Mica for cartelinsider.com
More than two thousand people were evacuated from the municipalities of Tonalá, Zapotlanejo, Juanacatlán, and El Salto, Jalisco, due to a massive fuel leak caused by the theft of hydrocarbons in a region controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and also marked as one of the alleged hideouts of their leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho”.
It was unofficially reported that a considerable excavation was discovered near the source of the fuel leak, leading authorities to suspect that it could be a clandestine connection (huachicol) that caused thousands of liters to spill and a column of gas similar to fog to rise over the community of Totolotlán, Tonala.
The perforated pipeline runs from Salamanca (Guanajuato) to Puente Grande (Jalisco), a region in dispute between two criminal groups to control the theft of hydrocarbons: the CJNG and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.
It was also in Tonalá where elements of the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) killed Luis Gutiérrez Valencia, alias “Don Chelo”, in December 2017. He was identified as the father-in-law of “El Mencho”. He had only recently been released after serving a sentence for corruption and possession of weapons exclusive to the Army.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Information identifies the mountainous region of Jalisco (between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta) as the region where “El Mencho” would hide, hence one of his nicknames being “The Lord of the Mountain”; this region is known as the Golden Triangle of the CJNG and extends to the states of Colima and Michoacán in the Tierra Caliente area.
The testimonies collected in the investigations of the United States authorities agree on two places where men close to “El Mencho” have held meetings with him: Talpa de Allende and Tapalpa, both located in the Golden Triangle between Puerto Vallarta and Lake Chapala.
However, news reports indicate that “El Mencho” does not sleep in one place for two nights. Among the regions under the total control of the CJNG where their leader could be hiding, there are other municipalities located on the outskirts of Guadalajara: Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, and Tonalá; it has also been seen in Aguililla, Michoacán, his alleged birthplace, according to information from residents interviewed by Infobae Mexico.
One of the first battles undertaken by Andrés Manuel López Obrador upon his arrival to the presidency of Mexico was the fight against fuel theft, which led to the arrest of José Antonio Yépez, also known as “El Marro” leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, main responsible for “huachicol” in Guanajuato and enemy of “El Mencho.”
Before the fall of “El Marro” in 2019, the CJNG hung several banners in the municipalities of Zapotlanejo, Atotonilco el Alto, San Juan de los Lagos, and Tonalá, where they claimed:
Despite the messages from “El Mencho’s” men, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned two high-ranking members of the CJNG in June 2023 for being involved in crimes such as arms and drug trafficking, money laundering, and theft of hydrocarbons: Alonso Guerrero Covarrubias and Javier Guerrero Covarrubias, both godsons of “El Señor de la Montaña”.
One of the events that marked the municipality of Tonalá due to the violence carried out by organized crime was the massacre of 11 bricklayers at the hands of “El Loco” or “El Primo”, a man under the command of Carlos Enrique Sánchez Martínez, also known as “El Cholo”, a former ally of “El Mencho” but who separated from him in 2018 to form the cell known as Cartel Nueva Plaza.
“El Cholo” wanted to heat up the “El Mencho” plaza, and it is presumed that this is why he ordered the massacre, but the CJNG distanced themselves from the crime. Days later, they assassinated the “traitor” and left his body on a bench in the center of San Pedro Tlaquepaque. It was March 18, 2021.
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Mica
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