On September 21, 2024, 11 individuals were left dead. They were allegedly working with “El O4,” who became part of the cartel originally from Durango.
On September 21, it was one year since 11 men were found dead in Ojinaga, on a property behind the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) facilities in Ojinaga. This also marked the first anniversary of the confrontation between the criminal groups “La Línea” and “Los Cabrera” in the northeastern region of the state.
According to police intelligence, this violent incident officially marked the entry of the Durango cartel into the Ojinaga region, which has long been dominated by “La Línea,” the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel.
The incident occurred around 6:00 a.m. when municipal public security officers received information that the bodies had been abandoned on Justo Sierra Street and 7th Street, behind the Federal Electricity Commission facilities. This triggered a widespread mobilization in the area by the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), State Police, the National Guard, and the Ministry of National Defense (Defense) to secure the scene and begin the corresponding investigations.
In this regard, the state attorney general, César Jáuregui Moreno, declared hours after the discovery that the multiple homicide was related to a conflict within “La Línea,” as one of its former members, nicknamed “El 04” (Roberto G.), had reportedly gone to Durango to offer the Cabreras high-ranking officers the opportunity to operate various territories for them, not only in Ojinaga, but also in the corridor that connects with Aldama and includes Coyame del Sotol and Manuel Benavides.
Roberto G. “El 04” allegedly brought together various gunmen from the Durango criminal group, which operates under the name Los Cabrera, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel that reported to Ismael el Mayo Zambada, to take control of the Ojinaga plaza.
The reason Roberto G. allegedly broke off relations with the “La Línea” group was because in September 2023, the criminal leader identified as Sergio Menchaca Pizarro, also known by his alias “El Menchaca”, turned himself in to US authorities.
El Menchaca was a Juárez Cartel operator who maintained the criminal operation from the Ojinaga border zone in Coyame to the Lomas de Arena area, on a road leading to Ciudad Juárez through the same border zone.
Prior to this, on September 12, 2024, seven individuals were arrested at different locations in the municipality of Ojinaga. They participated in an armed confrontation in an area known as El Oasis. They claimed to be part of the Los Cabrera group.
The detainees were identified as César Alejandro L. M., Jairo Emanuel V. C., Francisco Javier R. G., Jesús Valentín O. M., Jesús Valentín O. H
Source: El Heraldo de Chihuahua
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A small celebration for September 12, was almost canceled in the small town of Coyame, after six people were killed in a string of cartel-related shootings on the weekend of September 6.
However, Ojinaga’s new mayor, Lucy Marrufo Acosta, decided to go ahead with a festival in the city plaza
She included a helicopter with wailing sirens orbiting the city — to serve as a constant reminder of the tragic string of events & violent clashes from Juárez to the eastern border of the state of Chihuahua and,
the governor of Chihuahua, Maru Campos,
visited the border city on September 11
ahead of a special task force of over 300 troops deployed to Ojinaga on September 9 to the nearby towns of Manuel Benavides and Coyame del Sotol to dispel the widespread confusion on social media about how dangerous the situation in Ojinaga was— and to discuss the enhanced security measures for the Independence Day.
This occurred because of the discovery of more bodies along the border of Juarez.
33-year-old Lorenzo Moreno Aguilar; 47-year-old Mauricio Gonzalez Gonzalez; 33-year-old Jorge Luis Salas Blanco; 44-year-old Misael Peralta Longoria and Ofrael Olivas Guevara.
The discovery of the bodies coincided with the arrest in Texas, of a man named Sergio Menchaca Pizarro, or “El Menchaca,” believed to be a top drug cartel leader in the Ojinaga area. Though family members initially spoke publicly about the search for the missing group of 13, they have since become more private about the matter, and, according to a spokesperson,”He has told me the families are just absolutely shattered, they’re devastated.”
In 2021, officials said they had conducted multiple searches in the area where the migrants went missing.
“They were looking in that area, they looked at other places near the border, and came back and said ‘nothing, we can’t find any trace,’” Corchado said. “So it brings up a lot of questions, you know, how closely did you search, I mean what happened?”
The violence is believed to be connected to La Línea, a cartel that operates within the “Ojinaga Triangle” between Coyame del Sotol and Manuel Benavides. State Attorney General César Jáuregui believes that violence in the borderlands is an intra-cartel “purge.”
(While authorities have not yet drawn an explicit link between these men and La Línea, State officials have been able to confirm a few details that were left up in the air , for instance: Durango is Menchaca’s home state.) &, after gathering the news from a publication company covering the Presidio county and Far West Texas since 1926. ‘The names of two more of the men killed in the vicious cattle crossing detainment operation’ have been released: Felipe Salvador A. P. and Jesús Manuel R. O., both of Durango..
In an interview with Israel Beltrán of Ojinaga’s BM Radio, Customs Officer Oscar Luis Prado Escobar said that widespread confusion had led many exporters to close, customs officials to skip work, & leaving the area’s booming cattle business in limbo. He worried that some companies would route their exports through Juárez instead. “So much alarm and so many lies have already harmed the market here in Ojinaga,”… the biggest disruption was to cattle crossings, which were temporarily suspended in September of 2024 after 6 men were found deceased.