Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Showing posts with label tijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tijuana. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

CJNG Narco Tunnel Discovered in San Diego Storefront, Over 1 Ton of Cocaine Seized

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat


A nearly 2,000-foot-long tunnel stretching from Tijuana to Otay Mesa was recently discovered by law enforcement officials, leading to federal drug distribution charges announced Monday against four people.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the tunnel led into a fake discount store in Otay Mesa called Buy 4 Less, which investigators have been surveilling since December due to suspicious activity.

Investigators regularly saw a group of supposed employees in and around the store, though the location "did not appear to be consistent with a normal retail location" and featured "minimal foot traffic from customers coming in and out of the Buy 4 Less store," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Authorities also surveilled numerous empty suitcases leaving the store and being walked across the nearby border crossing into Mexico on several occasions.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Omar Garcia Harfuch Confirms The Capture Of Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, "El Flakito" Generator Of Violence In Tijuana, Baja California.

 CHAR 

JUNE 17, 2025 

EL FLAKITO 
EL FLAQUITO 



The early morning of this Tuesday, June 17, 2025, dozens of news outlets in Mexico reported the capture of Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, alias "El Flakito," a generator of violence in Tijuana, Baja California, considered a key drug corridor crossing. El Flakito once forged an alliance with the infamous Nestor Isidro Salas Perez, "El Nini", "El 19", a former high-ranking lieutenant of the Los Chapitos Cartel. El Flakito became known in the underworld for stealing drug shipments from different cartel leaders who used Tijuana for crossing drugs. Lastly, Mr. Huerta Nuño was captured in a neighborhood in Tijuana by Mexican military special forces, and local law enforcement authorities from Tijuana did not participate. 


OMAR GARCIA HARFUCH CONFIRMS CAPTURE OF EL FLAKITO

EL FLAKITO WITH A VISIBLE SMIRK ON HIS FACE 




Statement made by Omar H Garcia Harfuch, " In a coordinated operation between@Defensamx1and@FGRMexico in Tijuana, Baja California Sur, Mexican Army personnel arrested Pablo Edwin "N," alias "Flaquito," and three other individuals in two separate operations.Pablo Edwin "N" is identified as one of the main perpetrators of violence in the region, for controlling drug trafficking routes to the U.S. During his arrest, drugs, weapons for the exclusive use of the Army, magazines, ammunition, tactical equipment, vehicles, and two properties were seized."

confirmation in the NATIONAL DETENTION REGISTRY











Friday, April 18, 2025

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.

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Who was "El Cebollas" of the CAF? Alleged leader of FEF Killed in February

El Armadillo for Borderland Beat

In early February, during a party in Tijuana, 26 year old Jesús Sebastián Moreno Olivas - known as "El Sebas" or "El Cebollas" (The Onion) - was fatally shot, police found 30 shell casings at the scene. His death appears to have been a significant blow to the Cartel Arellano Felix faction led by Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, more commonly known as "El Flaquito." In the weeks following the incident, several images related to El Cebollas circulated on social media.

Thursday, April 10, 2025

California Prison Escapee Kills ‘Gringo Hunter’ Commander in Tijuana, Evades Capture Again

 "Socalj" & "Char" for Borderland Beat


A law enforcement officer was killed in an apparent shootout involving escaped California inmate Cesar Moises Hernandez.

The incident occurred during an joint Mexican-US operation to arrest Hernandez near Tijuana, where Commander Abigail Reyes of the FESC was shot and killed. He had barricaded himself inside a home before walking out, slipping past authorities.

Hernandez managed to escape from the scene by running out and disguised himself as a worker, and his whereabouts remain unknown. 

Monday, June 10, 2024

"El R" Ruben Duarte Roque, Hitman for "Cabo 20" & "El Flaquito" Killed Outside Tijuana Night Club

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat


At around 8:15AM on Thursday morning, June 6. Three men were shout outside of a stripclub/bar, La Cueva Bar del Peludo in Tijuana. One of the men, the target of the attack died.

Rubén Duarte Roque was 35 years old and better known as "El R" and earlier on "El Roque" or "El RR" and was a longtime figure under "Cabo 20" David Lopez Jimenez in Tijuana. Authorities allege "El R" was responsible for much of the violence in the Sanchez Taboada area.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

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

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Peso Pluma Cancels October Tijuana Concert Following Threats by CJNG

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

On the day that Peso Pluma attended the MTV VMA Awards, CJNG threatened the singer.

On Sept. 10, two days prior to the narcomanta threats, Peso Pluma was the closing act of the two-day Festival Arre in Mexico City. During his performance of the corrido song "Siempre Pendientes," Pluma held out his microphone to a crowd of roughly 100,000 concertgoers who sang out the initials "J-G-L" in Spanish to reference Joaquín Guzmán Loera, "El Chapo." The lyrics are written from the perspective of a member of the Sinaloa Cartel as he sings, "I take care of the plaza of Señor Guzman."

