Three more charged in 2024 cartel-linked attempted hits in Chula Vista

Three more people have been federally charged in connection with two chaotic attempted cartel hits by teenage gunmen in 2024 in Chula Vista. The gunmen targeted a man with his family first outside a busy restaurant then opened fire hours later at the man’s upscale apartment — a shootout that left an accomplice dead.

Alleged Sinaloa Cartel associates Poly Antunez, Antonio Quinones and Jovanny Enriquez are accused of roles in either hiring two 15-year-old gunmen or guiding them through their attempts to kill the target, including providing guns and securing an AirBnB, according to newly filed documents in San Diego federal court.

The federal filings offer the most detail to date of the two attempts to kill the target, a member of a rival cartel who was believed to have had ties to a “massive” heist of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl from the Sinaloa cartel. The theft prompted “rampant retaliatory murders in Tijuana,” according to newly released court documents.

Federal prosecutors announced that the trio had been indicted on several charges, including conspiracy to commit murder and murder for hire, according to the indictment unsealed Thursday. Prosecutors also detailed their allegations in a federal memo seeking to detain Quinones and Enriquez. Antunez is already in custody a...