Throughout that area and surrounding communities, the dreaded sicario, drug trafficker and a plaza boss of the Sinaloa cartel had "halcones" (Lookouts) and controlled a multi-million dollar criminal business with the complicity with senior officials from the Mexico State Attorney General's Office.
He controlled the sale of drugs and theft of cars in a very organized way and in concert with corrupt authorities of the different police agencies in the state of Sinaloa.
Macho Prieto travelled in convoys of four to ten vehicles like late model Suburbans and always wore his bulletproof vest and police badges. In addition, he and his people were always armed with high-powered rifles and grenade launchers.
Local authorities blame him for the violence generated between San Luis, the valley and Mexicali, this as a result of his internal fights with the cell leaders of the group known as “Los Garibay.”
On October 2011, real estate agent Martha Fernandez Maldonado was executed in Mexicali. She was killed as a vengeance from some drug dealers after several homes rented from her were raided by the Army. A former member of the Army´s GAFE (Airmobile Special Forces Group) was arrested after her murder by local police; his last name was Parra Camargo, his brother being a Ministerial Police agent in Mexicali, and according to local intelligence, close friend and bodyguard of “Macho Prieto.”
On January 2012, Jesus Daniel Samaniego, member of the Mexicali municipal police was shot on broad daylight just outside the main campus of Baja California´s Autonomous University. Unofficial reports mention the officer was executed in retaliation for stealing drugs from a group of narco traffickers under the leadership of Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza.
Inzunza had a well-established criminal network that allows him to smuggle drugs into the US using three routes: Venezuela, Honduras, Costa Rica, Sinaloa; Chiapas, Acapulco, Mexico City, Jalisco and from there to the US; and the final route, from Sinaloa to Sonora, Mexicali, Tijuana, and finally, The US.
His criminal associates were identified as: Abraham Inzunza Inzunza aka “El Peque”, Ismael Bernal aka “El Mongolo,” and Jorge Avalos Meza aka “Yucateco.”
About 15 days before the shooting at the Sonoran port, a federal agent infiltrated the Bella Sirena, set to become the shadow of El Macho Prieto, spying on him day and night. The mysterious federal agent rented a villa, as part of the strategy to arrest Macho Prieto. Stuck in the mouth of the Wolf, this agent almost didn't sleep.
People didn't pay attention to him and the staff looked at his "eccentricities" as rare behaviors of someone who "came to relax, to forget about all the stress.
He slept in the open or behind a glass door, where everything could be seen. The trap was set, the stage was ready for action.
In the morning of December 18, 2013 special naval forces arrived at Las Palomas and started to secure the area, setting up a perimeter, evacuating civilians and readying their weapons on lock and load.
The shooting began immediately. The response of El Macho Prieto's bodyguards was so violent that the element of surprise was lost. The intervention of two American manufactured Black Hawk helicopters was necessary, whose .50 caliber weapons wreaked havoc on the cars of the sicarios.
Immediately several vehicles attempted to flee at high speed but were fired upon from one of the helicopters causing the truck to catch on fire and crash in a small gazebo located at the exit of the condominiums. There were two casualties, one near the truck, another on the sidewalk. Federal Police would report that two Blackhawk helicopters fired at least 10 vehicles. The burned vehicles from the firepower of the two helicopters could be seen outside the condominium complex.
Simultaneously, at the entrance of the condominiums there was another confrontation, that resulted in one sicario being killed found lying on the ground next to a AK-47 at his side that was equipped with a high capacity drum magazine.
There were more shots fired at the entrance to the hall of the condominiums, the walls of the building were left with bullet holes from bursts of gunfire and blood splattered on the walls and in the ground.
Inside the rooms the battle lasted a long time, at least two hours. Afterwards reinforcements of El Macho Prieto began arriving, and federal forces tried to stop them from reaching the Bella Sirena.
Two cars blocked the entrance so more cars with El Macho Prieto's reinforcements could not enter.
