Hitmen Dressed as FGE Agents Kidnap & Kill Brother of FGE Official in Mexicali, Baja California

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Cell phone videos show cartel hitmen disguised as FGE agents abducting the brother of an actual FGE agent in Mexicali, in the state of Baja California. The victim was found dead the next day with injuries consistent with torture.

The Abduction Caught on Video

During the afternoon of Monday, May 30, 2022, Ramsés Heriberto Zatarain Hernández was driving his GMC Sierra white pickup truck through the Misión del Valle neighborhood of the city of Mexicali with his romantic partner in the passenger seat. 

A law-enforcement-esque white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck approached his vehicle and motioned for Ramsés to pull over for a traffic stop, which he complied with. A number of armed men exited the Silverado, wearing ballistic plate carriers with the letters FGE on them, which presumably identified them state Attorney General’s Office (FGE) agents. 

The armed men were wearing face coverings and carrying firearms. They demanded that Ramsés exit his vehicle and come with them. Ramsés, the brother of FGE agent Rigoberto Zataraín Huitrón, was suspicious of the men and refused to exit his vehicle, asking for more details about why he had to come with them. The armed men claimed they had an arrest warrant for him.

His wife also became suspicious of the armed men posing as FGE agents and she exited the vehicle, trying to talk further with some of the men about why they wanted Ramsés to come with them on the sidewalk nearby. When they did not answer, she began recording the interaction on her cellphone. The video shown below is some of the footage she recorded. The video contains no graphic content. 

Video Source: Agencia Informativa RadarBC

In the video, Ramsés can be seen sitting in the front seat of his white pickup truck, with the driver’s side door open, while a partially masked man stands a few feet away talking to him, indicating for him to step out of the vehicle. His wife approaches asking them “What's going on? What's going on?”. 

As she gets closer, a different armed man, who is standing on the passenger side of the vehicle, starts yelling and Ramsés turns to face in his direction. 

The wife points the camera to fully view the armed man on the driver’s side and the letters “FGE” are clearly seen on the vest as she continues to ask him what is going on. The man says something quietly, then motions with his hands as if he’s deferring to what the yelling man is saying and partially turns away from the camera as Ramsés steps out of his vehicle and submits to coming with them out of frame. 

As the armed men begin to re-enter their vehicle, with Ramsés now in tow, an armed man wearing a balaclava exits the driver’s side backseat of their vehicle with a long barrel firearm clutched in his hands. He approaches the wife quickly and in an aggressive manner. The video abruptly stops.

The sound of at least two gunshots, possibly warning shots, were heard by residents in the area. According to witnesses, the armed men sped away from the area once they got Ramsés inside their vehicle.

The emergency phone line was called and officers arrived to investigate the incident, finding a radio and two spent shell casings corresponding to the shots heard. The Motorola radio that was left by the abductors is noted by Zeta Tijuana as being the same model that municipal police officers use. Whether this is a common model or not is not specified.

After interviewing the wife, the officers asked their FGE colleagues for details about their current operations. The FGE made clear to them that they had no agents executing an arrest warrant in that part of Mexicali that afternoon. 

Ramsés’s wife posted the video she recorded online and the FGE office released a press statement which stated “The State Attorney General's Office (FGE), informs that no element of the State Investigation Agency belonging to the FGE participated in the facts registered this Monday afternoon, May 30, in the streets Privada Misión de Santo Tomás Sur and Privada Misión de Guadalupe in the Misión del Valle neighborhood, where a 37 year old man was deprived of his freedom.”

They added “It should be noted that, upon verifying the name of the victim in the institutional databases, it was found that he does not have an active arrest warrant against him.” The FGE also said they were investigating the incident and looking for the men seen in the video. 

On the morning after the abduction of Ramses, human remains were discovered in the eastern outskirts of Mexicali, on the highway near the small town of Los Manantiales.

Warning: Graphic images below this point.

Officers were called to the scene and evidence was collected from the area. The body of the deceased was left half naked and had visible evidence of gunshot wounds. After family members were notified and came to the morgue to claim the body, authorities officially announced that the deceased remains belong to Ramsés Heriberto Zatarain Hernández. 

The Forensic Medical Service stated the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the skull. The medical report stated there was also evidence of dragging [possibly from a vehicle] and other injuries that suggest a process of torture in addition to the gunshot wounds. 

A Second Abduction

The day after Ramses was abducted, the emergency phone line received a report that a pick up truck was spotted abducting another person in Mexicali. This time a man named Jose Félix was kidnapped from Davo tire shop in the Xochicalli neighborhood. 

The men who kidnapped him were seen driving a white four door Dodge Ram pickup truck and officers were told to be on the lookout for the vehicle. The pick up truck was then spotted in the Ferrocarril neighborhood by officers who gave chase. Eventually, the pickup truck stopped in a Walmart parking lot and one of the gunmen got out the vehicle. 

Some officers chased after the man in the parking lot while others continued to chase the driver. Both the gunman in the car and the one in the parking lot were apprehended and the kidnapping victim was freed. One of the detainees was identified as Daniel Alfredo Ibarra Sánchez, who has a residence in Mexicali.

The Likely Motive

As noted earlier, Ramsés was a brother of FGE agent Rigoberto Zataraín Huitrón.

Recently the Sinaloa Cartel Los Rusos subgroup "Los 80s" gave the FGE and the state governor one month to release "El Goldi" from custody or else they would kidnap and kill public and government officials. For the full details on that sign, please see  this previous story.

Los 80s 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.

Los 80s drew the Russian flag on the sign they left, indicating that they are self identifying as Los Rusos members. However, it is currently unclear if Los Rusos have distanced or disavowed El 80 and his followers as noted Rusos member La Plaga allegedly said Los 80s had split with the larger Rusos organization. 

 La Plaga also alleged the official photo of El 80 was not actually El 80.

The sign giving them one month was posted on April 28, 2022, so the one month period has just recently ended.

Some may interpret these back-to-back abductions as evidence that the Los 80s demands were not satisfied by government authorities and now the hitmen are in some way making good on their threat to kidnap government officials, although in this case it was a family member of one.

If the man taken from the Davo tire store was a government worker or a family member of one is not currently known at this time.

Sources: FGE Official Statement, La Voz de la Frontera, Sintesis TV, PSN in Linea, Calverie_Locus, Rodrigo Medeles Ruiz, Azucena Uresti, Semanario el Progreso, Daniel Andrade, Agencia Informativa RadarBC, The Baja Post, Semanario el Progreso

Second Abduction Sources: Punto Norte, Lindero Norte, El Imparcial, Lindero Norte, Jornada, Zeta