Friday, August 1, 2025

Former boss of the Caballeros Templarios gets 55 years

The former boss of the Caballeros Templarios cartel has been sentenced to 55 years in jail for the kidnapping of a businessman in 2011.

Servando Gómez Martínez, also known as “La Tuta” and “El Profe,” both of which mean “the teacher,” was one of the founders of the criminal organization known in English as the Knights Templar Cartel.

He was arrested in 2015 for organized crime, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Before becoming one of the most wanted criminals in Mexico, Gómez taught at a teacher training school. He then went to work as a farmer and also created several rehabilitation centers for young drug abusers.

His stint as a caregiver was followed by a life of crime and he rose to become the leader of the Caballeros Templarios cartel when it splintered off from La Familia Michoacana in 2011.

Like its predecessor, the new cartel cast itself as a “self-defense” organization engaged in a struggle with Mexico‘s larger criminal cartels on behalf of the people of Michoacán.

As the cartel’s leader, Gómez infiltrated the highest levels of power and government in Michoacán, with former governors Jesús Reyna García and Fausto Vallejo Figueroa having been directly linked to him.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A woman takes a product off a grocery store shelf

Post-AMLO, Mexican household income is up and inequality is slightly down

0
The survey, which covered the end of Peña Nieto's term plus all of AMLO's, attributed the income gains to minimum wage increases, social programs and the growth of formal employment.
A red, white and green train speeds through a field.

What’s next for Mexico’s growing rail system? Officials share advances in Nuevo León, Guadalajara, SLP, Sinaloa and more

1
Construction is expected to begin this month on lines connecting Saltillo and Monterrey to the U.S. border.
Adan Augusto Lopez, former Tabasco governor and ex-federal interior minister

Opposition formally accuses AMLO’s ex-interior minister of ties to Tabasco crime gang

1
One of ex-President López Obrador's closest allies is tangled up in a corruption scandal with roots in the pair's home state of Tabasco.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity