CJNG advances in 22 states

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Zetatijuana article

Subject Matter: CJNG
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required

Neither the detentions, those executed, or the sanctions against their businesses, have stopped the expansion of the CJNG in Mexico and abroad. The most recent capture of Jose Gonzalez Valencia, La Chepa, a financial operator from Los Cuinis, may prove a blow but various states blame the cartel for their increases in violence.

Reporter: Zeta Investigations
Although the Sinaloa Cartel is considered the cartel with the most infrastructure and experience in the country, the CJNG, became the cartel with a presence in the largest number of states in Mexico in history, execising a globalized drug trafficking and power base, utilizing money laundering, violence and terror.

Its expansive advance is recognized by authorities of other countries. According to investigations from the United States, the cartel led by the Michoacan born Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, has penetrated into at least 22 Mexican states, and in the American Union, has increased the dispute over the traffic and sale of narcotics in its streets.

For its part, Colombia warns of the growth of the CJNG in Central America where it already has operating bases in a similar way as the Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels. While in Asia and Europe there are indications of his presence as a client and supplier of drugs.




The capture of Jose Gonzalez Valencia, La Chepa, of the Los Cuinis, one of the main financial operators of the cartel and brother in law of El Mencho, in the city of Fortaleza, in Brazil on December 27th, and the arrest of his brother Gerardo, El Lalo, on April 24th of 2016 in Carrasco,Uruguay, show the mobility of the CJNG, in the South of the continent, where they were allegedly hiding, but controlling operations from those countries.

Transit of all kinds of drugs in wholesale and retail operations, kidnapping of young people to recruit them as distributors and hit men, brutal executions that claim to leave a message of their power, collection of "Piso" in various territories, extortion and theft of fuel, are all actions recorded by this cartel during 2017, the Attorney Generals Office, the PGR, classifies this cartel as the most solid, since no internal divisions have been detected.

The arrest of the Los Cuinis brothers and other members of the cartel have not undermined their ambitions to cover the entire national geography and advance in other regions of the world. Capos such as El Piolin or El JP, who operated in Baja California; El Babay in Baja California Sur, El Cabus, El Meno or Reginaldo Allala in Jalisco; El Terry, El Amarillo or El Pollo Grajeda in Michoacan, have all been replaced without difficulty by other drug traffickers.

The drugs that members of the CJNG provide to the Northern Border and to the tourist destinations of the Mexican Caribbean range from marijuana, cocaine and heroin, to those that are their "specialty", such as methamphetamine and other designer or synthetic merchandise; besides the terrible Fentanyl. Even in some rural communities of Jalisco, marijuana cookies are manufactured to induce young people to consume the drug.

Fighting for territories

The group of Michoacanos that originally militarized into the so called Millennium cartel of the late Luis Valencia Valencia, was displaced by the criminal organizations of La Familia, supported by drug traffickers from the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas, to Jalisco at the end of the last decade. With the intention of regaining control of Michoacan, they allied themselves with the Sinaloa cartel, but due to happenstance and the death of Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, what is now known as the CJNG was born.

Although they have not recovered all of Purepecha lands due to the rise of the Knights Templar, the Michoacanos of the CJNG expanded voraciously to other territories. First they advanced in the lower regions and West of the country, they arrived in force at Veracruz, from there they spring boarded to the Northern border, incubating cells in Tijuana that grew to shelter the AFO to form the CTNG.

Reports from the US DEA and Mexican authorities estimate that the CJNG operate in another 22 States of the country. In some States they have full control and in others they have penetrated by confronting local cartels. Thus, there is data from their presence in Jalisco, Michoacan, Colima, Guanajuato, Aguascalientes, Nayarit, Zacatecas, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Mexico City, State of Mexico, Morelos, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Veracruzy, Puebla, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Tabasco and Tamaulipas.

Obviously, it is in Jalisco where the map of the 125 municipalities has been most colored with the almost total coverage of Mecho and his hosts. Tlajomulco de Zuniga, in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara; Villa Purficacion and Casimiro Castillo, on the South Coast; La Huerta and Tomatlan, on the North Coast, they are the epicenters where the de facto power of the CJNG resides.

