The Federal Police in Baja California Sur announced the arrest of a regional cartel boss who has been attributed to the wave of narco-violence in the popular tourist spot of La Paz.
The commissioner general of the Federal Police Manelich Castilla Craviotto announced the arrest of Andrés Ulloa Márquez, aka El Pájaro (“The Bird”). who was identified as the plaza boss for the Beltrán Leyva cartel in La Paz, Baja California Sur, according to local media reports? The arrest of Ulloa Márquez was carried out during a simultaneous police operation in two different neighborhoods in La Paz. Police captured Ulloa Márquez in a residence in colonia Pueblo Nuevo. They also arrested one of his accomplices, identified only as Ernesto “N”, at a residence in colonia Zona Central.
Government authorities in Baja California attributed the wave of narco-violence in the municipality of La Paz to the Beltrán Leyva cartel led by its regional boss Ulloa Márquez. Officials the cartel uses violence to control the sale and distribution of drugs in Baja California Sur — particularly in the municipality of La Paz. During arrest operations carried out by police, officers also seized two handguns, ammunition, 142 packages of cocaine, 63 packages of methamphetamine, and 13 packages of marijuana.
According to the state attorney general’s office, the cartel violence in the area is linked to an ongoing battle for control of the drug market in the area by three different cartels and regional criminal groups aligned with each. Those cartels are the Cártel de Sinaloa, Los Beltrán Leyva and Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).
Breitbart Texas reported on the cartel-related violence in the region which has required the Mexican government to deploy military forces to establish security in the once peaceful tourist beach resort towns of La Paz and Los Cabos. In late 2017, Breitbart Texas reported on six bodies that were hung from three overpasses in La Paz and Los Cabos. The cartels attached threatening narco-banners to the corpses.
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