The other two bodies were left on the ground in the middle of the round-abound circle of the street, without police securing the scene, not even the yellow tape that is typically used to protect a crime scene. For hours, residents of Peñasco drove by the crime scene, took pictures and video with their cellular phones of the bodies and burned vehicles, and uploaded them on to social media.
One of the victims on the ground was none other than El Macho Prieto, except that his body was taken away by his people before police secured the scene. Manuel Mondragon, national commissioner, while talking about the shootout in Sonora told the press that Inzunza´s men stole his body from the crime scene, although he was unsure if in fact the body was taken. He went on to say that DNA tests were being conducted on the blood left at the scene to make sure it was Inzunza Inzunza.
According to witnesses there were a total of five men dead. According to Mondragon's version, only four bodies were recovered by the authorities because the fifth was stolen.
A federal official, not authorized to be identified for security reasons, said two police officers were injured in the armed confrontation.
Police at the scene would eventually recover, in addition to the four bodies, 14 assault rifles, four handguns, five grenades, more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition and 16 vehicles.
La Gente Nueva and R5
“Mira bien Mencho… te puedo matar a la verga… nada más para que veas quien es la mera R5.”
Translation: “Listen good Mencho, I can kill you, fuck, just so you can see who is the real R5," can be heard a little boy saying while he manipulates an AK-47.
These were the words posted on Youtube by a little boy. It was 22 seconds that got into the skin of millions. It was a video of a child, perhaps 8 years. He was in the passenger seat of a truck while holding a high caliber rifle, an AK-47. The child recited a rant full of obscenities common to what sicarios say when they threaten their rivals to death. The message is to the leader of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), Nemesio Oseguera, El Mencho. The fable it is said; the child’s bravado is protected at his young age by R-5.
El Mencho is not one to talk bad about on social media. He is one not to take things like this lightly. He has killed many who have invoked his name in ways he did not like. El Mencho is a powerful druglord that is a psychopath, but is a psychopath that has immense power, wealth and resources.
The video generated reactions of outrage, but few have tried to understand that child and his context. Its reality so alien to ours. To understand him, you have to start with the key he offers: his ultimate hero is R-5, a demon whose baptismal act is signed by the devil in the north of the country, a man by the name of Jesus Gregorio Villanueva Rodríguez, “El R5.”
Jesús Gregorio's story is typical of a young capo: he was born poor and grew ambitious in a barren land of opportunities. In this case, the Sonoran Desert, a territory that has been under control of the Sinaloa Cartel for decades. He started selling drugs and moved on to become the small, dusty and hot towns chief in the north of the state, which would be insignificant if it were not because the polleros who cross migrants across the border and drugs to Arizona must pay a fee for each undocumented and each house of security and the torture that takes place there.
R5 became leader of the Nueva Gente (GN) when his brothers and founders of the GN were arrested. People like Noel Salgueiro Nevarez, “El Flaco” captured in 2011, then followed by his two other brothers; José Salgueiro Nevarez arrested in 2012 and Heriberto Salgueiro Nevarez arrested in February 2015. The last brother, allegedly killed in 2013 was El R5, who originated from Caitime Sinaloa and considered the
top leader of the group of the sicarios of La Gente Nueva (NG). There are rumors and versions floating around that suggest that R5 is still alive and operating in command of the GN, a cell of sicarios for the Sinaloa Cartel. But the claims have been proven to be false, R5 only lives in the minds and dreams of young children in Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Sonora.
Another leader of GN was José Antonio Torres Marrufo that went by the names of El Jaguar, El Toñin, El Marrufo and El Catorce. He was originally responsible for helping El Chapo take on the forces of the La Línea, the armed wing of the Juarez cartel. El Jaguar has a striking set of scars running horizontal to his forehead, as well as others upon his cheeks which indicate being cut by knives at one point in his life. Scars inflicted by a capo from the Juarez cartel, that is why he went to the side of El Chapo and by helping El Chapo to defeat La Línea, he achieved revenge.
To truly learn about R5, one must learn about La Gente Nueva or GN.
