Fernando Jesus Gutierrez (1958-16 December 1996) was a Mexican businessman who was murdered by the Tijuana Cartel in 1996.
Biography[]
Fernando Jesus Gutierrez was the heir to a San Ysidro, California import-export business before becoming a powerful Tijuana businessman with the help of the Tijuana Cartel. In 1990, Gutierrez and Claudio Ruffo Appel (the brother of Baja California governor Ernesto Ruffo Appel) decided to partner with Tijuana boss Benjamin Arellano Felix to build a new shopping mall, the Plaza San Fernando, on Rosarito Beach; Arellano Felix gave them $30,000,000. The two men were blinded by their newfound wealth, and they squandered it on gambling and women. The cartel always kept its eyes on the two men, however, and they planned to force the men too give back their money. In 1993, Gutierrez's business affairs were swamped with legal woes; a year later, US anti-drug authorities questioned him about his involvement with the cartel. On the night of 16 December 1996, he was shot five times in the face by a Tijuana hitman as he pulled his white Mercedes-Benz coupe into the driveway of his elegant Coronado, San Diego residence. Claudio's life was spared in exchange for the Arellano Felix brothers being given judicial police badges.