At least 40 criminal groups are responsible for drug trafficking, extortion and homicides in Mexico City, according to government reports and information obtained by the newspaper El Financiero.
The groups operate across the capital – 28 of them are in just one of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs while 12 are engaged in illegal activities in two or more.
The Unión de Tepito, a gang based in the notorious neighborhood of the same name, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), considered Mexico’s most powerful criminal organization, have the greatest influence in Mexico City, El Financiero said.
The former operates in 11 boroughs while the latter has a presence in seven. Four other criminal groups – Los Molina, Los Rodolfos, the Tláhuac Cartel and Lenin Canchola – operate in five boroughs each.
Some of the groups have links to other gangs in the capital but operate independently. Some are engaged in turf wars with competing criminal organizations that result in bloodshed. All of them are involved in drug trafficking and extortion.
Through interviews and by accessing publicly available information, El Financiero said that it had confirmed the existence of at least 40 gangs, an increase of 15 compared to the 25 identified by the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office and the police department a year ago.
The newspaper also said that there are criminal groups in the capital that specialize in mugging people after they’ve withdrawn money from a bank, robbing banks, cloning bank cards and human trafficking. Some of those groups are made up entirely of foreigners.
The Unión de Tepito, a gang perhaps most notorious for allegedly carrying out the 2018 murders of members of a rival gang using gunmen dressed as mariachi musicians, was formed in 2008 when a group of ex-members of the Zetas drug cartel formed an alliance with four men in Mexico City.
The gang is now considered to be one of the main instigators of violence in the capital, where homicides were at their highest level in five years in 2019.
La Unión, as the group is known colloquially, operates in the boroughs of Alvaro Obregón, Azcapotzalco, Benito Juárez, Coyoacán, Cuauhtémoc, Gustavo A. Madero, Iztacalco, Magdalena Contreras, Miguel Hidalgo, Tlalpan and Venustiano Carranza.
For its part, the CJNG has now operated in the capital for more than five years and currently has a presence in Álvaro Obregón, Benito Juárez, Cuajimalpa, Cuauhtémoc, Gustavo A. Madero, Iztapalapa and Tlalpan, El Financiero said.
It is engaged in a dispute with the Unión de Tepito and has an alliance with that group’s arch-enemy, the Anti Unión. Three alleged CJNG Mexico City plaza chiefs have been arrested over the past year.
In the southeastern borough of Tláhuac, the most powerful criminal organization is the Tláhuac Cartel. It also operates in the boroughs of Iztapalapa, Milpa Alta, Tlalpan and Xochimilco.
A lesser known group is the Lenin Canchola organization led by a 35-year-old man of the same name. A splinter group of the Unión de Tepito, the gang distributes drugs, carries out extortion and kidnappings, and commits murders.
It operates in the boroughs of Álvaro Obregón, Benito Juárez, Magdalena Contreras, Miguel Hidalgo and Tlalpan.
A full list of the 40 criminal groups identified by El Financiero and the boroughs in which they operate appears below.
Álvaro Obregón
- Unión de Tepito
- Lenin Canchola
- El Espárrago
Azcapotzalco
- Unión de Tepito
- Anti Unión Tepito
- Juan Balta
Benito Juárez
- Unión de Tepito-Bengala
- Lenin Canchola
- CJNG
Coyoacán
- Unión de Tepito
- Los Guerrero
- Los Molina
- Los Rodolfos
Cuajimalpa de Morelos
- El Chepe
- Maistrin
Cuauhtémoc
- Unión de Tepito
- Anti Unión Tepito
- Fabian R88
- CJNG
Gustavo A. Madero
- Los Rojos
- Familia La Cruz
- Los Chilas
- Unión de Tepito
- CJNG
- Los Negeros
- Los Rudos
Iztacalco
- Unión de Tepito
- Anti Unión Tepito
- Los Rodolfos
- Los Tanzanios
- Juan Balta
- Paco Pacas
Iztapalapa
- Los Tanzanios
- Tláhuac Cartel
- El Richis
- Sindicato Libertad
- Los Molina
- Güero Fresa
- Los Oaxaca
Magdalena Contreras
- Unión de Tepito
- Lenin Canchola
- Tercera Acción Destructiva (3AD)
Miguel Hidalgo
- Unión de Tepito
- Lenin Canchola
- Banda El Balín
- Banda El Robert
- El Nopa
Milpa Alta
- Los Rodolfos
- Los Molina
- Tláhuac-Barbas
Tláhuac
- Tláhuac Cartel
- Sindicato Libertad
- Los Molina
- Los Rodolfos
Tlalpan
- Unión de Tepito
- Robles
- Lenin Canchola
- Tláhuac Cartel
- Los Negros
- Los Papayos
- Los Macedo
- El H
- Los Changos
Venustiano Carranza
- Unión de Tepito-Mitzuru
- Anti Unión
- El Pechugas
- Los Tanzanios
- Juan Balta
- El Patines
- Paco Pacas
Xochimilco
- Tláhuac Cartel
- Los Rodolfos
- Los Molina
- Los Estúpidos
Source: El Financiero (sp)