The sicarios of la Gente Nueva (GN) operate in the region of the so-called Golden Triangle that comprises the regions of the states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua, but also have a huge presence in the Sonora region. In Chihuahua they fought for the Ciudad Juarez plaza that was protected by La Linea of the Juarez cartel. In 2012, US intelligence reported that the Sinaloa cartel with their armed wing of La Gente Nueva had emerged victorious in capturing the plaza of Juarez and relegated the Juarez cartel to second in power. The El Paso-Juárez corridor is a lucrative route for drug traffickers. The DEA estimated that around 70% of the total cocaine that enters the United States flows through El Paso-Juárez border.
GN also protects the operations of the cartel in the mountains of the Golden Triangle where there are large cultivations of Marijuana, heroin, as well as the production of methamphetamines. The sicarios of La Genete Nueva are responsible for the safeguard of these clandestine operations and fight off the incursion of rival cartels such as Los Zetas and of the people of Chapo Isidro. The sicarios of La GN receive better training and are more fit for battle than the other group of sicarios such as the "Anthrax." The Anthrax are famous due to the larger number of narco corridos that musicians have composed about them but they mostly operate in the Sinaloa region, mainly in Culiacán. Some people falsely believe that the NG is a group that has ceased to exist, but it is known that Antrax were born out of the NG. The truth is that GN still operate following the orders of Ivan and Alfredo Guzmán and their mission had been to protect and prevent the capture of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán.
The GN is made up of at least 5,000 elements throughout the country in Mexico that were trained as military, federal police, ministerial police, Kaibiles (elite soldiers from Guatemala) and private security agents who resigned law enforcement agencies or deserted from the military to join the criminal side.
They are young people between 20 and 30 years old, bloodthirsty, brutal with no conscience for the pain of others and deeply loyal to the boss. In the past they have been trained in Veracruz, at least in their origins, but it is believed that they now train in the mountains of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua to learn armed tactics and be able to fight with Los Zetas, La Línea and Los Aztecas.
They wear military uniforms, they cover their faces with balaclavas, they are armed with high-caliber weapons and they travel aboard armored SUV and trucks that are marked with the letter “X.” Sometimes they paint the name of GN on the doors and show off their long rifles in public display.
The founder of GN is Noel Salguiero Nevarez, aka "El Flaco", who began as an apprentice of El Chapo in 1995 in the mountains of Chihuahua, where he was responsible for the operations of drug trafficking in to the United States. His efficiency for the business and his ruthless actions towards the enemies made him rise quickly within the organization of the cartel. He soon took control of most of the operations in the region from the US border to Sinaloa and became a direct lieutenant for man itself, El Chapo.
His leadership consisted of being a brutal killer, so much that in 2008 it cost the lives of more than 1,500 Mexicans in Ciudad Juárez alone, where the people of El Chapo fought for la plaza against the Gulf Cartel/Los Zetas when they were a single group. They beheaded victims and left messages about the power of El Chapo in the plazas throughout the state of Chihuahua.
On October 5, 2011 in Culiacán, Sinalona, “El Flaco” was arrested by Mexican military. Federal Government had a bounty for him for 3 million pesos ($254,000 dollars) for tips leading to his capture. At that time, the government of then President Felipe Calderón celebrated his detention as if it were the end of this organization. But his brothers were waiting in line.
Although Noel Salguiero is currently being held in a maximum-security prison in Jalisco, GN continued as an ascending criminal group in the national territory to control Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Durango. They also had a presence in Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Jalisco. In these regions they were dedicated to drug trafficking via Tamaulipas. To pass drugs through Tamaulipas it was necessary to take escorts to protect the cargo. That was the task of GN, to ensure that the drugs reached its destination due to the strong control that the zetas and the CDG had in Tamaulipas.
R5 was head sicario of Gente Nueva in Aguas Prieta Sonora under orders from Marco Antonio Paredes El M100 who reported directly to el Chapo. His job was to repel the excursion of the offensive by the Beltrans Layvas (BLO) and their allies the Zetas in the state of Sonora.
Atypical is what happened next. R5 seemed destined for mediocrity until a shooting made him an idol for children. This fray is known as The Battle of Tubutama and until 2010 was the confrontation between two more deadly cartels during the war on drug trafficking.
