On Friday, August 14, members of the Institutional Coordination Forces—led by the Baja California Secretariat of Citizen Security—arrested 52-year-old Edgar “N.” He is known by the alias “Sargento Phoenix” and is alleged to be a member of a criminal group operating in the Mexicali Valley.
The operation against him resulted in the seizure of five firearms, ammunition, magazines, two two-way radios, and 560 packets containing a substance resembling methamphetamine, weighing approximately 344 grams.
The alias used by Edgar “N.” is not new to the world of drug trafficking. It was previously used by René Velázquez Valenzuela, the second-in-command of *Los Ántrax*—the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel—and one of the hitmen closest to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. René Velázquez was killed by the Mexican Army on October 30, 2016, during a confrontation in the Hidalgo neighborhood of Culiacán.
Agents from the State Citizen Security Force (FESC) located Edgar “N.” and a 38-year-old woman identified as Inés Marlén “N.” (a native of Hidalgo) inside a white Chevrolet Cruze on Tierra Avenue, between Tabachín Street and Novena Street, in Ciudad Guadalupe Victoria. According to official reports, one of the occupants matched the description of a person of interest to the authorities.
