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CJNG And Their Supermarket Hustle In Sacramento · Beyond The Horizon

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. The
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: cartels have many, many different ways that they can wash
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: their money. One of their favorite ways, however, is to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: establish a legit business or what appears to be a
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: legit business and then use that business to launder money
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to send back to the cartel leaders. Well, today we
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: have a story out of Sacramento of exactly that thing.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: We have a gentleman here who owned a small grocery
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: store up in Sacramento, and he used it as a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: front operation to sell cocaine and launder money for what
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: authorities claim is CJNG. So let's take a look at
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the article from the Sacramento Bee, and let's see what
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: author Michael McGow has to say. Headline, Sacramento grocery store
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: owner charged in cocaine ring fed say is linked to
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to Mexican cartel. Well, chances are, folks, if you're moving weight,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you're probably working with the cartel in some capacity. Cocaine's
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: not coming into this country by, you know, Pony Express.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It's not being dropped down from the sky like manna
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: by God. It's being brought into this country by cartels
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: like CJNG. And they have their fingers in many, many
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: pies around the United States of America. The owner of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a small grocery store in Sacramento is among two local
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: men charged last month in federal court accused in a
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: cocaine trafficking ring with ties to one of Mexico's most
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: violent drug cartels. And we also know that a lot
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of this coke is being stepped on with fentanyl now.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So whereas before they'd be using, you know, baby laxative
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: or whatever to cut the coke, now it's fentanyl because
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: it's so cheap. You think you're getting yourself a nice
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: little gram of some blow, nice little eight ball. And
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: before you know it, you're shoveling fentanyl up your nose instead.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Jose Manuel Chavez Zapata, 54, was charged in a criminal
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: complaint filed March 14th and recently unsealed in U.S. District
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Court for the Eastern District of California. Chavez and Dennis Zacarias,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Ponce Castillo, 37, of Sacramento, were each charged one count
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of distribution of at least 500 grams of cocaine and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine according to court documents.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So these dudes are fucked. They're going to get mandatory sentences.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I think it's like 10 years. You get at least
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: 10 years for these kinds of drug crimes. Now, when
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I talk about legalization of drugs and people not going
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to jail for drugs. I'm talking about simple possession, right?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I don't mean people that are walking around with 500
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: grams of blow. Those people are obviously on a different level.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about people who get in trouble for personal use.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Someone gets pulled over, they have a gram bag of blow,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: an eight ball of blow. Now they're going to prison
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the rest of their lives? Stupid. Ridiculous, in fact. But
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: if you're running around and you're selling narcotics for CJNG
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: or you're working with Sinaloa, got yourself a front operation, yeah,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you should end up in prison. Chavez resides in Carmichael
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and owns La Victoria Supermercado, a Mexican grocery store on
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Del Paso Boulevard in Old North Sacramento, according to the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: court filing, which came following an FBI investigation launched in
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: April of 2016. So they've been on this shit for
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a minute, following these dudes, building a case, you know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: working informants. And that's what they do. They don't just
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: show up and the second the one drug deal goes down,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: they arrest people. They like to build a sprawling case.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: And what they're trying to do is get the supplier.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So how it works is, say you're a drug user.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: You get popped for simple possession. They say to you, well,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: we'll let you go. We won't charge you, but you
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: got to give up your dealer. Then if you give
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: up your dealer, they go and pop him. And on
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and on and on the story goes. That's how they
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: try and manipulate things when they're picking people up for
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: these kinds of charges. And it works well, right? Who
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the hell wants to go to jail? And that's why
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: drugs and with the mafia, the law was you couldn't
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: sell drugs. You couldn't be on drugs. Now, we all
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: know that the rules weren't followed. But the reason for
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: those rules is the second you get involved in drugs,
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  Speaker 1: you're way more likely to become a snitch. The complaint
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: alleges that Chavez used the store to launder money and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: managed a network of local sub-dealers that included Ponce. It
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: also says Chavez and others would engage in narcotics-related meetings
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: at the store. I mean, how dumb do you have
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to be? If you're out here committing crimes, being a
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: cartel leader, you know, selling dope, A, get off the phone,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and B, stop meeting with your co-conspirators. Have you guys
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: not been paying attention to how all of this works?
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: The police love when a bunch of criminals get together.
