US PhD student killed doing research in warring Mexican state once controlled by El Chapo: ‘A hornet’s nest’

A U.S. PhD student unknowingly “walked into a hornet’s nest” during a research trip to El Chapo’s former territory in Mexico, where he was shot seven times and left to die in a black SUV. 

Gabriel Trujillo, a 31-year-old botanist who was engaged to be married and start a family, was on a mission to apply his research of the flowering shrub called the Buttonbush, which preserves water quality, enhances wildlife habitat and controls erosion, to build a garden in Mexico and restore the area’s wetlands.

On June 22, authorities found Trujillo’s body in the Mexican state of Sonora, which has descended into trigger-happy madness after Chapo Guzman’s arrest, private investigator Jay Armes III told Fox News Digital. 

Three cartels are warring in country’s northwest state, which has 518 reported murders through May, including two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Caborca Cartel, which El Chapo allowed to run simultaneously while he was in power, said Armes III, who works kidnapping cases around the world but specializes in crime in Mexico. 

RESEARCH TRIP IN MEXICO TRAGICALLY CUT SHORT AFTER UC BERKELEY PhD STUDENT IS FATALLY SHOT 7 TIMES

“Now, you have a situation where you have three cartels minimum fighting over the same territory. You also head of the Nuveo Genercion Cartel from Jalisco, which is trying to take over the entire country Mexico, dipping their toe in the region,” Armes III said. 

“So this guy went into a warzone at the worst possible time. Instead of just the Sinaloa Cartel patrolling, you have three cartels patrolling the same space, fighting each other and looking for each other’s men and killing whoever doesn’t belong to their group.”

MEXICAN KIDNAPPERS TARGETING AMERICANS TOURISTS HAVE ‘NO CODE’

He believes Trujillo, who was reported missing by his fiancée, Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos, after she didn’t hear from him since the morning of June 18, was likely stalked by cartel spotters since he crossed over the Arizona border on June 17. 

The spotters, called “falcons” or “halcones” in Spanish, are kids, teenagers, adults, little old men on the cartels’ payrolls who use encrypted walkie talkies to report anything “out of the ordinary,” Armes III said. 

“When a spotter spots someone that doesn’t belong there, they’ll dispatch a patrol or a group of sicarios (hitmen) to kick people out,” he said. “When a group of sicarios roll up on you, you’re categorized as a civilian, law enforcement or a rival cartel member.

“If you’re deemed anything but a regular citizen minding their own business, they’re going to kill you. If you’re a regular citizen, they may rob you for the fun of it.”

SINALOA CARTEL MEMBERS SENT PICS OF DEAD MEXICAN POLICE AND WITNESSES: ‘THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO SCUM/SNITCHES’

In Trujillo’s case, he believes sicarios thought he was an undercover DEA agent because they didn’t steal his SUV, which they use in their operations, and they didn’t mutilate his body to display as a warning to rival cartels. 

“Think about it. If you’re a hitman, and you’re patrolling an area in the middle of nowhere, 65 miles from the border, and you got a guy messing around in the bushes because he’s researching Buttonsbush with American license plates and you tell them you’re doing plant research, you think they’re going to believe you?” Armes III said. 

“What I thought was odd was that they killed him and left him in his SUV, instead of pulling him out, killing him, dumping his body on the side of the road and stealing the vehicle,” he said. 

“That tells me, they might’ve panicked or one of them in the car thought he some sort of law enforcement so they likely machine gunned him and moved on.”

SENATORS URGE BIDEN ADMIN TO SLAP SANCTIONS, VISA BANS ON MEXICAN OFFICIALS TO FORCE ACTION AGAINST CARTELS

The Sonora state prosecutor’s office said in a statement Thursday that it is analyzing evidence “to establish the facts, conditions and causes of the death.” The statement did not give details about what occurred or call Trujillo’s death a homicide.

As of Saturday, there’s been no official update. Armes III said he called a few independent sources in the area, who told them it was one of the cartels but who and why remains a mystery.

