El Apache, Flaquito's Right-Hand Man, Shot in US City of Chula Vista

"HEARST", "Enojon", and "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A major Mexican drug trafficker, the Cartel Arellano Felix figure “El Apache” was shot by hitmen outside a Chili’s in the US city of Chula Vista, California. 

This is the second time in the last two months that a Mexican cartel figure has managed to orchestrate a hit on a rival cartel member who was hiding out in a US city.

The Shooting Outside a Chili’s

At approximately 8:50 pm on Tuesday, March 26, a Mexican drug lord stumbled into a Chili’s restaurant in the US city of Chula Vista. He was bleeding, having just been shot in the parking lot outside.

Diners inside the Chili’s were alarmed and “several” called police saying that there was a “shooting outside of the Chili's on Paseo del Rey”. 

The Chula Vista Police Department’s records show that one of the citizen calls to 911 came in at 8:52 pm. 

According to an ABC10 News article, “people in the restaurant reported a man limping into Chili's with what looked like a gunshot wound to the leg.” Officers were dispatched to the scene. The incident was later assigned case number 2404040.

“Police did not say what led to the man being shot but that he was taken to the hospital.” The ABC 10 article is the only US news reference to the shooting at the Chili’s.

The Tijuana-based news publication Zeta Tijuana revealed that the man shot was allegedly the Cartel Arellano Felix (CAF) figure James Bryant Corona, alias “El Apache”. 

Apache is the right hand man of one of the most important cartel figures in Tijuana: Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, who is known by the criminal alias “El Flaquito” or the skinny one. 

Flaquito is a major drug trafficker, operating as one of the three most important traffickers in Tijuana, which is one of the busiests points of entry between Mexico and the US.  

In recent months, Apache’s boss Flaquito has had to go deep into hiding after a recent brush with death when, on December 20, 2023, Flaquito and his bodyguards had been shot during a quiet visit to a small pharmacy in Tijuana. 

Flaquito barely made it out of the incident alive and he’s presumed to be hiding outside of the city ever since. 

In his stead, El Apache, Flaquito’s right-hand man and second-in-command is presumed to have taken over management of the day-to-day, on-the-ground responsibilities of leading the cartel group in Tijuana.

But it seems like Tijuana was too dangerous for even Apache. 

Flaquito's Men Are Hiding Out in the US

As of Tuesday night, Apache was, evidently, hiding out across the border in the US city of Chula Vista, which lies just south of San Diego. 

This, largely, tracks with what we’ve been hearing. In January 2024, a Mexican intelligence official was quoted by Zeta Tijuana as saying that “All those who are related to the criminal operations of Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño 'El Flaquito', Héctor García 'El Kado' or James Brayan Corona 'El Apache', have a target on their backs.”

Higher-level cartel members will often hide out (and sometimes live, i.e. Marco Paredes, “Marquitos”, in Tucson, Arizona) in the US city that lies across the border from the Mexican city where they primarily operate. 

This is often done because, rightly or wrongly, there is a long-held belief that rival cartel groups will be less able to carry out attacks on them in the US, with cartel groups having less influence on law enforcement in the US. 

However, whoever is trying to hunt down Flaquito and Apache has shown an unprecedented ability to carry out hits in the US. 

In February 2024, a man who worked under Flaquito named Christian Espinoza Silver, “El Chato”, was shot to death as he was pulling into the parking garage of a luxury apartment building in San Diego. 

Many suspect Flaquito’s biggest rival, the Cártel de Sinaloa (CDS) drug lord Alfonso Arzate Garcia, alias “El Aquiles”, of having paid for the hit on El Chato. 

It’s still unclear if a Mexican hitman was sent into the US, or if a local US citizen was hired for the hit. The man who shot Chato fled the scene and no arrests have been made in connection with the case. 

San Diego’s Police Chief said they were aware of allegations that the shooting victim, Chato, was a Mexican cartel figure and that it was a part of their ongoing investigation but in the month following the shooting, no further updates have been released. 

Now, just one month after Chato was shot in San Diego, Apache was shot in Chula Vista. 

Whoever is hunting these Flaquito operators has demonstrated a remarkable ability to carry out hits in US cities and they have, at least up until this point, faced no repercussions for it. 

And what’s worse, Apache wasn’t even the only Arellano Felix figure shot in Chula Vista this week.

The Chula Vista Apartment Shootings

Just hours after Apache was shot, two of his associates were attacked. 

At 1:30 am, on Wednesday, March 27, a 911 emergency call was made by a woman who reported that her “friend” had just been shot and was bleeding. 

Officers were dispatched to her location, which was the Salerno Luxury Rentals apartment complex on the 1300 Block of Calle Verona in Chula Vista. 

The Chula Vista Police Department’s press release states that: 

“Upon arrival, officers discovered an unresponsive man with an apparent gunshot wound to the head outside the apartment. He was pronounced deceased at the scene, and his identity is currently being withheld. 

Additionally, officers found a 24-year-old man, who was inside the apartment, with a gunshot wound to his face. Despite his injuries, he was conscious and was transported to a hospital for treatment of serious injuries [...] While details are limited at this time, initial indications suggest this was not a random attack.”

According to Zeta Tijuana, the two men who were shot (the dead man outside the apartment and the 24-year-old inside) were Arellano Felix associates. Based on their location and cartel affiliation, it’s highly likely these men worked, in some capacity, with Apache.

The Apartment Gunmen Are Arrested 

Later that same day, at 4pm in the afternoon, the Chula Vista Police Department put out a new statement announcing that :

“Authorities in Chula Vista have arrested two 15-year-old males for the attempted murder of a 24-year-old man, who was shot earlier this morning at the Salerno Luxury Rentals apartment complex. 

