Chihuahua, Chih.- The murder of a former inmate and two men outside the State Social Reintegration Center (Cereso) No. 1, in Aquiles Serdán, is part of the confrontation between groups of the Sinaloa Cartel that seek control of the capital, intelligence sources from the Army and the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) revealed to El Diario.
One of the victims, Manuel Villicaña Pacheco, alias “Chuy Largo” or “Largo Pol”, was a member of the Sinaloa Cartel, identified since 2018 as the successor of Manuel Arzola Campos, alias “Don Meny” who, together with his brothers Francisco, Gerardo and Héber, maintained control of the distribution of crystal meth in the city for several years, particularly in the northern sector.
“Chuy Largo” was captured in August of that year, prosecuted for possession of weapons and drugs in the federal court and admitted to Aquiles Serdán, where he formed an alliance with Enrique LA, alias “El Cumbias”, another alleged member of the Sinaloa Cartel who, after having achieved freedom, was re-arrested in 2023 also for crimes against health and illegal possession of a firearm.
However, “El Cumbias” was sentenced in February of this year to 60 years in prison for the massacre of eight people in the communities of Creel and San Juanito in 2010, for which he had initially been acquitted in August 2023. To date, he continues to be considered a permanent generator of violence by the Cereso.
Both have ties to the Gente Nueva group of Los Salgueiro, led by “El Guano,” which has a greater presence in the Guadalupe y Calvo mountain range in Chihuahua and in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, and which seeks to regain control of the capital, seized by Salvador Humberto SVM, alias “El Verín” or “El Señor de la V,” to the north, and Luis Carlos VR, alias “El Topo,” to the south, who respond to the orders of another Sinaloa Cartel boss who operates in Guadalajara.
Upon his release from prison on Thursday afternoon, Villicaña was already awaited by gunmen from this faction who, aboard a red pick-up truck, ambushed the Dodge Durango that was transporting him.
Two other people were travelling with him: Martín Eduardo González López, a 25-year-old municipal agent who was on leave, and Javier Guillermo Rembao Pompa, of the same age, identified as a rural element.
The shooting killed “Largo Pol”, Javier Guillermo and a third unidentified man who belonged to the group of attackers. In addition, officer Martín Eduardo, who was driving the van, was wounded in the hand and treated in a hospital.
Nearly 60 spent cartridges were seized and 9mm, .223mm, 40mm, 380mm and 45mm caliber cartridges and magazines were seized.
They also seized two .223 caliber long weapons, a 9 mm short weapon and another .380. The Durango where the bodies of “El Largo” and Javier Guillermo were found was also confiscated since it also had superimposed plates that, in reality, correspond to a Chevrolet Cruze.
In addition, the State Public Security Secretariat (SSPE) announced yesterday the arrest of Luis Fernando VR, 23, captured after the confrontation, on suspicion of “hawking” outside the Cereso, as he was carrying a radio that was confiscated by the authorities.
The municipal agent was also brought before the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate his relationship with the events, while the Municipal Public Security Directorate (DSPM) suspended him, while the investigations are carried out.
No arrests have yet been reported regarding the perpetrators of the murders; however, unofficial information indicates that the person responsible for coordinating the attack was Luis Carlos VR, alias “El Topo,” who managed to take control of criminal activities in that area, Aquiles Serdán, through his alliance with the late Ramón Soto Valenzuela, “El Doc.”
In April of last year, this criminal leader was mentioned as one of those possibly responsible for attacking a team of border cockfighters who won a purse of more than one million pesos during an event at the Golden VIP clandestine cockpit. Edgardo Acosta Mancinas, 41, was killed there.
His adversaries, “El Cumbias” and “El Largo Pol”, although in prison, continued to operate for Los Salgueiro from prison. Although the latter was accused at the time of being responsible for several homicides, he was only prosecuted for federal crimes related to carrying weapons and narcotics and, therefore, was released from the Cereso last Thursday.
According to newspaper archives, Manuel Villicaña had already been arrested once before, in May 2015, as the probable person responsible for participating in the shooting of three men, in events that occurred in 2011, in the municipality of Julimes, although the bodies were located in the municipality of Meoqui.
At that time, the Prosecutor’s Office also announced that “ellargopol” was being investigated for his possible connection to other murders committed in the south-central part of the state.
In the capital, his rise in the structure of the Arzola group was due to the murder of “Don Meny”, which occurred on July 2, 2018 in the parking lot of Suburbia and Sams on the De la Juventud ring road. Three days after these events, his brother Gerardo would be sentenced to 20 years in prison (although he only served one) and, the next day, another of his brothers, Francisco, alias “Quico”, was ambushed and murdered in the San Felipe V Escena neighborhood.
Together with the last of the Arzola brothers, Héber, he continued to operate drug dealing on the streets of the capital for a short time, since in August of that same year he was arrested along with two other subjects in the Praderas neighborhood with 256 grams of crystal meth, a .9mm caliber firearm, around 130 live rounds and a Toyota Highlander vehicle, 2010 model with altered serial numbers.
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