The mayor of the small western Mexican town of Teuchitlan, Jose Murguia Santiago, was arrested Saturday as part of a drug into a suspected drug cartel training camp where human remains were found, according to a CBS News report filed Sunday.
An anonymous source told AFP that Santiago's arrest came as part of an investigation into the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the cartel has 19,000 in its ranks and is extremely violent. The cartel formed after the Sinaloa cartel split in half following the 2010 killing of its capo, Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villarreal, by the Mexican army.
Local media described the alleged training camp at the Izaguirre Ranch in Teuchitlan as the "ranch of horror." Six months following an investigation last September, relatives of missing people began searching the ranch, stumbling upon old clothing and human remains. Human Rights Watch described the ranch as an "apparent mass killing site."
Anonymous senior officials said the site was used to train newly recruited gunmen.
The Guerreros Buscadores collective, a group dedicated to locating missing people, referred to the Teuchitlan ranch as an "extermination center" with "clandestine crematoriums," where forced recruits were held by the cartel. However, Mexico's security minister, Omar Garcia Harfuch, has said there was "no evidence that it was an extermination camp."
Still, Garcia Harfuch went on to add that an alleged recruiter told him that members of the cartel tortured and killed recruits who refused to cooperate or tried to run.
In addition to Murguia Santiago, around a dozen others have been arrested in connection with the case, including a police chief from a neighboring municipality and two of his officers.
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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