Beto Leyva Arrested in Tijuana With HSI Help

Beto Leyva has been arrested in Tijuana. Omar García Harfuch says the Americans have a warrant for him, too.

Mexican authorities identify him as José Alberto “N,” alias “Beto Leyva.” Harfuch puts him in the close circle around brothers René “La Rana” Arzate García and Alfonso “El Aquiles” Arzate García.

Antonio Nieto, @siete_letras, identifies Beto as Alberto Leyva Acosta and reports that authorities link him to homicides in Sinaloa and Durango.

Harfuch announced the arrest on November 11. He says the Army, National Guard and the federal prosecutor’s Criminal Investigation Agency carried out judge-authorized searches, with information and intelligence supplied by Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. agency known as HSI.

Harfuch accuses Beto of coordinating migrant smuggling from Tijuana into California and links him to kidnappings in which relatives in the United States were told to pay for the captive’s release.

His account also links Beto to businesses allegedly laundering cartel money and to a network obtaining guns and stolen vehicles in the United States.

Making a family pay to get a relative back is a filthy business. If the kidnapping allegations hold up, I want everyone involved answering for it.

The brothers are already familiar names in U.S. cases. Treasury describes them as the men controlling Tijuana for Los Mayos, using violence, alliances and political and police corruption to keep their hold.

On February 26, 2026, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of a superseding indictment against La Rana covering narcoterrorism, support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, drug trafficking and money laundering. Alfonso also faces U.S. drug charges.

Washington is offering up to US$5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of each brother. Both still appear on U.S. wanted lists.

Treasury went after their support network on September 29, 43 days before Harfuch announced this arrest. Both brothers were redesignated under terrorism-related sanctions authority.

The action named three alleged principal lieutenants: Pedro Humberto Martínez Rodríguez, “Gordo Flubber”; Jesús Rafael Yocupicio Yocupicio, “El Cabezón”; and Franklin Ernesto Huezo Hernández, “El Ranchero.”

Beto is not named in that release. Harfuch is the one linking him to the brothers.

Harfuch hasn’t identified the court or the charges behind Beto’s U.S. warrant. Mexico is calling him José Alberto “N,” and I haven’t found an American case I can confidently match to him.

I want to know what the Americans have on this guy. And if families in the U.S. were paying to get their relatives back, who was collecting?