In Aguascalientes, the head of the Secretariat of Public Security of the State (SSPE), Sergio Alberto Martinez Castuera, assured that it is the Cartel del Golfo and CJNG that enter the most narcotics into the state and recognized that they operation with force in that region. Meanwhile in Oaxaca, the state government warned of the arrival of members of CJNG to the municipality of Loma Bonita, so that since October, Mixed operating Bases have been reactivated to increase patrolling and surveillance.

In Nayarit it is assured, that without distinction, the former Attorney General Edgar Veytia, currently detained at the disposition of the Federal Court in San Diego, California, offered protection to the cartels of Sinaloa, Beltran Leyva and CJNG. Of the latter there are reports that in the vicinity of Tepic, stored shipments of cocaine and chemical precursors were disembarked in the port of Manzanillo, Colima, for the manufacture of synthetic drugs.

The arrest of the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Damaso Lopez Nunez, El Licenciado, at the end of last April, made it clear that criminal groups were operating in Mexico City, among them the CJNG with whom he sought an alliance to strengthen his position in the Sinaloa cartel and Baja California Sur.

In Puebla, the Ministry of Public Security revealed that the theft of hydrocarbons is disputed by Los Zetas and CJNG, especially in the area of San Martin Texmelucan, where they seek to control of the theft of diesel through pipe tapping. Meanwhile in Quintana Roo, CJNG fight with Sinaloa in the municipalities of Benito Juarez, Solidaridad, Othon P Blanco, Cozumel and Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

Old ways, new ways

Although CJNG transfer all types of drugs to the North, their most lucrative line is in the production of Methamphetamine, the drug that made the former Millenium cartel famous as a supplier to the United States market and as a client of laboratory supplies from China and Belgium. Not in vain, Belgian authorities began a trial in January of 2017 against a family business in Brussels that sent raw materials to Mexican narcos for the manufacture of crystal.

In May of 2016, authorities in Jalisco detected that the CJNG ran rehabilitation centres for drug addicts, or at least that was alleged by the media, while rescuing 271 persons who were the victims of abuse or even sexual abuse. The Public Prosecutors office announced that the link between organized crime and the shelter was clear and that eleven individuals with pending arresting warrants were on the premises.

For 2017, in the second half of July, two camps were discovered in the towns of Navajas and Ahisculco, in the municipality of Tala, in the same area where, on June 19th, 2014 the former director of the Tijuana police, Ricardo, disappeared. Hernandez Garduno, used to recruit assassins for the CJNG. The CJNG announced on social networks, alleged job offers in various regions to work as research, bodyguards, private guards or police.

Young people communicated with the contacts provided and then said goodbye to their families saying they were off looking for a good job, however, they did not see them again,, because they were then illegally deprived of their freedom. The work was not as advertised, but they were trained as if slaves to serve drug dealers and gunmen. The local authorities managed to rescue some of those who had been missing for months.

The intervention of the Attorney General of Jalisco occurred when investigating the disappearance of six people in the previous days. There were 19 people arrested, among them some victims who were charge of firearms, doing what was bid of them by their captors.

Another point of interest for the CJNG are the prisons, converted into a center of operations and business, such as the Preventative Prison of Guadalajara, where inmate Jose Manuel Garibay Felix, El Gordo, or El Manuelito governed between 2010 and the beginning of 2014, he had flipped from the Sinaloa cartel, as a native of Michoacan, he felt it necessary to convert to the then fledgling Jalisco cartel. Upon his discharge and subsequent death, the power was left in the hands of his countryman, Jose Luis Gutierrez Valencia, El 77 or Don Chelo, who had a video produced of his parties at the prison with music provided by "Los Buchones de Culiacan".

The participation of cartel members in money laundering practises through mass shows was detailed in intelligence reports from the National Security Information Center and released in August. The partner of a company dedicated to the organization of fairs, plenques and concerts, named Jesus Perez Alvear, was identified as a sentimental partner of Berenice Gonzalez Valencia, of the Los Cuinis family and sister in law of El Mencho.

