An expert has raised major questions about a key theory that has emerged over the brutal deaths of two Australian surfers and their American friend.
The remains of Callum, 33, and Jake Robinson, 30, as well as their friend Carter Rhoad, 30, were found on Saturday lying in a 45-metre-deep well on a property in Mexico, each with a single gunshot wound to the head.
The Robinson brothers, originally from Perth, were in northern Mexico on a surfing trip when they failed to check into an Airbnb near the city of Ensenada in the Baja California region on April 27.
The official version of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Baja California is that the trio were purely victims of minor crimes.
Police claim that the perpetrators saw the travelers’ vehicle and wanted to steal the tires, and the victims were killed when they resisted.
However, many issues still remain unresolved.
Australian brothers Jake, 30 (right) and Callum Robinson, 32 (second from left) are pictured with their parents Debra and Martin.
Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, was murdered with the two Australian brothers
There have been suggestions that Mexico’s infamous cartels and organized crime gangs were responsible for the murders.
Organized crime researcher Dr Philip Johnson, a professor at Flinders University’s School of Business, Government and Law in Melbourne, told Daily Mail Australia there wasn’t much evidence to support the theory.
“I don’t think there’s anything here that says this came from the chain of command of a drug cartel or any other type of criminal organization,” he said.
‘I think it’s really important to say that cartels are not organizations with clear memberships, there is no card cartel situation.
‘The biggest, richest and most powerful organizations work with subcontractors for many different local gangs.
“So these guys could be relatively minor criminals, not associated in any particular way with a larger cartel.
“That doesn’t mean they haven’t done business for them.”
Dr. Johnson explained that the involvement of the cartels in the violence was due to the impunity with which the State, the police and the army allowed them to operate.
According to local media, blood was discovered in three abandoned tents where the brothers and their American friend were believed to have been staying before they disappeared. A truck, said to belong to either Jake or Callum, was also found burnt out on a nearby farm (pictured).
Australian brothers Callum, 33 (left) and Jake, 30, were last seen with their American friend on April 27.
“Some cartels are quite well armed and have very experienced ‘soldiers’, so to speak, but what really allows them to do what they do is the fact that they can do it and get away with it and do it again and get away with it.” that,” he said.
Dr Johnson said the fact that another body was found in the well with the Australian brothers and their American friend, who had been dumped earlier, was evidence of this impunity.
The area where the murders occurred is currently under the control of the cruel Sinaloa cartel.
Members of the Sinaloa cartel have claimed they handed over the traveling trio’s killers to authorities.
A representative for the organization denied any wrongdoing and said the cartel had turned the culprits over to police for fear of receiving “unwanted attention.”
‘They were low-level thieves who acted alone. But we gave them to them,’ said the Sinaloa member to the daily beast.
‘We found out that the police were looking for the gringos and they also began looking for those responsible. We called the authorities to tell them where to find them.’
In response to these claims, Dr. Johnson said it was possible that a branch of the Sinaloa cartel knew something about the triple murder or took action after learning of the crime.
‘Larger organizations will be more interested in trafficking large quantities of illicit drugs; “They won’t want minor crimes interfering with their traffic routes and local agreements,” he said.
Dr. Johnson explained that the “unwanted attention” mentioned by the cartel member could refer to a drug trafficking operation that uses Ensenada as a transit point.
He said the cartel would prefer minimal police and media scrutiny to conduct business smoothly.
“Their goal is to achieve a calm and ‘normal’ environment to avoid the attention of federal authorities and higher-level law enforcement, although they may have agreements with local authorities,” he said.
The execution-style killings of the three victims, who died from a single gunshot wound to the head, also raised questions for Dr. Johnson.
Brothers Jesús Gerardo (pictured left) and Cristian Alejandro were two of the three suspects arrested. All surnames of the suspects have been suppressed by a Mexican court
Ari Gisel, 23, is one of three suspects arrested. She is the partner of the also suspect Jesús Gerardo.
He said that suggested they were calculated, cold-blooded murders, not just the result of opportunistic robbery.
“I think it takes a certain degree of skill and experience to kill people this way,” he said.
‘For a fairly minor crime, to go to the trouble of killing all the victims in this way… making sure there are no survivors or witnesses…
“This idea of a robbery, a kind of opportunistic robbery in a place without regular traffic, in a remote place to navigate, seems quite strange.”
Dr Johnson suggested that the isolated location of the murders seemed an unlikely place for petty criminals to find people with valuables.
“There’s something more here about the interaction between perpetrators and victims in this kind of remote and unlikely place,” he said.
Dr. Johnson also found the burning of the vehicle surprising and wondered why it was not simply taken away and sold.
“Even if there had been a fight and there were blood stains on the vehicle, it was a pretty calculated way to hide evidence,” he said.
Expert points out major flaw in tire theory
Eltan Talmi is CEO of Tactical Troop, a private security company specialized in Mexico.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, he provided information about the horrible actions of the cartels in Baja California.
‘According to the organization common causeBaja California concluded 2023 as the Mexican state with the highest count of atrocities, with a total of 438 incidents,’ he said.
“These atrocities include mutilations, dismemberments, desecration of corpses, massacres, discovery of clandestine graves, torture and other serious crimes.”
He agrees that the theory suggesting the brothers were killed simply because of their tires is invalid.
“The tire issue is, of course, a cover,” he said.
‘No one will kill three tourists in Mexico over tires. You can steal tires at night without attracting as much attention.
He said it seems hasty for authorities to conclude that this is simply an auto parts theft.
Talmi believes execution-style killings suggest more sinister intentions
The bodies were decomposing after the thieves threw them into a remote well 45 meters deep.
“Although violent car thefts often result in serious injuries or deaths, there were no reports of violent car part thefts in the region last year,” he said.
Talmi believes the way the three surfers were murdered suggests more sinister intentions.
‘Why were there headshots? It is highly unlikely that they would be constantly hit on the head if they were supposedly defending themselves; Most likely there were multiple body blows,” he lamented.
He said the location where the bodies were dumped suggests the perpetrators may have known well in advance.
“This case may not be a simple matter of criminality, but could be linked to an organized crime group,” he said.
Talmi said a series of factors led him to this conclusion: “The presence of a burned vehicle, the dragging of bodies and the efforts to hide them in a pre-existing clandestine grave.”
He agreed with Dr. Johnson that it seemed the brutal murders were a tragic case of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”