War in the Sinaloa Cartel: “El 80″, operator of Los Rusos, rival group of Los Chapitos, fell

Actions to combat organized crime continue, and this Tuesday one of the operators of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexicali, Baja California fell. This is Rubén Benitez Ponce, alias El 80, who belonged to the Los Rusos faction of this criminal organization.

According to reports, this member of the criminal group was listed as one of the main objectives of the State Coordinating Board for the Construction of Peace and Security. It was announced that his arrest occurred during an operation carried out in the Golden Zone of Mexicali.

Elements of the State Force for Citizen Security (FESC) and the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) led intelligence and data crossing actions to capture Benítez Ponce, 38, who was leaving his home located in Casa Maya, a residential area east of the city.

Inside the building he had an armament consisting of four long guns, two bulletproof vests, various useful cartridges and magazines, as well as a vehicle in which he probably moved around the city.

This is not the first time that The 80 has been captured by the authorities. In 2011, along with other subjects, he was arrested for allegedly participating in the murder of PEI agents Miguel Ángel López Román and Ramón Enrique Huerta Castillo.

That night they were arrested for trying to rob a bank teller. When the police arrested them, they announced that Rubén Benitez Ponce had an arrest warrant for aggravated robbery in Hermosillo.

It should be noted that Los Rusos were in a war against Los Chapitos, both factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, at least since 2020, federal authorities revealed in December last year.

This first group responds to the orders of Ismael El Mayo Zambada, while his rival, who initiated this dispute due to his quest to seize the criminal activities of the CDS, to Joaquín Guzmán Loera, El Chapo.

Later, in February 2022, it was confirmed that Los Rusos had also started a war against Los Garibay, another arm of the cartel and ally of Los Chapitos, as they respond to the same kingpin, despite being imprisoned.

Regarding this war, a character who can be attributed responsibility for internal fragmentation has been identified: a hitman under the command of Mayo Zambada, who is nicknamed “El Ruso”, who is holding a lawsuit with the group of the sons of Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán, led by the Nini.

According to the weekly newspaper Rio Doce, it all started last November (2019) when a command of eight cloned Sinaloa Police vans broke into the Agua Caliente area, north of Culiacán, an area under the control of the Russian, whose real name is Jesus Alexander Sanchez Felix.

At the head of the command was “El Nini”, who apparently was born in a community near Agua Caliente, so he came to claim the territory.

“Various versions collected by Ríodoce establish that in the discussion, one of the hit men said that they pure “Ivan” and that “the Lord” -El Mayo- was worth their mother. It was an unforgivable irreverence. Hours or days later the Mayos asked for the boy but did not want to hand him over. A few days later a dead man appeared on one side and then a dead man on the other,” said the publication.

After the incident, Chapo Guzmán's sons demanded that the Mayo hand over the Russian, but the answer was negative.

KEEP READING