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Saturday, January 21, 2023

Sinaloa Cartel's El G1, Puppetmaster of Politicians, Arrested in Durango

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 


An important Sinaloa Cartel - Los Cabreras figure named Gerardo Soberanes Ortiz, alias “El G1”, was arrested in Durango. 


El G1 is infamous for allegedly “owning” the Senator of Durango, José Ramón Enríquez Herrera, whose political campaign he helped finance. 


G1 is also known to have told a large number of politicians that they owed him allegiance, and not to be “stupid”, always to remember that the “position they held had been won thanks to him.”




The Arrest


At around 7:00 am on Friday, January 20, 2023, Crescencio Sandoval, the head of the Army announced that an operation to capture an important Sinaloa Cartel - Los Cabreras figure was currently being carried out in Durango. He made the announcement during one of the daily presidential press conferences.



Crescencio Sandoval said that 


“Early this morning an operation was launched to arrest a financial operator of the Cabrera Sarabia criminal group, part of the Sinaloa Cartel. It involved our ground forces, also air support. The activity is ongoing. It is being carried out in coordination with the federal Attorney General's Office and other government agencies.


We are still in the process of carrying out this operation. Once everything that has to be done in the domicile where this activity took place is concluded, the detainee will be transferred to the facilities of the federal Attorney General's Office [in Mexico City].” 


He then assured the reporters that they would release more information within the next 24 hours. 



Later that day, more details emerged. The Army and the National Guard had launched a joint operation to capture Gerardo Soberanes Ortiz, alias “El G1”, in the dark of night hours in the northern part of Durango City. The soldiers arrived at the residential neighborhood of Cortijo, inside three helicopters and a convoy of vehicles. 



A bodyguard of El G1 was said to have been shot in the arm during the ensuing confrontation however the soldier managed to get G1 to surrender. 


He was then taken from the residence and put into a helicopter waiting outside, which flew him to the Durango airport. A video of one of the helicopters taking off can be seen below.





He was then transferred to a plane which flew him to Mexico City, where he is now.



Additional videos of him being transported can be seen below.







History of Los Cabreras 

Felipe Cabrera Sarabia and his three younger brothers began working in organized crime sometime in the 1990s. They grew up in the small town of Vasco Gil, in the state of Durango.



The Cabrera Sarabia brothers are: 


Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, alias “El 01”


Alejandro Cabrera Sarabia, alias “El 02” 


José Luis Cabrera Sarabia, alias  "El 03”


Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, alias “El Arqui” 


According to a federal press release, the Cabrera brothers started out “initially focused on marijuana planting and cultivation in the mountainous area of ​​the state of Durango.” They quickly began working under Joaquin Guzman, “El Chapo”, and Ismael Zambada, “El Mayo”, of the Sinaloa Cartel. 



As their criminal careers developed, their business shifted more towards drug smuggling, specifically of heroin, through Durango and parts of Chihuahua as the drug shipments made their way north to the US. 


The Cabrera brothers, however, began to have competition for areas in Durango when another Sinaloa Cartel group called “Los Ms” rose to power. 


The Cabrera brothers waged a bloody war against Los Ms, which was led by Mario Nuñez Meza, alias “M10”. The high death toll of this war is likely what drew the attention of federal authorities to the cartel figures in Durango.



In December 2011, El 01 was arrested in Culiacan, Sinaloa, by the Army. His brother, El 02 took over control of the group and continued their drug smuggling operation.  


In January 2012, SEDENA Special Forces soldiers began an operation which aimed to arrest El Arqui, one of the lesser known Cabrera brothers, in a remote area of Canatlán, Durango. Their first attempt managed to grab 11 of his hitmen, killing another, however El Arqui and his bodyguards escaped the area during the chaos of battle. 




El Arqui fled to a cave nearby and hid out inside it, protected by a number of bodyguards. The soldiers were able to find the cave and they attempted to arrest him a second time but Arqui and four of his hitmen decided to go down fighting. All five were killed in the encounter. 

It was shortly after the death of Arqui, that a regional jefe named Gerardo Soberanes Ortiz, alias “El G1”, began to rise within the ranks of los Cabreras. 



El G1 had successfully managed the plazas of San Dimas, Pueblo Nuevo and Otaez in Durango for the brothers for the last couple of years, so in mid-2012 they decided to send him to Comarca Lagunera, a region marked in map below. 



