Latest news with #JoséMurguíaSantiago
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mexican mayor arrested amid alleged links to cartel
(NewsNation) — A Mexican mayor has been arrested amid an investigation into cartel operations, according to multiple reports. Teuchitlán Mayor José Murguía Santiago denies any involvement with the Jalisco New Generation cartel despite allegations of collusion, per the BBC. The outlet reported that bone fragments, clothing items and hundreds of shoes were found at the Izaguirre Ranch when activists went looking for missing relatives. It was later confirmed to be a training site of the cartel. Border Patrol chief says 'we will not back down from the cartel' 'If they want to investigate me, let them, I'm clean and willing to say what I know,' Santiago said to local media prior to his arrest. As cited by the BBC, Mexico's attorney general said there was no evidence the ranch had been used as something of a cremation site. Investigations are ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
Euronews
06-05-2025
- Euronews
Mexican mayor arrested as part of cartel training site probe
ADVERTISEMENT The mayor of a town in the west Mexican state of Jalisco has been arrested over his alleged links to a notorious cartel training site. José Murguía Santiago, was detained on Saturday as part of a federal investigation into the Izaguirre Ranch, where human bones and clothing were found earlier this year. Located outside Teuchitlán, the town where he is the mayor, the site is thought to have been used by the infamous Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). Speaking to the local media, the mayor denied any connection with the ranch. However, prosecutors claim he knew of its existence and failed to act. The site, which has been dubbed Mexico's "ranch of horror," made headlines in March when people searching for their relatives announced that they had discovered shoes, clothes and charred bones there, following a tip-off. The Jalisco Search Warriors, the group that found the items on the ranch, called it an "extermination camp." Related Search group in Mexico discovers possible cartel mass killing site At the time, they blamed the authorities for failing to properly investigate the property, which was first uncovered by federal soldiers in September. After the news about the ranch caused uproar across Mexico, the government said it would lead the investigation into what happened there. Speaking last week, Attorney-General Alejandro Gertz suggested that the facility had not been used as an extermination or cremation site. His response met with frustration from the Jalisco Search Warriors, who claimed Gertz was mistaken and that the property was more than just a cartel recruitment and training centre. Last month, two members of the collective, Carmen Morales and her son Jaime Ramirez, were shot dead, the Jalisco state prosecutor's office said. In the past few decades, more than 120,000 people have disappeared in Mexico. The federal authorities are not doing enough to investigate these human rights abuses and to end the impunity surrounding them, campaigners say.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Yahoo
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
BBC News
05-05-2025
- BBC News
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' siteMexico's Attorney-General Alejandro Gertz gave a news conference last week updating journalists on the federal investigation into the 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 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 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 prosecutors allege that he knew of the existence of the training centre and did not act on that knowledge.
CBS News
04-05-2025
- CBS News
Mexican mayor arrested in connection to alleged drug cartel training camp, official says
What we know about American guns transported across the U.S.-Mexico border A mayor from a western Mexico town was arrested as part of a probe into a suspected drug cartel training camp where human bones and clothing were found, a federal official said. Teuchitlán Mayor José Murguía Santiago was arrested as part of an investigation by government prosecutors into probable omissions or complicity of authorities with the Jalisco New Generation cartel, a federal source told AFP on Saturday. The source requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Murguía was arrested late Saturday afternoon, according to federal arrest records. This photo released by the Jalisco State Attorney General's Office shows shoes at the Izaguirre Ranch where skeletal remains were also discovered in the municipality of Teuchitlán, Mexico, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Jalisco State Attorney General's Office via AP The cartel, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says has some 19,000 in its ranks, developed rapidly into an extremely violent and capable force after it split from the Sinaloa cartel following the 2010 killing of Sinaloa cartel capo Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal by the military. The "ranch of horror," as some local media called it, in the Izaguirre Ranch in Teuchitlán in the western state of Jalisco was first discovered in September 2024. Six months later, people searching for missing relatives found clothing and human remains, raising questions about the initial investigation, including a failure to search the site thoroughly. Human Rights Watch called it an "apparent mass killing site." The cartel allegedly used the ranch to train newly recruited gunmen, senior officials have said. The Guerreros Buscadores collective, a group dedicated to locating missing relatives, has described the Teuchitlán ranch as an "extermination center" with "clandestine crematoriums" where forced recruits were thought to have been held by the cartel. Barricade tape set up by authorities cordons off parts of Izaguirre Ranch during a tour for the press, days after skeletal remains were discovered on the premises. Alfredo Moya / AP Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told reporters in late March that there was "no evidence that it was an extermination camp." But he also said that an alleged recruiter — who was arrested — said that cartel members tortured and killed recruits who refused to cooperate or tried to flee. The attorney general's office, which has denied that executions were systematically carried out, took over the investigation after a complaint from Guerreros Buscadores. The group found buried bones, clothing, shoes and other objects at the ranch, which went unnoticed during a search in September by authorities who raided it following reports of gunfire. The interior of Izaguirre Ranch during a tour for the press. Alfredo Moya / AP According to the Jalisco state prosecutor's office, 10 people were arrested, two captives freed and a dead body found along with skeletal remains in September. Besides Mayor Murguía, about a dozen others have been arrested in the case, including a police chief from a neighboring municipality and two of his officers. More than 127,000 people are registered as missing in Mexico, most of them since 2006 when the government declared war on drug trafficking groups. By state, Jalisco has the highest number of missing persons cases, with more than 15,000.