"This is for you, Peso Pluma. Abstain from performing on Oct. 14 because it will be your last performance because you're disrespectful and [your] loose tongue. Show up and we will fuck you up," Att. CJNG.

The October 14, 2023 concert in Tijuana is no longer listed on Peso Pluma's Ticketmaster "Double P" tour page. His record label, Prajin Music Group announced today that the concert in Tijuana has been cancelled.

Monday, August 8, 2022

Two Administrators Of Tijuana News & Memes Facebook Page Killed

By "El Huaso" for Borderland Beat

Two founders of Tijuana664Oficial, a popular Tijuana meme and news Facebook page, were killed by gunmen at their home in north east Tijuana on the night of August 6. Their Facebook page posted about local news, including organized crime in the region.

The events occurred outside of their home on 1 de Mayo street in Cañón El Rubí neighborhood of northeast Tijuana. The victims have been identified by local authorities as Sergio “N” y Mario “N”, 40 and 43 years old respectively.

The vast majority of the posts on Tijuana664Oficial are local memes and jokes, but a look at current posts shows there is also reporting and discussion of local crime. It is possible that the two administrators were targeted because of posts related to local criminals. The Facebook page has 17,000 followers. 

Since the killings, other administrators have deleted a large number of posts from the account, presumably posts related to local organized crime. An administrator also posted a statement, informing the members of the deaths and apologizing to anyone who was offended by posts. The message said "our intention never was to offend or make fun of anyone, however the founding administrators decided the posts, now this page will change to offer what it originally did, news and good and important things of Tijuana, we ask pardon if anyone felt offended by previous posts".

Facebook group administrators and journalists face similar threats in Mexico, but can have a adversarial relationship, notes The San Diego Union Tribune. While journalists often attach their name and fact check their work, Facebook groups such as Tijuana664 are more liberal with their posts, sometimes causing controversy and confusion with rumors and accusations. Their posts can attract the attention of criminals.

Sources: The San Diego Union Tribune, Excelsior, Tijuana664 Facebook page

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

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".

Friday, June 26, 2015

Baja California Decommission 80 Tonnes of Drugs in 3 months

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

[ Subject Matter: Drug Seizure, Sinaloa Cartel, Arellano Felix Organization
Recommendation: No prior subject knowledge required]



Reporter: Zeta Investigation

The 41.6 tonnes of Marijuana that was decommissioned in Tijuana this 12th of June, was denoted by Authorities as the property of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

The drugs had been transferred to the frontier in various trips in sealed vehicles, and was not detected at the few checkpoints installed on Highways between Sinaloa and Tijuana, manned by Federal Police and elements of the Army.

In fact to transport the drugs, Baja California Authorities required five trucks. The first to arrive at the house in the Granjas Familiares de Tijuana Colonia, according to witnesses, were elements of the State Preventative Police.

An investigation after one detention, apparently from a citizen complaint, led elements of the PEP tto the location of the mega haul.


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Shootings Reorganize the CAF

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

The restructure of the Arellano Felix Cartel and its dispute with the people of the Sinaloa Cartel for certain plazas; the betrayals inside the cells with hit men looking to raise the ranks, and debts for drugs seized to independent traffickers.

They are the causes of assassinations and gun battles in Tijuana, according to analysis of the Authorities and of Alejandro Lares Valladares, Secretary of Public Security in Tijuana.


Zeta Investigations

What is happening? asks the Secretary of Public Security for Tijuana, Alejandro Lares Valladares, in relation to the resurgence of criminals with rifles, and of battles in public areas in the middle of the day, the functionary said.

He spoke with intent about the criminals of the Arellano Felix Cartel (CAF) reorganizing, with a confrontation between them and the Sinaloa Cartel, and of social decomposition.

Also in his charge is the area of intelligence and of the Special Operations Group (GOES) Carlos Gomez, Lares Valladares explains that the head of the CAF detained and freed have returned to their illicit activities. He gave some names, Manuel Lopez Nunez "El Balas", the ex-Ministry Enrique Jorquera Guerrero, Pedro Quintero Velazquez "El 5-8", "El Jaguar", alias "Pedro", and Juan Lorenzo Cargas Gallardo, who is good in areas of intelligence , and so will be at the head of restructuring.


Friday, October 26, 2012

Member of Tucanes de Tijuana's Son Arrested for Kidnapping

Borderland Beat

TIJUANA, October 25. - Earlier this week Municipal police dismantled a kidnapping ring. Among those arrested was a son of the drummer of the famous norteno band,  los Tucanes de Tijuana
 
Municipal Public Security Secretariat  reported at the time of his arrest , David Servin, 31, the son of the drummer of Tucanes de Tijuana, was carrying a submachine gun loaded with ammo.
  David Servín Rodríguez
David Servín Rodriguez was arrested with four other alleged members of the criminal kidnapping gang, after they extorted a person who they had already kidnapped on a previous occasion to demand more money. The victim told authorities that on October 5 he was deprived of his freedom and paid $ 25,000 to be released, but then they called him back with death threats demanding more and than eight thousand U.S. dollars a vehicle.

