The “Boliqueso” was cautious: how the Navy tracked partners, couples, parties and luxuries

The intelligence work to capture the Colombian kingpin, Eduard Fernando Cardoza Giraldo, the Boliqueso, showed their scope in signs that have served in other cases, since those luxuries derived from murders and drug trafficking do not remain forever, although the criminal objectives be cautious.

The member of Clan Úsuga kept his reserves, used the resources obtained at the cost of the violence he consolidated from Cali, as leader of the North del Valle Cartel. But efforts by the Mexican Navy Secretariat (Semar) were imposed so that the Colombian National Police could protect the priority leader and bring him to justice.

According to reports, the tracking of naval agents was arduous and patient for nearly two years, after being alerted to the presence of Cardoza Giraldo in Mexican territory. He had fled South America after a judge granted him to free prison in Brazil in 2016.

Boliqueso knew that it was in the sights of the Colombian authorities and at least since 2015 it knew that it is required by the United States. But after he escaped, the Colombian authorities said that in his home country, his former allies in the North Valley Cartel put a price on his head.

At some point, the agents said, he would have to contact the family, even if he were far away. These reports state that it passed through Bolivia before arriving back to its homeland, where it was detected to respond for cocaine trafficking to Central America, Europe, the United States and the Arab Emirates.

Migration records, telephone interceptions, informants and other surveillance actions allowed us to warn that he was in Mexico irregularly. But a key element was that beautiful women from Cali constantly traveled to Spain and Mexico, where they met with close to Boliqueso.

By that time, the criminal leader was already jumping to death, as he did not last more than three days in one place. Its networks and the money generated by drug trafficking activities allowed it to cross borders and, in mid-2020, Mexican authorities had reports about the possible presence of this subject.

Intelligence work allowed him to be located in the Cancun Island subdivision with three other subjects. He didn't visit anywhere, but the port of Quintana Roo, besieged by thousands of foreigners who enjoy the beaches. For fun, pleasure or strategy, the Boliqueso was in a tourist paradise.

That's when the Colombian National Police detected an international shipment from Cali to the southeastern entity, which would be received by someone close to the target. They immediately informed Semar, who, according to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, led the investigations.

This institution has a Naval Intelligence Unit that operates two areas in the same area and whose interventions have resulted in significant arrests, such as that of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, el Chapo, in 2014 and 2016.

The delivery from Cali arrived in the hotel zone of the tourist city of the municipality of Benito Juárez. That package was picked up by those who have identified himself as the right hand of Boliqueso and who has Colombian, Spanish and Dutch nationality.

The first clues indicated that one of the nexuses of the capo visited a shipyard complex where boats are rented and moored in Punta Sam. From there the eccentricities were noticeable and then the follow-up began.

Already in foreign territory, the member of Clan Úsuga was linked to a narco-summit held in a condominium in Punta Dorada, where it is presumed that about twenty subjects from various countries abroad attended.

It was not something extraordinary, because in his criminal career, Boliqueso was identified as leader of the assassins of Los Rastrojos, with nearly 200 criminals under his command. He was the successor of the Comba, a criminal association of brothers Javier Antonio and Luis Enrique Calle Serna.

In addition, Department of Justice reports identify him as the leader of drug collection offices and armed paramilitary groups of Clan Úsuga, according to accusations consulted through this portal and which were filed in 2015 in the Eastern District Court of New York.

While passing through Cancun, the yachts were the first track. But everything changed when Boliqueso and its closest ones changed their residence, the month after their tracking was activated. They all arrived in the south of Mexico City, where they stayed for a while.

However, weeks later, Boliqueso's girlfriend and another of its alleged operators were spotted near Polanco in the Miguel Hidalgo mayor's office and the surrounding exclusive area in the State of Mexico. Both were located for their time in Quintana Roo.

The investigations continued, although there was also a possible leakage of information to change the southeast for the country's capital. More residences were discovered in the Valley of Mexico, where trusted personnel of the criminal leader were allegedly staying. The addresses were relatively close to each other.

Apparently, Boliqueso would have thought they had evaded justice or, at least, did not mind neglecting another luxury: hiring a DJ from Colombia for a VIP party in Acapulco and who traveled by private jet. He had already shown that waste was enough for him for that and more.

At that time, it was also known of two properties in which the target partner would be in in Queretaro and the State of Mexico. In addition, a close operator from Cardoza Giraldo arrived at the celebration prepared in the port of Guerrero in the middle of last year.

After his arrival he decided to join the team, transiting through Mexico City in a luxury car and with measures he believed would give him immunity. The group of alleged criminals had already circled the Metropolitan Area.

But again, Boliqueso decided to relocate to the richest municipality in the country, San Pedro Garza García. This demarcation is located in a wooded area, west of Monterrey, whose Colonia del Valle estimates monthly incomes of 18 to 25 thousand Mexican pesos.

There were clean and modern avenues, large residences, luxury shopping centers, large green areas, as well as schools and hospitals with outstanding prestige at their disposal. It was not yet time for him to pay for shipments of cocaine, extortion and murders.

There was enough data and the naval authorities decided to intervene. About a year and a half passed, the work had been complicated and careful analysis to leave no room for any contingency.

Then the searches began where Semar has acknowledged that high-end cars, fake diplomatic plates, doses of drugs, firearms and ammunition were confiscated. In total, the agency has reported that nine people were insured.

The agents were already on the heels of Boliqueso, when he moved to Bosques las Lomas, where he was driving an Audi Q5. He was walking around Mexico City confident, but cautious. To go to restaurants, I walked far from where I lived before using communication devices.

Finally, a team of seafarers, members of the National Institute of Migration and the Secretariat of Citizen Security in the capital found the 35-year-old caleño in a condominium on Avenida División del Norte, El Rosario neighborhood of the Coyoacán mayor's office on April 12.

Federal and local agents assisted in his transfer to Mexico City International Airport, after clarifying his legal status and for the purpose of extradition to Colombia. It has not yet been reported who helped him in Cancun, Monterrey or the country's capital or whether he had established links with Mexican cartels during his frustrated refuge.

However, Cardoza Giraldo served as a major lieutenant of the organization led by Dairo Antonio Úsuga David, alias Otoniel, chief chief of the so-called Gulf Clan and who was the main partner of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, el Chapo, as of Ismael Zambada Garcia, el Mayo, top leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The director general of the Colombian National Police, Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, pointed out that the arrest of Boliqueso is at the second level of relevance, after assuring the partner of Chapo Guzmán and Mayo Zambada.

Otoniel, Guzmán Loera's partner, had a relevant senior colleague at Boliqueso, according to the Colombian authorities. Previous reports have already highlighted the association between this organization and the Sinaloa Cartel with the arrest of other operators.

The scopes in Cali and the Gulf Clan were evidenced by the dismantling of money-laundering networks for the Mexican cartel, whose current command is under the leadership of Mayo Zambada and Los Chapitos. For seven years, businesses belonging to both transnational crime groups have been located in the port of Buenaventura, Houston and Guadalajara.

Around the same time, the operation against the Gulf Clan and its connection to the Sinaloa Cartel added up to the seizure of 15.5 tons of cocaine packed with car brand logos, one of the main identifications for the shipment bound for the faction based in northern Mexico.

Now he has to face the charge of international conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Brooklyn court, after the crimes he committed in Colombia are evaluated. His criminal operations have been identified since at least 2011 in the charges in New York.

Meanwhile, he is being held in a maximum security ward of the Picota prison, in Bogotá, where he will wait for his luck, far from the sumptuous life.

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