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  Speaker 1: Makes their job a whole hell of a lot easier
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: when they can sit on one location and get everybody
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: at the same time. So anytime I see stuff like this,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: it cracks me up. It's like, are you guys new
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: at this? Aren't you the criminals? How come I know
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  Speaker 1: how this works, but you don't? Store, stash house, used
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  Speaker 1: in Old North Sacramento. The FBI used a confidential informant
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  Speaker 1: and later physical surveillance to gather information on the activities
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: of Chavez, Ponce, and several other alleged co-conspirators, including a
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Saras man named Mario Naranano Gonzalez, court documents say. Chavez
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  Speaker 1: used La Victoria Supermercado as a base for cocaine trafficking
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: operations and to launder proceeds from his narcotic sales, the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: complaint says. So, as an example, I'm sure most of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: you have watched Breaking Bad. And you know how he
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: had to buy the car wash? Pretty ironic, it's a
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: car wash. But he had to buy that because he
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: needed to have a legitimate way to claim his money
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and a way to bundle it and wash it. And
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: it's no different with the cartels. They get front men,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: they get beards, and they put them in positions to
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: own little stores or bodegas or... check cashing spots, and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: then those spots are used as places to wash this money.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Turn the dirty money into good. The complaint says, though
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: he has not been charged with money laundering, the complaint
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: says Chavez laundered this money to affiliates in Mexico. Of course,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: because how many times have we talked about this? The
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: hardest part is getting the money back. How are you
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: going to get the money back to Mexico? What are
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: you going to fly it in on Southwest Airlines? Now,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: there are some of these cartels that do have their
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: own planes, fleets of planes. And a lot of times
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: they will use them. But it's very difficult to get
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the money back into Mexico when it's been, you know,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: laundered and all of that it's easier right but to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: bring it back just as is the hardest task for
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: these people remember they don't even money machines aren't good
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: enough to count this money there is so much money
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: coming in because of the cocaine trade they have to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: weigh it on a scale Chavez also ran a stash
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: house at a nearby residence in the Old North Sacramento neighborhood,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: according to court documents, and managed sub dealers in the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Sacramento area. So old boy had himself a trap house.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: And for those of you who don't know what that is,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: it's a place where drug dealers will keep their drugs.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's a place where drug users will go
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and use their drugs. But it looks like in this instance,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: he was running it as a trap house as far
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: as a place to do business from. The complaint says
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: one of Chavez's largest sub dealers was a man nicknamed
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: El Ciego, Spanish for the blind man, who works as
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a mechanic in the Sacramento area. The informant identified the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: blind man as Ponce, according to court documents. So again,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you're dealing with drugs, you're dealing with snitches, you're dealing
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: with people who don't want long sentences. So they're going
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: to be quick to rat. And you're certainly seeing it here.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: ties to cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion, CJNG. The criminal complaint
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: says Chavez's source of cocaine is a person he refers
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to as compadre who lives in Mexico. That doesn't shock me.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of these guys who middleman this stuff understand
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: that they'll be in a lot of jeopardy in America.
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  Speaker 1: So they'll do their middlemanning from cartel bases of power
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  Speaker 1: where they don't have to worry about getting swooped up
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: by the DEA or the feds. And now, especially after
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the interdiction squad that Mexico had been running for so
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: long is getting shut down, these guys are going to
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: have a bit of more freedom even. Compadre is connected
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: to the cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion, or CJNG, court documents say.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: The cocaine the informant would deliver would be marked with
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the NG for the CJNG, the stamp on them. So
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: each one of the cartels has a different stamp for
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: their shit, right? CJNG has the NG. Sinaloa has what
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: they have, and it goes on and on and on.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: That way the buyer knows that they're getting a package
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: from a supplier that they quote-unquote trust. Jalisco New Generacion
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: is considered Mexico's second largest drug cartel after the Sinaloa
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: cartel and is widely known for its use of extreme violence.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: The cartel is not directly mentioned by name anywhere else
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: in the 68-page criminal complaint, though Compadre is. Yeah, I
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: bet they don't want that out there. They don't want
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: people to know just how deep the cartel ties run
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: in America. And let me ask you a question. Would
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: the border wall have stopped this? Of course it wouldn't.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: You know what stops all of this? Only one thing.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: The end of prohibition stops this, but besides that, you're
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: going to have this in every single city. I know
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: here in Las Vegas, there's definitely front operations. 100% without
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a doubt. The FBI informant said Compadre would arrange for
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: cocaine to be smuggled from Mexico into the U.S., where
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: it was then transported to Los Angeles. Once the cocaine
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: reaches Los Angeles, it is then loaded into smaller Nissan
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: trucks and driven to an individual known as Hoto in Saris,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: whom the FBI identified as Gonzalez, according to the criminal complaint.
