Those who tried to run were tortured, killed and sometimescannibalizedby fellow recruits in what U.S. federal agents describe as a disturbing riteof passage. Ciro Macias Martinez was praised by his supervisor and fellow farmhands alike for his punctuality, work ethicand soothing manner with horses at the breeding and training farm in the heart of Kentucky. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"AT9cPsLXmTcu5DvoOKyYtBnoaFpnyDzcOkF8t9PIjh4-1800-0"}; Alderete was indicted in September 2019 in Chicago on charges of trafficking more than a kilo of heroin and at least 400 grams of fentanyl from May to June of this year. The billion-dollar criminal organization has a large and disciplined army, control of extensive drug routes throughout the U.S., sophisticated money-laundering techniques and an elaborate digital terror campaign, federal drug agents say. Mexican marines almost captured El Mencho in October 2018. Armas enlisted help from his neighbors, a retired U.S. Marine and his wife. His boss, Eddie Kane, Calumet's general manager, declined repeated requests for comment. It has an army of 5,000 members . More:Will El Chapo son's arrest slow export of drugs to US? Sheriff's investigators say a Paducah, Kentucky, business owner who fell behind on a drug debt was warned last year by the cartel: "If we dont get our money, were gonna kill you and your family.. It was run by a deported felon who kept sneaking back across the border. "When you hear about the drug cartels and the amounts of drugs coming across the border, you start thinking those are big city problems," said Clatsop County Sheriff's Sgt. You can follow him onTwitterand onFacebook. "Theyre killing the next generation, and one of them was my son," Brenda Cooley said. LOG IN TO WATCH THIS VIDEO. Ransom-seekers and other cartelsare responsible for many of those disappearances,with CJNG to blame for thousands,DEA agentssay. "Big cities have big police departments and DEA, FBI and (Homeland Security Investigations) and an ability to look at intelligence and focus on their cells and contacts, said the DEA's Donahue. But DEA agents across the border are sharing intelligence and working with their Mexican counterparts to devise ways to dismantle CJNG and arrest its leaders. Who is La Vaca? Balaclava-clad members of the CJNG released a video claiming responsibility for the killings it later emerged that the victims had no connection to organised crime whatsoever. The young man, an opponent from a rival cartel, finds himself in the clutches of the Cartel de Sinaloa. The Courier Journal's investigation into CJNG's surge comes during a recent wave of significantviolence among warring drug cartels in Mexico. This case had some odd twists, including the involvement by a retired U.S. Marine and his wife, an agonizing test of family loyalties and a gruesome threat from Mexico. "That said, shootouts and attacks on authorities have happened in cities like Guadalajara in the middle of the day with no regard to innocent civilians' lives.". The military veteran served in Operation Desert Shield in 1990 and didn't have a criminal history, but he and his wife suffered from addiction. It could hide 9 kilos of drugs and a pile of cash. In a desperate bid to cling to its remaining territory, the group has joined forces with a former rival: a fast-growing cartel called the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). ", More:Ignoring cartel danger, Mexican families scour wilderness for missing loved ones' remains. Americans who may not know of CJNG today should take note, Dodds said. "I don't know who they are, but they know who I am, and they know what's going on here. CJNG's plan tomove intosmall-town America and cashin on the country's addiction crisis played out in Lexington, Kentucky. Garbage. CJNG even established a cell in south-central Virginia, buying or renting a cluster of modest homes in Axton an unincorporated community of roughly 6,500. The investigation documented how in each new community, CJNG uses local traffickers who can blend in to sell their drugs, with no regard for their race or ethnicity. As Farfan's day of reckoning neared, he and his family pleaded for leniency. CJNG has skirted Mexican and U.S. inspections at legal border crossings by hiding drugs in semitrailers hauling tomatoes, avocados and other produce, dumping at least 5 tons of cocaine and 5 tons of meth into this country every month, according to DEA estimates. "The CJNG is one of the most powerful (cartels) and in a short time may become the dominating