'El Conejo', Top Sinaloa Cartel Drug Dealer in Ensenada, Shot Dead

“MX” for Borderland Beat

Daniel Alberto de la Luz Rosales, alias ‘El Conejo’ (The Rabbit), identified by the Baja California Attorney General’s Office as one of the main distributors of crystal meth in Ensenada, was shot to death in Rosarito.

The suspected drug dealer was shot on the right side of the head when he was outside a motel on Popotla Boulevard earlier this month.

Data obtained by local media outlets indicate that El Conejo was not identified by the police and entered the forensic medical service as unidentified person. His body was fully identified this past weekend.

Early life and background

Originally from Ensenada, El Conejo spent most of his youth in Punta Banda neighborhood. He began his criminal career as a small-time drug dealer before climbing up the ladder and becoming one of the main drug dealers in the city.

Several family members of El Conejo have worked for the Ensenada Municipal Police force, including his brother Gustavo Demetrio, who in 2011 was arrested for kidnapping and organized crime involvement.

Gustavo Demetrio was linked to “Comando Negro”, a faction of the Tijuana and/or Arellano Felix Cartel (CAF) in Ensenada. Gustavo Demetrio was an active municipal police officer at the time of his arrest. He was arrested along with 10 other officers.

His sister Wendy has been an active member of the Ensenada Public Safety Directorate since 2004. Bárbaro, El Conejo’s father, was a state policeman in Baja California. He joined the corporation in 1989 and retired after 30 years.

Criminal activity

El Conejo maintained close links with members of the Ensenada Municipal Police, to whom it offered large amounts of cash payments to keep him informed about movement of the state and federal authorities against his drug dealers, as well as to allow them to carry out the sale of drugs.

According to state investigators, El Conejo was in charge of more than 30 drug distribution points in Ensenada, in addition to ordering homicides against his rivals and running a security company that he used to recruit cartel members. He was believed to have been responsible for the April 2020 murder of Ensenada prosecutor Hiram Rivera Lizarraga.

El Conejo was also identified as the suspect who threatened to kill an Ensenada crime reporter for publishing a story where the police raided a property and arrested an elderly woman working for the local cartel.

He was arrested at least twice in Ensenada; his first arrest occurred in July 2011, when El Conejo worked as a casino security guard. He was accused of distributing meth to customers there along with a lady named Lizabeth Liliana Navarro Coronel. He was released months later and continued his drug dealing activities.

He was arrested again in July 2020, but this time authorities said he was an important drug dealer in Ensenada and was believed to be competing against a faction once headed by rival drug dealer José Héctor Murillo Dávila, alias ‘El Bombero’. El Bombero was killed in April 2020.

El Conejo was reportedly a high-ranking member in Los Venados, Ensenada-based criminal cell in-charge of drug trafficking activities for the Sinaloa Cartel. Most of the original members of the group are part of a clan. Their names are Germán, Jesús and César Ulises Villavicencio, who head drug operations in Isla de Cedros (an island off the Baja California coast) and in multiple neighborhoods in Ensenada.

Death

El Conejo’s death was reported at around 2:50 p.m. on Saturday, April 10, 2021, outside of the Baja del Sol Inn Motel, also known as the Moradito Hotel.

Witnesses reported that El Conejo was gravely wounded and subsequently died from his injuries. His killer managed to flee undetected by the police.

The body of El Conejo was found on the sidewalk next to a garbage container, face down and in a pool of blood. He was wearing a gray hoodie, blue jeans, and a cap.

Sources: Punto Norte; Zeta Tijuana (1); (2); (3); Ensenada Net; El Vigia; AFNTijuana; InfoNortNews