Guerreros Unidos Hitman “La Rana” Linked to Ayotzinapa Case Deported From the US

Édgar Damián Sandoval Albarrán, alias “La Rana” or “El Wereke”, identified as a vigilante and hitman for Guerreros Unidos, was deported from the United States on June 27, 2025. The individual faces charges of organized crime and forced disappearance of persons related to the disappearance of the 43 normalistas from Iguala, Guerrero, which occurred on the night of September 26, 2014.

The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) had filed a request for Sandoval Albarrán’s provisional arrest for extradition purposes with the U.S. government. On June 9, 2025, U.S. authorities announced that the subject had been detained and placed in immigration proceedings for being in U.S. territory illegally.

Following Sandoval Albarrán’s immigration hearing, a judge ordered his deportation to Mexico to face pending criminal charges. The Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the Mexican national’s extradition “was carried out in the last few hours, handing him over to Interpol Mexico, of the Attorney General’s Office, via the border that connects the cities of Nogales, Arizona, in the United States, with Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.”

The accused had allegedly served as a hawk and paid thug for the criminal organization Guerreros Unidos during the events related to the disappearance of the students.

On June 25, 2025, the First Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) rejected the ruling ordering the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to release the public version of the investigation file on the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa student teachers. The decision was made during the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

With four votes in favor and one against, the First Chamber of the SCJN endorsed the proposal of Justice Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá. The ruling stated that in cases involving serious human rights violations or crimes against humanity, information cannot be classified as confidential.

The ruling of the now-defunct National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information, and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) was also challenged by three alleged hitmen from the Guerreros Unidos criminal group. These individuals were accused of participating in the kidnapping, disappearance, and murder of the student teachers, but later became cooperating witnesses during the López Obrador administration.

According to the reviewed file, on February 15, 2023, the INAI (National Institute of Information and Communications) required the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to provide a public statement. Among those who challenged the ruling were Agustín García Reyes, “El Chereje”; Salvador Reza Jacobo, “El Lucas”; and Patricio Reyes Landa, “El Pato.” During Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, they were accused of allegedly being part of this criminal group.

In 2018, they were released by order of a Federal Court, which determined that due process had been violated in their cases and that they had been tortured. Of the three witnesses, only two survive, as “El Pato” was murdered on June 15, 2025, at a private home in Jilotepec, in the State of Mexico.

The Attorney General’s Office (FGR) will have to publish the public version of the file on its Iguala Case microsite, which contains the various volumes of the investigation into the case, which began in 2014. González Alcántara Carrancá considered the arguments ineffective, since, as these involve serious human rights violations, the requested information was public.

Sources: ERO Phoenix, Zeta Tijuana