The controversy surrounding Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar continues after the United States government revoked her and her husband’s visas.
In response to the controversy, the governor has said she doesn’t know the reasons. The governor asserted that it is an administrative process and there are no charges or investigations against her.
But journalist Luis Chaparro has another version, claiming that agents informed them that both she and her husband, Carlos Torres, were targeted as part of a money laundering investigation involving a network of state businessmen and officials linked to members of organized crime.
Specifically, the criminal group “Los Rusos,” a criminal cell of the Sinaloa Cartel’s “Los Mayos” faction.
In fact, on August 17, in the Zacatecas neighborhood, a narco-banner appeared in which the criminal group issued an ultimatum to the governor, stating that she should “calm her dog,” referring to Leopoldo Tizoc Aguilar Durán, head of the SSC (Secretary of State for the Defense of the Supreme Court), who was removed from office in January of this year.
Who are “Los Rusos”?
“Los Rusos” emerged as an armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel, but now serve Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s faction after the schism with the “Los Chapitos” group.
The separation reportedly took place in 2019, after “El Mayo” ordered Los Rusos not to participate in the release of Ovidio Guzmán, known as the Culiacanazo, which would define the war between the two groups.
In 2020, they settled in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, to halt the advance of “El Chapo’s” sons, and then expanded to Mexicali, Baja California.
Their leader, Jesús Alexandro Sánchez Félix, nicknamed “El Ruso,” worked for the Sinaloa Cartel, leading 30 gunmen to confront the cartel’s enemies, according to Vicente Zambada Niebla, known as “El Vicentillo,” in the book “El Traidor.”
He was also put in charge of drug crossings across the border, along with José Alonso Rocha Lazcano, alias El Caimán, who was also in charge of drug and human trafficking in Mexicali.
In May 2021, state authorities arrested 11 alleged members of Los Rusos, which led to the appearance of several narco-banners threatening federal, municipal, and state agencies.
“You are warned that this is the first and last time you attack our organization,” the narco-banner reads.
Source: politico
