He sowed panic for six years to settlers of La Montuosa, fired shots, and threatened people… but death reached him last Saturday, July 13th, on the Mazatlán-Durango highway.
By ADRIÁN LUJÁN for Ojo Público Mazatlán.
The location known as Colonia La Montuosa is located within the Municipality of Mazatlán (in the State of Sinaloa). It is a town with a nearby beach: Norte Beach is 2 km away.
This American citizen arrived in Mazatlan’s Colonia La Montuosa six years ago from Durango.
Just arriving from Durango, the man started sparking all kinds of complaints from the Mazatlecos.
He couldn’t return to the U.S. because of his criminal record. Some say he was wanted in more than one state.
His name was Daniel Juan Ortega Sanchez, he was 54 years old, and everybody called him “El Gringo Loco“.
This man quickly became a nightmare for the people of Colonia La Montuosa.
Specifically, those who live in the streets of Medi Luna and Ramón Corona.
“El Gringo Loco” settled in a two-story house, located on a corner, which he turned into some kind of fortress.
The Facebook page Ojo Público Mazatlán (PUBLIC EYE MAZATLAN), published a story four years ago, describing how a reporter went to this address to try to have a word with Ortega, by then already widely known as El Gringo Loco.
The panic that Ortega Sanchez caused among his neighbors was so great, that they were even afraid that he would watch them talking to the press.
The conflict was, 24/7, because the man caused problems, during the day and more often, at night.
Lights on, music blasting, and long horror nights for the people of this neighborhood. So many sleepless nights.
“Aggressive, abusive, rude,” were the qualifications for this Mexican-American individual.
Sometimes at night, El Gringo would go up to the roof of his house, sit in a chair, and with a rifle pointed at houses whose neighbors told him to turn down the volume.
They were only asking him to calm down and “El Gringo” always responded with threats and aggression.
Of course, the man was arrested several times. One of the most “memorable” occurred on June 2, 2020.
On that occasion, a rifle and drugs were confiscated from El Gringo’s house.
Despite neighbors reporting him for the threats, he was never jailed… neither for carrying weapons nor drugs.
He entered the headquarters of the Secretariat of Public Safety more than once, but he was always released after a few days.
Total impunity for someone who for years did what he wanted tormenting the people of this neighborhood.
Some families even moved to another neighborhood to avoid problems.
THE DEADLY ROCK THAT FATE WAS SAVING FOR THE GRINGO…
On Saturday, July 13th, an accident occurred that we can say was weird and unusual.
The pickup truck driver was on the Mazatlán-Durango Road, at kilometer 162.
He was carrying his pet in the back.
Just in his path for this kilometer, a rock of great weight and dimension fell on him.
This huge rock pretty much crushed him and killed him instantly.
It turns out that the driver was Daniel Juan Ortega Sanchez aka “El Gringo Loco“.
This is how this problematic man found death.
The rock was fatal to the Gringo, and in the neighborhood of la Montuosa, all is calm and finally, they can sleep peacefully.
Source: Ojo Público Mazatlán