There he fought to expand Sinaloa Cartel’s territory in Gomez Palacio, Lerdo, Torreón, and places as far as Matamoros. 


On February 11, 2013, El 02 was arrested in Culiacan, Sinaloa. El 03 took over leading the group. El 02 was later released from prison under what some might characterize as suspicious circumstances. 


El 03 seems to have been unwilling to hand back over the power to his older brother, El 02, because although the brothers are said to lead the group together, many publications allege that El 03 is the real leader of Los Cabreras.


Meanwhile, in June 2020, El 01 was successfully extradited to the US where he currently remains in jail.


Just this week, El 01 pled guilty to heroin trafficking charges in a federal court in Chicago, Illinois.






The Senator, El G1, and The Power Behind the Politicians


In February 2022, the highly-regarded news publication EME-EQUIS reported on documents they received, leaked from an Army intelligence investigation into Durango politicians involved in organized crime. 


The investigation in question took place in December 2020 and the documents were leaked to reporters Óscar Balderas, from EME, and Luis Cárdenas, from MVS Noticias. 



The intelligence documents allege that a young and aspiring politician named José Enríquez Herrera ran into some trouble early into his career, while he was serving as Secretary of Health for the state. 



Well, one of the biggest responsibilities Enríquez Herrera was put in charge of was the construction of 16 new hospitals, however, one important hospital, the Hospital de Especialidades, ran out of money in the middle of construction. 


Lucky for Enríquez Herrera, a generous benefactor was able to step in and lend him the money he needed to complete the project. This benefactor was Sinaloa Cartel’s El G1. 




G1 would go on to help, according to the documents, finance Enríquez Herrera’s future political campaigns including his run for mayor of Durango City, which he lost in 2013, but later won in 2016. 



In July 2016, Mayor Enríquez Herrera summoned a number of politicians and government officials from the PAN, PRI and Movimiento Ciudadano political parties to a “work meeting” at the aforementioned Hospital de Especialidades. 



When all the invitees had gathered at the hospital, Mayor Enríquez Herrera introduced them to his “friend”, Gerardo Soberanes Ortiz, alias “El G1”. Many attendees presumed that they were being introduced to “one of the main financiers of his political campaigns.”



After the gracious introduction, El G1 “took the floor and, in a ‘threatening and arrogant’ manner, told those present not to ‘be stupid’ and to remember that the positions they held -in one way or another- had been won thanks to him. So they owed him allegiance.”


Introductions such as these may be quite common, the only difference with this one in particular is that Alma Leticia Reyes Guerra was in attendance. 


Mayor Enríquez Herrera had apparently forgotten that Alma Reyes Guerra, the mayor of San Dimas, had just recently watched her father be kidnapped and killed by cartel hitmen in the middle of his mayoral campaign. 



In the wake of her father’s death, Alma Reyes Guerra chose to take his place, running for mayor in his stead. She won the election at the young age of just 23, becoming the youngest mayor in the history of the state. 


Alma Reyes Guerra chose to report what had happened and who was introduced at Mayor Enríquez Herrera’s meeting to the relevant authorities. Her testimony about the meeting is likely a major reason why the Army chose to investigate Mayor Enríquez Herrera years later, in 2020. 



Mayor Enríquez Herrera would go on to run for senator and win the position. He served as a senator for the state of Durango from 2019 to February 2022 and then won re-election and currently serves as one of Durango’s three senators. 



A number of other government officials have been investigated for their ties to El G1. For more information, please see the EME-EQUIS article.






Current Figures/Structure of Los Cabreras 


El 02 and El 03 are said to be direct reports under El Mayo and his successor, Mayito Flaco. 



Under them is said to be three main lieutenants, 


Gerardo Soberanes Ortiz, alias “El G1”

Region: Comarca Lagunera


Abelardo Díaz Valdez, aliases "El Avestruz" and “El Ostruz”

Region: Sierra de Durango


Ezequiel Ruacho Valles, alias "El Toluco”

Region: Unclear



Some financial operators under El 02 & 03 are said to be named: 


Candelario Beltrán, aliases "El Grande" and “El Cande”

Region: Sierra de Durango


Edgar Limón Ortiz, alias "El Limones"

Region: Comarca Lagunera



El G1 and El Limones are said to work closely together. 



Codigo Rojo Laguna claims that the two men are “responsible for the sale of the drug known as Cristal, the theft of vehicles, the collection of quotas, extortion, Kidnapping of businessmen, money laundering, card cloning, scams to obtain bank credits in the name of third parties and forced disappearance.” 






