PhD Student Shot to Death During Research in Mexican State Once Ruled by Drug Lord El Chapo

Gabriel Trujillo was shot to death during a research trip in a Mexican state that was once ruled by the drug lord El Chapo. The PhD student was applying his research on the buttonbush shrub which preserves water to restore the wetlands of Mexico.

On June 22, authorities reportedly found the body of Gabriel Trujillo, 31, abandoned in a black SUV in Sonora. Reports say that since drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s arrest in 2016, the Mexican state fell into a hostile madness.

According to Eberhart, the PhD student was on a research trip in Sonora to apply his study on the flowering shrub named the “buttonbush”. Unfortunately, during the trip, the PhD student walked into El Chapo’s former territory where he was shot seven times.

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PhD Student Stepped into the War Zone

According to Barba, three cartels have been fighting in the northwest state of Mexico where Sonora is located. Through the month of May, 518 cases of murder were reported, involving the Caborca Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel that El Chapo allowed to be in control of while he was in power.

Private investigator Jay Armes III states that the PhD student stepped into the war zone at the worst possible time. Apart from the Sinaloa Cartel, two other cartels are also patrolling the same area, fighting over the same territory. Furthermore, the leader of the Nuvea Genercion Cartel from Jalisco also attempts to take over the whole country of Mexico.

Armes III added that he believes the PhD student was stalked by cartel spotters since June 17 when he crossed over the border of Arizona. The PhD student was then reported missing by his fiancée Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos after she did not hear from him since the morning of June 18.

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