Mexico City: Unión Tepito To Lenin Canchola, 20 Criminal Groups Dispute CdMx

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Reports from the Transparency Unit of the capital city police detail that these groups operate in 11 of the 16 neighborhoods of the country's capital.

Currently 20 criminal groups of various sizes and scope are settled in Mexico City, where they fight for control of drug dealing, protection fees, extortion, transportation robbery, and human trafficking, mainly.

According to a report from the Transparency Unit of the Ministry of Citizen Security in the capital, obtained by MILENIO, these criminal groups operate in 11 of the 16 neighborhoods of the capital of the country.

They are La Unión Tepito, Gota a Gota, Ronda 88, El Chori, Lenin Canchola, Los Malcriados 3AD, Los Baltas, Los Pelones, Los Rodolfos, Los Tanzanios, Los Rudos, El Bony, Las Borregas, El “ET”, La Madame, Tía Baker, El Negro, Los Charcos, Trompas de la Merced and El Gallo.

In this document, La Familia Michoacana, the Tláhuac Cartel, Fuerza Anti-Unión, Los Sinaloas, Los Benjas, Los Guerreros, Los Maceros and La Mano con Ojos no longer appear, which were included in the list of the 14 criminal groups with operations in Mexico City, released on October 13 of last year, by the SSC and the Financial Intelligence Unit.

That was the only occasion in this six-year term in which the federal and capital governments made public the names of the criminal groups located in Mexico City.

The capital authorities and federal forces carried out against the Tláhuac Cartel various operations in recent years, which resulted in the assassination of its leader and founder Felipe de Jesús Pérez, El Ojos, in July 2017, as well as the arrests of his children and successors Felipe Pérez Flores, El Felipillo in March 2019 and Liliana Pérez Ramírez in August 2019.

Distribution of criminal groups

According to the report held by MILENIO, dated November 9, 2021 and signed by Commissioner Hermenegildo Lugo, Undersecretary of Intelligence and Police Investigation, Unión Tepito, the most powerful criminal organization in the capital, only operates in three municipalities: Cuauhtémoc , Iztapalapa and Azcapotzalco.

In addition, the Secretariat of Citizen Security already recognized El Chori, as an independent group with activity in Cuauhtémoc. He carries out extortions mainly in the Historic Center and is headed by Eduardo Ramírez Tiburcio.

The Gota a Gota criminal group also has a presence in three municipalities: Cuauhtémoc, Coyoacán and Iztapalapa. This organization was founded by Colombians, and its method consists of lending money, and charging very high interest. It uses violence, intimidation and threats, so that people pay the supposed debts.

The fourth organization that Cuauhtémoc disputes is La Ronda 88. It is one of the criminal groups with the highest growth in recent months in the capital, and is mainly dedicated to extortion and the collection of a protection fee, in small businesses.

To the west of Mexico City, two groups have absolute control in Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. They are Lenin Canchola and Los Malcriados 3AD, who are dedicated to extorting merchants in the area, and sometimes use express kidnappings or abductions to obtain payments.

The neighborhood of Gustavo A. Madero is fought by four groups: Los Rudos, one of the most violent criminal organizations in the capital, focused on drug dealing; Las Borregas, who commit theft, fraud and drug dealing, whose bastion is the Gabriel Hernández neighborhood, as well as the groups of El Bony and the “El E.T.”.

Iztapalapa is the district with the largest number of criminal groups, having the presence of seven. In addition to La Unión Tepito and Gota a Gota, this neighborhood is home to Los Tanzanios, which has been operating since the beginning of 2000, and currently carries out dispossession and protection fees; Los Baltas, led from prison by Juan Balta, as well as La Madame, El Negro and Tía Baker. This last group also operates in Benito Juárez.

Venustiano Carranza is disputed by two organizations. Los Trompas de la Merced, dedicated to kidnappings and murders, but mainly to extortion in the largest market in the city, as well as the gang called El Gallo.

Asked about the matter, the security specialist Ricardo Márquez Blas, affirmed that, in addition to these gangs, organized crime groups are settled in the capital, such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Organized crime groups operate here, the most important organized crime cartels, of course, they operate differently than they do in other entities of the country.

The number of groups that operate in Mexico City is of all kinds, from large cartels such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, to smaller cartels, with a smaller regional scope, with regional scope, such as La Union Tepito, but equally dangerous ”, he stated.

Milenio