The Mexican police version of events in the murders of three surfers appears shady to those knowledgeable about the area and local corruption, The Post has learned.
Rather than being carjacked, Australian brothers Jake, 30, and Callum Robinson, 33, and American Jack Carter Rhoad, 30 — last seen alive on April 27 in the city of Ensenada — may have been killed by cartel members looking for a rival gang, as Baja California is in the midst of a drug war.
Mexican prosecutors said a trio of bandits targeted the victims’ truck so they could take its tires, then reacted with violence when confronted by the surfers, leading to their deaths and the bodies being hidden four miles away.
One source who does private security work in Mexico told The Post the situation is “deeply disturbing” and warned he was wary of the police’s version of events.
“Basically, the reasoning of them being carjack victims gone wrong makes very little sense. These surfers were well traveled and would most likely know better than to try to fend off a truck jacking,” the source said.
“My guess is they were mistakenly identified as a rival criminal organization and murdered. That being exposed would create an ongoing investigation that no cartel wants to deal with and would create a devastating impact on tourism in the area,” which is popular with surfers and visitors from the US, the source explained.
Police have arrested three people — Jesús Gerardo Garcia Cota, his partner Ari Gisel García Cota, and brother Cristian Alejandro Garcia — in connection to the three surfers’ disappearance, but at this stage haven’t charged them with murder.
Cartels in Baja California are known to pay off police to keep their names out of their investigations, and Heritage Foundation Latin America expert Andres Martinez-Fernandez said corruption could easily be a factor regarding the surfers.
“The case is highly unusual, as presented by Mexican police, who say the supposed robbery was done by small-time criminals who ended up destroying the vehicle they were allegedly trying to steal,” he said.
“Given the deep and widespread corruption in the Mexican police, it’s hard to dismiss the possibility of a cover-up, potentially to shift blame away from a powerful drug cartel. This would certainly align with the Mexican government’s efforts to downplay the severity of cartel violence in Mexico,” he added.
Chief state prosecutor Maria Elena Andrade Ramirez said during a press conference that the alleged killers targeted the surfers after noticing their truck and tents.
“They approached, with the intention of stealing their vehicle and taking the tires and other parts to put them on the older-model pickup they were driving,” Andrade Ramirez said.
“When they (the foreigners) came up and caught them, surely, they resisted,” she added. “And these people, the assailants, took out a gun and first they killed the one who was putting up resistance against the vehicle theft, and then others came along and joined the fight to defend their property and their companion who had been attacked, and they killed them too.”
The suspects then burned the surfers’ tents and dumped their bodies in a 50-foot-deep well four miles from the murder scene, Andrade Ramirez said, adding that the thieves covered the well with boards.
“It was literally almost impossible to find it,” Andrade Ramirez said of the well.
Canadian Malcom Madsen, 68, was another foreigner to go missing in Mexico. He was in Puerta Vallarta in 2018 when he was kidnapped and ultimately killed, although his body has never been found.
Osborne said “bribery” and corruption are the “norm for most cases” in Mexico. Madsen’s daughter fought to break the corruption in his case after the killer and her accomplices bribed the local prosecuting attorney and they were let off the hook for about two years, Osborne said.
In the case of the three surfers, they “went to a remote area of Ensenada where bad things happen and nobody is there to see it,” American Jesse Atkinson, owner of Ensenada Excursions and Tours, told The Post.
Atkinson noted the group had camped in Santo Tomás, a small village roughly 28 miles outside the city, when they were killed.
“There’s a lot of places to camp and surf and do stuff, which is amazing, but also there’s not a lot of people out there, so when bad things happen, there’s nobody to notice,” Atkinson said.
“The drug cartels are active, you’re not going to run into guys with guns on their shoulders [the Mexican federal police].”
Barnett English’s friend Wilmer Dean Trivett, whose body was found in another remote area of Mexico south of where the surfers were killed, told The Post that going to rural spots is asking for trouble.
“It seems like if you ever want to go down there and camp and be remote and only be with one or two people, it just seems like you’re leaving yourself open, a sitting duck,” English said, adding that the region “seems less safe than it was years ago.”
Trivett’s body was found in a pit in Baja California Sur and prosecutors said the motive was a “car accident.”
Trivett had attempted to pay off the perpetrators for damages and medical bills associated with the collision, but they weren’t satisfied and decided to kidnap and kill him.
The details of the surfers’ killings are still being investigated by both US authorities and officials in Mexico, a State Department spokesperson told The Post.
“The US Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas,” the spokesperson said.
