California Fugitive Killer Cesar Hernandez Caught in Tijuana

 "Socalj" & "Char" for Borderland Beat

A multi-agency manhunt led to the arrest Thursday night of an escaped California inmate wanted in the killing of the Tijuana chief of a state police unit that searches for foreign fugitives in Mexico, Baja California prosecutors said.

César Moisés Hernández, 35, who had been on the run since December when he first escaped from correctional custody in Central California, was located Thursday by Mexican law enforcement in the Lomas de Matamoros neighborhood in eastern Tijuana. Further details about the arrest were not immediately available.

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US Treasury Sanctions Los Chapitos Money Launderer Who Once Wrecked a Lambo in CDMX

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Five men accused of laundering money on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel were charged in a pair of grand jury indictments unsealed Monday in San Diego federal court.

The indictments were originally returned in 2022 against the defendants, all of whom remain at large and face drug trafficking and money laundering offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Four of the five defendants were also sanctioned for their alleged roles in supporting the Sinaloa Cartel's drug trafficking activities,  particularly Los Chapitos faction.

One of the men, Salvador Diaz Rodriguez, was described by OFAC as a Mexicali-based enforcer who collected "taxes" on behalf of "a local criminal organization" and was "known to kill those who do not pay the required amount."

Diaz and co-defendant Israel Daniel Paez Vargas allegedly laundered money for the cartel, while Vargas additionally recruited people to work for co-defendant Alberto David Benguiat Jimenez, OFAC says.

Benguiat's organization has allegedly laundered more than $50 million on behalf of the cartel and Jose Angel Rivera Zazueta, who OFAC describes as a fentanyl trafficker whose organization imports precursor chemicals from China to Mexico in order to manufacture fentanyl, MDMA, crystal methamphetamine and ketamine.

To date, these money laundering investigations have resulted in charges against 51 defendants and the seizure of more than $4.1 million dollars and approximately 1,304 kilograms of methamphetamine, 34 kilograms of heroin, 11 kilograms of cocaine, and 14 kilograms of fentanyl.

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Los Chapitos Threaten FESC Officials Through Handwritten Banner In Mexicali, Baja California

 "Enojon" For Borderland Beat

Image By: Villalugo Informa (Image of banner hanging from pedestrian bridge)

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Several Smoke Shops Burned by Gunmen Across Tijuana, Baja California

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

Five smoke shops were attacked by armed men, leaving four shops burned, one man dead, and two employees injured across Tijuana, Baja California on Monday night. The events occurred almost simultaneously, a coordinated attempt by organized crime to influence local businesses.

Image: Zeta Tijuana

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Tunnel Digging Machines Captured After Search in Mexicali, Baja California

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

Authorities captured two tunnel drilling machines after searching a building in Mexicali, Baja California, according to a Federal Attorney General's Office (FGR) press release. The machines were being used to drill a tunnel for smuggling narcotics between Mexicali, and Calexico, California.

Authorities investigated after receiving an anonymous tip reported armed men. Policía Federal Ministerial searched the building, where they located the tunnel drill, which was being used to create a tunnel between Mexicali and Calexico, on the United States side of the border.

The machine appears to be a Vermeer Navigator D24X40 SERIES III Directional Drill. On the used market, these cost between $150,000 - 400,000 USD.

This specialized machine is used for boring holes through earth and rock. According to the manufacturer site, this model is one of the quietest directional drills, creating a noise measuring 103 decibels, about the sound a subway train makes.

Photos show walls of the building covered with sound absorbing foam panels, used to muffle the noise created from the digging.

Tunnels like this one are used to smuggle narcotics under the border wall, bypassing smuggling in vehicles through one of the border crossings. United States authorities have identified this region as being replete with narco tunnels, with US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar claiming that there are over 200 in the area. It is unclear if he meant at that time, or in a certain time frame.

Retired DEA agent Mike Vigil told InSight Crime that narco tunnels cost criminal groups in Mexico around 1 - 2 million USD to create, but can pay off their value quickly.

 Source: FGR Press release, InSight Crime, MachineryTrader, Vermeer, Zeta Tijuana

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Commando Breaks Into Cockfighting Arena: 4 Dead, 25 Wounded

Photo: Roberto Salazar Vargas/Ensenada.net

Translated by Valor for Borderland Beat

On Saturday night, an armed commando burst into a cockfighting arena in Ensenada and shot at attendees, leaving 25 wounded and four dead, among them, two minors.  The assailants fled aboard two vehicles and left three grenades in the parking lot, which caused panic amongst the attendees.

According to the Baja California district attorney’s office, an armed commando broke into an arena in Ensenada, Baja California, and opened fire on those attending a cockfight that left four dead and 25 wounded, including two minors.

On Saturday night, an armed and masked group entered “Palenque Póker” searching for, according to preliminary research evidence, a man known as “El Chino”, with the intention of killing him.

 

Photo: Zeta

According to local media, the incident occurred on Saturday night on the highway Transpeninsular between Estancia and Delante Boulevard, just south of Ensenada.

