
“HEARST” and “Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
In a new narco video, hitmen working for the Sinaloa Cartel’s Arzate brothers threaten their Tijuana enemies, chief among them is CAF’s El Flaquito and his hitmen, according to a recent Zeta Tijuana article.
The Narco Video
On July 22, 2023, Twitter users like Mmocrt shared a new narco video from the state of Baja California. The video featured hitmen making generic threats against their enemies.
The voice heard in the video does not match the footage and the background setting doesn’t appear to match either Tijuana or Tecate.
The man speaking in the video says the following, as translated by Sol Prendido:
Look here you fucking thief. Innocent family members will be respected you filthy rat. We’re going to fucking kill you.
El Cabezón is in charge here in Tecate and Tijuana. All of the ministerial policemen in your pocket will be killed off.
You’re nothing more than a snitch for the police you cheap pig.
Long live the cities of Tecate and Tijuana.
There is really only one name mentioned in the video – “El Cabezón”- but its enough to make it clear who the men work for.
“El Cabezón” is the main alias of Jesús Rafael Yocupicio, a cartel figure who operates in the border city of Tijuana.
El Cabezón works for the Sinaloa Cartel – Mayo faction, under their main Tijuana leaders: Alfonso Arzate, alias “El Aquiles” and his brother René Arzate, alias “La Rana”.
As covered in this previous story, Zeta reports that the Arzate brothers recently had a meeting with Mayo Zambada himself, which led to Mayo officially approving their plans to take over the state of Baja California and consolidate his various forces in the state under their leadership.
Mayo, however, insisted that Los Rusos – a group who are more directly tied to him, based in the Baja California city of Mexicali – would ally with the Arzates and retain equal power as the Arzates brothers. A condition the brothers reportedly agreed to.
Who is Who
A recent Zeta Tijuana article, published on July 17, 2023, named a number of the cartel figures that the state’s Security Roundtable has identified as working under the Arzate brothers.
These include:
Franklin Ernesto Huezo Hernández, alias “El Ranchero”
Edwin Antonio Rubio López, alias “El Max”
Jesús Rafael Yocupicio, alias “El Cabezón”
José Ángel Flores Ayala, alias “El Mostro”
Fabricio Hernández, alias “El Lic”
Marcial Medina López
Fabián Espinoza, alias “El Güero Puchas”
El 300
El 03
El 013
Some of these names we’ve seen before. Ranchero is alleged to be the figure who organizes the hits ordered by the Arzates brothers. His criminal history is covered in this previous story.
El Max and El Cabezon have both been featured in previous stories, as well.
El Mostro and El Lic are new names which have never been mentioned in a Zeta story before. This is true for El Güero Puchas and the others listed with just an alias.
Marcial Medina López, however, is a name which has not previously been seen connected to los Arzates.
Marcial’s first brush with the law came in 2006, when US border patrol caught him trying to smuggle in 130 kilograms of weed through Tecate’s Mexico-US border crossing. There are no details on if charges were brought against him.
Marcial seemingly switched from drug smuggling to human smuggling and in December 2017, eight men who reported under him were arrested. The men had been holding 4 migrants captive at a safehouse in the Real de la Frontera subdivision of Tijuana.
The migrants, which included a woman and child, had paid the men to smuggle them across the US border, handing over the exact payment requested.
But instead of ferrying them across the border, they kidnapped them and held them for ransom, calling up their relatives and demanding that they send them money.
Police raided the safe house, arrested the 8 captors, and freed the kidnapped migrants.
The woman who was held captive told police that one of the captors had sexually assaulted her and police subsequently charged the man with sexual assault.
The 8 detainees were interrogated and they revealed that they worked under Marcial Medina López.
On January 8, 2018, police located and arrested Marcial. The one and only known photo of Marcial comes from this arrest. It is, again, unclear if he was ever charged.
According to the state’s Security Roundtable, the Arzates are primarily focused on taking on the CAF-Chapitos alliance, and secondarily focused on the CJNG.
It’s worth noting that the original tweet accompanying the narco video said that the men were directing their threats to the CAF.
The CAF-Chapitos alliance is primarily led by Pablo Edwin Huerta Nuño, alias “El Flaquito”.
The Zeta article writes that the Security Roundtable have identified the following men as cartel figures under Flaquito:
David Jiménez, alias “Cabo 20” (in prison)
James Brayan Corona, alias “El Apache”
Felipe Solis Lopez
Carlos Corona Garcia
Juan Arriaga Macias
Carlos Ornelas Mejia
Daniel Posada
Efrain Alfaro
Alán Hernández, alias “El Güero Laguna”
Unfortunately, there are no details about most of these men, with the exception of El Apache and Cabo 20, whose criminal history was covered in this previous story.
Sources: Mmocrt, Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Article 3
Further Reading
The Arzate and Rusos Alliance To Take Over Baja