Ten men arrested at a farm linked to a drug cartel in the Mexican state of Jalisco were found guilty of murder and kidnapping in a high-profile trial that concluded Monday, the prosecutor’s office said.
The Izaguirre “ranch of horror,” as some local media have dubbed it, allegedly served as a forced recruitment center for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most powerful criminal gangs in the country.
The men were found guilty of “disappearance committed by private individuals” and “qualified homicide,” according to a statement from the Jalisco prosecutor’s office.
The men were arrested last September when they exchanged gunfire with police and National Guard officers.
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“Inside, the ten suspects were arrested, and one person was found dead, while two others who had been detained were released,” the Jalisco prosecutor’s office said.
The Guerreros Buscadores collective, a group dedicated to locating missing relatives, reported in March that hundreds of objects and items of clothing — including dozens of shoes — had been found on the same property, allegedly belonging to missing people who had been forced to join the cartel.
The group also stated that they found probable charred human remains and that the site had been a sort of “extermination center” for the CJNG.
But the Attorney General’s Office, which carried out the investigation, stated that it did not find evidence to confirm these allegations, although it said the farm served as a criminal training center.
One recruit who reportedly survived the ranch has said that the cartel picked up recruits at bus stations under false pretenses and took them to the ranch where they were trained for a month in the use of weapons in addition to fitness training, Mexico’s Public Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said. Those who refused orders or tried to escape were beaten, tortured and killed.
Since March, about 15 other people, including a mayor and police officers, have been arrested in connection with this site.
The case has received significant press coverage in a country where more than 100,000 people have gone missing, most of them since 2006 when the federal government launched a widely criticized anti-drug military operation.
Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office via AP
The Jalisco cartel is led by Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, for whom the U.S. government has offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture.
Last month, his brother-in-law was sentenced to 30 years in U.S. federal prison following his 2017 arrest at a beach resort in Brazil while vacationing with his family under a fake name.
Also in June, the U.S. State Department announced that it was sanctioning five CJNG leaders, including “El Mencho,” as specially designated global terrorists.
The Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels have battled for control of various parts of Mexico, including Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. Both are among six Mexican organized crime groups designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the U.S. government earlier this year.
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