The Arrest Sources: La Jornada, El Financiero, El Pais


History Sources: Federal Press Release About Arrest of El 01, US Treasury Chart on Cabrera Brothers, The Daily Mail, The Bones of Geronimo , Valley Central, TV Notas, Proceso Digital, BBC, El Siglo de Durango, Reuters  


The Senator, El G1 Sources: Codigo Rojo Laguna, EME-EQUIS


Current Structure Sources: Codigo Rojo Laguna, EME-EQUIS


35 comments:

  1. Buen hecho Hearst. Información interesante

    ReplyDelete
  2. The same way Ovidio got caught, 🤔 did ovidio ratted on him?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Army knows everything, these narcos ain’t that smart .

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    2. 8:54 Thats for sure.

      Delete
  3. Nope just a typical Federal Government clean up to gain points for upcoming elections . Political move. Remember government knows where all the cats hide just waiting on green light from high commands.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure. Whatever you say. After all Durango has not had elections in the past 15 or more years since this guy has been operating correct?
      Finally elections comming up after all these years and now a capture.
      You sure are smart dude.

      Delete
    2. 1128 whatever works. Whether it be for the elections, opportunity or a shift in Mexico's government, as long as these guys continue to fall, it makes no difference. Good job AMLO.

      Delete
    3. There has been elections. .

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    4. 2:49 Exactly, hes doing a good job.

      Delete
  4. The Herreras disappeared? They left the business or they are well protected as Jaime Herrera Nevarez was on his old good days?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Didn't los Barrera expell them?

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    2. Jaimes sons are still in DGO and are well off. They aren’t involved like before but im sure if they need to pull some strings they can.

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    3. Most of the Original cartel de durango guys are retired or dead.. most herreras sided with cartel de juarez in the 2000s and got kicked out by CDS around 2011

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    4. Just to be clear, I just profiled one cartel group. I was not trying to cover all the cartel groups in Durango or Comarca Lagunera.

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    5. Durango = territorio MZ.

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    6. Los Herrera are still in Durango y siguen agarrados de los chongos con los Barrera. Durango haves a lot of factions, Herreras, Barreras, Barrazas, Canelos, Guanos, but la plaza es de los Cabrera. Word in Durango is that G-1 fucked up and that why he was handed over. Some say he was trying to Chapuliniar.

      Delete
  5. No doubt that CDS and CJNG are the most powerful syndicates in the world

    ReplyDelete
  6. Replies
    1. Chapizza snitched against Mayo operator.

      Delete
  7. Warning! Don't fall behind on your mordida!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mayo snitched him out, thats the price you gotta pay when you work for the biggest Rata in the game

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very informative, great job BB. Sad state of situation in Mexico

    ReplyDelete
  10. Seems like the new security strategy starting to show results!! Good job AMLO💪

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That asshole prodding AMLO received gots him working earnestly

      Delete
    2. 8:40 Thats right sir.

      Delete
  11. Ovidio snitched!

    Like father like son, puro snitching

    ReplyDelete
  12. Datos curiosos, cómo puede tener un funcionario o funcionaría? Ostentar él mismo cargo dos veces? La fiscal, Sonia Yadira dé la garza Fragoso, 🤔 ? Y lo qué les decía a las personas qué le exigían justicia por lo qué hacía su protegido el g 1?

    ReplyDelete
  13. hi There, DGO1 old member from the forum. Toluco is sierra region(Tepehuanes/Santiago/guanacevi). son I Ruperto RR. for those questioning los Herrera, they waged war against RR and lost. though they did get RR. Toluco is a hot head not like his old man....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Toluco did start a drug rehab center in DGO so he is doing something good that other narcos or his dad did not do.

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    2. wasn't his dad hard line against any use. from what I recall he wasn't a user and the people around him weren't allowed either. the only way they got him was by backstabbing which they did. Toluco needs to tighten up his own use lol. what I can see they do have the area on lockdown. butttt I think it is more the powers that be above him which control the area.

      Delete
  14. I would of told him U don't be stupid u fat lil toad

    ReplyDelete
  15. They are all snitches when it comes down to it .....

    ReplyDelete
  16. What happened to Los M,Cabrera's rival.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Word is G1 was a pastor for a christian church by soriana in Dgo and he would force his men to go to church.

    ReplyDelete

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