Two mid-level commanders of Los Rusos, a Sinaloa Cartel faction operating in Mexicali, were among 28 people arrested during a nearly 12-hour Mexicali cartel raid on a house party in Colonia Carranza on April 10. At a press conference on Monday, April 13, Baja California’s top prosecutor confirmed the men face aggravated homicide charges and described the operation as a blow to the group’s retail drug network in central Mexicali.
El Mike Was Arrested in August 2025, Then Released
FGE (Baja California’s state attorney general’s office) chief María Elena Andrade Ramírez identified the two targets as Germán Eduardo, alias “El Mike de la Carranza,” and Antonio Eduardo, alias “El Walo.” Both are tied to drug distribution and active homicide investigations. Andrade said prosecutors established probable cause for aggravated homicide charges against both men after the raid, even though neither had active arrest warrants at the time.
El Mike’s arrest is not the first. In August 2025, state police detained him with a long gun and drugs alongside two other men. That arrest did not keep him off the streets. By April 2026, state security chief Laureano Carrillo Rodríguez described El Mike as a growing threat: a mid-level boss who controlled retail drug sales across Colonia Carranza and ordered killings of rival groups.
“El Mike is a target who already represented a danger to citizens because of his growing authority within Los Rusos, where he also represents a risk to the authorities themselves,” Carrillo said at Monday’s press conference.
Los Rusos emerged as one of several Sinaloa Cartel subfactions competing for territory in Baja California after the cartel’s internal split between the “Chapitos” (sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán) and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s loyalists. The group has been linked to drug retail operations, extortion, and targeted killings in Mexicali’s older central neighborhoods. Colonia Carranza, a working-class area south of Boulevard Adolfo López Mateos, has seen repeated violent incidents tied to the group’s territorial grip.
State Prosecutors Bypassed Federal Delays to Obtain Search Warrant
The operation began in the early hours of April 10 when municipal police responded to a 911 report of gunfire at the house party. Officers detained one man, Jesús Roberto, age 30, outside the property. He was carrying a .40-caliber handgun. He was turned over to FGR (Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office) on federal weapons charges. Andrade noted he may have been a state employee at IPBC, Baja California’s psychiatric institute, though that detail is still being verified.
Partygoers expected police to leave after that first arrest. They did not. Officers held a perimeter around the property while prosecutors sought a search warrant. Andrade and Carrillo both confirmed they first requested the warrant through FGR, but the federal agency did not process it quickly enough. So state prosecutors changed course. The local Ministerio Público, the state-level prosecutorial body, filed its own request with a state judge. That judge granted the warrant roughly two and a half hours later.
The shift from federal to state jurisdiction is telling. Weapons charges fall under federal law in Mexico, but state prosecutors used evidence of other crimes (gunfire, threats against officers, and suspected homicide links) to justify a state-level search warrant. The legal maneuver allowed roughly 120 officers from five agencies to enter the property. Those agencies included Mexicali municipal police, FESC (Baja California’s state police force), AEI (the state investigative agency under FGE), the National Guard, and the Mexican Army.
Drones Spotted Weapons on Rooftops, 911 Threat Warned of Attacks
During the standoff, officers used drones to survey the property and surrounding rooftops. They spotted firearms and communication radios that had been thrown onto neighboring houses. Before officers entered, a caller dialed 911 and threatened that if police units were not withdrawn, attacks would be carried out against all law enforcement on the street. Separately, shots were fired at the Colonia Carranza police substation while officers maintained their perimeter. Andrade said investigators believe that attack was connected to the raid.
Once inside, officers detained all 28 people and seized five firearms: four handguns and one long gun, plus magazines and spent shell casings. Fourteen children were present at the party. Andrade said officers prioritized the children’s safety during the entry. A second search warrant, executed on a vehicle linked to the gathering, yielded more weapons. That find prompted Andrade to classify the case as an organized crime investigation.
Among the other 25 detainees, the singer of the norteño band performing at the party now faces a drug dealing investigation. The remaining detainees face state charges including harboring fugitives, resisting arrest, and crimes against police officers. Andrade did not rule out additional serious charges. “We believe some of them were part of the group led by El Walo and El Mike,” she said.
One officer was injured during the operation after being struck by bottles thrown from inside the property. Andrade described the scene as “an out-of-control party” where armed suspects, children, and musicians were all present together. Prosecutors are now cross-referencing the detainees against open homicide and drug trafficking cases in Mexicali. The organized crime charges, if filed, would move portions of the case to federal jurisdiction. This story was first reported by Punto Norte.