CJNG: Power and Violence Operating in 25 States

Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: SinEmbargo y Zeta

 CJNG already operates in 25 of the 32 states, and its power is far from being mined, figures show.

In Veracruz, Puebla and Zacatecas, those of Nemesio Oseguera , "El Mencho", contend with Los Zetas; in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, with Los Zetas, El Golfo and the Northeast Cartel; while in Guerrero they fight with Los Rojos, Acapulco Independent Cartel (CIDA) and Guerreros Unidos, among others. In the State of Mexico they are enemies of La Familia Michoacana; in Morelos, of the Tlahuica Cartel and Los Mayas; and in Chihuahua, the Juarez Cartel and Sinaloa. In Guanajuato: Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima.

Although the Federal Government ensures that there is no criminal organization that dominates the country, local authorities recognize that the rates of violence increased with the presence of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in 25 of the states in which it operates, unleashing terror especially in Baja California, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Veracruz and Jalisco.

The production and transfer of drugs, the seizure of territories through extortion and kidnapping, fuel theft, money laundering and brutal violence, are the hallmark of the criminal group considered the most powerful in Mexico by United States authorities.

However, what has been done so far by the Mexican authorities, more due to pressure from the northern country than on its own initiative, does not yet translate into a reduction in the power of the organization that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho” presumably heads, CJNG , in co-participation with his partners and brothers-in-law “Los Cuinis”, from the González Valencia family, from Aguililla, Michoacán.

The fight against Jalisco has had collateral effects, in addition to the violence between gangsters cells and the attack on police officers, the discrediting of officials immersed in the inactivation of criminal operations, whether through "intelligence" or repression, as is still done in various states. 

Police chiefs and security secretaries have had to resign their positions, some for accusations and others for threats or fear.

After violent events such as those occurred in the second week of August 2019 in Uruapan, Michoacán, where 19 people were killed and hung on vehicle bridges, and the appearance of a video that pointed to some rulers allegedly linked to organized crime, the President López Obrador publicly asked the members of the CJNG "not to harm the population".

First, it was in July when, through a video message, the Secretary of Public Safety and Protection, Alfonso Durazo, was accused of having links with the CJNG. López Obrador defended his official and denied any possibility that the version is substantiated. Then, in August, the Jalisco president Enrique Alfaro was appointed to protect the enemies of that cartel. AMLO himself said he ignored this type of criminal communications.

The Expansion:

Reports from Mexican authorities and the Administration for Drug Control (DEA) indicated at the end of 2017 that the Jalisco criminal company, of Michoacan origin, operated in at least 22 states of the country. A little less than two years away, the map paints at least three more entities to complete 25 of the 32 that exist in the political division of Mexico.

The governments of both countries have data on the presence of CJNG cells in Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Mexico City, Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Colima, State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán , Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Zacatecas.

In the United States, it is assured that the presence of the CJNG has doubled, since in 2015 they had data on their operations in eleven cities, while by 2017 they had already expanded their criminal activities to at least 14 more cities.

In its National Drug Threat Assessment, the DEA indicated that the CJNG primarily traffics "hundreds of kilograms" of methamphetamines from Guadalajara to take them, through crossing spaces in Tijuana, to distribution centers in Los Angeles and San Jose, California , among other destinations.

Due to the above, the US government created a Task Force against Transnational Organized Crime to combat those who consider the “five criminal organizations identified as maximum threats to the country,” among which are three Mexican cartels: Jalisco, Sinaloa and the Gulf. In October 2018, DEA announced that the reward for information that led to the capture of Nemesio Oseguera “El Mencho” was raised to $ 10 million.

The DEA revealed on the first day of August 2019 that Oseguera Cervantes hides in the mountainous areas between Colima, Jalisco and Michoacán, where he created his own “golden triangle” to protect himself. In his research report, he estimates that the behavior of the leader of the CJNG is similar to that of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, of the Sinaloa Cartel, who did not stay long in one place, nor in the same type of property.

“El Mencho” achieved the expansion of the CJNG at the point of bullets and bribes in 23 of the 32 Mexican states. 

For his part, the Secretary of Public Security, Alfonso Durazo, ruled out last September that there is a cartel that dominates throughout the country and ensures that there are only criminal organizations with a regional seat, as in Jalisco or Guanajuato. The federal official who spoils the existence of macro criminal groups, added that the borders with the US are especially complex, as in the case of Baja California and Tamaulipas.

According to the recent annual analysis of the US intelligence agency Stratfor, the fragmentation of the cartels continues, which has resulted in conflicts between cells for the control of territories and has increased violence in Mexico in an “endless war” and a cracking of the CJNG, "the most aggressive in Mexico, which has open battle fronts with its rivals in Sinaloa and Nueva Plaza, which could aggravate the situation."

Mexican authorities of both the former and the current federal administration recognize the presence of the CJNG in the various entities, including in Mexico City, whose rulers had a hard time admitting that there are criminal organizations in the great Capital. There are disputes between the local bands that call themselves "cartels" of Tláhuac and La Unión Tepito with the CJNG for the control of the sale of drugs and the commission of other illicit.

Of course, in Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán there is the greatest operation of the clan headed by "El Mencho" and "Los Cuinis", where their safe houses, training camps and their narcocementeries have been located. Shooting in full population areas, clandestine graves and plastic bags with human remains abandoned anywhere, open or closed, keeps the terror quota for the inhabitants.

