Mexicali Search Yields Fentanyl Seizure

Reporting and context

Infobae México reports that Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, Navy and Security and Citizen Protection Ministry searched a property in the Hacienda del Bosque development in southern Mexicali on Aug. 20. The outlet says authorities linked the property to Los Rusos and to the kidnapping of corridos tumbados singer Enghles Aralp Gastélum Cartagena, known as “El Gadafi.” Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said the action followed intelligence work by Mexican authorities in Baja California and an exchange of information with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Officials reported seizing 120 kilograms of fentanyl pills, which they estimated represented more than 4 million doses, along with a handgun, a magazine, a motorcycle and two vehicles. The report says no one was detained during the Mexicali search.

According to Infobae, the Mexicali action followed a federal raid on a house in the Independencia neighborhood of San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora. Authorities identified that property as a Los Rusos safe house, freed two people who had been held there and detained three others. The two people released were Gastélum Cartagena, 30, and his mother, Mirna Yaneth Cartagena González, 49, both from Culiacán, Sinaloa. The article says two of the three detainees were Colombian nationals whom authorities identified as members of an armed unit associated with a cell led by Israel Leonel Trigueros Muñoz, alias “El Isra.” The singer’s rescue prompted the subsequent operation in Mexicali, the outlet reports.

Federal forces surrounded the Mexicali house near Hacienda Carpizo Avenue and Sorrento Street, according to the report. Entry was delayed for about 24 hours while authorities waited for a search warrant, and officers used drones to monitor the property while limiting residents’ movement in the development. Mexico’s Security Cabinet also reported finding an all-terrain vehicle and a white Ford Ranger with irregular license plates at the site. Local officials in Mexicali said federal agencies had not shared details of the operation’s objective with municipal authorities.

Infobae says Mexican and U.S. authorities classify the Los Rusos structure involved in this case as a Sinaloa Cartel cell aligned with the Los Mayos faction. The DEA identifies Juan José Ponce Félix, alias “El Ruso,” as the group’s leader and alleges that the organization controls a drug-trafficking corridor through Mexicali used to move fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin toward the United States. The article notes that the DEA has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Ponce Félix’s arrest or conviction since September 2025. It also says the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ponce Félix and Los Mayos that month and described Los Rusos as the faction’s principal armed wing in Baja California.

The outlet places the searches within a broader series of operations against the same network. It cites the Security Cabinet’s report of 12 alleged members detained after searches in Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa in March, and a Defense Ministry account of 81 firearms and 274,800 rounds seized in San Luis Río Colorado in July from a cell attributed to Los Rusos. Infobae distinguishes the northwest-based group described in this case from a separate organization using the same name in Guerrero and Oaxaca. Within the article, Gastélum Cartagena and his mother are described as the two people rescued from captivity.