Teams of armed males torched automobiles and blocked roads throughout Mexico on Wednesday, police and native media mentioned, as a turf battle rages between the influential Jalisco New Generation drug cartel and native legal teams.
Gunmen seized cargo vehicles and set them on fireplace on a freeway connecting Mexico Metropolis to Guadalajara, earlier than police reported at the very least 18 comparable circumstances within the neighboring states of Michoacan and Guanajuato.
A Michoacan police supply mentioned on situation of anonymity that the assaults had been a response by Jalisco New Technology to a army operation within the space.
The fires had been underneath management by Wednesday night, with roads cleared and no casualties reported, in accordance with native media.
The Mexican authorities declared battle on drug trafficking teams in 2006 and violence has rocked the nation ever since, with round 480,000 individuals murdered prior to now 19 years.
The Jalisco New Technology cartel was designated a terrorist group by President Trump in February. The cartel, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says has some 19,000 in its ranks, developed quickly into a particularly violent and succesful pressure after it cut up from the Sinaloa cartel following the 2010 killing of Sinaloa cartel capo Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal by the army.
The group has been accused of utilizing faux job ads to lure new members and of torturing and killing recruits who resist. Final month, a bunch of individuals searching for lacking relations discovered charred bones, shoes and clothing at a suspected coaching floor for the cartel.
Stringer/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs
The Jalisco cartel is led by Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. The U.S. authorities has supplied a $15 million reward for info resulting in his seize. Oseguera drew renewed consideration after his picture was projected as a band performed at a music pageant in Jalisco in late March.
In February, his spouse, Rosalinda Gonzalez, was released from prison in Mexico after receiving a five-year sentence following her arrest in 2021 for the illicit monetary operation of an organized legal group. Her launch got here on the identical day that 29 drug traffickers being held in Mexican prisons had been sent to the United States.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