That July 1, 2010 Jesus Gregorio (R5), was waiting for an unusual day. He would leave in a convoy of 20 trucks from the US border and would cross the municipalities of Oquitoa, Altar and Atil. In his convoy of 20 trucks he had a commando of 50 heavily armed sicarios. His goal was to reach the municipality of Tubutama, where a cell of the Beltrán Leyva cartel (BLO) was revolting. The mission was to annihilate the BLO at midnight. But minutes before, 6 kilometers from Tubutama, R5 knew that someone inside his organization had betrayed him by giving his planned route to his rivals the BLO.
When passing through a tight strip of road, just between two boulders of brick-colored earth, dozens of sicarios appeared at the top and opened fire at them. It was the BLO. They threw grenades, rockets and sprayed them with high caliber gun fire. R5 called on to his entire troop and answered the aggression with the rage of rabid dogs. But it was a slaughter. The BLO was able to pick them out like sitting ducks. Municipal police said that the shooting lasted for about 9 hours and that there were more than 200 dead, but since the drug traffickers collect the bodies of their companions, the official number of murders was reported to be 28, something that caused the villagers to make fun of the low number.
One of the few survivors was R5, this to everyone's surprise. The children of Sonora and Sinaloa began to fantasize about being like that sicario renamed the R5.
His fame spread through corridos and stories told time and time again in all parts of northern Mexico. Corridos of R5 started to play in the radio and concerts. The narco band Traviezos de la Zierra wrote a famous narcocorrido that talks about how he was accompanied by very small soldiers and how he used fame among the children of northeastern Mexico.
One of the verses says:
"I looked for plebes (children) with guts/to form my convoy/and as Pancho Villa said/I have my crew ready for the Revolution."
But in December 11, 2013 his luck ran out. R-5 was killed in Sonora. The Sinaloa Cartel lieutenant who had overseen the Hermosillo operations was killed. It was hard to believe.
He was traveling in a 2012 Passat Volkswagen with Sonora license plates, in the community of Hermosillo at around midnight when the shooting occurred.
He was with his 16-year-old girlfriend, Karely Inzunza Aguilar, who suffered two gun shots wounds that were none-life threatening. They were in the middle of buying fast-fo
od when they were confronted by unknown assailants.
According to Karely, Jesus was buying fast food and at the exact same time he attempted to board his vehicle, he was attacked by numerous armed sicarios in several vehicles. After seeing the aggression, Karely got behind cover that ultimately saved her life. The two were transported to the hospital where within one hour the 33-year-old Villanueva or R5 was pronounced dead.
His death only increased his myth. More corridos flourished. Some of his followers say that he faked his death and that he still defends the lands of Chapo Guzmán accompanied by an army of children. His enemies, now the Jalisco Cartel (CJNG), swear that it is only a memory in the minds of some children who invoke his name.
Too many young lives have been lost, fighting for a cartel that only brings death or imprisonment. They are children, many as young as 8 years old are indoctrinated to be brutal killers without a conscience, many under the eye of their own parents.
The boy who for 22 seconds says he is the people of the R5, of course, he does not understand that he is actually speaking of a bloodthirsty criminal who has used children like him as human shields. The little boy speaks with naive falsehood of an idol, a legend, a longing that gave birth to a country that for years glorified its bosses.
The Pact Between BLO and the Zetas
The Attorney General's Office (PGR) learned through various investigations that the Beltran Layva brothers and the leaders of the Gulf cartel started to negotiate and build a powerful alliance in the narco trafficking business. This is evident in the large volume of cocaine they were moving.
In the file of Operation "Limpienza" or "cleanliness" it was learned that it was Sergio Villarreal “El Grande” and Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano “El Lazca” who formed a pact in 2007 between the BLO and the Gulf Cartel. In the investigation, PGR discovered that this alliance was formed by the owners of the two largest drug seizures in the history of Mexico: 23.5 tons of pure cocaine seized at the customs in Manzanillo and 11.7 tons of cocaine seized at the customs of Altamira, both in October of 2007.
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