Acahuato Cartel, The Criminal Group Operating In Michoacán With A Rosary In Hand

The residents of Acahuato, Michoacán, told MILENIO that around 5:40, a woman scolded her daughter for spending long hours away from home. The girl excused herself by saying she was playing with the child of a loving woman who spoke to her about God.

When the family went to look for that person, they found her image carved into a tree with white flowers that smelled like tuberose. Since then, that image has been venerated as Our Lady of Acahuato.

Devotion to this image attracted farmers, ranchers, merchants, and even General José María Morelos y Pavón, who in 1814, after the conclusion of the Constitutional Congress of Apatzingán, visited the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Acahuato and placed his sword on the altar.

How did the Acahuato Cartel emerge?

Her reputation for miracles also reached the ears of marijuana growers, poppy traffickers, and arms smugglers, who gave her offerings for successful dirty deals and escapes from the police. This is how the Virgin Cartel, or the Acahuato Cartel, was born.

Today, this organization, which blends Catholic devotion with extortion and kidnapping, is in the crosshairs of Secretary Omar García Harfuch, who has included the pursuit of its leaders among the objectives of Plan Michoacán, the pacification strategy that followed the assassination of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, on the Day of the Dead.

Despite its dangerous nature, little is known in the rest of the country about this mini-cartel that seems to carry a rosary in one hand and a weapon in the other, and which experienced its criminal splendor during the administration of the PRD member Silvano Aureoles between 2015 and 2021, a figure who is now a fugitive from justice and is accused of alleged links with organized crime.

The cartel has a presence here.

The self-proclaimed Acahuato Cartel has its stronghold in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán, particularly in the Apatzingán-Acahuato corridor, a bountiful land supposedly blessed to effortlessly produce avocados, mangoes, lemons, grapefruits, guavas, and even blackberries.

How does the Acahuato Cartel operate?

Reports from the security cabinet indicate that the structure of this gang is typical of criminal organizations born in the state’s rural areas: neighborhood recruitment and deep-rooted community connections.

But unlike other local cartels, this one uses a hybrid of religion and violence, following in the footsteps of the Knights Templar, who didn’t see themselves as hitmen, but as “crusaders” in a “holy war” against foreign criminal forces, such as those from Jalisco or Tamaulipas.

Like the group founded in 2011 by Nazario Moreno González, self-styled Saint Nazario—who even wrote and printed his own version of sacred scriptures as a twisted criminal manual—the Acahuato Cartel exploits Catholic devotion to justify its existence: they claim to be fighting against the bad guys who want to enter the house of the Virgin who appeared to anoint the town.

It is known that to finance this defense they must raise money for weapons, bullets, armored trucks known as ‘Monstrous’ (Improvised ArmoredFighting Vehicles (IAFV) and even explosive drones.

The cartel calls it “voluntary contributions” or “cooperation without pressure.” In contrast, lemon and avocado producers, politicians, merchants, taxi drivers, business owners, and even parish priests describe it in a less charitable way: “extortion” or “protection money.” And they pray that this coercion will soon be put to death.

Which saint does this cartel worship?

Besides controlling agribusiness markets, the leaders of this organization focus on the production and transport of synthetic drugs along secondary rural routes.

To do this, they demand vehicles and agricultural machinery. They steal cattle to resell them in clandestine slaughterhouses and offer outsourced criminal services such as armed security, debt collection, and “resolution” of land disputes.

“Their internal narrative combines elements of territorial identity with the idea of ​​’defense’ against rival groups, although in practice the group operates as a criminal enterprise focused on controlling local illicit markets and strategic routes,” explained Alberto Guerrero Baena, a security specialist.

Their leaders identified by the federal government are the González brothers and a man nicknamed El Señor de la Virgen.

Initially, they operated as an armed wing of larger criminal organizations in Apatzingán, Múgica, Parácuaro, and Buenavista, which controlled illicit crops and the routes to the United States via the Pacific. But when they gained power in the fertile Tierra Caliente region, they broke away to defend what they call “their holy land.”

In this divine and criminal mission, they have forged alliances and clashed with Carteles Unidos and maintained old ties with those who belonged to the original La Familia Michoacana. They make pacts and dissolve them like plaster chapels that quickly crumble to dust.

But the only constant has been their aversion and enmity toward the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). In their eyes, the Jalisco cartel is the modern-day equivalent of medieval Muslims, advancing from afar to seize their conquered routes and territories.

“This isn’t an organization with national aspirations, but rather a group that capitalizes on its knowledge of the territory and its access to local networks to sustain stable illicit economies. They control Acahuato, its rural communities and agricultural corridors, and the secondary roads that connect ranches between Parácuaro, Buenavista, and Gabriel Zamora,” states Guerrero Baena, an expert on criminal governance in Michoacán.

“The group avoids exposure on federal highways and operates primarily on rural roads where it maintains social control, checkpoints, and alliances with local economic actors. This type of ‘capillary’ control, rather than expansive territorial control, is characteristic of regional organizations in Michoacán,” the specialist adds.

This is its criminal structure:

To guarantee its survival, the Acahuato Cartel operates with a model of “fragmented leadership,” that is, “zone coordinators” who aren’t highly visible but operate as mid-level bosses with family and community ties.

They take advantage of having family members who are agricultural producers or who were once members of self-defense groups, which allows them to operate with relative legitimacy. The structure is divided into four functional cells:

Operational: responsible for territorial control and coercion

Financial: responsible for managing income and running parallel businesses

Logistics: focused on transportation, warehouses, and rural routes

Social: dedicated to community relations and serving as the religious face of the organization, which also goes by the name Cartel de la Virgen (Cartel of the Virgin).

Each cell is independent and, at times, maintains little communication with the others. Thus, a hard blow from the authorities can cause a fracture, but not death.

It subjugates with a silent and implacable hand

Perhaps one of the keys to remaining a virtually unknown criminal group is that the Acahuato Cartel doesn’t quickly resort to lethal violence, but rather employs a style of control that also combines selective coercion and criminal governance.

That sophistication is the great challenge for the capabilities of the 10,506 members of the Army and the National Guard who have arrived since November 9 from Michoacán, in addition to 1,781 from the Navy to carry out strategic arrests.

For example, the Acahuato Cartel uses intermittent aggression directed against rivals or actors who challenge its structure, instead of the widespread and reactivated brutality of the CJNG.

It uses social control to generate forced displacements, in contrast to La Nueva Familia Michoacana, which acts purely for economic gain. It intervenes in local conflicts, usurping governmental functions, but distributes the spoils and uses them for religious festivities like February 2nd, unlike Carteles Unidos.

“The level of violence is moderate compared to expansive organizations, but sufficient to maintain a regime of control and prevent the entry of rival forces,” explains Guerrero Baena.

However, their seemingly “less violent” presence clashes with the accounts the federal government has heard from the silent zones of Acahuato, such as the community of El Molinito, where a corridor of safe houses is suspected to exist, holding dozens of people captive for refusing to pay “voluntary contributions” or “cooperation without pressure.”

Or like Cerro Blanco, which residents believe is a dumping ground for the bodies of all those who haven’t aligned themselves with the supposed sacred commandments of the Lord of the Virgin.

Or the clandestine graves lying in plain sight, identified by the disturbed earth, in the Ejido José María Morelos, precisely where the hero of independence walked to reach the image of the Virgin of Acahuato and thank her for her intervention in the battle against the Spanish Crown.

That group and its corrupted faith are in the sights of Secretary García Harfuch and the forces of the federal government, who in Michoacán are facing, as if that were not enough, a criminal catechism that refuses to die.

Source: Milenio