Advertisement
La Plaza

Reputed drug cartel leader “Muletas” and another suspected gangster are arrested in Baja California

By Richard Marosi
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Two reputed leaders of a drug cartel that waged a years-long terror campaign in Tijuana were arrested Monday in the Baja California port city of La Paz, according to U.S. authorities.

Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental are believed to be top lieutenants of a gang blamed for a string of massacres, police killings, beheadings and kidnappings that caused many residents to flee the border city.

Advertisement

The arrests by Mexican federal police, coming one month after the capture of alleged leader Teodoro Garcia Simental, are the latest blows to the gang. Authorities feared Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental, Teodoro’s younger brother, were planning to reignite a gang war for control of Tijuana’s drug trafficking routes.

Lopez Uriarte was known for his narrow escapes and flair for self promotion: His nickname “Muletas,” or crutches, stands for the trail of disabled people he has left behind. He outfitted his crew with uniforms featuring a patch designed with a skull and crutches crossed underneath.

The Mexican government did not provide details of the arrests.

— Richard Marosi in San Diego

La Plaza
Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.

Advertisement