A key regional Sinaloa Cartel boss was captured on Monday in Nogales, Sonora, by members of the Federal Police (AIC-PGR) and the Mexican Army.
According to the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico (PGR), Josué Iván Torres González aka “El Chango” (Monkey) was taken into custody during a series of raids which also resulted in the capture of two criminal associates and the seizure of methamphetamine, weapons, vehicles, and telecommunication devices, according to Tiempo.
According to government authorities, Torres González was identified as the second-in-command of the criminal group called Los Demonios (The Demons), which is part of the Sinaloa Cartel and heavily involved in the smuggling of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and illegal immigrants to the United States into Arizona. Torres González’s criminal gang was also believed to be responsible for much of the cartel related violence in the region, according to local reports.
Torres Gonzalez and his criminal organization was also targeted by American law enforcement personnel from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in coordination with investigators from the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico. Media reports indicate this effort resulted in the arrest of 19 members of the criminal group affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel–which yielded the seizure of 12 vehicles, 182 plus kilograms of methamphetamine, 33 kilos of cocaine, 13 kilos of heroin, and an undetermined amount of U.S. currency and firearms from July 2017 to March 2018.
Breitbart Texas previously reported about a former Mexican police chief from Nogales, Sonora, believed to be working with cartels and was arrested after he illegally crossed into Arizona while fleeing authorities. Officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained the former chief and handed him over to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The former chief was later deported back to Mexico for prosecution.
According to previous Breitbart Texas reports, police officers from the Nogales Municipal Police were arrested trying to smuggle drug shipments into Arizona; robbing two businesses at gunpoint; and another was caught trying to smuggle drugs into a Sonoran state prison.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com