Mexican mayor arrested over alleged links to cartel training camp
Prosecutors in Mexico have arrested the mayor of Teuchitlán in western Jalisco state as part of their investigation into a nearby cartel training site.
The mayor, José Murguía Santiago, is suspected of colluding with the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (CJNG), which he has denied.
The investigation was launched after activists discovered bone fragments and hundreds of discarded shoes, backpacks and items of clothing at the Izaguirre ranch outside the town in March.
Rights groups said that they feared the ranch had been used as an "extermination camp", where people were forcedly recruited and trained, and those who refused were tortured and killed.
The discovery by people searching for their missing relatives of what appeared to be evidence of mass killings at the site shocked the country, where cartel violence is rife.
Read: Ovens and bone fragments - BBC visits Mexican cartel 'extermination' site
Mexico's Attorney-General Alejandro Gertz gave a news conference last week updating journalists on the federal investigation into the ranch.
He confirmed that the site had been used as a training centre for recruits of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most feared and powerful transnational drug trafficking gangs, which has its power base in Jalisco.
However, he said that there was no evidence that it had been used as an extermination and cremation site.
According to the attorney-general, bone fragments discovered there were not recent and forensic tests suggested that the fires lit at the ranch would not have been hot enough to dispose of human remains.
Gertz's statements caused anger among "searchers", the name given to relatives looking for the more than 120,000 people who have been reported missing in Mexico over the past two decades.
They said that his news conference raised more questions than it answered and failed to address to whom the many abandoned shoes found at the ranch belonged and what had become of those people.
Gertz insisted that the authorities would continue looking into whether there had been any collusion between the CJNG and local officials.
The arrest of Mayor Murguía Santiago is part of that ongoing investigation.
Prior to his arrest, the mayor had said that he had nothing to hide. "If they want to investigate me, let them, I'm clean and willing to say what I know," he told local media.
But prosecutors allege that he knew of the existence of the training centre and did not act on that knowledge.
Disappearances double in Sinaloa amid Mexican cartel rift
Extortion and kidnap - a deadly journey across Mexico
The Searchers: Mexican women who look for the dead

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Hey, Democrats: LA riots make Americans like me glad Trump is president
Hey, Democrats: LA riots make Americans like me glad Trump is president | Opinion For many Americans, the protests in Los Angeles look like lawlessness. They also are a reminder of why we didn't want Joe Biden or Kamala Harris for another four years. Show Caption Hide Caption See how Los Angeles protests intensified over one weekend What started as a small protest over immigration raids on Friday ballooned into large demonstrations throughout the weekend. Here's what happened. As I've witnessed photos and videos of the burning cars, masked rioters wielding Mexican flags, blocked freeways and looted stores in Los Angeles in recent days, my conclusion is this: I'm glad Donald Trump is president. And I'm not alone. Voters in November chose Trump in large part to address the surge in illegal immigration that former President Joe Biden allowed to happen for years, letting millions of people flood our borders. Trump has followed through on his campaign promises to close the border and to deport many of these immigrants who've flouted the law. By doing their job, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents purportedly have sparked the mayhem and violence in LA, and which is now spreading to other parts of the country. California Democrats like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom are wringing their hands that Trump has deployed the National Guard and now the Marines to help quell the violence, even though state and local leaders certainly don't have the situation under control. Rather than call out the bad behavior, Democrats and the news media appear to condone the rioting – and downplay what's actually happening. It's an odd strategy, and one that shows why Democrats continue to struggle to connect with average Americans. Opinion: Can you be legally punished for misgendering someone? Colorado says yes. | Opinion Sen. John Fetterman calls out his own party. I give him credit for that. One Democrat at least gets it. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is once again standing up to the craziness within his party and calling it like he sees it. On X, Fetterman posted a photo of a rioter with a Mexican flag standing on a destroyed car surrounded by flames. It looks like a scene out of Gaza – not the United States. I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement. — U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 10, 2025 Fetterman wrote this: 'I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration − but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos. My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement.' Fetterman is absolutely correct. For years, Democrats have obsessed over the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump lost the 2020 election. Yet, Democrats make themselves look like hypocrites when they are OK with violence that fits with their anti-Trump policy objectives. Opinion: Democrats waste $20 million to learn why they lost men. Here's my free advice. 