The Baja California Attorney General’s Office reported the arrest of Alfonso Ramírez Martínez, alias El Tín, an alleged leader of a criminal cell of the Arellaño Félix Cartel in the municipality of Tijuana.
According to the state Public Prosecutor’s Office, the arrest of El Tín followed an arrest warrant executed on Friday, April 21.
The Baja California Prosecutor’s Office explained that after evidence gathered and provided by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was possible to obtain the arrest warrant for the crime of homicide by advantage in its degree of attempted execution, presumably related to criminal acts in which he participated as a hitman.
The state authorities also point to him as responsible for the homicide of the vocalist of a norteño group Dracma and an armed attack against elements of the municipal police, among other acts.
According to Semanario Zeta, “El Tín” hid from the authorities by changing his look, such as cutting his hair or using masks to go unnoticed. The media specialized in security and drug trafficking issues pointed out that Alfonso Ramírez Martínez has said that he is a member of a cell of the Arellano Félix Cartel or the Tijuana Cartel.
The Arellano Felix Cartel received media coverage again this week after a 42-year-old man linked to this criminal group was murdered on Thursday, April 20, in Plaza Carso in Mexico City.
The attack occurred in a very busy area of the Polanco neighborhood, one of the most expensive and popular in the country’s capital, and the head of the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC), Omar García Harfuch, commented on the matter.
“A person was directly attacked and lost his life. According to the first results of the investigation, it is allegedly a person linked to organized crime in the north of the country,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
After the attack, the man killed by three shots was identified as Julio César Soto. However, he also called himself César Meza Soto and had been arrested several times.
The capital authorities explained that Julio César Soto operated in the Los Pinos neighborhood in Tijuana, Baja California, and that he had an arrest warrant in Oklahoma, USA, for drug trafficking.
At the beginning of March, it was reported that José Luis “N,” alias El Tamal, a man identified as a priority target in Baja California and one of the main generators of violence in the Sánchez Taboada district, was transferred.
He is also known to be an alleged operator of El Cabo 20, identified as the alleged leader of the Arellano Felix Cartel.
This criminal group has its origins in the late 1980s, and according to US reports, the Tijuana Cartel, as it is also known, has controlled the important drug route between Baja California, Mexico, and Southern California, USA.
“The cartel is based in the border city of Tijuana. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, a former Sinaloa policeman, created a network of top drug traffickers involving the Arellano Felix family, including Rafael Caro Quintero, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and El Chapo Guzman. The seven brothers and four sisters “Arellano Felix” inherited the AFO from their uncle, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, following his arrest in 1989 for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena,” states the 2022 Congressional Report on Organized Crime and Drugs in Mexico.