Aquila, Michoacán: CJNG Battles Against "El Toro" And "Comandante Teto" Mobs

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

The clashes have occurred as a result of the incursion from elements of the CJNG with the purpose of taking control of the territory of that area, but they met members from the groups of "El Teto" and "El Toro", who claim to be self-defense groups or community police. 

Intense shootings have kept the inhabitants of the municipality of Aquila on edge in recent hours, which according to unofficial reports are due to clashes between members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and elements of groups headed by Héctor Zepeda Navarrete “El Comandante Teto” and Germán Ramírez Sánchez “El Toro”.

According to some reports, the first clashes occurred at nightfall on Wednesday the 27th on the road to the mine, in the vicinity of the Puente Amarillo, where heavy-caliber weapons were used, gunfire bursts which were heard in the urban area of the municipal seat.

On Thursday afternoon, hostilities continued in various parts of the region, although it hasn’t been confirmed whether there are dead or injured people.

The clashes have occurred as a result of the incursion of elements of the CJNG with the purpose of taking control of the territory of that area, but they met members from the groups of "El Teto" and "El Toro", who claim to be self-defense groups or community police. But there are indications that implicate them in organized crime.

This area is key to dominating the route between Coahuayana, Coalcomán and Aguililla, where mining activity abounds, with the extraction mainly of iron, for which the cartels charge a protection fee.

This area of ​​the Costa-Sierra region is also important for the transfer of drugs or chemical precursors through the ports of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, and Manzanillo, Colima.

Although the authorities haven’t released official information about the origin of these shootings and their consequences, from their homes some locals have shared videos through social networks in which the gunfire of high-caliber weapons are heard.

For more than three years, the armed conflagrations in the regions of Tierra Caliente and Costa-Sierra have increased, after the entry of the CJNG, with the aim of completely displacing local criminal groups from those territories, several of which banded together with the United Cartels to confront the Jalisco organization.

One of the main municipalities disputed by the CJNG is Aguililla, from which its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes "El Mencho", originates.

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