Mica for cartelinsider.com
Los Tlacos is a criminal organization that until last week maintained a dispute with La Familia Michoacana in the state of Guerrero. On February 21, Father Filiberto Velázquez (director of the Center for the Rights of Victims “Minerva Bello”) announced a ceasefire between the two sides to curb the violence that is rampant in the area.
This truce was given a week after the armed confrontation between members of both groups in the municipality of San Miguel Totolapan, which left a death toll of 17 people (16 from the Michoacana Family and one from Los Tlacos), according to unofficial reports. Although President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) only confirmed 12 fatalities.
The truce had been agreed upon between the leaders of said criminal groups. On the part of La Familia Michoacana, the brothers Johnny and José Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga (known as ‘El Pez’ and ‘El Fresa’ respectively) are identified. The Tlacos, on the other hand, are led by Onésimo Marquina Chapa, better known as ‘El Necho’ and/or ‘The Lord of Evil’.
Before leading the Sierra Cartel (also known as Los Tlacos), El Necho had a criminal history that linked him to other criminal groups in the state of Guerrero.
In 2018, ‘El Necho’ led from Tlacotepec the self-proclaimed United Front of Community Police of the State of Guerrero (FUPCEG) and controlled the mining zone of Mezcala. The dispute he held with the Cartel del Sur resulted in the displacement of 1,200 inhabitants from communities such as Los Morros, Campo de Aviación, and Filo de Caballos in November of that year, as mentioned by journalist Jorge Fernández Menéndez in his book “The New War: From Chapo to Fentanyl.”
In May 2018, the murder of Alexis Betancourt, son of José Inés Betancourt, who was serving as a magistrate of the state Electoral Court, was reported. The body of the 24-year-old was located in the streets of Chilpancingo, next to a narcomessage that mentioned ‘El Necho’ and his brother Javier Marquina Chapa, aka ‘El Barbas’.
“Onésimo Marquina Chapa, Javier Marquina Chapa, and you, Japo, and you, Chaparro, come for your freaking garbage, I’ll give back all the car thieves. Chilpancingo has an owner (…) Sincerely, Commando Panic and Cartel del Sur,” the message read, according to reports from Proceso.
By then, ‘El Necho’ maintained links with Zenén Nava Sánchez, alias ‘El Chaparro’, who also led the Los Rojos group prior to his arrest in 2019.
Similarly, he collaborated with an individual identified as Santiago Mazari Hernandez, alias ‘El Carrete’, who operated in the municipality of Heliodoro Castillo. However, their relationship was affected by a supposed betrayal in the month of July.
Necho found out that El Carrete had betrayed him when he already operated several heroin laboratories, a drug that he sent behind his back to Sonora with one of his employees, known as “El Maytuli”, mentions Fernández Menéndez.
‘El Carrete’ was arrested in Guerrero days before the arrest of Zenén Nava. “With the fall of El Chaparro, El Necho, leader of the Sierra Cartel, felt that he was now the leader of all Guerrero,” explains the author of the cited book.
The journalist specialized in national security issues also points out that Los Tlacos “merged” with a faction of Guerreros Unidos (through Gildardo López Astudillo, aka ‘El Cabo Gil’) and Los Rojos (through Cándido Nava Millán, aka ‘El Japo’). This was done in order to establish themselves in the mountainous region of Guerrero.
Together, these criminal operators began to control the production of opium gum and extortion in mining fields in the region.
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Mica
Email: mica@cartelinsider.com
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