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Monday, November 7, 2022

El Ricky, One of CDN's Top Leaders, Arrested in Nuevo León

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat 

Ricardo Chapa, alias “El Ricky”, one of the top leaders within the Northeast cartel (Cártel del Noreste, CDN), was arrested in Nuevo León. 


The Arrest


On November 02, 2022, a group of law enforcement officials raided a home located on Matamoros street in the center of the town of Agualeguas. This municipality is located in the northeastern part of the state of Nuevo Leon, as shown on the map below, and it borders the Tamaulipas region known as La Frontera Chica, an area hotly contested between the two cartel groups of CDN and the Gulf Cartel’s (Cártel del Golfo, CDG) Los Metros faction. 



El Ricky had a warrant out for his arrest based on charges of kidnapping and extortion. A team of personnel from the state Attorney General’s Office (FGE), the Fuerza Civil (state police), and soldiers from the Army conducted the raid.




Inside they found Ricardo Chapa, alias “El Ricky”, an important CDN leadership figure as well as a 20 year old woman named María Belén. Both were arrested by authorities and the house was searched further. 



They found four firearms, corresponding ammo, radios, and drugs within the property. They also seized six vehicles, which were found throughout the property. Three of these vehicles had no license plates, but one of the vehicles had a Texas license plate. 



It's interesting to note that only after El Ricky was successfully arrested, did authorities reveal to the public that Ricky’s mother and brother were arrested months earlier. 


Just last month, on October 11, one of El Ricky’s direct reports was arrested in Coahuila. This direct report was 36 year old Fabián Alberto "N", aliases “El Trasky" and “El Chuki”. For more details on his arrest, please see this previous story






Details About El Ricky


El Ricky is alleged to have started out his criminal career as a member of Los Zetas. After the Zetas fragmented, he joined up with one of its splinter groups: Cártel del Noreste. He spent most of his time in a leadership role for CDN forces battling for territory against CDG forces in the US-Mexico border region of Tamaulipas, called “Frontera Chica”.




In particular, he is believed to have helmed attempted pushes by CDN into Miguel Alemán and Camargo municipalities. As a part of these efforts, Ricky is alleged to have planned the November 2020 murder of Francisco Leónides Cruz, the police chief of Dr. Coss municipality. He has also been tied to multiple attacks on state police that occurred in May 2021, in Nuevo Leon.


State authorities have previously alleged that Ricky had men operating in the municipalities of Agualeguas, Cerralvo, General Treviño, and Los Aldamas. El Ricky was further discussed in earlier stories such as this and this.




In October 2022, the social media account Pedro96 claimed that Ricardo Chapa, aliases “El Ricky”, was reassigned and was now working as “one of the main lieutenants of the Treviño Morales clan and head of the CDN's Operativo Coahuila group.” 


Operativo Coahuila is allegedly the name given to CDN’s attempted push, not to the east into Tamaulipas, but instead to the west, into the neighboring state of Coahuila. 




In the new arrest photos of El Ricky, he appears to have lost a significant amount of weight and his face looks more gaunt then before. This may indicate that El Ricky has acquired a drug habit or has fallen ill in recent years.




The Current Leader of CDN According to State Police 


According to newspaper La Silla Rota, state police confirmed to reporters that El Ricky is an important figure within CDN, however he is not the group’s overall leader. 


The cartel’s previous leader, El Huevo, was arrested in March 2022, and it has been unclear who took over his role. However, we may have just gotten our first clue. 


A police spokesperson said that, instead of El Ricky, "the current leader is Z-210, who was brought in from the Tamaulipas coast.” 


It's worth noting that no newspaper other than La Silla Rota chose to print this quote, despite the fact that an official Fuerza Civil (state police) spokesperson revealed this information at a press event. 



So, who is Z-210? State authorities may be referring to Heriberto Manrique Ríos Gutiérrez, alias Z-210, a Los Zetas member who has flown under the radar of the press for the last decade. 


Although it should be noted that it is always possible that another cartel figure has chosen to use the Z-210 alias, as the practice of recycling names of previous members is quite common within cartel groups. 


One of the only times Heriberto Manrique Ríos Gutiérrez was written about in the press was back in 2012 -  when Nuevo Leon police arrested a 24 member group of Los Zetas who were operating near Guadalupe and Doctor González. This cell was led by Irma Valentina Ramos Espinoza, alias "Comandante Rojo" and it  included 5 municipal police men and a former Marine named  Fernando Rosales Murillo, alias "El Sonrics", who was 29 years old. 




Following their arrest, 19 of the 24 were presented before the press at FGE facilities. The five who were not presented alongside them were minors and legally prohibited from being shown. Because of new laws barring the Mexican press from showing the faces of those not yet convicted of a crime, most of the photos taken at this event have been erased from the internet however some remnants can still be found online


No newspapers have covered or made reference to Z-210 since this 2012 arrest. Whether Heriberto Manrique Ríos Gutiérrez went on to now lead CDN, or if another cartel member has simply adopted his alias is unknown at this time. 




Additional Photos of the Items Seized During the Raid 



















41 comments:

  1. And they never confiscated a single greenback or peso! Party time for the poleeeeeeece!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esos fueron a dar a las arcas de Samuelito y Marianita.

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    2. 11:14 Their escort business is shut off because of their buddy murdering one of their associates, they can't make enough dough from selling pirated water from the sanitation plant, Samuelita needs help.

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    3. 7:51 Un "pre$idenciable" menos :(

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    4. 10:59 luisbdonaldo colossio jr is in the pipeline...he is earning millions of peisos alreddy from Morena rivals until he gets the presidency.

