The co-founder of a murder squad tied to Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán’s old Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly executed in Mexico, just 10 days after he violated his probation term and fled his Southern California home.
Authorities recovered the dead bodies of José Rodrigo ‘Chino Ántrax’ Arechiga Gamboa, his sister Ada Jimena Arechiga Gamboa, and brother-in-law Juan García Espinoza on a road in the Culiacán city of Arroyo Seco.
Photos leaked to the Mexican media by the medical examiner’s office confirmed the 40-year-old fugitive’s death.
Additional images from the crime scene show a body lying on the dirt pavement and a male body inside a BMV X-5 registered to Ada Jimena. Local media reports indicated that her body was found next to another male body inside the vehicle.
Mexican news outlets reported that the three victims were kidnapped from Ada Jimena’s home in Sinaloa during a gun battle Friday before they were killed.
José Rodrigo ‘Chino Ántrax’ Arechiga Gamboa was found executed along with his sister and brother-in-law Saturday in the Culiacán city of Arroyo Seco. Chino Ántrax was on the run from U.S. authorities after he violated the terms of his probation and fled his San Diego home on May 6 and entered Mexico on an unknown date
Ada Jimena Arechiga Gamboa was shot dead in Culiacán, Mexico, after several unknown suspects kidnapped her, her husband and her brother, José Rodrigo ‘Chino Ántrax’ Arechiga Gamboa, from her Sinaloa home on Friday
Police and medical examiners survey the crime scene where José Rodrigo ‘Chino Ántrax’ Arechiga Gamboa was found dead Saturday. Chino Ántrax co-founded the Los Ántrax gang which was tied to El Chapo’s cartel
Authorities in San Diego launched a manhunt for Chino Ántrax after he was found missing at his home on May 6 when probation officers showed up to check up on him as part of his early release agreement from prison on March 3.
According to Telemundo, law enforcement sources said Chino Ántrax left his cellphone behind and removed his GPS ankle monitor, and attached it to the leg of a battery-operated doll that moved between the kitchen and bedroom.
He then reportedly crossed the Mexico-United States border and made it to Tijuana where he met his brother Ricardo Aréchiga, who is a businessman in the agriculture and recycling sector in the state of Baja California and who kept himself at a distance from Chino Ántrax’s criminal lifestyle.
A crime scene photograph shows a male body lying on the back of a BMW X-5 that was registered to Ada Jimena Arechiga Gamboa, the sister of José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa, ‘El Chino Antrax’ – a former ally of El Chapo.
Local media reports indicated that Ada Jimena’s body was also in the vehicle
Members of Mexico’s National Guard stand outside the local medical examiner’s office in Culiacán where the three bodies were taken to Saturday after they were found by authorities
He was arrested in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation that began in 2011 by targeting a small drug-dealing ring in the San Diego suburbs of Chula Vista and National City before it reached top leaders through the use of more than 200 wiretaps.
Chino Ántrax, who flaunted his wealth on Instagram, was captured in Amsterdam in 2013 and extradited to the United States in July 2014 to face drug smuggling charges as a member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In March 2015, he would confess to smuggling cocaine and marijuana from Mexico to the United States and admitted he was the mastermind of the cartel’s criminal activities.
‘Chino Antrax is one of the highest-ranking Sinaloa cartel kingpins ever prosecuted in the United States,’ Laura Duffy, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, said following the conviction.
Arechiga Gamboa was only sentenced in December 2019.
While initially facing life in prison , he was only sentenced to seven years and three months behind bars – most of which he had already served.
Chino Ántrax co-founded Los Ántrax, a gang of hitmen tied to a string of murders and attacks reportedly carried out on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel, including the killings of three men who were hung off a bridge in 2011, that were seen as revenge after one of their leaders was murdered.
Los Ántrax also helped the Sinaloa organization as it engaged in a bloody war with the Beltran Leyva cartel, when the latter decided to splinter in 2008.
Prior to his death, Chino Ántrax used social media to post images of himself, with his face blurred out, with beautiful women, gold-plated firearms, Italian sports cars and other luxuries in locations all over the world
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