force in Mexico if not restrained. Cannibalism in Mexico! Police found seven guns in the couple's bedroom. His chances of surviving the amped up gunmen who are intent on killing him are slim at best. He doesn't make wild errors; he doesn't hesitate; one word for el Mecho is 'calculated,'" Wesley said. 17. Chicago prosecutors allegein court filingsthat LuisAlderetewas ahigh-level cartel operativewhoshopped for a hitman on Facebook to take care of a gang member in Cairo, Illinois, to silence him. Walker then secured search warrants to monitor social media accounts, where drug ring members chatted in code on Facebook Messenger. including the drug-related killings of two Mexican brothers in 2014, one of whom was found . As they hovered over a cartel convoy, CJNG members fired Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers, shooting down Morales helicopterinto a cluster of trees. 1nemesis, the Sinaloa Cartel, dominates the majority supply of everything from methamphetamine and heroin to the devastating synthetic opioid fentanyl into its northern border and beyond. Here you'll find all collections you've created before. Farfan wasn't as lucky. There's a reason why gente de Sinaloa stay in business while everyone else eats shit and goes away. All rights reserved. Throughout Mexico, more than 40,000 children and adults remain missing. During Eduardo's detention hearing, prosecutors told the judge the Farfan drug ring was supplied by a Mexican cartel. "All intelligence indicates hes still there, moving regularly," said Craine, the retired DEA supervisor who led the successful hunt for El Chapo. More unchecked opportunities. Hearing the word "cartel" uttered in open court instantly rattled Eduardo. The incident is only one of many deeds of bloodshed to have been carried out by the CJNG, whose barbarity is said to be on ascendance in recent weeks and months spilling on to U.S. soil and livelihoods. "Either you or your family could be killed. Unlike most cartels and affiliated crime units that permeate Mexico, the CJNG has long posted its most extreme real-life horror films on display for the world to see across social media beheaded bodies left to hang and rot on bridges in broad daylight and beatings so brutal that the sound of bones cracking can be heard. The unparalleled speed of CJNGs growth coasttocoast in less than a decade has made the cartel a clear, present and growing danger, says Uttam Dhillon, DEA's acting administrator. "It's gonna be hard to catch him slippin'," said Mori, the DEA agent overseeing the U.S. criminal investigation against El Mencho. The gruesome crimes took place in Mexico's state of Colima. A nine-month Courier Journal investigation reveals how CJNG's reach hasspread across the U.S. in the past five years, overwhelming cities and small towns with massive amounts of drugs. U.S. officials have . Cartel members issued a stark warning in Mexico that reverberated through the drug network in Oregon. MEMBERS ONLY. Sanctions recently imposed by the United States and Mexico on CJNG members allegedly linked to two high-profile murders demonstrate that the criminal group is one of the few remaining with a traditional hierarchical structure. Farfan's drug ring also sent drugs to Gresham, east of Portland, Hood River, a port on the Columbia River an hour northeast of Portland, and north into Tacoma, Washington. The government also alleges that Los Cabos targeted law enforcement in Tijuana, killing at least three police officers. In Illinois,the cartel teamed with Vice Lordsgang members to grow a drug network that stretched from Southern California through the Midwest and into Nashville and Paducah, Kentuckyknown for its riverwalk murals and the National QuiltMuseum. "But its a little different when you go to Boise, Idaho, and other small towns where they dont have the resources to really focus on an international cartel.". It hauled inmore than 3 kilos of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid so potent that an amount as small as Abraham Lincoln's cheek on a pennycan be fatal. A larger probe was underway by Washington County Sheriff's WIN Team, the Westside Interagency Narcotics task force that includes agents with the FBI, Hillsboro and Beaverton police and the Oregon National Guard County-Drug investigators. The CJNG split from the Sinaloa Cartel after the killing of Ignacio Coronel, a capo whose death caused a power vacuum (via Insight Crime).Based in the western state of Jalisco, CJNG was founded by Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, whose