      Delete
  2. That's a Top leader??? No mames. That dude looked smoked out... Delante West condition's

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    Replies
    1. Dont judge a book by its cover not on their side but im sure he is there for a reason

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    2. Looks like he abused meth. Or meth abused him. 😆

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    3. Wonder how long it took him to go from looking like a handsome man, to looking like he has stage 4 cancer, courtesy of meth.

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    4. Ricky Martin on meth!

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    5. Meth is a hell of a drug, dijiera Peter Griffen

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  3. Evidence #2.. are those tire spikes??

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    Replies
    1. I believe so. That's what they look like to me, at least.

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  4. Has anybody heard rumors about Z-210 still being active?

    Is there anyway that "Z-210" was a typo on La Silla Rota's part?

    Or has Z-210 really managed to avoid being mentioned in the press for a decade, while also rising in power to the point of leading? I'm really interested in hearing more about this.

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    1. I assumed Juanito was the current leader, atleast the rumor was that he gave up Huevo to become the leader after the arrest of the latter.

      Let's say this Z-210 info is correct, would that be the first person in charge to seemingly not be a part of the Trevino-Morales family?

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    2. He maybe the overall leader of the operativa

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    3. The wording in the quote from La Silla was ambiguous. It could certainly mean that he was just the Operativo Coahuila leader.

      And now that I reread it... I agree with you guys that it's more likely that's what they meant. Good comments. Thank you.

      Regardless of what role he has, I still wish I could get some more details on him and what he did for the last decade.

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    4. Theres many top original zetas operating just either in ZVE or CDN, Z11 was rearrested again in May of this year in Oaxaca, he was one of the main operators of ZVE allied to the Oaxaca cartel in the region he was arrested in

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    5. You mentioned a police spokesperson stating that Z-210 is the current leader, did La Silla Rota directly quote them? Maybe the original statement is more clear?

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    6. The Silla Rota quote said El Ricky was not the “principal leader of the plaza”, which could refer to the Agualeguas plaza, the northern NL plaza, or Operativa Coahuila/35. Unlikely it refers to Z210 being the overall leader when the preceding sentence uses the term plaza. As long as there are Treviño family members still free and operating, they will continue to form the top level of management. Likely just as street bosses for Z40 and Z42.

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    7. Z 210 lol who the fuck is that?

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  5. dude looks rustier than those tire spikes

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  6. Nadie puede con la raza de Mataulipas

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  7. Meth hasn’t been good to this guy

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  8. If he spearheaded forays into Miguel Alemán and Camargo and spent most of his leadership time fighting for Frontera Chica and is still alive then he's probably very cunning. That place has always been the worst.

    Too bad the meth got the better of him. Probably rotting in that house meth humping with his 20 year old GF when he got caught.

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  9. Is that a purse full of weed or bullets next to them radios?

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  10. If top CDN leader sleeps on piss stained matress I don't want to even imagine where their low level suckarios sleep

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    Replies
    1. I thought the same thing lol 😂 It’s not all luxuries and banda parties every weekend. Most of it is propaganda.

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  11. 11:17 pos en el pinchi suelo, pero train sus rodilleras de combate.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Orgullo de Agualeguas,
    "El Hombre de Agualeguas", nunca regress o todavia es dueño del pueblo? Carlos salinas de Gortari, el ratoncito orejón, el chamuco mayor y Nuevo ciudadano español, wuuuh!

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  13. If the pictures that have been circulating before this arrest are of el Ricky, then the guy arrested isn’t Ricky. The guy that got arrested is darker, his hair goes left while Ricky’s combover goes right. His nose is way different and the older pictures show that his eyelids are somewhat puffy. The guy arrested are not. It could be that the circulated pictures was never really him. Or the guy arrested isnt him. Look at the beat up equipment and weapons he had and the conditions he was living in. I knew some of the top leadership didn’t like him but damn!!! He was the one that was leading the charge in their attempted expansions and he’s been pretty successful. It’s kind of hard to think they’d treat him like a low level sicario and pay him accordingly. And ol’ boy that got arrested is hella smoked out. It’s kind of hard to take someone like that seriously. Maybe they cut him off cause of that. Not only were the things they found beat up and he found himself living like he was completely broke almost, he didn’t have no sicarios with him. That’s weird to me. El Ricky would be a coveted prize for any contras, especially CDG, so he would be more vulnerable for a kidnapping or a hit. Just my opinion

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    Replies
    1. Come on man, ve seen meth do people worse n less time, (it all depends on your body tolerance and how often yoo use it) and the nose well its ovious that the skiny guy's nose broke it and never fixed it, what you really have to look at is the eyes, and yea they have the same look in their eyes, same color, same everything, theres no mistake, its Ricky the bad thing is if they keep capturing this old figures younger and more volatile guys are gonna come up and add more fuel to the fire, but what else can you really do?

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    2. My doubt is if El Ricky güero would pluck his eyebrows since El Ricky ñengo has darker fuller ones. I'd think with age he'd have less

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  14. And my DEA agent recruiter told me I didn't know shit because I told him CDN is literally a gang at this point and he claim they are the third biggest cartel lmao

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    1. El Bravo Aponte was the connection with El Chapo Guzman, his real boss was Javier Lozano "El Saco de Pus"
      Says mexican army Captain Illich Malagon...
      That proves PRI and PAN are real cartels behind the curtains

      Delete
  15. Hes been chongin CSRL blue meth for a minute

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dude was on top of the world. Healthy and without a care in the world. Once they become hunted by the feds or rivals. They looks meth out and dead eyed,hahahaba. La vida mafiosa at work,hahaha…

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  17. Le gustaba mucho el foco jajaja

    ReplyDelete

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