After the criminals got the money and the automobile, they fled in two cars but were stopped by police and arrested in the vicinity of the dam.

Besides David  Servín, the other detainees are Jose Alfredo Alvarado Orozco aka "El Clipper", who is identified as gang leader, Marco Iran Ortiz Martinez, Victor Ivan Rodriguez Villaand Jesus Heriberto Arballo Burgara, 31.

los tucanes de tijuana



The municipal Public Security Secretariat (SSP) said at the time of the arrest of the five people, they also seized firearms, including the machine gun carried at the time by David Servín Rodriguez

Los Tucanes de Tijuana haven't been present in Tijuana after Lieutenant Colonel Julián Leyzaola accused them of having ties to organized crime.

Excelsior, El Mex

Thursday, March 31, 2011

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.





Friday, March 26, 2010

The "King of Heroin" Arrested

Mexico arrests 'King of Heroin,' with ties to US

The Associated Press
Guarded by police officers, Jose Antonio Medina, aka Don Pepe, center, is presented to the press in Mexico City, Thursday, March 25, 2010. Medina was arrested in the western state of Michoacan on Wednesday and is being held for prosecution, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico's federal police.

Tijuana, BC - Federal police have arrested Mexico's "King of Heroin," a powerful drug trafficker allegedly responsible for running thousands of pounds of heroin into Southern California each year, authorities said Thursday.

Jose Antonio Medina, nicknamed "Don Pepe," was arrested in the western state of Michoacan on Wednesday and is being held for prosecution, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico's federal police.

Medina, 36, ran a complex smuggling operation that hauled 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of heroin each month across the Mexican border in Tijuana for La Familia drug cartel, Pequeno said.

The White House National Drug Threat Assessment says that while heroin use is stable or decreasing in the U.S., the source of the drug has shifted in recent years from Colombia — where production and purity are declining — to Mexico, where powerful drug cartels are gaining a foothold in the lucrative market.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Dynamic border city of Tijuana

Life in the world's most dynamic border: Tijuana-USA


A place full of contrasts, which is seen as a springboard to achieving the American dream, or at least to improve the living conditions of those from central and south have migrated to that this border town.

para ver este y más videos haz clic aquí

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Gringo, This Bullet Is For You

Tijuana: Gringo, This Bullet Is For You.

Posted by Bill Conroy

For U.S. Citizens, Baha’s Largest City is Murder Capital of Mexico

The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert a little more than a week ago warning U.S. citizens to exercise extreme caution when visiting Mexico because “violence in the country has increased.”

The travel alert states that “Mexican drug cartels are engaged in violent conflict” for control of drug-smuggling routes and plazas.

Singled out in the travel alert for special attention, among others, is Ciudad Juarez, located across the border from El Paso, Texas, and now considered the murder capital of the world.

“Mexican authorities report that more than 2,600 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez in 2009,” the State Department travel alert notes. “Additionally, this city of 1.3 million people experienced more than 16,000 car thefts and 1,900 carjackings in 2009.”

However, also among the credits in the State Department travel alert is another border city that, as of late, has fallen off the radar of the national mainstream media — which seemingly has only recently rediscovered the drug war, due to the escalating violence in border cities like Juarez.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

And Then There was the Sister of El Muletas

Tijuana, BC - Four suspected members of a kidnapping ring linked to the Arellano Félix drug gang were in custody on February 19, 2010, accused of at least six abductions in the Tijuana area, Baja California authorities said.

Authorities said they belonged to a criminal cell with more than 10 members who kidnapped and killed their victims. The detentions resulted from a six-month investigation by the state’s anti-kidnapping squad, said Attorney General Rommel Moreno Manjarrez.

Arrested Tuesday at a body shop was Andres Pacheco Contreras, 21, whose job was to make sure no police were around when crimes occurred, authorities said. The other detainees were Armando Molina Juárez, 37; César Guadalupe Peñuelas Cázares, 36; and Julio César Peñuelas Juárez, 35 who allegedly confessed to carrying out between 15 and 20 abductions.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Another Tunnel Found in TJ

Mexican authorities find tunnel at federal facility.

Union-Tribune

Tijuana, BC - Images from a video surveillance camera led Mexican authorities to a suspected smuggling tunnel under construction in Tijuana inside a guarded federal customs facility at the Otay Mesa border crossing, authorities said yesterday.

The incomplete tunnel was nearly 50 feet long and measured 2½ by 2½ feet, according to a statement from the Mexican military. It stopped about 55 yards short of the border, said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The passageway was first detected by Mexican customs officials reviewing video surveillance that recorded people climbing over a wall in a little-used area, said Carlos Ramirez Escoto, the customs agency’s director in Tijuana. That led them to an underground chamber with water valves and a pipe, where they found the tunnel.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

More on the Military Operation in TJ


Tijuana, BC - More information on the huge military operation in Tijuana that ended in the arrest of Mexican police officers, including some high commanders. This was due to the arrest of "El Muletas."