Authorities in Morelos freed an alleged criminal leader just hours after he was captured on Monday to secure the release of three kidnapped police officers.
José David Vergara, an alleged leader of the Pueblos Unidos criminal group, was detained on Monday afternoon on drug possession charges in Totolapan, a municipality in northeastern Morelos on the border with México state.
#Estados | Quema de vehículos y bloqueos carreteros se registran la tarde de este lunes en Totoloapan, Morelos, luego de un enfrentamiento armado entre elementos de seguridad e integrantes de un grupo del crimen organizado.
De acuerdo con información preliminar, los hechos de violencia son resultado del despliegue de un operativo para capturar a un líder criminal considerado generador de violencia en la región. Información en desarrollo.
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The Morelos Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said in a statement that police detained Vergara, known as “El Güero Gym,” during an anti-extortion operation. It said that “cells” of the Pueblos Unidos criminal group retaliated by detaining “three collaborators of the Eastern Region Prosecutor’s Office” — i.e., state police officers. Those officers were conducting homicide investigations and were not involved in the operation during which Vergara was captured.
After the police were kidnapped, “the protocol for handling kidnapping cases was activated to prioritize the lives of the victims being held against their will,” the FGE said before disclosing that the officers were freed at about 7:35 p.m. Monday after “the person detained hours earlier” was handed over.
“One of our colleagues was hospitalized due to a gunshot wound,” the FGE said, adding that he was in “stable” condition.
“The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Morelos stresses that the lives of our personnel are a priority for the institution and for that reason the necessary actions to protect their physical safety were carried out,” the FGE said, adding that “these criminal acts won’t go unpunished.”
The newspaper Reforma reported that criminals threatened to kill the state police officers if “El Güero Gym” wasn’t released.
On Tuesday, Morelos Attorney General Fernando Blumenkron Escobar said that the events in Totolapan on Monday “can’t be analyzed in an isolated way or reduced to the assertion that [organized] crime forced authorities to give in.”
He said that Vergara was under investigation prior to his arrest, but was not subject to an arrest warrant. Blumenkron said the suspect was arrested for drug possession — not for high-impact crimes (such as murder) for which he is under investigation. Blumenkron also said that “at least 10 people” would be investigated in connection with the kidnapping of the three state police officers.
The capture and subsequent release of Vergara was reminiscent of the capture and release of Ovidio Guzmán López in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in 2019. The capture of Guzmán López, a drug trafficker and son of convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, triggered a hostile response from the Sinaloa Cartel, leading authorities to decide to release him in an attempt to quell the violence in the Sinaloa capital.
García Harfuch: Decision to release suspect was to ‘save lives’
At President Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference, Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said that the Morelos government’s decision to release Vergara was aimed at “avoiding a greater confrontation” with criminals.
“In effect, it was to save lives,” he said.
“There were a lot of civilian people in the streets,” García Harfuch said.
Citing “preliminary information” from the Morelos government, the security minister said that the state police operation in Morelos on Monday wasn’t specifically aimed at capturing Vergara.
However, when officers saw “this individual in flagrante,” they detained him, García Harfuch said.
“It wasn’t an operation specifically to detain this person,” he said.
As a result, state police officers had “insufficient” force and backup from federal officers to effectively respond to the violence that ensued, García Harfuch said.
He said that the decision to release Vergara doesn’t mean that he will go unpunished. “We’re going to arrest him,” García Harfuch said.
Vergara’s arrest triggers narcobloqueos in Morelos
In addition to kidnapping three police officers, the Pueblos Unidos criminal group responded to Vergara’s arrest by setting vehicles and tires on fire to create so-called narcobloqueos (narco-blockades).
Reforma reported that narcobloqueos were set up in four municipalities in Morelos: Yecapixtla, Atlatlahucan, Tlayacapan and Oaxtepec.
Criminals also exchanged gunfire with police officers after the arrest of Vergara. Citing “unofficial information,” the El Universal newspaper reported that at least two police officers suffered gunshot wounds.
Morelos, which borders Mexico City, México state, Puebla and Guerrero, is one of Mexico’s most violent states. It recorded 673 homicides in the first nine months of 2026, according to data presented at Sheinbaum’s Tuesday morning press conference.
4 police officers killed in crash while responding to unrest
A police vehicle in which several officers were traveling crashed on the La Pera–Cuautla highway on Monday as they headed to assist colleagues responding to the unrest that followed Vergara’s arrest.
Two officers were killed at the scene of the crash, while two of three injured officers died while being transported to hospital, according to the Morelos Security Ministry.
With reports from EFE, El Universal, Reforma and El Financiero