At the time it took place, the cockfight had a total of 500 spectators, of which several were injured.

As a result of the shooting, four people were killed, among them two minors: a 16 year old and an 11 year old, according to officials.

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Los Aquiles: control the criminals and the Police

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

[ Subject Matter: Los Aquiles, Arellano Felix Organization
Recommendation: Read this article on Reorganization within the CAF and its dispute with CDS]

In the last few weeks, the assassination of Policemen and ex Policemen has continued: the Arzate brothers expand their criminal territory as their opponents inform on them in an attempt to have them located and arrested. In addition, Police Chiefs in the districts of Tijuana have been implicated in corruption.

Reporter: Zeta Investigations and Cortesia
Controlling the narco trafficking that happens in Tijuana from Sinaloa, Alfonso Rene Arzarte "El Aquiles" and his brother Rene, continue to expand their sphere of criminal influence.

An investigator explained to ZETA the criminal premise:

"It appears that the people of "El Aquiles" are killing people from all other groups, like "Los Chapitos", that before were with them. But also there exists a precedent where all the smaller groups leaders are now joining him".

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Attack and threats of the Narco's in BC

Translated by O.B.F-W for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana Article, with additional images from Zetatijuana.

The coastal zone of Baja California lived a violent day, meanwhile Authorities from the Coordination Group insist that all remains calm. They refer to the threats on the Narco Mantas as not making sense. But they recognise the presence of the Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion in Baja California. In the middle of these reflexions, one person survived being shot while being kidnapped, and a criminal cell leader was executed on bench close to the Common Law Courts.

The difference of the passive attitude of the Baja Californian Authorities, during the week, where the coastal zone of Baja California lived a day of successive violence that is unrivalled since the war between the Cartel Arellano Felix of Fernando Arellano Felix ( El Inginerio), and the hit men of Teodoro Garcia Simental between 2008 and 2010.

Its a clear showing that the violence and criminal control continues latently, as evidenced in a week that concluded as below:

* the Sunday of 5th of April, there were 13 narco mantas displayed in four days, warning of violence, of internal confrontations in the Sinaloa Cartel, and confrontations between them and the CAF.

* Tuesday the 7th of April the Army found and secured a narco tunnel, in the Airport zone of Tijuana, where without leaving the place they found drugs.

* In the first minutes of Wednesday the 8th, around the Boulevard Las Americas in Tijuana, there was the reported kidnapping of a businessman, that ended up being the attempted murder of a youngster who was engaged in illicit activities.

* The afternoon of the same Wednesday, two Ministry Agents were attacked with gun fire in Tecate by a group of hit men who fled.

* On Thursday 9th of April in the morning, in the vicinity of the local Courts, Luis Toscano "El Mono" was attacked and killed by gunfire in the North Zone of Tijuana. ( Otis: see BB reporter Tijuano's coverage of the Story, see link and BB reporter J analysis of the killing see link).

Warning Graphic image on next page caution advised

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Mexican cops held on corruption charges released

EFE
Photo:DAVID MAUNG/UNION-TRIBUNE

State and city police officers, detained on charges of working with organized crime, are lined up during a presentation for journalists at Mexico's military airbase in Tijuana on Thursday, July 29.


Three policewomen arrested last July along with 59 other officers on corruption charges in the Mexican border city of Tijuana have been released from jail due to lack of evidence, defense attorneys and officials told Efe.

A judge threw out the statements of two protected witnesses linking the female officers to drug cartels, defense attorneys said.

Thirty-five other officers, who are being held at a prison in the eastern state of Veracruz, are also being released, attorneys said.

Army troops arrested 62 Tijuana municipal police officers and Baja California state police officers on July 29 for allegedly having links to drug traffickers.

The police officers were taken into custody by soldiers as they reported to work.

The round-up of allegedly corrupt cops was aimed at reducing the violence in Baja California, whose largest city, Tijuana, has endured bloody turf wars between rival drug gangs.

The commander of the 2nd Military Zone, Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, said he was surprised by the judge's ruling, but the army respected the law and would accept it.

The protected witnesses who testified against the officers are former members of the Tijuana drug cartel, which is led by the Arellano Felix family.

The officers should be provided with psychological counseling and compensation for the treatment they received, Baja California state human rights prosecutor Heriberto Garcia said.

Please read original Sign on San Diego/Union Tribune arrests article by Sandra Dibble (in English) here.

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Uruapan Municipal Police

Uruapan, BC, Mexico

Police officer Eliezer Renteria frisks a driver during a traffic stop in Uruapan, Mexico on Aug. 27, 2009. Uruapan is a main corridor for traffickers moving their goods northward, so traffic stops sometimes turn into shootouts. The officers stopped this driver because he appeared to be weaving, but he was not charged with any violation.

Officer Gabriela Aguilar uses a handheld computer to check a driver's ID against a federal database. The computer and database are part of new federal efforts to better equip Mexico's municipal police forces.

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