When members of the Sinaloa cartel sought to assassinate a rival in 2024 after he had fled to Chula Vista following the theft of a massive drug shipment in Tijuana, they turned to Mexican Mafia-linked criminal associates in San Diego and Los Angeles, who in turn chose two 15-year-old gang members to carry out the hit.
The choice was deliberate, since they knew that under California law, the boys could not face adult charges nor lengthy prison terms because they were not yet 16 years old. What they apparently did not expect — or perhaps they were simply willing to take the gamble — was that federal prosecutors would take over the case, and those same statutes would not apply.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson sentenced the teens to 25 years each in prison. The judge said the lengthy terms were meant to both punish the boys for what they did — their attempts to murder the Sinaloa rival were unsuccessful, but their associate was killed in a shootout — and also to deter criminal groups from believing that they can outsource murder attempts to young teens without severe consequences.
“The Sinaloa cartel and Mexican Mafia need to be put on notice — you don’t get a pass when you get a juvenile to commit a serious crime like this,” Robinson said.
Johncarlo Quintero, now 17, and Andrew Nunez, 16, tried twice to kill the Sinaloa cartel’s target but were ultimately unsuccessful. However, during the second attempted assassination, an adult member of their gang who was accompanying them was killed in a shootout. Last year, the boys each pleaded guilty to one count of murder in aid of racketeering in connection with the death of their accomplice, and two counts of attempted murder in aid of racketeering.
Meanwhile, three men with alleged links to the Mexican Mafia who are suspected of hiring and helping the teens — Poly Antunez, Antonio Quinones and Jovanny Enriquez — also appeared in Robinson’s courtroom Friday afternoon for a motion hearing. The judge set an October trial date for the trio, all of whom have pleaded not guilty to the various charges in an indictment against them.
Friday’s sentencings, and recently unsealed court documents related to the charges against the three older men, continue to shed light on a March 2024 episode in which brazen cartel violence spilled across the border.
Federal prosecutors argued the genesis of that violence was a November 2023 heist in Tijuana in which a “massive drug load” belonging to the Sinaloa cartel was stolen. The thieves were allegedly corrupt police officers working with a remnant cell of the Arellano Félix Organization, or AFO, a cartel that once dominated Tijuana.
In retaliation for the heist, Sinaloa cartel operatives allegedly hunted down and killed several of the corrupt officers, and prosecutors alleged that they put out a hit on the leaders of the AFO remnant cell believed to be responsible.
On Feb. 17, 2024, Christian Espinoza Silver was gunned down inside a BMW near the parking garage of a pricey high-rise apartment complex in University City. Sources on both sides of the border with knowledge of the investigation have told the Union-Tribune that Silver was one of the alleged leaders of the AFO remnant cell. A social media influencer and former model is charged with his murder in San Diego Superior Court.
Another person on the alleged kill list, according to prosecutors, was identified in court records and in court on Friday only as “Victim 1.” Prosecutors said the cartel first tried to kill him in his Tijuana home a month after the heist, and he subsequently fled to the U.S.
The Union-Tribune has previously identified Victim 1 as James “El Apache” Bryant Corona, an alleged leader of the AFO cell with dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship, according to sources on both sides of the border with knowledge of the case. In 2024, Baja California Deputy Attorney General Rafael Orozco Vargas described Corona as “one of the main generators of violence” in Tijuana and greater Baja California.
In March 2024, Victim 1 was living in Chula Vista with his wife and young child when the three older men facing federal charges — Antunez, Quinones and Enriquez — allegedly helped the Sinaloa cartel track down the family and hired Quintero and Nunez to kill him. The two teens were members of a Los Angeles street gang linked to the Mexican Mafia.
Throughout the day on March 26, 2024, the two teens and Quinones allegedly followed the victim around San Ysidro and Chula Vista. A little before 9 p.m. that night, as the victim and his family were a leaving a Chili’s restaurant in Chula Vista, Quintero got out and opened fire, striking his target’s legs, but the gun jammed after a single shot. Quintero got back in the passenger seat and Nunez tried to drive over the victim, but he was able to make it to safety.
The teens quickly regrouped with two of the older men, Antunez and Quinones, according to prosecutors. At that point, there was a long call to a Mexican phone number, resulting in a new plan, according to prosecutors — an adult member of the teenagers’ gang would join in with more guns, and the cartel would increase the payment to a total of $150,000.
Ricardo Sanchez, front, and then-15-year-olds Andrew Nunez and Johncarlo Quintero are seen in surveillance footage moments before they were involved in a shootout during an attempted cartel hit on March 27, 2024, in Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch neighborhood. Sanchez, 28, was killed in the shootout. (U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California via U.S. District Court filing)
Early on March 27, five hours after the restaurant attack, the two teenagers and 28-year-old Ricardo Sanchez showed up to finish the job at the victim’s home in the Salerno Luxury Rentals apartment complex in Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch neighborhood.
What the trio did not know at the time was that the victim was at a hospital seeking treatment for his earlier gunshot wound. The only people at the home were his wife, his child and a friend.
When Sanchez knocked on a patio door, the friend opened the front door, according to Nunez and Quintero’s guilty pleas. The two teens opened fire “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.
Though the two teens were sentenced separately Friday, their hearings were nearly identical, except that Quintero addressed the judge while Nunez did not.
Quintero took responsibility for his actions and told the victims, who were not present in court, that he was sorry for what he had done. “I especially feel bad for the little kid that was present,” he said.
Nunez’s attorney said his client would be unable to properly express himself in court, but he said Nunez was “exceptionally remorseful for what he did.”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Mellor, Peter Horn and Ashley Goff told the judge that it did not appear that either boy had renounced their gang affiliations.