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Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Betrayals and New Alliances: Los Chapitos in Baja California

 "MX" for Borderland Beat

Note to readers: This report uses several articles from the Baja California newspaper Zeta Tijuana that were published in January and February 2021.

Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán (Los Chapitos) compete for control of Baja California

Baja California closed the year 2020 with 2,938 homicides. In the first month of this year, it recorded 246 homicides: 148 in Tijuana, 34 in Ensenada, 33 in Tecate, 13 in Mexicali and 10 in Rosarito.


A large percentage of these murders are linked to the violent turf war headed by Los Chapitos, the sons of infamous drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. They are competing with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Tijuana Cartel (CAF) for control of street-level drug spots and international drug trafficking corridors in Baja California.


State officials say that the siblings Ivan Archivaldo, Alfredo, and Ovidio Guzman are making incursions in Baja California through Mexicali from the neighboring state of Sonora. In Mexicali, the Sinaloa Cartel faction is headed by Nestor Ernesto Perez Salas ('El Nini'), who receives support from the Sonora-based faction Los Salazar.

To cement their control of Baja California, Los Chapitos have been recruiting members from the CJNG and the CAF:


In Tijuana, they hired Pablo Edwin Huerta Niño ('El Flaquito'), one of the highest-ranking CAF members. In Ensenada, they hired CJNG boss David Lopez Jimenez ('El Lobo' and/or 'Cabo 20') and Edgar Perez Villa ('El Nier' and/or 'El 89'). In Tecate, they hired CJNG boss Danny Isaac Ortiz Covarrubias ('El Moreno').


Los Salazar and El Nini in Mexicali 

Los Salazar, at the service of Los Chapitos, decided to change things in 2019 by entering the Mexicali Valley "without permission" to kill drug traffickers fleeing from Sonora. By 2020, they made their way to Mexicali and San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, where they moved drugs by sea and land while assassinating their rivals with the support of Crispin Salazar Zamorano.


Later, El Nini sent some of his men to the urban areas. On Monday, November 2, the state authorities captured 12 young people, most of them drug addicts, who were recruited by Los Chapitos from the Mazatlán Youth Rehabilitation Center.


Los Chapitos paid them MXN$2,000 a month to work as sicarios; they are linked to the murders of José Luis Marmolejo, Abraham Guadalupe Martínez Lucero, and Ramón Omar Peralta. These three men worked for Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozano ('El Omega'), a close collaborator of Jesús Alexander Sánchez Félix ('El Ruso').


Pablo Edwin Huerta Niño ('El Flaquito')


Alliance changes, El Flaquito

According to Baja California officials, Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño ('El Flaquito') left the CAF and joined Los Chapitos. El Flaquito was one of the highest-ranking CAF members in the state. Rumors of his desertion to the Sinaloa Cartel surfaced in 2020, when a narcocorrido mentioned El Flaquito was working with Los Chapitos. Investigators say El Flaquito may possibly work under El Nini.


Although El Flaquito started in the CAF, membership has not been his forte. El Flaquito started having issues with the CAF in January 2018, after his men kidnapped several addicts in Tijuana and beat up a ministerial police officer working with the Criminal Investigatory Agency (AIC). This incident brought unwarranted attention to the CAF, and El Flaquito lost a lot of support within the cartel. There were rumors that the CAF also placed a bounty on El Flaquito's head.


"He could appear dead any moment", investigators said.


But El Flaquito was neither arrested nor killed. Between 2018 and 2019, he made non-aggression pact with René Arzate García ('La Rana') of the Sinaloa Cartel. He also joined the CJNG for some time. In 2020, he began to have problems with his allies because he openly recruited El Lobo from the CJNG.


Ensenada, El Lobo versus El Mercenario

After flipping from the CJNG to Los Chapitos, David Lopez Jimenez, nicknamed 'Cabo 20', changed his alias to El Lobo. He then concentrated a large part of his operation to assist El Flaquito's group in Ensenada.


El Lobo currently helps Los Chapitos gain control of Ensenada against a group headed by Carlos Adrian Casas Reyes ('El Mercenario' and/or 'El Tragedias'). Although El Mercenario is allied to the Sinaloa Cartel, El Lobo is looking to replace him and his faction.


The faction headed by El Lobo have hung a series of banners threatening the operators of El Mercenario. They have accused him and his group of beheadings, arsons and of being chapulines (literally "grasshoppers") -- someone who switches cartel alliances.


