Víctor Manuel Torres García—known as “El Güero” and/or “El Papirrín”—rose through the ranks of the criminal underworld after first joining forces with the Beltrán Leyva Organization. Six years would pass before he was arrested again; however, Mexico City police finally caught up with him just four months after he orchestrated the murder of a lawyer in the Roma Norte neighborhood while operating as an independent crime boss.
According to reports reviewed by *Infobae México*, “El Papirrín” reported directly to the Beltrán Leyva brothers—cousins of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a. “El Chapo.” The Beltrán Leyvas were allied with the Sinaloa Cartel during the era of “The Federation,” a coalition of major cartels formed in the mid-2000s.
At that time, the Beltrán Leyva brothers were led by Arturo—known as “El Barbas”—and held sway over Mexico’s Pacific Southeast region as well as the country’s central states. Yet, they had also established their criminal dominance from the very stronghold where they first emerged alongside other kingpins: Sinaloa. Torres García belonged to this organization before eventually embedding himself within other criminal structures.
This is how “El Güero” came to join a faction of the Millennium Cartel (Cártel del Milenio)—a group allied with Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, a.k.a. “Nacho,” within the broader alliance linked to the Sinaloa Cartel. Previously, this faction—which originated in the state of Michoacán—had maintained ties with the Beltrán Leyvas; consequently, switching sides did not represent a drastic departure for “El Güero.”
However, everything changed between 2009 and 2010, when the Mexican Army arrested brothers Óscar Orlando (“El Lobo”) and Juan Carlos Nava Valencia (“El Tigre”). They had become the heirs to the Millennium Cartel following the 2003 downfall of its supreme leader, Armando Valencia Cornelio—known as “El Maradona.” Furthermore, toward the end of that decade, “Nacho” Coronel was also killed in a shootout.
