The Criminal History of 'El Paulino', One of the Most-Wanted Criminals of Baja California Sur

“MX” for Borderland Beat

Beltrán Leyva Cartel member Paulino de Jesús Lucero Ortiz, alias “El Paulino”, will serve a long sentence for the August 2019 kidnapping and murder of Jesús Salvador Sánchez Mendoza, sergeant of the La Paz Municipal Police force. Baja California state authorities confirmed that the offender operated south of La Paz, in El Triunfo and San Antonio communities.

On October 12, 2019, the alleged offender was arrested in Loreto, north of Baja California Sur, although it was until the 18th of the same month that authorities was able to formally charge him and keep him behind bars despite the motions he issued for an early release.

“Based on investigations, it was determined that, the defendant [El Paulino] arrived at the home of the victim [Jesus Salvador Sanchez Mendoza] along with other people and forced him into a vehicle. On September 1, 2019 … near El Triunfo, the lifeless body of the victim was located,” the report said.

Investigators confirmed that the police chief was kidnapped along with a businessman known as “El Martincillo”. Both were brutally beaten and tortured before they were killed. When they were found dead, their hands were tied up and they had coup de grace wounds on their skulls.

El Paulino and his sicarios were searched for two months. He was charged with “aggravated kidnapping” (secuestro agravado), which is when someone participated in a violent kidnapping with two or more people.

Background

It was approximately 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 1, 2014, when the screeching of car tires were suddenly heard in La Paz. The residents of the area initially thought the noise came from a vehicle collision. But instead of a hard, dry impact, strong bursts of firearms were heard.

Sicarios of the Damaso Special Forces of the Sinaloa Cartel and a local cell of the Beltran Leyva Cartel clashed on Avenida Ramírez, near Márquez de León neighborhood. From car to car they fired through the city’s streets until they reached a road where descended from their units and exchanged more fire.

El Paulino shot at several sicarios and killed José Ángel González Portillo, alias “El 27″. Abel Nahúm Quintero Manjarrez and/or Cruz Alonso Lozoya Uriarte, alias “El Grande”, was also wounded by El Paulino.

At the scene, the bodies of the following sicarios who had arrived to reinforce the plaza were killed:

• José Ángel González Portillo, alias “El 27″, aged 20, originally from Badiraguato, Sinaloa.

• Juan Carlos Morales Vargas and/or Juan Carlos Morales Barrios and/or Rubén Castillo Verdugo, aged 33, originally from Guaymas, Sonora.

• José Luis Ponce Ruiz, aged 27, a native of Ciudad Obregón, Sonora.

El Paulino was transferred to a hospital for injuries he suffered as well. While in custody, he confessed to have killed El 27. He later recanted from his statements.

“I did not kill José Ángel González Portillo [El 27], nor did I declare what you just read to me. I was sedated by the medications doctors gave me for the wounds and I could not have declared that,” El Paulino said in a statement.

In February 2018, authorities released El Paulino, who enjoyed a favorable reputation in the underworld for murdering El 27 and successfully confronting the Damaso Special Forces.

Once released, he resumed his organized crime activities.

On August 31, 2019, El Paulino and his associates kidnapped the son of Ramón Eleno Sánchez Fausto, a municipal police chief in El Triunfo. El Paulino then kidnapped and killed police chief Jesus Salvador Sanchez Mendoza two months later.

These two incidents could have been avoided if criminal action had been taken. El Paulino was behind bars but was released a year earlier.

Sources: Zeta Tijuana (1); (2); (3)