Edgar Perez Villa ('El Nier' and/or 'El 89')


"All those who support El Mercenario [in Ensenada] are fucked: Jorge, Gordo Basura, Gaby Montero, Chuy, Guero, Moy, China, Hielero, Kilo, Blanca, Angela, Simpson, Zuli, Kilo, Sindy, Horacio Chuy. Sincerely: The Ensenada Cartel", one of the texts read.


El Lobo is the top enforcer of Los Chapitos in Ensenada, followed by Gustavo German Ayala ('El Tavo' and/or 'El Patachin') and Edgar Pérez Villa ('El Nier' and/or 'El 89'). Their local factions are known as the Ensenada Cartel and La Barredora.


El Mercenario's faction has severed several blows in recent weeks. In January and February 2021, José Eduardo Osuna Torres ('El Osuna') and Daniel Alexis Valenzuela Villalva ('El Simpson'), two of his closest associates, were arrested. Authorities have so far identified two men nicknamed 'El Nec' and 'Mosco' as possible successors to them under El Mercenario.


As reported by Borderland Beat, El Moreno (left); Cabo 20/El Lobo (right) were the two most-wanted men in Baja California in early 2020


In Tecate, El Moreno

El Moreno, the former head of sicarios for the CJNG in Tecate, is classified as a priority target by state authorities. For the months of August and September 2020, rumors of his desertion from the CJNG started to pop up,


"He got too much attention, for being violent and risking the CJNG brand", rumors said. 


El Moreno was denied admission to the Sinaloa Cartel because the CJNG wanted him dead and because he was a very high-profile target. El Flaquito did not want to associate himself with him for that reason. Investigators say that they are unsure if the Sinaloa Cartel has granted him full admission in their criminal group.


Baja California violence

U.S. authorities say that much of the drugs that are distributed in Los Angeles and Chicago by gangs linked to Los Chapitos are smuggled through Mexicali and Tijuana, two major ports of entry Los Chapitos want full control of.


For years the Sinaloa Cartel moved drugs through Baja California without much problem, but Los Chapitos began to rebel in 2016, after the last recapture of their father. In 2019, they fought against cells of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, causing greater friction within the cartel. Such confrontations escalated in 2020 and in the last quarter they reached Baja California.


They began by killing traffickers in Mexicali, classified as the least problematic Baja California municipality, because for decades it has been under the control of the Sinaloa Cartel. But violence has now spread to several municipalities across the state.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana (1), (2), (3); (4); (5)

43 comments:

  1. Gracias BB. Missed the Zeta TJ translates while we were gone... lots has happened. Flaquito flipping to Sinaloa is a BIG deal. Maybe the biggest traición in recent times? It’d be fun to have a story on major narcos who have flipped.

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    1. Hmmm good one. Major capo who flipped was probably R1 from the CDG and the Beltranes against Sinaloa? Assuming El Chapo didn’t turn against them first...

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    2. Where did CDG R1 flip to?

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    3. Zetas flipped on Gulf, Beltranes flipped on Chapo, Chapo flipped on Carrillos, Arellanos Flipped on Zambada, Mencho flipped on CDS, Damaso flipped on Chapo, michoacan is too complex but theirs a whole lot of flipping going on there. To say the least, there's no loyalty amongst crooks and thieves.

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    4. 5:19 - R1 supposedly went to the Sinaloa Cartel after he ordered M3’s murder.

      5:23 - Zetas didn’t slip on CDG. CDG killed one of their men and Zetas just asked for the killers but CDG ignored them. “Váyanse a la verga”. But the Zetas / CDG arrangement was at a boiling point anyways.

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    5. 5:23 lol good observation u r correct my friend

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    6. 10:27 he’s still CAF 100%. When did he flip? Los Chapitos reached out to TJ in a form of a truce/business through el Nini who has a background here in TJ. El CAF appointed el Flaco to handle that matter. Míralo como un embajador de relaciones de parte del CAF y al Nini de parte de Sinaloa por el lado de los Chapitos así de sencillo. Same goes for el Mayo Zambada por su lado el bueno era el Aquiles era! He’s made truces/business arrangements con el CAF for the last 7+ yrs. The Arzate brothers have setback some of those truces/arrangements time and time again and it’s cost him. La Rana. Aquiles has time and time again spoken and taken the shit for he’s little brother. El Mayo Zambada no longer protects the Arzate brothers. The only way the Arzates can step foot in TJ is reporting in strictly with el Flaco. Conditions set in place by el CAF as a form of belittling La Rana así de sencillo. No le den muchas vueltas al asunto raza. Saludos al 10:27.

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    7. CAF are nothing on the level of CDS or CJNG..the new owners of Baja California!

