CJNG Moves Freely Along the Michoacán-Colima Border



At least a dozen pickup trucks carrying heavily armed individuals are circulating freely on a road located along the border between Michoacán and Colima, where they have established a camp for their training and operations.

Images obtained by *El Universal* provide visual evidence of the movements of this criminal organization’s cell in the zone where the municipalities of Coahuayana and Chinicuila converge with Colima—an area that also houses a military base and a National Guard barracks. 

The videos also reveal how they operate out of a ranch featuring warehouses, where they take shelter from high temperatures and rainfall, but where—according to intelligence reports—they also train hitmen. 

The site is known as “Los Naranjos,” a property that has become yet another staging and operational hub for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, reportedly with the assistance of the Chinicuila municipal government. 

A second video shows a road being severed by the criminal cell using a backhoe owned by the aforementioned municipality’s City Council. According to reports, the criminal group cuts off rural roads to prevent rival factions or authorities from entering their zones of control. 

This audiovisual material was forwarded to key figures within federal security forces. However, there is no record of any operation launched to secure this zone or to apprehend—or neutralize—the Jalisco Cartel cell, which also reportedly holds sway over local police forces in Aguililla, Coalcomán, and Chinicuila (Michoacán), as well as Tecomán and Manzanillo (Colima). 

Sources consulted for this report asserted that the individual currently controlling the municipalities of Coalcomán, Chinicuila, and their immediate neighbors is Juan Carlos Valencia González—known as “El 03″—the stepson of the slain Rubén Cervantes, alias “El Mencho.” 

Some observers even attribute the recent surge in violence to an internal power struggle within the cartel’s leadership, following the capture—first on April 27 in Nayarit—of Audias Flores Silva, alias “El Jardinero,” and subsequently—on May 4 in Colima—of his successor, Lorenzo Sánchez, alias “El Chucki.” 

Seracleo Guerrero Martínez—known as “El Tío Laco”—is the regional boss for that cartel across several municipalities in Michoacán and Jalisco; he seeks to expand into this territory and position himself at the helm of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. 

Regional security agencies have attributed the narcoblockades and attacks that took place last Monday, May 25, in Tecomán and Manzanillo to “El Tío Laco.” He is held responsible for attacks against—and the murders of—personnel from local, state, and federal security agencies, as well as for orchestrating blockades on highways, expressways, and rural roads at various points throughout Jalisco and Michoacán.

Source: El Universal