'Overwhelmingly peaceful' protests? Give me a break, Kamala Harris. Consider some of the responses to the rioting from high-profile Democrats and media figures: ∎ 'The vast majority of protesters and demonstrators are peaceful,' California Sen. Alex Padilla said on MSNBC. 'They're passionate.' ∎ New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker blamed Trump for what's happening. 'A lot of these peaceful protests are being generated because the president of the United States is sowing chaos,' Booker said on 'Meet the Press.' ∎ Former Vice President Kamala Harris and 2024 presidential candidate posted a statement that called the spectacle 'overwhelmingly peaceful' and criticized Trump for 'ICE raids' that are part of the administration's 'cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.' Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. ∎ Not to be left out, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote the following on X: 'California Governor Newsom didn't request the National Guard be deployed to his state following peaceful demonstrations. Trump sent them anyway. … Trump's goal isn't to keep Californians safe. His goal is to cause chaos, because chaos is good for Trump.' ∎ Brian Stelter, CNN chief media analyst, shared this quote on X from The American Prospect, a progressive magazine: 'These protests, which have been abbreviated in the media as 'unrest,' were actually a cry of hope, and a reminder of the human need for community, the need to turn to each other to find something to believe in.' You get the idea. Burning vehicles and throwing rocks is somehow peaceful. Attempting to stop the violence and enforce the law is somehow instigating it. But to me, and millions of other Americans watching what's happening in LA, the protests look like lawlessness. They're also a great reminder of why we didn't want Biden (or Harris) for another four years. Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@ or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques


New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Indian bride, 25, accused of hiring four men to murder arranged husband on honeymoon
An Indian bride allegedly had her newlywed husband savagely killed during their honeymoon before she vanished – sparking a massive search that finally ended when she surrendered to police, according to reports. Sonam Raghuvanshi, 25, turned herself in on Monday a week after her husband Raja's rotting corpse was found with his throat slit at the bottom of a forestry gorge in Meghalaya on June 2, the BBC reported. The 30-year-old mutilated man was also missing his wallet, a gold ring and a chain. Advertisement 4 Sonam Raghuvanshi was accused of killing her new husband during their honeymoon. Raghuvanshi, who wed her now-slain beau in an arranged ceremony in Indore on May 11, hired four men to carry out the twisted slaughter, police said. 'Their marriage was arranged four months back and they were both happy and there had been no fights between the couple before or after marriage,' Raja's brother, Vipin Raghuvanshi, said, the outlet reported. 'Only Sonam can clarify. If she's guilty, she should be punished.' Advertisement 4 The couple left for their honeymoon on May 20. The couple left for their honeymoon on May 20 – but their families reported them missing four days into the trip, prompting police, disaster relief teams, and local residents to launch a search effort. Raja's decomposed body was found within a week, but the couple's family publicly accused police and government officials of not doing enough to investigate the murder or locate Raghuvanshi. Advertisement The alleged killer bride was picked up by police late Sunday when she showed up at a restaurant and tearfully called her brother, who immediately notified authorities, the Times of India reported. Three other suspects have since been arrested in connection with the vicious slaying, while one assailant remains at large, police confirmed, according to the BBC. Raghuvanshi's father, who has yet to speak with his daughter, has maintained her innocence, claiming she 'somehow managed to escape her captors' and that police are 'making up stories.' 4 Raghuvanshi turned herself into the police a week after her husband's body was found. Advertisement However, Raja's brother, who also criticized authorities and government officials, has accepted the accusations leveled against his sinister sister-in-law. 'I now believe that the Meghalaya government was not lying,' he said, the outlet reported. 'They were telling the truth.' Local officials blasted the distressed family for unleashing baseless claims during the investigation, even threatening to file a defamation case against them for 'maligning the image' of Meghalaya and its people. 4 Raghuvanshi's father insisted that the bride was innocent. 'The truth has come out,' Minister Alexander Laloo Hek told reporters Monday, in a clip shared on X by ANI, an Asian news network. 'Our police have done an excellent job and have nabbed the culprit within seven days.'


