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Yuriana Castillo Torres: What Caused the death of El Chino ntrax's Partner

Yuriana Castillo Torres was a Model and the partner of José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa. Yuriana Castillo Torres’s Ex-partner Gamboa commonly referred to by his alias “El Chino Ántrax”, was a Mexican drug lord, a professional hitman, and a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal organization based in Sinaloa.

She was a celebrity in the so-called world of “buchona show business” where models and ladies flaunt their wealth and show off expensive lifestyle. Yuriana Castillo Torres died on May 6, 2014 in Culiacán, Sinaloa. She was 23 years old of American Nationality and also a very dedicated model. What was the cause of her death?

Yuriana Castillo Torres Cause of Death

Barely some few months after the arrest of José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa, alias “El Chino Ántrax”, at the Amsterdam airport, his partner and mother of his son, Yuriana Castillo Torres was murdered. El Chino Ántrax’s romantic partner Yuriana Castillo Torres was reportedly kidnapped by armed men while heading to her vehicle after leaving a gym in Culiacán, Sinaloa on 6 May 2014. 

Witnesses at the scene said that several men took her away in a truck, in the place only a purple sports shoe remained, owned by her. Yuriana Castillo Torres who was also related to Javier Torres el JT and Manuel Torres el Ondeado, both leaders of the Sinaloa cartel.

According to the witnesses, a truck reversed down Paseo de las Palmas boulevard, between Juan Aldama and Río Tabalá, in the Guadalupe neighborhood. They stopped in front of a vacant lot and two men dropped a bundle wrapped in white sheets as people exercising in the area watched them thinking they were littering.

El Chino Ántrax’s Partner, Yuriana Castillo Torres, who was a well-known celebrity in the “buchona show business”, run out of luck. She was kidnapped and killed and her body was later found. The Sinaloa Attorney General’s Office reported that she died of suffocation by hanging.

Yuriana Castillo Torres’ corpse was discovered at 06:45 the next day by Mexican law enforcement at a vacant lot in Lomas de Guadalupe neighborhood in Culiacán, and confirmed to be hers by her family members at the forensic installations. Post-mortem reports showed that Castillo Torres had been tortured, received several blows to the head and that her hands and legs were tied with an electric cable. 

When Yuriana Castillo Torres’ lifeless body was found, it was wrapped in white sheets and tied with electrical cables in a vacant lot behind a preparatory school of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, in the Lomas de Guadalupe neighborhood. No traces of firearms were found.

At the funeral home where the wake took place, members of Los Ántrax reportedly paid their condolences by leaving a floral ornament in honor of her.

Yuriana Castillo Torres‘ romantic partner, Rodrigo Aréchiga, was one of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada’s trusted men, he was in charge of Los Ántrax, one of the armed arms of the Sinaloa cartel. 

In 2012, the internal struggles between groups that operated for the cartel intensified and the casualties for the hitmen were increasing. Its leader was already in the sights of the United States authorities, so it was necessary to remove its founder from the scene to keep him safe.

Yuriana Castillo Torres’s Partner, El Chino Ántrax’s arrest, and Death

On 3 January 2014, the Netherlands Ministry of Security and Justice and the Mexican Embassy in the country confirmed that a 33-year-old Mexican citizen had been arrested by the Dutch police as he arrived from Latin America to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands using a false name on 30 December 2013. 

Initially, the authorities did not give any details on the identity of the detainee, but an anonymous U.S. federal agent and Mexican local newspapers leaked information to the media that the man was in fact Aréchiga Gamboa. 

The arrest of the drug lord was officially confirmed later that day by the U.S. government. According to officials, Aréchiga Gamboa traveled with the fake name of Norberto Sicairos García; at the time of his arrest, he was carrying an iPhone 5, a Blackberry Bold, three airplane tickets, credit cards from Visa and MasterCard from Banamex, and a Mexican driver’s license.

Upon his arrest, he was sent to the Vught maximum-security prison. U.S. law enforcement managed to identify Aréchiga Gamboa through unspecified forensic methods despite the fact that the drug lord had used a fake name to travel, undergone plastic surgery to change his appearance, and altered his fingerprints.

 Yuriana Castillo Torres’s partner was extradited to the United States, where he was wanted, for cocaine and marijuana trafficking. He pleaded guilty on 20 March 2015 and admitted that he had participated in cocaine and marijuana shipments from Mexico to the U.S., and that he had facilitated violent activities for the Sinaloa Cartel.

After being in custody in the United States for six years, Yuriana Castillo Torres’ partner Archeiga was sentenced to seven years and three months in US federal prison.

On March 3, 2020, he was released and placed on house arrest. On May 9, his probation officer reported him as missing.

On the night of May 14, 2020, Yuriana Castillo Torres’ partner Rodrigo, his sister, and her husband were in the house when they were visited by a Sinaloa Cartel ‘hit squad’, which resulted in a fierce firefight with Chino firing back with an automatic assault rifle. This fire lasted until dawn and when they ran out of ammo they surrendered and were taken hostage by armed men.

The next day police in the town of Ayune, Sinaloa, discovered a black SUV with 3 dead bodies inside – one of the bodies was later identified as José Rodrigo Aréchiga Gamboa. He was shot dead and wrapped in cloth, his head was covered with a black plastic bag. The other 2 bodies were identified as his sister and her husband. It was later reported that his murder was likely ordered by senior leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.

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Arica Deslauriers

Update: 2024-05-21