Authorities say fugitive El Meny Carranza was killed and four people arrested during an air-and-ground operation near San Antonio, Sonora.
Mexican security forces tracking a fugitive known as “El Meny Carranza” deployed two helicopters, another aircraft and ground teams near San Antonio, Sonora, in an operation that authorities say ended with his death and the arrest of four other people.
The deployment followed naval intelligence work and involved the Navy, the federal Security and Citizen Protection Secretariat and Sonora’s Agency of Ministerial Criminal Investigation, known as AMIC. According to the government’s account, ground personnel came under gunfire as they approached the location and returned fire, killing Francisco “N,” alias “El Meny Carranza.” That account has not been independently verified.
During October, naval intelligence reportedly tracked Carranza’s movements alongside Salú Francisco Hernández Tenorio, known as “El Ponchis” or “El Fantasma,” through Magdalena de Kino, Ímuris, Arizpe and Cucurpe. That surveillance helped identify a search area in Arizpe municipality. The report does not establish that Hernández Tenorio was present during the confrontation or among those arrested.
The man killed were identified as Francisco Manuel Romero Carranza. The newspaper and N+ describe him as the suspected second-in-command of Los Fantasmas, a criminal group operating in Sonora. A September 2024 intelligence assessment linking the cell to Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel is cited. His alleged rank and affiliation remain attributed assessments.
Carranza had been arrested on March 28, 2026, before escaping from Hermosillo’s Cereso No. 2 on July 11 with two other inmates. Authorities subsequently offered up to one million pesos for information leading to his recapture. Earlier reporting on the search identified allegations involving attempted homicide, kidnapping, unlawful deprivation of liberty and drug offenses; those allegations do not establish convictions.
During the latest operation, authorities reported seizing five long guns, two handguns, 45 magazines, ammunition, four vehicles, three ballistic vests and a bag containing a substance resembling marijuana. They did not disclose an ammunition total or drug weight. The four detainees and the seized property were turned over to prosecutors, who will determine their legal status. Their identities and individual alleged roles were not disclosed in the reviewed accounts.
The operation’s precise date remains unresolved: some sources places the arrests on October 24, while other reports say that the deployment occurred October 23. The available accounts also leave unanswered whether officers or other civilians were injured and what legal authorization supported the intervention. They establish the government’s reported outcome, while the full circumstances of the fatal shooting remain unverified.