Exacerbated Violence

During this last year, the main mark left by CJNG was horror, as violence and crimes multiplied throughout the country, turning some towns or municipalities into battlefields, in their objective of taking territorial control. Not only were the usual shootings taking place, but large disappearances and the finding of corpses who were mutilated, decapitated.

In Quintana Roo, mainly in Cancun, the perception of insecurity in the streets and tourist sites intensified, where there was not shortage of gun battles. In Guerrero, schools had to close their doors and suspend classes due to the threats attributed to members of CJNG. In Michoacan, bloody events became common, with human heads thrown into public places and shootings as a result of the clashes between Los Viagras and CJNG.

The location of chopped up bodies with the coup de grace and cartulinas that contained threats was constant since the start of the year. This was the case in Cuernavaca, in an alleged dispute with Los Rojos and in Manzanillo, where on a single night in January, twelve bodies appeared in two different locations, some in a taxi and others in field among the vegetation. In Veracruz, violent incidents rebounded because of a war between CJNG and Los Zetas.

In Baja California, it was also a nightmare year. In La Paz and Los Cabos, the shootings, the locating of bodies and discovery of clandestine graves led to the deployment of more than 1500 elements of the Federal forces to the Peninsular in June, while in Tijuana, BC, among the many event that occurred, was the murder of two doctors in July, who had refused to pay a 10,000 dollar extortion fee so that they could operate, according to reports.

In Jalisco the homicide rate also shot up. The State Police killed five gunmen on March 20th in Jocotepec. On August 30th, an alleged plaza boss named "El Karton" was executed in his car on a ring road. On September 7th, on the Lagos de Moreno - Leon highway another plaza boss with the alias of El Tun Tun was killed by Police. On the night of November 28th, men left a cooler with two human heads inside outside Televisas facilities, with a narco cartulina addressed to the Police commander. Don Chelo, head of the prison at Puente Grande, was murdered ten days after regaining his freedom.

Criminality continued unabated in Veracruz, where on different dates dismembered bodies were put on display in the streets; in Morelos the State Security Commissioner was threatened, Alberto Capella, after a shoot out in which six people died in Temixco; later at a garbage dump in Zamora, Michoacan, the bodies of six individuals were shot dead, apparently in revenge for the death of Tun Tun.

December ends with adjustment of accounts in Zacatecas and Michoacan. First, on December 23rd, In Nochistlan, four people died in a shoot out between two gangs, one of them apparently CJNG, on the 26th, in Michoacan, four people were murdered among them a six year old girl, with a sign left saying: "This will happen to all who walk with CJNG", and supposedly signed by LNFM La Nueva Familia Michoacana. Not forgetting also the death of El Pirata de Culiacan, on December 19th, after he allegedly disrespected the leader of CJNG in a video.

Replaceable Detainees

The names of some of the alleged plaza bosses or chiefs of office arrested in various parts of the country impress more than one: However, experience shows that all are substitutable and others already occupy their places, a situation that does not seem to affect the criminal organization that has the facility to reinvent itself.

On February the 6th Jose Oscar Garcia Ramirez, El Cabus, was arrested in Tamazula de Gordiano, Jalisco, he was chief of communications for the CJNG. He was in charge of directing a drug distributing network and of acquiring weapons and stolen fuel. Six days later in Cancun, Federal Police caught two alleged plaza bosses. In March, Octavio Leal Hernandez, El Chapito Leal was arrested in Tijuana, a Sinaloa cartel member that authorities deemed had "agreements" with the CJNG.

On April 8th, elements of the PGR located Ivan Margarito Esquivel Garcia, El Terry, or El Terrible, in charge of territorial control of Colima and Tierra Caliente, Michoacan. Ten days later, in Boca de Rio, Veracruz, Juan Manuel Veloz Ortiz, El Conta, was arrested, he was allegedly the probable coordinator of the kidnapping of the director of public safety in Boca del Rio, which had occurred on the 5th of April. On the 19th of the same month, 7 members of a CJNG cell were arrested.

