"Char" for Borderland Beat
This article was translated and reposted from ZETA TIJUANA
WRITTEN BY: CARLOS ALVAREZ ACEVEDO
AUGUST 17, 2024
Jose Rosario Heras Lopez, who Sinaloa drug lord Ismael Mario Zambada Garcia, alias “El Mayo” - 76 years old - claimed to be his chief of escorts or security - who was present when he was allegedly deprived of his freedom, on July 25, 2024, in Culiacan de Rosales, is currently an “Investigation Agent” of the Ministerial Police, of the Attorney General's Office (FGE) of Sinaloa, with 24 years of service, in said institution of law enforcement.
This was revealed on August 17, 2024, by the newspaper Reforma, which indicated that it obtained a copy of Heras López's police record, in which it was detailed that he joined the Attorney General's Office of Sinaloa on July 6, 2000, as an agent of the Ministerial Police.
At that time, PRI member Juan Sigifrido Millán Lizárraga was governor and the Sinaloa Attorney General's Office depended on the state executive branch. On December 15, 2010, Heras Lopez became an “Investigation Agent” of the Ministerial Police.
Later, Heras Lopez was assigned as commander of the Ministerial Police in the region of El Salado, an area that, according to the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) -- quoted by the same newspaper -- has been the area of influence of “El Mayo.
Jesus Antonio Aguilar Iniguez, then director of the Sinaloa Ministerial Police, was in charge of assigning Heras Lopez to that area. The co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel confirmed, on August 10, 2024, that Joaquín Guzmán López, “El Güero Moreno” - 38 years old - son of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, alias “El Chapo”, ambushed him in Culiacán de Rosales.
El Mayo” was expecting to meet with Ruben Rocha Moya, governor of Sinaloa since November 1, 2021, and with Hector Melesio Cuen Ojeda, a politician assassinated on the day of the arrests of both Sinaloa capos, on Thursday, July 25 of the same year.
“I was accompanied by four security personnel, two of whom stayed outside the perimeter. The two who entered with me were Jose Rosario Heras Lopez, commander of the Sinaloa State Judicial Police, and Rodolfo Chaidez, a longtime member of my security team,” the Sinaloa drug lord said in the letter, released by his lawyer Frank Perez.
According to Reforma, a sister of Heras Lopez reported her brother's disappearance on July 25, 2024, but it was not made public by the Sinaloa State Attorney General's Office until after the Sinaloa drug lord's letter was revealed.
“There is no search card, nor is there an alert. For now, there is only an unpublished photograph in possession of Grupo Reforma, along with his letter of service prepared by the agency where he has worked for 24 years,” added the newspaper.
Heras Lopez is a “police officer who tarnishes the corporation,” emphasized Sara Bruna Quiñonez Estrada - who until the morning of August 16, 2024 was head of the Sinaloa Attorney General's Office - after the revelation of “El Mayo's” missive.
“The plane that took Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada to the US left from a fumigation airstrip near Culiacan. At least, that's what the Attorney General's Office (FGR) believes. The real pilot is Mexican”, this was revealed on Saturday, August 17, 2024, by Mexican-Cuban journalist Peniley Ramirez, in her opinion column ‘Linotipia’, titled ‘The Mexican pilot’ and published in the newspaper Reforma.
“So far, this is indicated by the evidence of the investigation. It flew with radar devices turned off until near El Paso, Texas, it radioed Ciudad Juarez and requested clearance to land. Juarez forwarded the request to El Paso and, before it was cleared, another airport official at the nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico, airport responded to the plane with cloned U.S. plates that it could land there,” the reporter added.
“Last week, FGR officials went to New Mexico to carry out an errand there. The matter was not a minor one, because it is not common for Mexican agents to be able to carry out an errand in another country. And it was rather a fiasco,” the journalist wrote.
“The Mexican officials were not given videos of the airport, they were shown some objects that 'El Mayo' and Joaquín Guzmán used on the flight, but they were not allowed to process the fingerprints on those objects. When they were able to see the plane's serial number, they realized it was different from the one the U.S. government had reported a few days after the capture,” Ramirez said.
