Gonzalez, in his testimony, denied the accusation. At the trial, defense attorneys, citing FBI interviews, alleged that Gonzalez had smuggled drugs for the cartel. Family members eventually paid nearly $200,000 in ransom money. Instead he was beaten, cuffed, shot with a Taser and thrown into a small room. The victim, Eduardo Gonzalez Tostado, a Baja California champion off-road racer, went to the home expecting to meet a woman. The Chula Vista case in June 2007 was typical of the murky methods used in the crimes. Neighbors, authorities said, would see groups of young men coming and going but didn’t suspect criminal activity. They rented several other residences where they kept hostages. authorities said their Mexican counterparts are assisting in the investigation. Of the eight fugitives, some are believed to have fled to Mexico. Of the 17 defendants, nine are in custody some of them already have been convicted on other charges. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department also assisted. The DNA analysis of the evidence, authorities said, was the largest undertaken by the San Diego Police Department, a two-year effort staffed by three full-time analysts. Lopez and four others were arrested, paving the way for more victims to step forward. “I’ve never seen a more ruthless, cold-blooded, sociopathic group,” he said.Ī break in the investigation came in June 2007, when an FBI SWAT team raided a two-story home in Chula Vista where a Mexican businessman had been held captive for eight days. ![]() Mark Amador, said the gang was the most vicious he’s ever prosecuted. The veteran gang prosecutor leading the case, Deputy Dist. ![]() The crimes haunted residents in such suburbs as Chula Vista and Bonita, where many prominent Tijuana families had moved to escape violence only to find that criminals had followed and blended into the cookie-cutter anonymity of American suburbia. Bodies bearing signs of torture were dumped. Police started getting chilling reports of criminals using tactics typically seen only on the streets of Tijuana: Men dressed in police uniforms and bullet-proof vests snatching victims in daylight and throwing them into cars before speeding off into traffic. The gang, called the Palillos - Spanish for toothpicks - also got involved in drug trafficking, according to authorities. After Arellano-Felix cartel members in 2002 killed Lopez’s brother in a gangland dispute, he moved his cell across the border to stage retaliatory attacks against anyone suspected of cartel links, according to authorities.Ī series of drug rip-offs, robberies and ransom kidnappings followed.
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