Military Hack Reveals Links Between CJNG, La Barredora & Tabasco State Police Officials

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Hernán Bermúdez, Secretary of Public Security in Tabasco with the Secretary of the Interior and former Tabasco Governor, Adán Augusto.

One of the internal reports revealed by the hacking of the Guacamaya group indicates that the current Secretary of the Interior, then governor of Tabasco, appointed men in Security and in the State Police with alleged links to the Jalisco Cartel. One of the accused denied the accusations.

In his tenure as governor of Tabasco, Adán Augusto López Hernández, current Secretary of the Interior, appointed officials who, according to intelligence reports from the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), are allegedly linked to the State Security Department and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

It is about the head of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Hernán Bermúdez Requena, and the commissioner of the State Police, José del Carmen Castillo Ramírez, who remain in their positions in the management of the current governor, Carlos Manuel Merino. The third accused of an alleged relationship with organized crime is the general director of the State Police, Leonardo Arturo Leyva Ávalos.

The alleged link is referred to by intelligence reports on criminal activity in Tabasco, carried out by the Southeast Intelligence Fusion Center between 2019 and 2022 and sent to the National Intelligence Center (CNI).

In one of the reports, sent on August 30, 2022, the southeast Cerfi warns that the three police commanders are part of the CJNG cell known as La Barredora, which had been led by Benjamín Mollinedo, 'El Pantera', but that after being arrested, Felipe Mollinedo, 'El Felipe', was left as his successor.

The criminal cell, the reports say, is dedicated to "the extraction and sale of illicit fuel, the sale of drugs, extortion, and theft of Pemex pipes," for which it has co-opted "authorities from the three levels of government." Intelligence reports refer to Hernán Bermúdez as 'Commander H', who "authorized 'Pantera' to take control of Huimanguillo and part of Cárdenas, Tabasco" since 2020.

 

Links to Tabasco State Officials

José del Carmen Castillo Ramírez was sworn in as commissioner of the State Police on November 19, 2019, on the instructions of the then-governor, Adán Augusto López. A month later, on December 11, López Hernández swore in Bermúdez Requena, as reported in a statement. "I urge Hernán Bermúdez to maintain the security policy and give continuity to the strategic actions promoted by the state government in this matter," he said.

A day later, the Sedena Intelligence Fusion Center (Cerfi) informed the General Headquarters of the 30th Military Zone about the alleged links between Bermúdez Requena and Trinidad Alberto de la Cruz Miranda, 'el Pelón de Playas', leader of a criminal group of the entity, according to intelligence reports.

Despite the above, on February 5, 2021, Bermúdez Requena appointed Leonardo Arturo Leyva Ávalos, 'el León', as director general of the State Police, who is also part of the list of the alleged 12 members of La Barredora identified by the police.

Together with the previously mentioned officials, Sedena also identified Carlos Tomás Díaz Rodríguez, 'el Licenciado' or 'Tomasín', as related to 'Pelón de Playas'. This official in turn also served as an advisor to the SSPC of Tabasco.

Denial of Corruption

Hernán Bermúdez Requena denied the accusations of the alleged links and even the existence of the criminal group La Barredora, despite the fact that there are various journalistic notes that account for the violence of this organization.

“We cannot even protect, and well, how are we going to protect something that does not have proof of its existence (…) I am not aware of the existence (of La Barredora),” he said in an interview.

“La Barredora is non-existent (sic), there are many who sign, but here where I see the blankets and cardboard they are very common, but we do not do research. Here we are not aware that there is a cartel and more of that magnitude. There are local criminals, they are local criminals and they cannot be called organized crime cartels. With regard to the State Police, we focus exclusively on the municipality of the Center.”

In addition, he said, he has not had any official notification regarding these accusations. “I have never been notified, much less of any of this. Even today we had a meeting with the board and the subject was touched upon; I spoke with the CNI here and they were asked if he was aware of its existence today and he said 'no', just like the governor”.

“If there is something against it, then at any time they feel me on the bench of the accused. And I can answer everything, but that there are baseless accusations because that deteriorates the image. And furthermore, I sincerely believe that this, as everyone says, is a hack and we don't know if this information really comes from Sedena or if the hackers themselves are taking advantage of this to say 'this is what we found there. It is an invention, it could be”, said Bermúdez.

Although Adán Augusto López left the government of Tabasco on August 26, 2021, to occupy the Ministry of the Interior, his version was also requested regarding this case, since it was he who made the appointments. However, there was no response.

CJNG Network in Tabasco

In the internal document revealed by Guacamaya, Sedena also reported that La Barredora was led by Benjamín Mollinedo Montiel, 'el Pantera' or 'el Panther', who once captured was replaced by Felipe Mollinedo Montiel, 'el Felipe'.

Below these criminal commanders, Euler Rubalcaba Colorado, 'Comandante Rayo', leader of the CJNG who was also in prison at that time, was identified. Also, to Roger Pérez Salazar, 'el Profe', plaza boss in Macuspana, Tacotalpa, Jalapa, and Teapa, "who was picked up on Mar. 24, 2022, by an armed commando and to date is missing."

The document mentions that in Tabasco the main municipalities with the greatest presence due to the management of routes of transfer and illicit extraction of hydrocarbons, transfer, and distribution of drugs and migrant trafficking by criminal organizations are Huimanguillo, Cárdenas, Cunduacán, Centro, Paraíso, and Comalcalco.

Felipe Mollinedo Montiel is specifically mentioned as the plaza boss in Huimanguillo and Eleazar Sierra Chávez, 'Comandante Chelo', with a presence in Playas del Rosario.

In a final list of officials, the Intelligence Fusion Center mentioned as members of the State Attorney General's Office with possible links to 'el Pelón de Playas' Manuel Hernández Hernández, 'el Gato', and Omar Romero, inspector of Central Zone and Police Investigation Unit, respectively.

On the night of Monday, December 31, 2021, elements of the National Guard arrested the 'Pelón de Playas', who according to local press reports was a deserter from the police who went on to form his own criminal cell on the beaches of Tabasco. That's where his nickname comes from.

After his arrest, a message allegedly addressed to López Hernández was spread on social networks, in which he was reproached for having failed to comply with the “Peace Pact, therefore his family of notaries will pay for this offense, the miarda command that participated in the capture of the pattern (sic)”.

The Guacamaya group hack was revealed last week. The hacktivists claim to have obtained six terabytes of information.

Sources Animal Politico