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  Speaker 1: So that's what they do, right? They get it brought
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to America. And then once it's brought here and handed over,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: then the person on the receiving end is in charge
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of giving it to his people, making sure all of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: his dealers have it, making sure his associates have their bundle.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: That way they can get it to their people. And
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: then the money can come back and go back to
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the bosses in Mexico. See how that trampoline works? The
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: complaint says the FBI informant ran special errands for Chavez
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  Speaker 1: and delivered cash totaling more than $ 400, 000 to Gonzalez over
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the course of three trips, which Gonzalez stored in his
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: garage until he was ready to take it down to Mexico. Man,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, that's the hardest part of all of this,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: bringing that money back down. And I'm shocked that they
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: would even try and physically bring it back down. The
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: informant told investigators last July that at one point Chavez
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: cut out Gonzalez and began to receive cocaine directly from Compadre,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: according to court documents. Compadre then told Chavez and Gonzalez
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: they needed to work together and they resumed doing so. Yo,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: when CJNG tells you you better work together, you better
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: work together or you're going to end up at one
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of those training camps with one of these trainees eating you.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: CJNG is not playing around, and if they're telling you
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that you better work together with your former partner, you
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: better believe these dudes on the street are going to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: do that. Feds monitor transactions across California. The complaint details
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: numerous transactions of cash and cocaine that allegedly took place
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: from June 2021 through last month at a variety of
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: locations across California as well as Vancouver, Washington. Agents with
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, and Partnering
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Task Force used physical surveillance, including court-authorized geolocation data, to
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: monitor those transactions. So they hit these boys with geofence warrants.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: We've talked about those before as well. Very dangerous, in
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: my opinion, when it comes to privacy, but it is
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a tool that the federal government employs when they're talking
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: about going after people like this. In June, Ponce and
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Chavez sold a half kilo of cocaine to the informant
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: at Chavez's grocery store. According to the criminal complaint, the informant,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: while wearing a recording device, drove to La Victoria Supermercado
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and gave $ 7, 000 to Ponce from the driver's side window
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: of the informant's vehicle, In exchange for the cocaine, which
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Ponce delivered in a brown bag, court documents say, look,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: if you're the supplier and you're the man that's moving weight,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the last thing you want to do is be caught
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: with any of that weight ever on your person. And
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: you certainly don't want to be brown bagging some yayo
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and dropping it in somebody's window. The informant recorded another
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: conversation in July. This one was Chavez, according to court documents.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Chavez stated he spoke to Compadre about the cocaine. The
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: FBI affidavit summarizing that conversation said, Chavez made statements regarding
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the beauty and pureness of the cocaine. I'm guessing they
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: might have gotten that from Peru. One day after that conversation,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Ponce traveled to Gonzalez's home in Ceres under apparent instructions
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: by Chavez to pick up two kilos of cocaine, court
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: documents say. We're talking about a ton of blow here, folks.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: We're talking about 4.4 pounds of cocaine. FBI investigators determined
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Gonzalez would run narcotics and money between Mexico, multiple locations
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: in California, including the Sacramento and Modesto areas, and Vancouver,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: according to court documents. So, oh boy, it was all
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: over the place moving this blow. Hidden compartments found in
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: car during stop. On October 15th, deputies with the Sacramento
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office pulled over Gonzalez during a traffic stop.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: A search of his vehicle using a narcotics canine helped
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: turn up close to $ 80, 000 in a hidden compartment inside
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: his 2021 Toyota Camry. The Sheriff's Office seized the cash. Yeah,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: of course they did. That money is going to go
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: to some more weapons of war for the California Police Department.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Gonzalez was not charged in last month's criminal complaint, despite
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: being a central figure in its narrative. An FBI affidavit
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: in the complaint says the findings from the nearly six-year
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: investigation constitute probable cause to conduct further searches of vehicles
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: and properties associated with Chavez, Ponce, and Gonzalez. To me,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: what this looks like is that Gonzalez turned witness. He
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't charged. They just seized the money. He wasn't arrested.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Usually that means you've signed that 302. You got that
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: proffer agreement going and you done turned snitch. Ponce has
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: been in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail downtown
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: since March 16th on a federal hold. He is ineligible
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: for bail. Chavez was released from custody in late March
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: after posting $ 500, 000 bail under conditions including the surrender of
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: his passport and providing a DNA sample. Court filings show $ 500, 000
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: in bail. Where did you get that from? More than 2,400
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: files related to this case. The two defendants had been
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: due to appear in federal court for a status conference
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: this Tuesday, but the hearing was continued to May 24th,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: court records show. A judge granted the continuance to allow
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: attorneys time to review a substantial trove of physical evidence
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: and documents in the case. The government has represented that
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the discovery associated with this case includes more than 2,400
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: pages of investigative reports, photographs, phone toll records, and other materials. Now,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: in the Maxwell case, we're talking hundreds of thousands of
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: pages of documents. So it shows you the scope. Reads
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a stipulation signed April 15th by counsel for both sides.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: All of this discovery has been produced directly to counsel.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: In addition, the government has made available for review more
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: than 2,900 pages of additional materials, as well as video
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and audio recordings. If convicted, Ponce and Chavez each face
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: up to 40 years in prison and fines up to
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: $ 5 million with statutory minimum of five years in prison.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: So there's your minimum sentence right there, at least five,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: doing at least a five spot. So you see why
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: this dude Gonzalez looks like turntail. He's not trying to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: go do any time in prison, right? But now for
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the rest of his life, he's going to have to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: be looking out for the CJNG and the Sicario's that
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: come with it. The moral of this story, folks, is
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: don't get into business with the cartel. If you'd like
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to contact me, you can do that at bobbycapucci at protonmail.com.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also find me on
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y underscore C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that goes with
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found in the description box.