Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office Targets ‘El Sapo’ for Operating CJNG Narco Ranch

Sources said that ‘El Sapo’ is in charge of training future hitmen who will be sent as cartel cannon fodder to the front lines.

The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office’s investigations point to Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán, alias El Sapo or El 90, as one of the leaders of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) behind extermination and training camps like the one found in Teuchitlán.

According to sources from the agency, statements from people who were present at those locations have established the identity of the operator, who is known to lead the Elite Criminal Group of Immediate Reaction (GEDDRI).

This criminal cell is also allegedly responsible for the disappearance and death of Roberto, Uriel, Jaime, Dante, and Diego, which occurred in Lagos de Moreno in 2023.

CJNG Schools of Crime

Most of the training centers, or crime schools, as they are also known, are located in the towns of Talpa de Allende, Mascota, Puerto Vallarta, El Grullo, Autlán de Navarro, Ameca, Tala, Teuchitlán, and Ahualulco de Mercado.

Who is El Sapo?

El Sapo is a very bloodthirsty man, with close ties to the leader of the Jalisco Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.

Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán is originally from the state of Michoacán and is the brother of Abundio Mendoza Gaytán, alias El Güero Abundio.

Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán is allegedly responsible for the death of 15 Jalisco Unified Force police officers in 2015 during an ambush, in revenge for the killing of Heriberto Acevedo Cárdenas, known as El Gringo, during a confrontation with state police in the municipality of Zacoalco de Torres, Jalisco.

El Sapo’s name also appears in the investigation into the murder of former Jalisco governor Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval in December 2023. Colombian Carlos Andrés Rivera Varela, known as La Firma, also allegedly participated in this same crime.

La Gallina, another leader of the “narco-ranch”

The other person responsible for the extermination camps is Francisco Javier Gudiño Haro, nicknamed La Gallina, current head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.

La Gallina is the largest recruiter of hitmen.

According to Jalisco government sources consulted by MILENIO, he is believed to be behind the disappearance of at least 60 people at the Tlaquepaque Bus Station in Jalisco. They were forcibly recruited upon arriving in Guadalajara under the guise of a job offer.

He also allegedly gave the order for “narco-dealers,” or drug users who don’t pay, to be recruited and taken to CJNG training camps as a form of punishment.

La Gallina has a long criminal record.

According to the sources consulted, he is allegedly linked to the attempted murder of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, in 2020, and is also linked to the murder of Salvador Llamas Urbina, a Morena councilor in Jalisco, in October 2022.

La Gallina is also allegedly behind the wave of violence sweeping the Guadalajara metropolitan area due to conflicts between drug dealers, as well as the drug graves found in various parts of the Jalisco capital, primarily in the Tlajomulco de Zúñiga valleys.

After the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) took over the investigation into the CJNG extermination camp in Teuchitlán, federal authorities now have this information to help clarify the events.

Sources: Milenio, Cartel Insider