Female leader of trafficking group arrested
In Baja, California, the sister of escaped, and subsequently recaptured trafficker Hector Guajardo Hernandez was arrested, but State Preventaivetive Police, (PEP). She was known as La Rosy, and has been alluded to by detainees related to organized crime for more then 18 months, after the capture of her brother, in May 2011, in Mexicali. Rosa Angel Guajardo Hernandez, 39, assumed control of 'El Guichos' operations in Rosarito, Ensenada, and areas of Tijuana and Mexicali.
Guicho was a member of Los Teos, the rebel group that contested Fernando Sanchez Arellano for control of the Tijuana square through 2008 and 2009. He rose to a position of prominence after the detention of Teodoro Simental Garcia. Through Jose Soto 'El Tigre' Gastuleum, he worked directly for the Sinaloa Cartel, under the branch of Ismael 'El Mayo' Zamabada. Guicho, responsible for kidnappings, murders, and sending cocaine shipments across the border, coordinated from Jalisco, Sinaloa, and Baja, California, escaped from custody, by bribing the guard detail assigned to his hospital, from injuries sustained during his arrest. Guicho was detained, a few weeks after his escape, in Jalisco, on the run, and lacking resources. His sister, ran the retail drug outlets in Rosartio, and Ensenada, where she was born. Rosarito has been a power base of the Sinaloa Cartel outfits operating in Baja. The cells of Sinaloa are sometimes antagostic to each other, despite being under the same banner, but regional disputes, family issues, and other points of contention lead to murders and execeutions between the bands of narcos.
Jeova Israel Morales, 'El Cuervito, a former Tijuana police officer, and member of Los Teos, detained in November 2011, spoke of the conflict between La Rosy, and the brothers Azarte, 'La Rana', and 'El Aquiles', as well as Jose Soto, 'El Tigre'. Many of the killings in Rosarito and eastern Tijuana during the months after May 2011, were attributed to the rival Sinaloa cells.
Eventually Rosy sided with 'El Tigre', and has been working since. It seems her ability to cross shipments into the US had been replaced with retail sales in her areas of the greatest influence, Rosarito, and Ensenada. She was arrested with 187 grams of crystal, a little under a half pound. It is likely this was to be distributed to one or more 'tienditas', retail drug outlets, to be told in smaller quantities, greatly increasing the profits, particularly with crystal, as the drug can be manufactured, relatively inexpensively, and further diluted to increase revenue.
Her clothes and appearance, as well as the 1996 Jeep Cherokee she was arrested in, do not appear to be the makes of an upper level trafficker, in a coveted position. It is also interesting, though common, that a regional boss, or cell leader would be so close to the drugs for sale on the street. Her cousin was arrested September 22nd, in Ensenada, also engaged in retail drug sales, she was detained with 140 doses of crystal. She told the PEP her cousin supplied her with the product. Arrest warrants have been issued, but the upper level hierarchy of the Sinaloa Cartel cells in Baja, have yet to be arrested.
Sources: AFN Tijuana. Zeta, Borderland Beat
Sources: AFN Tijuana. Zeta, Borderland Beat