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  2. Tijuana went to shit once they arrested all the brothers, it’s a shame. Now it’s always gonna be a Warzone because no one will be able to fully control it just a bunch of lacras killing each other all the time now. I’ve said it before the real mafia in Mexico doesn’t exist no more. Once Arturo and Nacho died it was over. Benjamin and Ramon the last and only true owners of the TJ plaza.

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    1. Por un lado tienes razón 10:32 por el otro no. Es estrategia para quietarle la atención a los de casa y dársela a otros. Siempre a sido zona de guerra. Las esquinas son las del desmadre y es puro lacra matándose entre sí eso si. Los dueños siempre an estado bajita la mano sin llamar la atención como antes. En este juego de egos vato llévatela calmado. Duras más.

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  3. Look like nice Family Men. Their should be proud

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  4. El indio from Mexicali was killed in January. OG guy from the CDS who had been around for 20 years. Was Chapitos behind this?

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    1. Yeah that was weird how nobody really reported about how and why El Indio was popped. Died the way he lived in the shadows

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    2. El Indio originally from Bad. Sinaloa? Same guy?

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    3. I think Indio lost support from both factions. He was seen as too old and when they whacked him, whoever was, no one really cared. The guy was quiet and way more low profile than Omega.

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    4. Theres soo manny tough guys behind the scenes who nobody knows

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    5. El Gafe was killed last year as he finished his meal and hopped inside of his car he spotted the gunman and reaxh inside the center counsel to retrieve a glock 23 but the gunman was faster and killed him. El Gafe was checos number 2 man. He was killed last year and nobody even batted an eye.

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  5. Is that Drake in the last picture trying to get some street cred?

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  6. El Moreno is a deadman

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    1. Flaquito too. He has been with CJNG and CAF, then CDS.

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  7. Let's just say; What a fu****g mess. Mexico's casualties & homicides will not cease. Until people stop consuming. Same for the mass incarcerated in the US for drug abuse and trafficking.
    A failed war.

    E42

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    1. Are you going to blame Romania and Malaysia when they crave meth?Blaming US consumption for Mexicos armed cartels is weak shit.Ey man you can mention FnF and its 2000 guns arming Mexico lmao,go lie down

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  8. Sinaloa actually pays, their average lowly sicario gets 3000 pesos a week

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    1. 150 dollars is not much?

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    2. Must be after three years on the job.
      In the Juarez valley they pay a leader of a group of Sicarios 2000 pesos a week. What can the others expect?

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    3. They sre paying them 3000 Afghan money.

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  9. So what happen to the azarte brothers la rana are they still around still working for Mayo? Just wondering keep hearing how they fighting but no mention of them.

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    1. Yes. But mostly in Ensenada and TJ. Mexicali is a different ball game.

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    2. The Arzates are very low profile..Chapo Isidro style!

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    3. I read an article here on bb that they no longer work under zambada now they aligned them selfs with los chapitos

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    4. They’re still around. Independently or looking to realigned themselves back in good graces. Time will tell. Ensenada/rosarito. TJ no pisan. Y si Mexicali es otro pedo 9:32.

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  10. Mexico is a complete mess. Talk about possibly the worst years ever for organized crome when ut comes to structure. This shit is a complete joke now. They dont even take themselves serious anymore. Hood hopping is fukn cool af now

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  11. SO the CHAPITOS RECRUIT anybody.. Are they that desperate? Sounds LIKE the last resort for tHEM but those two will get KILLED regardless, just a matter of TIME.. They risk THEIR lives for mearly 2000 PESO$?.. SMH.. Not worth IT. Their FAKE corridos MAKE CDS SICARIOS sound like THEY are living large, sourounded by pretty wommen,money and luxury..
    The truth is they are surrounded BY dead bodies, broke SICARIOS and misery..
    Kids STAY in school.. Just SAYING

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  12. Sinaloa Burning little Kids like the 8 year old and 5 year old they burned in tijuana last week but they fan Boys swear they dont mess with inocent people

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  13. Animo Sicarios !
    Al 100 % con los Chapitos.

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    1. Tus chapitos Al 100% con el CAF. Si no x TJ no pasan.

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    2. Puro CAF vamos por ti 006 alv loko 😂

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  14. I a couple of ears the cartels kills more in TJ than all italian mafias combined!

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  15. Gracias MX !
    For straightening this tangled web out for us.

    When is is the TEST ? 😉

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Yaqui! I'm by no means faster or better than you when it comes to translating these Z-Tijuana articles. Saludos!

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  16. The life expectancy of those who flip is as short as that of a fly,his new partners will never fully trust him & his old partners are gunning for him.And those are cold hard facts.

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