2 teen gang members plead guilty in cartel-linked Chula Vista shootings – San Diego Union-Tribune

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO

The Sinaloa cartel hired two 15-year-old boys from a Los Angeles street gang to carry out a hit on a rival early last year in Chula Vista, setting off a chaotic assassination attempt outside a restaurant and a shootout at an upscale apartment that left one person dead and two others wounded by gunfire, according to guilty pleas the two boys entered Thursday in San Diego federal court.

The pleas helped shed light on an episode of cartel-linked violence that had largely been shrouded in secrecy for nearly two years.

Johncarlo Quintero, now 17, and Andrew Nunez, 16, each pleaded guilty to one count of murder in aid of racketeering and two counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering. Though the murder charge would typically carry a potential punishment of death or life in prison, their plea agreements stipulate that because they were juveniles, they are “ineligible for the death penalty or for mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

Quintero and Nunez admitted Thursday that they were members of a Mexican Mafia-affiliated street gang from the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles and were hired by the Sinaloa cartel to kill a man whom cartel members wanted dead. The man was not identified by name in court documents.

The Union-Tribune previously reported that the target was James Bryant Corona, also known as “El Apache,” who was the alleged leader of a Tijuana drug cell and a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, according to sources on both sides of the border with knowledge of the investigation. The sources spoke to the Union-Tribune on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation at the time.

Last year, Baja California Deputy Attorney General Rafael Orozco Vargas described Corona as “one of the main generators of violence” in Tijuana and greater Baja California, though Corona was not known to be facing charges in the U.S. or Mexico.

According to their guilty pleas, Quintero and Nunez first attempted to kill their target on March 26, 2024, outside a Chili’s restaurant in a strip mall off East H Street and Paseo del Rey. Quintero admitted in court Thursday that he jumped out of a car as the target was leaving the restaurant with his family and shot the victim once in his legs.

But Quintero’s gun jammed after a single shot, so Nunez tried unsuccessfully to run over the victim with the vehicle he was driving, according to both of their pleas. The wounded victim was able to retreat to safety back inside the restaurant.

Early the next morning, about five hours after the first attack, the boys traveled with another man, identified in court Thursday as Ricardo Sanchez, to their target’s residence at the Salerno Luxury Rentals apartment complex in Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch neighborhood, according to their plea agreements. They admitted that they intended to complete the killing and were expecting to be paid $50,000 each for carrying out the hit.

Their target was inside the apartment with two family members, including a child, and one friend. When Sanchez knocked on a patio door, the friend opened the front door, according to their guilty pleas. Nunez and Quintero “shot … indiscriminately” at the friend and at their target’s home, “creating a kill zone,” according to their guilty pleas.

The friend was struck by gunshots in one hand, an arm and his face, but he survived and managed to fire back at the trio, striking and killing Sanchez, according to the guilty pleas. Nunez and Quintero fled but were apprehended by police later that day.

Nunez and Quintero were initially charged in San Diego Superior Court, but their cases were later transferred to U.S. District Court. Because they are juveniles, those cases remained sealed until Thursday, when they pleaded guilty and a judge granted a prosecutor’s request to unseal adult cases against the duo. The juvenile portions of their legal proceedings remain sealed.

In their guilty pleas, the two boys admitted that they were recruited to carry out the hit specifically because they were not yet 16 years old, and thus under a 2018 state law were ineligible to be tried in state court as adults.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said that the law “created perverse incentives” for violent criminal organizations.

“Today’s plea agreements are proof that the Sinaloa Cartel and a hyper-violent criminal street gang controlled by the Mexican Mafia responded to these incentives,” Gordon said in his statement. “They recruited 15-year-olds to conduct a gangland assassination in San Diego for $50,000 each. The brutal realities of cartel and gang violence demand a response, not a reprieve. The Department of Justice will federally prosecute — as adults — juveniles who commit violent acts on behalf of cartels, the Mexican Mafia, or criminal street gangs.”

The murder charge that Quintero and Nunez each pleaded guilty to pertains to the death of their companion, Sanchez. Under California law, which makes up an element of the federal murder in aid of racketeering charge, one person attempting to kill a second person can be charged with murder if a third person is killed.

According to sources, the attacks in Chula Vista were also related to a shooting death about one month earlier in San Diego’s University City neighborhood.

Christian Espinoza Silver, who was allegedly a member of the same drug cell as Corona, was gunned down Feb. 17, 2024, inside a BMW SUV near the parking garage of Palisade UTC, a high-end apartment complex considered one of the most expensive in the county when it opened in 2019. Espinoza, 35, was struck multiple times and killed, while a 39-year-old man also inside the SUV was struck multiple times and wounded, according to San Diego police.

In October, San Diego police arrested 32-year-old Vanessa Gurrola Peraza, a social media influencer and former beauty queen, on suspicion of murder in the death of Espinoza. Peraza remains jailed and has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Both Corona and Espinoza were believed to be associates of Edwin Huerta Nuño, also known as “El Flaquito,” who was arrested in June in Tijuana. Huerta Nuño was extradited in August to San Diego and indicted on federal charges related to the importation and distribution of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and cocaine, as well as money laundering.