The CJNG has an open dispute with the Nueva Plaza group, led by Carlos Enrique Sánchez Martínez "El Cholo", a former collaborator of Oseguera in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area and which extends to other rural municipalities of Jalisco. Allegedly, the support of the Sinaloa Cartel to the "Cholo" has exacerbated the violence that is reflected in the frequent discovery of mutilated human bodies or cruelly murdered with the familiar "narco-messages".

In Michoacán, shooting in entertainment centers, hanging bodies or attacks on police officers are the constant. There the Michoacán of the CJNG that one day were part of the Millennium Cartel of the Valencia, fight territories, the production and the black market of synthetic drugs with Los Viagras, Los Caballeros Templarios and La Familia Michoacana, having among their allies and also enemies to some self-defense groups.

In BC and BCS, those of the Jalisco clan who have collaborators with members of the Arellano Felix Cartel are at war with the Sinaloa Cartel that have dominated the border and the peninsula for years. In addition, it fights a battle inside for control of the organization after the execution and capture of several of its leaders in the last two years.

In Veracruz, Puebla and Zacatecas, those of Nemesio Oseguera contend with Los Zetas; in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, with Los Zetas, El Golfo and the Northeast Cartel; while in Guerrero they fight with Los Rojos, Acapulco Independent Cartel (CIDA) and Guerreros Unidos, among others. In the State of Mexico they are enemies of La Familia Michoacana; in Morelos, of the Tlahuica Cartel and Los Mayas; and in Chihuahua, the Juarez Cartel and Sinaloa.

An especially violent war is that of the CJNG with "El Marro" and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato, rather than for drug control, for the theft and transfer of hydrocarbons. From the town of Santa Rosa de Lima, the CJNG extended to different municipalities, where the aggressions between both criminal factions have moved.

While in Morelos, the Bishop of Cuernavaca, Ramón Castro Castro, said that 18 mayors pay extortions of 100,000 to 500,000 pesos a month to drug cartels, among them the CJNG. And in Monterrey threatening blankets or narco mantas appear to the authorities because they supposedly protect rival groups.

On the morning of Monday, October 14, the most recent terror show of the Jalisco criminal organization was registered, when ambushing patrollers of the State Police in Aguililla, Michoacán, burning their patrols, killing the elements in cold blood and stealing their weapons . The incident occurred in the town of El Aguaje. The official balance was 13 dead state policemen and three wounded. The hitmen traveled in armored vans and before fleeing they left narco messages addressed to Los Viagras and the authorities.

However, despite the speeches that violence is an inheritance from previous governments and that drug trafficking and cartels will not be fought, executions and terrifying findings were presented since the early days of the administration of the current Federal Government.

During the current federal administration, the authorities have dealt several blows to the CJNG. None so far has made it possible to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. However, it is noted that it is in the interest of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to combat said criminal organization. This is shown by some of the actions, such as securing bank accounts of companies and members of that faction.

On March 16, Veracruz police rescued two minors deprived of their liberty at a home in Boca del Río, there were no detainees. Later in Tlalixcoyan, seven vehicles and tactical equipment, allegedly from the CJNG, were secured. A day later, in Cuautitlán de García Barragán, Jalisco, Heleno Madrigal Birrueta “El 20”, alleged leader of the cartel on the South Coast and five of his companions, was arrested. On August 20, a prisoner in Puente Grande, Madrigal "committed suicide."

Another captured close to the "Mencho" was Adrián Alonso G, "El 8", who operated in Los Altos de Jalisco and Southeast Guanajuato. On April 10 he was informed of his detention in a medical office and subsequent transfer to the Federal Center for Social Readaptation Number 14 in Gómez Palacio, Durango. During a search of a house of "El 8" in Zapopan, 41 assault rifles, eleven 40-caliber grenades, ten packages with synthetic drugs and two safes were secured: one with more than one million pesos and another with $ 279,000 in cash .

On April 26 in Parácuaro, Michoacán, 16 suspected members of the CJNG were arrested, who carried high-powered weapons. On May 7, federal forces trapped Raymundo Isidro Castro Salgado in Puebla, "El Ray," the chief of a position in that entity. On May 29, Aldo Azcona “El Enano” fell in Mexico City and three of his collaborators, one of them Colombian, who were selling arms and drugs for the same cartel. On June 23, in the Capital of the country, the Police arrested three other members of the clan.

In San Luis Potosí, on August 4, federal agents arrested Edgar Herrera Pardo "El Caimán" or "El Cabo 8". Police tracked his girlfriend, a model named Maine de la Cruz, and reached the lair of the wanted man, who faces charges for crimes against health in the maximum security prison in Puente Grande. In San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Alexis “El Chofo”, a square leader, was accused of murdering the local Public Security Commissioner.

Finally, on September 27, federal authorities announced the assurance of 22 long weapons, six guns, 70 loaders, two grenade launchers, eight 40-caliber grenades, more than 2,600 cartridges, a cannon tube, four grenade launchers and 18 packages containing the synthetic drug crystal meth. The events occurred in the search of a residence in Zapopan, where Carlos "N" aka "El Chickín" was arrested, allegedly responsible for the recruitment of new members to the CJNG, as well as likely responsible for drug trafficking to the United States, Central and South America.

All of these specific events have been posted here on BB, check out the Search Engine.