In June, the alleged plaza boss of CJNG in Los Cabos, BCS, Abraham Cervantes Escarrega, El Babay, was arrested. He seemed to be on the verge of escape for the crime of carrying a firearm for the exclusive use of the army, when on paying a bail of 50,000 pesos, he was due to leave when SEIDO had him transferred to Mexico City, where an arrest warrant against him was found from a Jalisco judge from 2016, although at this moment his is imprisoned at Cefereso # 5 "Oriente" in Cerro de Leon, Villa Aldama, Veracruz.

The 9th District Judge of Federal Proceedings in the State of Jalisco, issued an order of formal imprisonment against El Babay, who had changed his name to Jesus Cervantes Velazquez, for his probable responsibility in the commission of crime of operations with resources of illicit origin and organized crime.

This ruling was confirmed on November 15th last year by the 4th Unitary Court of the 3rd Circuit. Unhappy with this, the defense of Cervantes filed an application for amparo before the 3rd Unitary Court of Zapopan, Jalisco, which will be resolved at the end of next January.

In the third week of July, Federal agents arrested Juan Manuel Castaneda Julio, El Meno, one of Menchos operators responsible for the coordination of the transfer of drugs from Guadalajara to Tijuana, by land and onto Chicago and Atlanta. Hours later in Cancun, Federal forces apprehended Joshua Loyo Pena, El Lobo, generator of violence in Quintana Roo. On August 6th another plaza boss of El Mencho, Jose Luis Munoz Aguilar, El Amarillo, was captured.

Capo Raúl Flores Hernández "El Tío" was also arrested in August. Although he was said to be an independent drug trafficker, the United States estimates that he has links or alliances with other criminal groups, among them Beltrán Leyva, Sinaloa and CJNG. On the 14th of that month, in Zamora, Michoacán, the head of that square, José Antonio Grajeda Cortés "El Pollo", was arrested, accused of two homicides and drug trafficking.

Undoubtedly, one of the most relevant arrests was that of Juan José Pérez Vargas "El Piolín" or "El JP," on September 20th, when he was driving through the streets of Guadalajara in a Jeep vehicle , escorted by two other people. He was designated as leader of the so-called CTNG, allegedly responsible for multiple homicides and the discovery of dismembered bodies and hanging on bridges on this border. The assassins were not armed, they carried small doses of drugs and a 40-caliber gun magazine with nine cartridges.

"El Piolín", who did not have an arrest warrant in Baja California, was admitted to the Metropolitan Prison of Jalisco, under charges of human trafficking and rape, without the local authorities reporting the facts. So far he has promoted three amparo trials, one of them immediately after his capture, against acts such as physical and psychological torture and incommunicado detention; the other two, against some possible transfer to a federal prison or the border.

Recently, two other alleged financial operators of the cartel were deprived of their freedom by the Police in Guadalajara. This is Reginaldo Allala Allala and Rubén "N", about whom there is an investigation for money laundering, since they are told to handle large sums of money through the company Allala in Zapopan.

 The response of the United States

The government of the United States issued sanctions in 2017 against companies linked to the CJNG and its funding source Los Cuinis, in addition, on March 13, got the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico to issue an agreement through which it grants to the Americans the extradition of capo Abigael González Valencia "El Cuini", identified as number two of the cartel. His delivery will occur when the amparo trial initiated by the Michoacan ends. Gonzalez Valencia is required by a Federal Court of the District of Columbia to face charges for crimes comparable to organized crime, against health and money laundering.

The Mexican companies allegedly linked to the criminal organization that were added to the list of money laundering sources and drug kingpins, on April 20, were the corporate Yorv Inmobiliaria and Grupo Segtac, SA de CV , used to launder money from the drug trafficking Yorv Inmobiliaria is the administrator of Plaza Los Tules , a shopping center located in Zapopan, Jalisco.

Four other companies were similarly sanctioned last September 14 by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC, for its acronym in English) of the Treasury Department: Operadora Los Famosos ; Trade Clear Trade ; Grupo de Alta Especialidad Farmacéutica, SA de CV and Operadora de Reposterías y Restaurantes, SA de CV.

The effect of the sanction is to prohibit US citizens from carrying out any commercial or financial transaction with said companies or their administrators, to whom the assets they eventually own in their territory are frozen.

As for Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", it remains one of the priority objectives of the Washington government.