“El Chilín”, second in command of Los Mexicles, would have died during the escape from Cereso No. 3 in Ciudad Juárez

The most recent reports from the Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) on the riot and escape from the Ciudad Juárez prison revealed that, although the nettop leader of The Mexicleshe regained his freedom, his main subordinate did not run with the same fate.

César Vega Muñoz, known as the chilinwas included in the list of persons deprived of liberty (ppl) who died during the attack on the State Center for Social Reintegration (Ceresus) No. 3 from January 1.

“César VM, Édgar ER, Juan Carlos NG, Jorge César LN, José Luis OG and Christián RN” were the identities of the deceased prisoners shared by the State Prosecutor’s Office on the afternoon of January 2.

During the hours after the escape of dozens of inmates, the version circulated that the chilin he would have managed to leave the penitentiary center together with his boss, Ernesto Alfredo Pinon de la Cruz, aka the net. However, when the state authorities released the files with data on the 30 escapees, he stressed that Vega Muñoz’s was missing. It was not until the next day that his death was confirmed.

According to newspaper reports, the chilinthe alleged leader of Los Mexicles, had been identified since 2008 as a member of a gang of kidnappers headed by the net Y Jose Eduardo Soto Rodriguez, The Lalo.

Investigations by the Chihuahuan Prosecutor’s Office revealed that on December 6 of that year, the three subjects, in complicity with another named Juan Antonio Moreno Torres, alias The Furcio either The Chaneque, kidnapped a minor.

According to the investigations, the individuals were heavily armed and arrived at a tortilla shop located in the Bellavista neighborhood. There they subdued the owner and the workers to later take the owner’s son.

The minor was transferred to a safe house on Francisco I. Madero street in the Centro neighborhood in Juárez. There he was for almost six hours until his relatives paid just over 13 thousand dollars for his ransom.

A year later, in 2009, the chilin was identified as one of the alleged perpetrators of the kidnapping of Natividad Torres Leyva, who was kidnapped at gunpoint by at least seven men on September 15 in front of his home in the border city. Apparently, Vega Muñoz was in charge of demanding the ransoms from the families by telephone.

While held captive, the kidnappers shot Torres Leyva at least four times. Although he was released on the morning of September 16, he died on October 21 of the same year in a local hospital due to gunshot wounds.

Such crimes placed Vega Muñoz in the crosshairs of the Mexican authorities. According to files of El Paso Times and local media the chilin had been captured in Juárez in December 2010, but an armed commando ambushed the vehicle in which they were transporting him to the state Cereso and managed to escape.

In view of the persecution undertaken by the Prosecutor’s Office against him, César Vega fled to the United States and got a job as a cook at a fried chicken restaurant in El Paso, Texas. On December 27, 2011, he was captured outside the branch where he worked on charges related to his immigration status.

Finally, came into the hands of the Chihuahua authorities on September 14, 2015, when agents of the Enforcement and Removal Office (ERO, for its acronym in English) turned him over to the Mexican government at the Lerdo Stanton International Bridge. At the moment, it is unknown if from that date he was transferred to Cereso No. 3, where he lost his life on the morning of January 1, 2023.

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