San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘We are human': Los Angeles residents explain the drive behind days of mass protests
LOS ANGELES — As protesters hit the streets here Tuesday for a fifth consecutive day to denounce arrests of immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, President Trump intensified his rhetoric, calling Angelenos 'animals' and 'a foreign enemy' and vowing to 'liberate' the city. The Chronicle spoke to protesters in Los Angeles to hear about what drove them to take action. One wore a flag bearing the statement: 'We are human.' Others spoke of their concern over racial profiling, treatment of immigrants and family members. Excerpts from those interviews are below. Trump has ordered 2,000 California National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines into Los Angeles — moves Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday criticized as illegal and dangerous. 'This brazen abuse of power by a sitting President inflamed a combustible situation… putting our people, our officers, and the National Guard at risk,' Newsom said in a speech Tuesday night. The demonstrations in Los Angeles have spurred a dramatic protest movement across the U.S., with large crowds gathering in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Seattle and St. Louis. Newsom said more than 370 people have been arrested in Los Angeles on vandalism and violence since the protests began Friday, following ICE's arrests at a clothing factory. On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass imposed an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m curfew in a square-mile area of downtown Los Angeles after 23 businesses were looted. Meanwhile, ICE arrests continued in Los Angeles and other parts of the U.S. Steven Steven, 24, who declined to provide his surname, said he is upset that people are being detained by ICE when they attend immigration court appointments. The Los Angeles resident stood with hundreds of others at Gloria Molina Grand Park for a vigil against deportations, wrapped in a flag reading 'We are human.' 'I don't think it's right,' Steven said. 'They are taking away people who are just trying to have a better life. I'm not even talking about deporting criminals.' Steven said he was also concerned that many people without criminal records are being targeted — pointing to cases of a high school girl and her mother who were arrested at immigration court. Frida Aguilar Frida Aguilar, 22, of Los Angeles, came out to protest downtown 'for my family,' she said, including many who are 'Dreamers' under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Aguilar stood wrapped in a Mexican flag at the corner of Los Angeles and Temple Streets, accompanied by her friend Yaire Linares, who was wrapped in a Guatemalan flag. 'It's getting insane out here,' Aguilar said. Aguilar said she was upset with how immigration officials seem to ignore due process in detaining and deporting people and with how they use racial profiling to stop people. She cited a case, reported by NBC News, in which ICE detained a U.S. marshal in Arizona because he 'fit the general description of a subject being sought by ICE.' Aguilar criticized Trump's characterization of the violence in Los Angeles, saying that 'the violence is occurring because they are provoking… us.' 'We are trying to speak for people who don't have a voice,' Aguilar said. Nico Chavez Nico Chavez said he attended the demonstration in support of 'my people.' 'It's why my parents came here!' Chavez said. Chavez was protesting with hundreds of others outside a federal building in Los Angeles when police started firing rubber bullets. Chavez was near a pedestrian bridge when he heard the bullets. 'That was scary!' Chavez said. 'I was just throwing up a peace sign; I wasn't doing anything.' Bianca Stopani Bianca Stopani, 36, of Los Angeles, said she decided to protest because she doesn't think ICE 'telling us we can't be here' is fair. Stopani said she is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. 'My parents fought for a better life,' Stopani said. 'It's my turn to fight for them.' Stopani said she has protested before, including against the Iraq War when she was 14. She said Trump is 'such a hypocrite.' 'He wants to talk about Latino people being criminals, but he's the one who has all these RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] charges,' Stopani said. Aleah and Kimberly Aleah, 19, of Pomona, was protesting — for a third day — for her parents, who came into the United States without authorization when they were children. 'I am protesting for my parents and for the right to not to be taken away,' Aleah said. Aleah, a U.S. citizen, was protesting in Los Angeles, alongside her friends, including Kimberly, a 19-year-old from East Los Angeles. Aleah said Trump's criticism of immigrants and protesters appalled her. 'I don't think a criminal should be talking against hard-working people who take all of the dirty labor jobs no one else wants,' Aleah said. 'He [Trump] should be looking for real criminals.' Kimberly said she thinks Trump is targeting 'Hispanics and Latino people and a lot of people are letting him get away with it and it needs to stop.' 'Trump is getting away with a lot, and I think people are finally realizing it,' Kimberly said. Chronicle Staff Writer Molly Burke contributing to this report.