“YOUR LIFE AND WORK YOU BUILT (WITH AND ALONG SIDE ROXY) INSPIRES ME”

As the law enforcement side sorts through a muddied investigation, his family, friends, acquaintances and teachers are left to pick up the pieces. 

“Gabriel had a passion for nature and culture and a relentless drive for science,” his obituary says. “His deep appreciation for the natural world guided him to explore the wonders of the outdoors. 

MEXICAN POLITICIAN ARRESTED AT TEXAS CHECKPOINT WITH 93 POUNDS OF COCAINE IN CAR

“He found solace in the beauty of nature, always eager to learn and protect the environment he held so dear. Gabriel’s love for culture was infectious, and he immersed himself in learning about different traditions and customs, always seeking to broaden his understanding of the world.”

A GoFundMe, which has raised almost $60,000 (original goal was $35,000), as of Saturday afternoon, is filled with condolences and love from people who never met him or had a class with him once in undergrad to educators to close friends.

ARMED SUSPECTED MEXICAN CARTEL MEMBERS ARRESTED ON TEXAS SIDE OF BORDER

His fiancée’s best friend, who goes by Brijean on Facebook, posted a heartfelt tribute on his page (read in full below).

“Your gentleness and graciousness and presence eases and reminds us to be calm and curious and kind towards each other,” Brijean wrote. “The life and work you built (with and along side Roxy) inspires me to build a better world.”

He said in a Facebook post that it took Trujillo’s fiancee “days to find him.”

Roxy, as she’s known to family and friends, “stood by his side through thick and thin,” Trujillo’s obituary reads. “Their love was a testament to the power of commitment and partnership.”

EL CHAPO’S SONS DENY FENTANYL TRAFFICKING ALLEGATIONS

LOVE BLOSSOMS

Trujillo was a PhD student at the University of California Berkeley as a Ford Foundation fellow and on track to complete the program in 2025. 

UC Berkeley is where he met Roxy, who is postdoctoral fellow researching widespread tree mortality and collected Buttonbush samples together. 

Cruz-de Hoyos had been undergoing fertility treatments for the last two years and this summer’s trip to Mexico was supposed to be Trujillo’s last before the couple began trying to get pregnant, the Associated Press reported. 

They had bought a house together, commissioned custom engagement rings and envisioned a wedding led by an Indigenous elder by the end of the year. 

UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING: ACTING POLICE CHIEF ON DAY OF MASSACRE PLACED ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE

They planned to announce their happy news in August, when Trujillo returned from his trip.

“We were committed to dedicating our lives to environmental conservation and environmental research,” she told the Associated Press. “We felt that Indigenous hands have taken care of these lands for time immemorial.”

WATCH DOJ UNVEILS INDICTMENTS AGAINST EL CHAPO’S SONS

Trujillo was drawn to Sonora and hoped to connect with his Opata Indigenous roots through the group’s ancestral lands. 

With shared ancestry in the Nahua Indigenous group, which has ties to the Aztec civilization in central Mexico, the couple pledged to merge their identities and scientific studies as part of their future together.

GET TO KNOW GABRIEL TRUJILLO IN HIS OWN WORDS

Trujillo wrote about his interests and research on UC Berkeley’s website. 

“My wider interests include studying the forces that drive evolution in tropical plants and insects,” he wrote in his information page. 

“More specifically, the rare transition of tropical woody plants into the temperate zone. These types of transitions shape the diversity and structure of forests around the world. 

“I am particularly interested in the genera Cephalanthus a group of woody angiosperms with distributions from boreal to tropical zones. 

My research focuses on how functional plant traits associated with frost tolerance are lost and or gained, and how these traits facilitate species range expansion from their tropical origin into temperate zones.”

 

“Gabriel was and is beyond what words can express.,” his GoFundMe says. “He was brilliant, genuine, talented, adventurous, brave, generous, and above all unfailingly kind and loving to everyone.”

Armes III said, “It’s a sad situation that someone with that kind potential was killed senselessly,” and offered his condolences to his family and friends.