ongoing leadership has placed him on Mexican and American most wanted . Reporters Jonathan Bullington, Kala Kachmar, Chris Kenning andKarol Suarez contributed to this story. "That puts a target on my back," he told his attorney. His cousin, Roberto Carlos Farfan Alvarez, known as "Raton" or "Mouse," pleaded guilty but never talked to police. While Luis Alderete maintains his innocence,court records show that his brother, Roberto Alderete, identified Luis asa cartel lieutenant. El Mencho eventually joined the Milenio Cartel, gaining a reputation as a cunning sicario, or hitman, and then a boss of hitmen in Guadalajara, Jalisco's capital city. While the CJNG makes no effortsto hide its beef with adverse cartels and Mexican military and law enforcement, civilians are all too often caught in the cryptic crossfire. But betrayal awaited, "We see these nodes or pockets of cartel-related activity springing up in small, rural towns on the east side of Washington, in metropolitan areas like Portland and Seattle. 12:52 you're really coward and pathetic what about cjng all the killings from . more proof that CJNG ain't shit but zetas 2.0 gente de Sinaloa no trabaja asi como vale vergas. CJNG remains the domineering force in its namesake state of Jalisco where the former governor was gunned down on Friday, in what many believe to have been the work of the cartel and its trail of terror is steadily proliferating. It has an army of 5,000 members . ", "Thats kind of hard to believe, but its true.". This week, murderers from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Ensenada, Baja California, failed to assassinate an operator of the Sinaloa Cartel. A judge sentenced Roberto to three years in custody in January 2021. Alderete also is accused of asking a criminal informant in Paducahfor assault rifles andagrenade launcherto supplya cartel "war" in Mexico,saidJesseRiddle, the Narcotics Unit captain with the McCracken County Sheriffs Office in Paducah. Eduardo began running errands for his uncle, including delivering a bag to an El Salvador native who flew in from Maryland. The victims' wrists were tied using ligatures to prevent them all from bleeding to death. "If he was, I didnt charge him enough.". After agents toppled the drug ring, the cartel turned on the gang. The group has also upped the ante for sea and air authority too fighting the likes of Sinaloa and the vestiges of Los Zetas and Los Pelones to take heed over the vital port of Chetumal and the Yucatan Peninsula, according to ananalysisby InSight Crime. During that time,overdoses sent more victims to Kentucky's morgues than bullets and car crashes combined withthe commonwealth sufferingthe fifth-highest overdose death rate in the nation. VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED. El Menchos powerful international syndicate is flooding the U.S. with thousands of kilos of methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl every year despite being targeted repeatedly by undercover stings, busts and lengthy investigations. Officials in Attorney General William Barr's office declined to comment on The Courier Journal's findings. CJNG torture video - The man was poured alcohol on his head and set on fire The man was poured alcohol on his head and set on fire The gunmen used isopropyl alcohol to set fire to the man's face and mocked his nickname. He said very little while chatting on cell phones, and he changed phones a lot. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @holliesmckay. But wrestling for land jurisdiction is only a piece of the CJNG puzzle. He had at least five aliases and kept slipping back into the U.S. To help Maciassmuggle drugs into the U.S., cartel leaders used a Toyota Camry with a secret compartment on the armrest that opened through a sequence of steps: Turnon the heater. Smaller towns. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is Mexico's most violent crime gang. When authorities arrested him, they found twoassault rifles, one inscribed with "Menchito" little Mencho and anotherengraved with"CJNG 02 JR.". According to U.S. officials, the CJNG is now the primary drug trafficking outfit in 24 of Mexico's 32 states. Attackers in armored vehicles opened fire with high-caliber weapons, gunning down officers driving five SUVs. Eduardo began running errands for his uncle, including delivering a bag to an El Salvador who! Dea agentssay Kenning andKarol Suarez contributed to this story enough. `` of surviving the amped up who... 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