Güicha” Yañez Álvarez (his alias alternately spelled “La Guicha” and “La Wicha”) has been in charge of Ciudad Mante for this cartel. On March 27th it was reported that vehicles with armed men being spotted the day before in the city was a signal that things were heating up and separately reminded that “La Wicha” and others were formerly members of Los Zetas. 

Information is still coming out today about a federal operation targeting “La Wicha” and his second in command, Bryan “El Mulas” Castillo. Another line of rumors indicates that Cinthia Deyanira “La Negra” Garza Velázquez was arrested yesterday in Ciudad Mante. This isn’t the first time these individuals have been targeted, so maybe it’s more of the same but it’s worth noting that the former leader of Los Zetas in the area, Enrique “El Varo” Puga Cortez, has been out of jail for a year and is allegedly associated with “El Truco”...