Execution of "El Puma" of the CJNG

Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat From PuntoNorte

In charge of beheadings and suspected of murdering the family of  Sinaloa Cartel's"El Güero Leches"

One of the main cell leaders and chief hitman of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) in Tecate, José Jovany Ortiz Covarrubias aka "El Puma" was executed after a heavy shootout involving several vehicles and a group of armed men.

In the confrontation that involved  at least 3 vehicles and a motorcycle,  ended up in a chase in the town of El Hongo.

The body of "El Puma" was found outside the vehicle after the Silverado pick-up where he fled suffered a rollover and went off the road. Several impacts of high-powered weapons were left in the windshield of the pickup and on the body.

There are versions in which they pointed to El Puma as a participant in the execution of a family, including the 10-year-old son of "El Güero Leches",   lieutenant of the Sinaloa Cartel in the same municipality.

According to the witnesses, in the morning, a shootout started in front of a primary school in the Ejido Encinal neighborhood, between the occupants of a Honda, a sedan-type car, the white pick-up in which "El Puma" was traveling, as well as a motorcyclist.

After exchanging shots with automatic weapons, several cars took different paths. It is known that the assassins used AK41s and that the assassins of El Puma pursued him until they left the colonia, entering  the road.

Moments later, an accident was reported due to a rollover on the El Hongo road near the shooting site. When they arrived police observed that Ortiz Covarrubias had several bullet impacts to his chest and was dead at the scene..

Ortiz Covarrubias had been arrested on several occasions for carrying weapons and is credited with several of the most violent killings in Tecate, including decapitations where cartulinas were found signed by "El Puma" as well as attacks on municipal police, including the escort of the current Director of Security, Francisco Castro Trenti.

The most recent arrest of the member of the CJNG occurred less than three months ago, in December 2018 when agents of the State Preventive Police (PEP) in the Loma Tova neighborhood of Tecate, near where he was killed. "El Puma" traveled in a red Jeep Wrangler with weapons according to the police report.

Joining him were José Antonio López Jacobo "El Jacobo" and Néstor Manuel Mejorado Ávila "El Chocorrol", but they were all released a few days later.