2 teen gang members plead guilty in cartel-linked Chula Vista shootings

The Sinaloa cartel hired two 15-year-old boys from a Los Angeles street gang to carry out a hit on a rival early last year in Chula Vista, setting off a chaotic string of events outside a restaurant and inside an upscale apartment that left one person dead and two others wounded by gunfire, according to guilty pleas that the two boys entered Thursday in San Diego federal court.

The guilty pleas helped shed light on an episode of cartel-linked violence that had largely been shrouded in secrecy for nearly two years.

Johncarlo Quintero, now 17, and Andrew Nunez, 16, admitted Thursday that they were members of a Mexican Mafia-affiliated street gang from the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles and were hired by the Sinaloa cartel to kill a man who was not identified by name in court documents.

The Union-Tribune previously reported that the target was James Bryant Corona, also known as “El Apache,” who was the alleged leader of a Tijuana drug cell and a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, according to sources on both sides of the border with knowledge of the investigation. The sources spoke to the Union-Tribune on the condition ...