La Familia Michoacana Lieutenant Killed In Guerrero; Assassination Suspected To Be Due To CJNG Approach

 "Char" for Borderland Beat

This article was translated and reposted from PROCESO

The armed attack against the criminal leader and his bodyguards took place early Sunday morning in the town of Placeres del Oro, as they were leaving a horse riding event.

WRITTEN BY: LUIS DANIEL NAVA 

MONDAY AUGUST 12, 2024

CHILPANCINGO, Gro. (apro) - Kevin Arzate Gómez, one of the eight leaders of La Familia Michoacana sanctioned and designated by the US Treasury Department as a target for drug and human trafficking, was shot dead along with at least two of his bodyguards in Coyuca de Catalán, in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero.

The armed attack against the criminal leader and his bodyguards took place early Sunday morning in the town of Placeres del Oro, as they were leaving a jaripeo (horseback riding event).

Kevin Arzate, alias "El K03", died at the scene. Two armed men who were guarding him, including a cousin, were also confirmed dead. Although there is a version that a total of four members of his security team were shot dead.

The information was confirmed by security sources in the area, although in the central offices of the Guerrero prosecutor's office they assured that they had no information that could confirm the fact.

What the state prosecutor's office did report was that, in mid-September of last year, ministerial agents, members of the Army and the National Guard secured a ranch in the town of Pungarabatito, municipality of Coyuca de Catalán, where they found tactical equipment, two vehicles and weapons related to Kevin Arzate.  

The funeral of the criminal leader and one of his cousins was held in Pungurabatito on Monday afternoon. The funeral was attended by dozens of family members, friends and acquaintances, according to images published by attendees.

Proceso reported on June 20 that Janet Yellen, US Secretary of the Treasury, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), indicated that eight members of La Familia Michoacana trafficked fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamines, as well as immigrants to the United States.

For this reason, OFAC announced sanctions to stem the financial flow and labeled Rodolfo Maldonado Bustos, Josué Ramírez Carrera, Josué López Hernández, David Durán Álvarez, Uriel Tabares Martínez, Kevin Arzate Gómez, Euclides Camacho Goicochea and Lucio Ochoa Lagunes as significant drug traffickers.

The criminal organization is led by brothers Johnny and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, El Pez and El Fresa, respectively, identified by the government of Joe Biden as specialists in fentanyl, a drug produced in the states of Guerrero, Morelos, Mexico City, Jalisco, Sinaloa and the State of Mexico.

OFAC has identified Arzate Gómez as a money launderer and operator for La Familia Michoacana in the Nuevo Laredo-Reynosa region. He also identifies him as a close associate of "El Fresa".

Sources consulted in the region indicate that Kevin Arzate also served as a lieutenant of Rodolfo Maldonado Bustos, "JP" or "José Pineda", the third in hierarchy of La Familia Michoacana.  

In addition to being a plaza chief in Ciudad Altamirano and Coyuca de Catalán.

Rather than a fragmentation in the structure of this criminal organization, one of the versions is that the murder of this criminal leader was due to his rapprochement with the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG).

The CJNG is based in Zirandaro, the only one of the nine Tierra Caliente municipalities in Guerrero not controlled by La Familia Michoacana. 

FOLLOW-UP    BY: CHAR 

SOURCE: PROCESO, BORDERLAND BEAT