Monday, June 30, 2025

Judge hands out 48-year prison terms to 8 members of Los Rojos cartel

A federal judge in Cuernavaca, Morelos, handed down 48-year sentences to eight members of the Los Rojos cartel for kidnapping and organized crime on Monday.

The gang members also face fines of 544,000 pesos (about US $26,800). They were arrested between 2014–2016 and accused of kidnapping and breaking laws regarding burials and exhumations.

Los Rojos operate in Guerrero, Morelos and other states, involved in not only kidnapping but murder and selling narcotics.

The government has stepped up its efforts to combat organized crime in recent months. Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) fled Aguililla, Michoacán, earlier in February after the army entered the notoriously violent municipality. Late last year, security forces tried to locate the head of the CJNG, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, and arrested his wife Rosalinda González Valencia.

United States authorities have offered rewards for criminal leaders in Mexico, such as US $10 million for El Mencho and $5 million for the children of the jailed former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

In the monthly security report on Monday at President López Obrador’s morning news conference, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said that crime had fallen considerably since 2018. She said federal crimes were down more than 41% in January compared to when the administration came into office, and were at their lowest percentage in seven years.

Icela added that January had the lowest homicide rate for any month in five years, 14.4% lower than in January 2021.

However, the drop in federal crimes isn’t necessarily indicative of a wider tendency: Icela was only comparing January, when there were 5,313 federal crimes, with December 2018, when there were 9,062.

Reductions in federal crime rates are likely due to a decrease in more frequently recorded crimes like theft, rather than more serious and less frequent violent crimes.

With reports from TV Azteca and Milenio 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
dancers in traditional costumes

Profits from this year’s Guelaguetza festival to help Oaxaca rebuild from Hurricane Erick

0
Oaxaca Governor Salomón Jara announced on Friday that all profits from the Guelaguetza festival, the state’s pre-eminent Indigenous cultural event, will be used to reconstruct regions destroyed by Hurricane Erick.
Tecate forest fires in Baja California

Conafor reports Tecate blaze is 75% contained after 15 days of wildfire

0
The fire, which has now spread to over 16,000 hectares, started on June 16 in the Guadalajara 2 community of Tecate, a municipality of approximately 100,000.

Authorities dismantle multi-state fuel theft network, seizing millions in assets

0
The criminal group mainly stole fuel from pipelines operated by the state oil company Pemex, and operated out of 12 facilities spread out across México state, Hidalgo and Querétaro.