Los Rusos Tells Governor: "Release Goldi From Custody In One Month Or Else"

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 

Sinaloa Cartel’s Los Rusos left a banner in the city of Mexicali which told the state governor and the head of the Attorney General’s Office that they have one month to release “Goldi” from custody, or they will kidnap them. 

Los Rusos Banner One

At approximately 7:26 am on the morning of April 26, 2022, the emergency phone line received a call which reported that a narco banner had been discovered within a small park on Monterrey Street, near the intersection with Independencia Avenue, in the city of Mexicali. 

Municipal police officers were dispatched to the location and removed the banner, but not before someone got a chance to photograph it. The message read as follows:

Attention Mexicali, 

You have one month to release our boss “Goldi” or we will keep killing people. And we will kidnap public officials who are on our payroll, like Prosecutor Carpio Sánchez and the governor Marina del Pilar. Fucking bunch of traitors. They are going to get fucked up. They are where they are because of us. The disappearances will continue. 

Sincerely, 

Los 80s

The banner alleges that the head of the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE) Ricardo Iván Carpio Sánchez and governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda are on Los Rusos personal payroll. They are threatening to kill more people and kidnap public officials such as the prosecutor and governor if their boss “Goldi” isn’t released from custody within one month.

Both of the public officials named are relatively new to their positions, with Governor Ávila Olmeda took office in October 2021 and Prosecutor Carpio Sánchez was only elected in January of this year.

The message bears a drawing of a Russian flag, indicating the message comes from the Sinaloa Cartel group Los Rusos. It is signed “Los 80s”, which refers to the men who report under Rusos leader Rubén Benítez Ponce, alias “El 80”. The weekly magazine Zeta writes that it is presumed that "Goldi" is another alias for El 80.

As previously covered on Borderland Beat, El 80 was arrested on April 4, 2022, soon after he left his home which is located in the Casa Maya neighborhood, on the east side of the city. According to the official police report, El 80 was driving recklessly in his vehicle, a 2019 white Chevrolet Blazer SUV, on Calzada CETYS. 

At 1:02 pm, he was noticed by officers from the State Citizen Security Forces (FESC) because he “aggressively changed from the maximum speed lane to the minimum speed lane” in a dangerous manner.  The officers put on their siren and pulled El 80 over for the traffic violation at the Carranza Boulevard intersection. They got out of their vehicle and spoke to him briefly. One of the officers then noticed a firearm was visible in the trunk of El 80’s SUV. The officers requested he let them search his vehicle, which he allowed and they found a total of four long barrel firearms. 

El 80 was brought before a judge on weapons possession charges in order to set a trial date. He reportedly tried to tell the judge that the officer’s version of the traffic stop was false but he was advised by his lawyers not to speak because it was not the correct moment within the procedure to do so. El 80 then requested that he be granted parole so that he could keep his medical appointments that were needed due to lasting complications of him contracting COVID19 a month earlier. The judge denied his request. 

Zeta mentions there is an alternative version of events that differs from the police report version. This version alleges that the arrest was not in fact accidental and due only to reckless driving but in fact it was a planned arrest. 

As Zeta pointed out, there were no outstanding arrest warrants for El 80, nor any of the recently captured Rusos figures such as Felipe Eduardo Barajas Lozano, alias "El Omega", and Diego Renteria Caro, alias "La Wina", despite the fact that almost 300 homicides occurred within Mexicali in the last year, due, in part, to Los Rusos. Zeta points out that although Carpio Sánchez is new to the job as the head of the FGE, prosecutor Rafael Orozco Vargas was in charge of the Homicide Division in Mexicali for two years. Orozco Vargas, evidently, was unable to get arrest warrants issued for any of these three Los Rusos figures. 

Of note, prosecutor Orozco Vargas is now in a position of more authority as he has become the lead prosecutor for the Central Zone of Baja California, replacing the previous Central prosecutor Hiram Sánchez Zamora, who resigned in February 2022.  

Los Rusos Banner Two

This banner has a similar message to a different banner which was reported to police at 7:07 am on the morning of April 21, 2022. The call detailed that a message had been hung at the Lázaro Cárdenas Boulevard bridge over Eje Central, in Mexicali.

That banner read as follows, as translated by Itzli:

Attention, to all the fucking corrupt and traitorous government people of Mexicali, 

Especially you Zarate and Valles and all the other municipal officers from El Poniente.

Release our boss Goldi or everyone is going to get fucked up like those from SLRC.  

Sincerely, 

Los 80s

In this message, they mention those that got “fucked up” in San Luis Río Colorado (SLRC), a nearby city in Sonora. This is a reference to the April 19, 2022 shooting which killed two police officers, covered in this previous Borderland Beat story.  

They also call out police officers who specifically work in the Poniente neighborhood of Mexicali which is located in the southern section of the city.

Sources: El Imparcial, Pregonero de Baja California, El Mexicano, AFN Tijuana, Periodismo Negro, Zeta- New Narcomanta, Zeta - No Investigation

Background Sources: Zeta - The fall of "El 80", Zeta - Regional Prosecutors Appointed, Zeta - Revived Drug War, Zeta - More crimes in La Paz, Los Cabos and Mulegé