In an operation carried out by the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), federal forces arrested Manuel Garibay Espinoza (“Don Manuel”)—a veteran drug trafficking operative in the Mexicali Valley—in the municipality of Ensenada.
The arrest of the 68-year-old criminal took place around 1:00 PM on Wednesday, July 22, outside a property on Francisco I. Madero Street in the community of San Carlos (Maneadero borough), while he was accompanied by a woman.
According to the SSPC’s National Detention Registry, Garibay Espinoza was captured in execution of a court-ordered warrant for homicide, issued by the Baja California State Attorney General’s Office (FGE).
“Don Manuel” has historical ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and the faction led by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada—known as *La Mayiza*—having previously maintained alliances with the Arellano Félix organization. During the 1980s and 1990s, he led a family-run criminal network implicated in drug trafficking, homicides, and disappearances in the region.
Garibay Espinoza had previously been arrested in June 2010 and extradited to the United States, where he served a sentence in a federal prison. After being repatriated to Mexico, he faced criminal proceedings in Sonora and Baja California for the murder of a law enforcement agent—a charge of which he was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
In recent years, his faction’s presence and operational influence in the Mexicali Valley waned following the arrests and deaths of several family members, compounded by the territorial expansion of the criminal group known as “Los Rusos.” The accused was placed at the disposal of judicial authorities to determine his legal status.
