Women lead two Mexican criminal groups with different trajectories

Infobae México reports that Karem Yépez Ortiz took on operational decision-making for the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel outside prison after the August 2020 capture of her brother, José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, known as El Marro. The account is based on an interview with Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés, a security researcher at the Autonomous University of Coahuila. Sánchez Valdés said the organization retained influence in Guanajuato and expanded into neighboring municipalities despite pressure from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). He described the Santa Rosa de Lima group as one of the country’s significant fuel-theft organizations because of the number of operators it retains.

The researcher contrasted that trajectory with the Tijuana Cartel, which he said has lost territorial presence and is now concentrated mainly in parts of Tijuana, with possible reach into Playas de Rosarito and Ensenada. Infobae México reported that Sánchez Valdés places Enedina Arellano Félix at the head of the organization since 2014, after the arrest of her son, Fernando Sánchez Arellano, although some sources date her rise to 2008. He said the group no longer controls all of Tijuana and is involved mainly in retail drug sales, extortion in some areas and occasional movement of smaller quantities of drugs toward San Diego and San Ysidro.

The interview also challenges the idea that women-led criminal organizations are necessarily less violent. According to Sánchez Valdés, the Tijuana Cartel’s reduced violence reflects its long-term weakening rather than the gender of its leader, while the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel remains violent. He cited other women who have led criminal organizations, including Melissa Calderón Ojeda, known as La China, and Leticia Rodríguez, known as Doña Lety, as examples of different paths into criminal leadership.

Sánchez Valdés said his research identifies 14 women who have commanded criminal organizations in Mexico from the 1930s to the present, while emphasizing that women remain uncommon in the highest levels of organized crime. The source article is available from Infobae México: https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2026/10/13/del-poder-del-santa-rosa-de-lima-al-debilitamiento-del-cartel-de-tijuana-karem-yepez-y-enedina-arellano-las-mujeres-al-mando-de-carteles-en-mexico

Ambiguities: The source presents differing accounts of when Enedina Arellano Félix assumed leadership; this rewrite preserves both the 2008 and 2014 dates and attributes the 2014 account to Sánchez Valdés.