They were identified based on investigative leads and taken into custody without incident. Both juveniles were booked into a Juvenile Detention Facility facing attempted murder and weapons charges. No further information is being released about the arrests at this time.”

It's worth noting that the location and time of the arrests was not disclosed, and the citizenship (American or Mexican) of the 15-year-olds was not stated. 

They were charged in connection with the attempted murder of the 24-year old and not charged with the murder of the man found dead outside the apartment. 

It's worth noting that both murders may have been done by the 15-year-olds but investigators may only have enough evidence to currently charge them with the shooting of the 24 year old.  

For example, it's possible that the woman who called 911 witnessed the shooting of the 24-year-old inside the apartment but she didn't witness the shooting of the man outside. Or maybe there were Ring surveillance cameras which caught the men entering the apartment but no cameras located near the shooting of the other man. 

The larger point is that the two 15-year-olds may have been responsible for shooting both of the victims at the apartments. And it's worth considering if they may have been the gunmen who shot Apache hours earlier, outside the Chili's. 

As the investigation progresses, new evidence may be found, new witnesses may come forward, and prosecutors may decide to charge the boys for the murder of the 24-year old.

More Sinister Than it Appears

If we assume that Zeta Tijuana’s reporting about the cartel affiliation of the two victims is correct,  then it's highly likely that the 15-year-old gunmen were either hired or instructed to carry out the shooting by another person.  

 

This other person could be a Mexican cartel associate, a US cartel associate, or a local gang figure with larger ties to groups in Mexico.

 

But why hire teenagers to carry out a hit?

 

Well, whoever recruited them might see a number of advantages to them being under the age of 18. Juvenile are treated differently by both the US criminal justice system and news organizations.

For example, there are some small protections given to juveniles during the initial police investigations, like, in California, when a juvenile is in police custody, the juvenile must consult with a lawyer before a police officer can question them.

 

Juveniles are also often tried in juvenile delinquency court, which employs lesser sentences and a number of alternatives to prison, such as probation and parole.  

 

Another advantage of getting a juvenile to carry out a crime like this is the news media tends to not publish the names of juveniles.

 

Many people assume that news agencies don’t disclose the names of juveniles due to legal restrictions, however the US Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Daily Mail that journalists cannot be prosecuted for publishing the name of a juvenile defendant if that name was “lawfully obtained” and “truthfully reported”.

 

Now, whether journalists are able to lawfully obtain the names is another matter entirely, with each state differing on if the media is given access to juvenile court proceedings and juvenile court records. In many cases, media access is also determined by the individual juvenile court judge.

 

But, ultimately, parsing through the details of this isn’t worth it because most news agencies (such as the Associated Press) adopt internal policies against publishing the names of juvenile defendants.

 

It’s also worth noting that crimes committed by juveniles tend to receive less media coverage. 

This means there will be less media scrutiny on the circumstances which compelled these two gunmen to carry out this shooting at Salerno Apartments.

 

And if you were the person who asked the boys to carry out this shooting, you’d see less media scrutiny as a distinct advantage.

 

You may be curious to know if these 15-year-olds could be tried as adults for this shooting. In California, prosecutors used to have the ability to transfer juveniles to adult court if they were (a) 14 years old or older, and (b) charged with a serious crime.

 

Attempted homicide, which is what the two boys are charged with, does qualify as a serious crime (a full list of serious crimes can be found here) which means their case may have been eligible to be transferred to adult court.

 

But, in 2019, California passed Senate Bill 1391 which changed that minimum age from 14 years old to 16 years old.

 

This means that currently all cases involving juveniles aged 15 or younger are dealt with in the juvenile court system.

 

Isn’t that interesting? The apartment gunmen fall just below that age cut off, which means it's almost guaranteed they’ll receive lesser sentencing for the attempted homicide.

 

Now maybe that's just a lucky coincidence. A funny happenstance. A stroke of good fortune. 

Or maybe… maybe someone involved in planning this hit was aware of this age cut off and this shooting demonstrates a much higher degree of criminal sophistication than initially thought.

Apache Returns to Social Media

So, last we heard, a man alleged to be Apache was taken by authorities from Chili's to a hospital for a gunshot wound to his leg. 

What do we think happened to him after that? Was he recognized by police officers? Were federal agents or prosecutors brought in? Was he offered a deal for information? 

As far as we know, there is no arrest warrant out for Apache in the US. So he may not have been recognized. 

But keep in mind that just last month, in the county next to Chula Vista, San Diego Police began investigating the murder of El Chato.

It seems likely that through investigating El Chato, El Apache’s name came up. 

The suspicious circumstances surrounding the Chili's shooting may have alerted police to the fact that this wasn't an ordinary incident, leading Chula Vista Police to compare notes with the San Diego Police. But all of this is purely speculation and there has been no further updates since the announcement about the arrest of the 15-year olds.

But, strangely enough, a Tiktok account that may belong to Apache posted a video yesterday, shown below. 

The video is a clip of the song El Menos Visto, by Luis Conriquez and Pantera Belico. The clip features lyrics about staying armed at all times in case a gun fight breaks out and taking orders from a group not named.

What he means by this, what it says about his circumstances and whether he's bluffing is up for interpretation. 

Chili’s Shooting Sources: ABC10 News, Zeta Tijuana, AFN Tijuana, Punto Norte

Apartment Shooting Sources: Chula Vista Police Press Release, NBC7 San Diego, San Diego Tribune, CBS8 San Diego

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