“Char” for Borderland Beat
This article was translated and reposted from RIODOCE
Mario Alberto Lugo Lara, known as Mario Calabazas, was found dead in Las Calabazas, municipality of Sinaloa.
“Mario Pumpkins”
The leader of Los Calabazas, who had a feud with Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, El Chapo Isidro, was reportedly found at an uncle’s house in the town where he was from.
SAN JOSE DE LAS DELICIAS (LAS CALABAZAS), SINALOA
So far, the cause of death has not been disclosed.
Elements of the State Attorney General’s Office are on their way to the site to carry out the legal procedures.
Mario Calabazas is accused, along with Chapo Isidro, of the confrontations and burning of houses and vehicles in the San José de las Delicias syndicate, which began on July 28 and led to the displacement of more than 300 people towards the municipality of Guamúchil.
A Sedena document, dated August 2016, titled “Executive Agenda III RM,” hacked by the Guacamaya collective, indicates that Lugo Lara, also nicknamed L, was part of the Beltran Leyva’s organizational chart, and was in control of the municipality of Sinaloa. Another 2020 document, in which he is already nicknamed Mario Calabazas, places him as an operator in the municipalities of El Fuerte and Guasave, but several sources consulted indicate that Los Calabazas operate in Guasave and Sinaloa municipality.
Los Calabazas are an armed wing of the Beltrán Leyva cartel, which until 2009 was part of the Guzmán Loera-Zambada García organization. The break between the two criminal organizations occurred after the arrest of Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, El Mochomo, in Culiacán, in an operation that was considered a betrayal by Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán. The following year Arturo Beltrán Leyva, el Barbas, was murdered in Cuernavaca, Morelos, weakening the cartel founded by him and his brother.
After the fall of both leaders, Chapo Isidro took over the leadership of the Beltrán Leyva, and later founded the Guasave Cartel, and one of its armed branches was Los Calabazas, commanded by Carlos Jesús and/or Jesús Carlos Salmón Higuera, el Macaco, who was found murdered on September 2, 2018 in the Estación Naranjo syndicate, after having escaped from the Aguaruto prison on July 22 of that same year.
El Macaco was arrested for the ambush he organized and executed along with Juan Pablo Osuna, El Cien, on July 9, 2012 in the town of Tetamboca, El Fuerte, in retaliation for the fight against the “Mazatlecos,” a group of drug dealers and enforcers of the Sinaloa Cartel. Six policemen were killed and a commander and four other elements were wounded.
After the death of Macaco, Mario Calabazas took over the leadership of the armed wing of Los Calabazas in the mountainous area of the municipality of Sinaloa, from the town of the same name to Estación Naranjo, in Guasave.