Cartel Lieutenant’s Capture Could Provide New Links to Former Mexican President’s Son
The capture of a founding member and high-level lieutenant of Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco New Generation points not only to the further weakening of the organization, but also to new links going public that could tie the terrorist cartel’s illegal fuel operations to the sons of former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The capture of a founding member and high-level lieutenant of Mexico’s Cartel Jalisco New Generation points not only to the further weakening of the organization, but also to new links going public that could tie the terrorist cartel’s illegal fuel operations to the sons of former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
This week, Mexican authorities arrested Ivan “El Tanque or the Tank” Cazarin Molina, a top-ranking member of CJNG during an operation in Zapopan, Jalisco. Mexican authorities describe Cazarin as a founding member of CJNG and a close ally of the organization’s late supreme leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. Authorities link him to a 2015 downing of a Mexican federal police helicopter during a failed attempt to capture El Mencho. In addition to serving as a regional commander for the organization, Cazarin was described as the leader of the organization’s fuel-theft operation.
Credit: Breitbart News Foundation / Cartel Chronicles
While Mexico’s top security official, Omar Garcia Harfuch, announced the arrest, Breitbart Texas has confirmed that U.S. law enforcement provided the actionable intelligence that led to Cazarin’s capture, while Mexican authorities laid the groundwork.
According to authorities, Cazarin is one of the main individuals responsible for CJNG’s fuel theft operation, where the cartel would steal fuel products from Mexico’s state-owned fuel company PEMEX. The fuel was then laundered through a complex network of companies and refineries in and out of Mexico so it could be sold as legitimate.
Those networks led to an unusual alliance with the Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel, based in Reynosa and led by Cesar “El Primito” Morfin Morfin. Using Los Metros routes and territories, CJNG and the Gulf Cartel would move stolen fuel into Texas, where corrupt refineries would help them launder it and ship it back to Mexico. Breitbart Texas reported on a refinery in South Texas whose owners are currently under federal indictment for their role in laundering CJNG’s fuel.