Tula, Hidalgo: The Armed Criminal Cell Who Liberated El Michoacáno

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Video translation is as follows:

The armed criminal cell that freed the brothers José Artemio Maldonado and Marino Maldonado Mejía from the prison in Tula, Hidalgo, leaders of the Pueblos Unidos cartel, are the Michoacanos in an operation that included the detonation of car bombs. They used weapons exclusive to the United States Army, including grenade launchers.

On the morning of December 1, 2021, some thirty gunmen and operators formed a convoy to protect the principal criminal leader. A seized gas distribution vehicle had a piece of metal attached in the front that they used as a tank to knock down the prison door. The drug lords fled along with 7 more people. 3 were re-captured and identified as belonging to their organization, dedicated to the theft of hydrocarbons in the Valle del Mezquital region.

From the field processing, the state attorney general's office collected 120 possible clues related to weapons, including large-caliber rifles. Some were attached with exclusive fragmentation grenade launchers. As well as bullets and casings reported the Eme Equis news portal. The opinion on weapons and forensic ballistics to which Eme Equis had access to indicate that the weapons were manufactured by the Colt industry in Hartford, capital of Connecticut in the United States.

One of these rifles used in the operation to free the Maldonado brothers was a 40-millimeter caliber rifle with a grenade launcher that was owned by the United States government for the exclusive use of interstate corporations. Which is recorded in the serial number records of that weapon under protection for the investigation of the case. In the report published by Eme Equis entitled "La Carne de Cañon del Michoacáno", there is an account of the recruitment and participation of minors in the escape.

They reported that in the main convoy they had a grenade launcher to blow up the watchtower of the social rehabilitation center if the guards confronted them. They acknowledged that they didn’t see any gunfire coming from there. But if they had seen it, they would have destroyed the infrastructure of the social rehabilitation center in Tula. Where, based on statements made before the Public Ministry, there was personnel who assured at the initial hearing in which his legal situation was defined.

They had no firepower to repel the attack. They also found a Colt brand M-16 rifle that had a 40-millimeter grenade launcher attachment. In addition to an AR-15 and other assault rifles. The .226-caliber M-16 is owned by the United States government, according to the inscription on its handle, Eme Equis pointed out. These clues were found in vehicles that were used in the prisoner rescue operation.

As well as in a Pueblos Unidos house located on Acacia street, block 36, lot 2 of the Las Galaxias neighborhood in Tula. Where all those who participated in the prisoner escape gathered the day before to receive instructions and define their roles. The members of the armed criminal cell, those in charge of guarding, those who would detonate the explosives in the cars, the spies, and those in charge of throwing the caltrops in the streets surrounding the prison in order to obstruct the police reaction. 

On August 4, 2021, the Mexican government filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts against weapons producers against those who are accused of negligent illicit trade in weapons that are trafficked in Mexico and reach criminal groups. 

In 2 phones seized by the investigation division in Hidalgo that were used by José Artemio Maldonado aka El Michoacáno, the authorities located bank transfer receipts for the recruits. Messages where the Maldonado brothers talked about buying cars from the safe house, stored weapons and tactical equipment to acquire.

Since their escape they became direct targets who returned to fuel theft. Intelligence personnel indicted that they took refuge in remote places in the mountains of Michoacán. Although his cartel continues to clash with other groups for the extraction of crude oil in Hidalgo. The most milked state in the country since 2018. El Michoacáno was arrested on November 26, 2021 in Texcoco, State of Mexico. His brother Mariano Maldonado Mejía aka El M1 was captured in 2018 for leading the Los Emes group, committed to kidnapping immigrants in Mexicali, Baja California.

Pueblos Unidos became visible in the criminal scene through videos that it spread between June and July on social networks in which it announced a hunt against fuel thieves in the entity. They accused the alleged protection of members from the State Attorney's Office. Whom they called the Los Ministeriales cartel as leaders in the Huachicol region, the Valle del Mezquital.

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