El Chacal of Los Monitos detained
Alberto Avila Alverado aka "El Chacal" was arrested by Los PEP, after being out of custody for just over a year. Chacal, reminiscent of Manuel Luis Toscano, 'El Mono" has been arrested repeatedly over the past 6 years, his arrests chronicling the shifting fortunes of Tijuana's retail drug cells.
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| El Chacal in 2011 |
This time, Chacal was detained with a firearm and doses of crystal or heroin, in Colonia Villas De Alamo. He is said to have warrants for homicide, and kidnappings from 2014, which didn't seem to deter him from being released last time.
In early 2011, Chacal was arrested in possession of weapons and two kilos of cocaine, he was said by press reports to be a direct subordinate of Fernando Sanchez Arellano. Chacal's responsibility was managing Zona Norte's drug trade, under his relative "El Mono's" banner, which was aligned with CAF, at the time.
He was said to be 21 years old at the time, making him closer to 27 now. Chacal was released sometime after, and continued to work with "El Mono", and his brothers, and extended family in Zona Norte, as the blood feuds in Tijuana, and Zona Norte escalated.
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| El Chacal in 2015 |
Mono was arrested in summer 2012, released, re arrested in 2013, and released, and finally executed in April 2015, shot multiple times at closer range, at a La Mesa taco stand, after meeting his probation officer. His death was linked to Los Aquiles, but rumors persisted he was betrayed by inner circle, those more loyal to CAF then to Mono, who had become increasingly reckless.
By that time, El Inge had been captured, the previous summer, and CAF had largely disbanded, in any real force or form. It's top members had been arrested, and then came a wave of executions, targeting former or current members, throughout 2015, including the brother of Melvin Gutierrez, "El Kecho", "El Illames", and "El Sailor", who was placed in trash bags with a note from Los Aquiles, though it was revealed his own people killed him.
In May 2015, El Chacal is arrested again, in his familiar position of running and operating tiendtas in Zona Norte, as the CJNG and CTNG begin to accelerate their control of neighborhoods for retail drug cells, pushed back against "El Griego", and Los Aquiles, principal Sinaloa backed cells in the city.
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| El Chacal in 2017 |
El Chacal was arrested in Playas De Tijuana, by municipal police, in possession of weapons, money, and drugs just after the killing of El Mono. He was said to be at war with Raul Miranda Ordaz "El Alejo", and Aquiles backed cell leader, accused of dozens of kidnappings and killings. It was also revealed he was the brother in law of El Mono.
In the near two years since then, Chacal was released again, and continued to operate in Zona Norte, said to be aligned with elements of CTNG, in their two front battle with Los Uriartes and Los Aquiles, the former said to be operating in a truce, after years of killing. It's difficult to say where exactly his loyalties lay now, likely to his family members in Los Monitos, Los Iqualitos, and some form of relationship with CTNG.
The tale of El Chacal, whose family members have been killed, executed, arrested, in the name of blood money, crystal, and betrayal illustrates the realities of Tijuana, from Zona Norte, to the corrupted, co opted law enforcement, legal system, and all branches of government.
Chacal will again be released, the charges against him are likely minor, and he has enough currency and clout to be set free. He will kill his enemies, and they will kill him. It's the only fate for those marked men who walk through the blood, and the meth pipes, the killings and strangling, the bodies wrapped in blankets, with messages on their chest, and ice picks through their heart.
La Zona will go on, the fever dreams of meth addicts and sex tourists, others, innocent of such behavior, but trapped in a world of vicious killings, casual brutality, small caliber bullets behind the ear, in barely furnishedstash houses, the stench of death washes over the streets, clings to the globitos, the crystal, the heroin marks on a homeless addicts arm, curled in the fetal position, on Calle Coahuila.
Sources: Zeta Tijuana, AFN Tijuana