Organized crime has expanded through Michoacán, an entity that suffers the scourge of violence. But how are the criminal groups distributed in the entity and who are their leaders? This information reveals more about the situation in the entity:
Of 14 criminal ringleaders identified by the Secretariat of National Defense (Defense) since 2022 as main operators and leaders of criminal organizations in Michoacán, The federal government managed to arrest two of them and three have died, that is, nine leaders continue to operate in the state..
Army intelligence reports, which contain maps and organizational charts of who operates finances, violent actions, extortions and direct those criminal groups, They also identify these subjects with face, name, alias and possible geographical location..
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At least three organizations and several criminal cells have been operating since 2014 in Michoacánwhen the green light was given to the self-defense groups in several municipalities, also as a result of the dismantling of large cartels after the Michoacán Joint Operation security strategy, in 2007.
The organization that has recorded the most leaders and operators killed or detained, from 2022 to date, is the New Generation Cartel (CNG); Despite this, Its members with the greatest power in the state remain fugitives; They have been identified by federal authorities for up to a decade.
Although Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”, leader of the CNG remains a fugitive from justice, in Michoacán – his homeland – Some relevant leaders have been detained, such as Armando Pantoja Infante, alias “El Panther”, who was captured in December 2022but he died inside the La Piedad prison, Michoacán, just two months later.
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BesidesMiguel Ángel Fernández, “El M2″—named responsible for the attack against 23 members of the Michoacán police in Aguililla, in 2019—, was killed in an operation in February 2023.
Of the leaders identified by Defense in the 2022 documents, Still in the six-year term of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Miguel Ángel Gallegos Godoy, alias “El Migueladas”, who has been identified since 2014 as the successor of Servando Gómez Martínez, “La Tuta”, is also free.
“El Migueladas” boasts extensive power in Michoacán, so much so that he has renamed the CNG cell he leads as the Zicuirán Cartel.. In 2014, the then parish priest of Apatzingán denounced him for supposedly being “the Michoacan mafia boss most protected and guarded by the state government.”
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Local organizations are not interested in the government, they say
One of the organizations with the fewest detained leaders, despite being identified even by their areas of operation and residence, is United Cartels, whose leaders were even identified and sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury last August as “terrorist criminals”.
It is the case of Juan José Farías Álvarez, better known as “El Abuelo” and former self-defense leader in Michoacán, who became the leader of the United Cartels and is identified as one of the criminals with the greatest power in crimes such as extortion and price fixing between producers and distributors..
another is Nicolás Sierra Santana, alias “El Coruco”, leader of “Los Viagras”, an organization in charge of extortion and collection of rent throughout the state. In February 2024 they arrested its main operator and right hand man, Alberto García Flores, alias “La Peggy”. However, classified documents from Sedena assure that a group of five women are the people of his highest confidence and financial operators.
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César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano, alias “El Bótox”, leader of the armed wing of said organization, known as “Los Blancos de Troya”, is also still a fugitive from the United Cartels.main generators of violence in the Tierra Caliente of Michoacán.
“El Bótox” has a most recent arrest warrant from the Attorney General’s Office of Michoacánfor allegedly being the intellectual author of the murder of the lemon leader Bernardo Bravo, and for him they are offering a reward of 100 thousand pesos for information on his location.
In an interview with El Universal, David Saucedo, a security analyst, assured that there are two reasons why the federal government has not taken these leaders of local organizations as a priority; one of them is because “they are not relevant to Washington,” he said.
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“The local mafias in Michoacan have very smaller drug export volumes when compared to the Sinaloa Cartel or the Nueva Generación Cartel. “The constellation of organizations that exist in Michoacán basically subsists thanks to the exploitation of farmers, producers and municipal governments in the area.”detailed the specialist.
The other reason he sees for not strongly attacking these leaders is the criminal governance scheme that some of them support, not only at the municipal level, but also at the state level.
“A lot of information has already been released that Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla [actual mandatario morenista de Michoacán] received resources from ‘Los Viagras’ for his gubernatorial campaign; “It is also known that former governor Jesús Reyna was linked to ‘La Tuta’.”
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“Even in the operation known as Michoacanazo, [en 2009] to several mayors for their alleged links with organized crime,” said Saucedo.
Given
100,000 pesos are offered as a reward for “El Bótox”, leader of the armed wing of the United Cartels.
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OA