The bloody resurgence of the Familia Michoacana drug cartel: crime and violence in Tierra Caliente

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – It seemed to be in decline, practically extinct, but the cartel was reborn and has the armed forces in its sights.

In Tierra Caliente they decide who lives and who dies. They also establish the “cobro de piso” and are responsible for curfews. This is the Familia Michoacana, a drug trafficking cartel that operates in southern Mexico and has grown in strength in recent months.

Tierra Caliente is perhaps the most dangerous region in Mexico and Mexico is already arguably the most violent country in Latin America. Although fame and data point to the Bajio area as the bloodiest, the south of the country has been under the control of the Michoacan cartel for years. Its leaders move around the State of Mexico, Guerrero and Michoacan in armored trucks with the initials LNFM (La Nueva Familia Michoacana) as their only license plate.

Its power is such that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has included it on the list of drug trafficking threats to the United States.

Read: Mexican cartels have presence in up to 1,000 U.S. cities; their ‘drug capital’ is Chicago

The Familia Michoacana was born in 2006 under the command of Carlos Rosales Mendoza, alias “El Tisco,” whose body was found on a Michoacan highway in 2015. Experts believe that the fall of this criminal leader weakened and fragmented the drug trafficking mafia.

The Michoacanos’ calling card came when a group of hooded men dumped five severed heads and a message signed by the organization on a dance floor. Then, the new criminal group, plunged by an unsettling mystical and regionalist spirit, managed to take control of the area.

The war on drug trafficking – initiated by former President Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) – hit the table when he sent the armed forces to Apatzingan, Michoacan to fight the criminal cells.

But no army, no matter how big it was, gave him a fight until a few months ago, when the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) dared to heat up the plaza. As usually happens in these cases, the Familia Michoacana and the CJNG began a war for control of the territory.

The savage ambush suffered by 13 police officers last Thursday, March 18, in Coatepec de Harinas, State of Mexico, was reportedly related to the Familia Michoacan cartel, according to state authorities.

In the State of Mexico, a few minutes from the country’s capital, the criminal organization is present in at least 20 municipalities, where it is dedicated to the collection of money from establishments of different types. In addition, in Guerrero (on the Pacific coast), it controls nine regions. One of them is Zirándaro de los Chávez, where the Familia Michoacana has a dispute with the CJNG.

Currently, the main leaders of the cartel are the brothers Jhonny, alias “El Pez” and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Oloscoaga, alias “La Fresa,” as well as Francisco or Jose Maldonado, alias “Don Jose”.

The massacre of 13 police officers

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 18, in Coatepec de Harinas, State of Mexico, an ambush against state police and ministerial officers resulted in the murder of 13 officers. Authorities began the corresponding investigations to find the culprit, and all evidence points to the leaders of the Familia Michoacana.

Jonatan Hurtado Olascoaga, alias “El Pez”, could be one of the ringleaders of this criminal organization that ordered the murder of the security guards, since 11 years ago, the then Attorney General’s Office (PGJ) of the State of Mexico issued a search warrant against him.

“El Pez” has become one of the most wanted hitmen in the state, along with his brother Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, alias “El Fresa”. For any information related to his whereabouts, state authorities have been offering a reward of 500,000 pesos since 2014.

Source: Infobae