State police arrested Arturo Zedillo Pulido, 34, a suspected Sinaloa Cartel operator known as “El Pelucas,” in Tijuana’s Natura sección Bosques neighborhood on April 29. Officers from the Fuerza Estatal de Seguridad Ciudadana (FESC), the state citizen security force, seized three firearms and roughly 900 doses of methamphetamine weighing about 608 grams from his vehicle.
Agents stopped Zedillo Pulido’s Volkswagen Golf GTI on Calle Del Mirador after the car was blocking traffic. When they approached the driver, they spotted a firearm through the window. A full search of the vehicle turned up a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol, a Colt .22-caliber revolver, and two .223-caliber rifles, along with dozens of wrapped packages containing suspected crystal meth.
Linked to Sinaloa Cartel Cell in Southeast Tijuana
According to Semanario Zeta, the Tijuana investigative weekly, Zedillo Pulido is linked to a Sinaloa Cartel cell and allegedly controls drug retail sales and enforcement killings in the Natura area of southeast Tijuana. Zeta reported he is currently in a territorial dispute with a rival known as “El Pájaro,” who is allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Natura is a large housing development in southeast Tijuana, roughly 20 minutes from the San Ysidro border crossing. The neighborhood sits in one of the city’s fastest-growing residential corridors, where planned subdivisions border less-developed hillside areas that have become hotspots for cartel activity.
Federal Prosecutors Take the Case
The arrest involved a coordinated security operation. FESC officers secured the scene before handing Zedillo Pulido over to the Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office, rather than to state prosecutors. The federal handoff is standard procedure when weapons restricted to military use, such as the .223-caliber rifles, are involved. The FGR will determine his legal status going forward.
Zedillo Pulido had been classified as a “priority target” by state security forces. The combination of multiple weapons, including two rifles, and a commercial quantity of meth points to a mid-level distribution or enforcement role within the cartel structure, not street-level dealing.
The arrest was first reported by Punto Norte and confirmed by El Imparcial and Semanario Zeta.