Killers of U.S. Surfers ‘Handed’ to Authorities by Cartel

Sinaloa cartel members have claimed they handed over the killers of an American surfer and his two Australian friends after their bodies were dumped down a well in Mexico.

US national Jack Carter Rhoad and brothers Callum and Jake Robinson were found murdered on Monday near the city of Ensenada.

The area is currently under the control of the vicious Sinaloa cartel, headed by brothers René and Aquiles Arzate

But a representative from the organization denied any connection to the crime and stated they had turned over the culprits to the police after becoming afraid of ‘unwanted attention’.

However, Mexican authorities have since claimed they arrested three suspects after tracking the location of one of the victims’ phones.

 ‘They were low-level robbers acting alone. But we handed them over,’ the Sinaloa member told the Daily Beast.

 ‘We learned that the cops were looking for the gringos and also began looking for those who were responsible. We called the authorities to let them know where to find them.’

Baja California investigators said the trio were killed after their pickup truck was set upon by thieves.

‘The tourists refused and tried to fight back, but the robbers were armed.,’ an investigator said.

‘When the criminals took out their guns the three [tourists] tried to de-escalate things, but it was too late, they beat the three of them and then shot them in the head.’

The police said they contacted US authorities to obtain the victims’ cell phone numbers and were able to use this to track down Rhoad’s phone which was in the possession of a woman, Ari Gisel García Cota.

Cota and her partner Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota, alias El Kekas, have since been charged.

Cristian Alejandro García, the brother of Kekas, was also charged.

All three of the suspects were in possession of an assortment of methamphetamines and other illegal drugs at the time of their arrest, according to Zeta.

The three tourists were just a few days into their vacation when they disappeared on April 27. 

The brothers’ mother issued a desperate plea on social media after the group failed to turn up at an Airbnb they had booked in Rosarito. 

Their remains were found in a well more than 15 meters (49ft) deep next to a cliff at Punta San José in Santo Tomás, in the municipality of Ensenada, near a remote surfing spot known as Lighthouse, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

It took rescuers about 20 hours to pull the bodies out of the well.

Before the discovery of the bodies, local police had suspected foul play as Jack Rhoad’s burned-out truck was found as well as an abandoned campsite with traces of blood and ‘dental parts’.

The recruitment worker from San Diego was due to marry his fiancée Natalie Wiertz this summer – and had joined Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson for the road trip down the Pacific coast before his big day.