They declare 10 men guilty for the crimes that occurred in the Izaguirre Rancho, “recruitment center” of organized crime in Mexico

A policeman at the Izaguirre Rancho — Photo foot, The Mexican authorities denied that the farm, located one hour from the city of Guadalajara, was an extermination site.

- Author, Writing
- Author's title, BBC News World
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Guilty This was the verdict that Mexican justice issued against ten subjects arrested for their participation in the crimes that occurred in the Izaguirre ranch.

The decision was adopted by the Collegiate Procedure Court of District I of Puente Grande (Jalisco), which on Monday, after a week of trial – in which 20 testimonies and various material evidence were presented – concluded that the defendants were responsible for the crimes of disappearance and homicide against three people.

It is expected that in the next few hours the penalty will be announced that the defendants must comply with, whose identity has only been partially informed by the authorities.

The Izaguirre Rancho – which is located in the Agricultural Region of Teuchitlán, one hour from the city of Guadalajara, in the west of the country – occupied headlines of the world press last March, when the organization Guerreros search engines of Jalisco entered inside and claimed to have found human remains, as well as hundreds of garments and footwear.

With these findings, the group assured that the enclosure was a center employed by alleged members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación poster (CJNG) not only to recruit and train young people who would join their commands, but also to kill those who interposed on their way.

This hypothesis has been rejected by the country's attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, who considers it only a recruitment center.

A protest to the National Palace of Mexico — Photo foot, The Mexican Justice found ten men accused of murdering and disappearing three people.

The tip of the iceberg

The now convicted were apprehended on September 18, 2024, after a confrontation with agents of the National Guard in the vicinity of the Izaguirre Rancho, recalled the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

The authorities came after receiving complaints about shots in the La Estanzuela community, close to the farm.

After controlling the situation, the uniformed entered the property, where they arrested the ten subjects and located a lifeless person and rescued two others who were retained, the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office reported at the time.

During the operation large amounts of personal clothes and objects were found.

However, it was not until months after it began to suspect that the farm was a training and extermination center of organized crime. The reason? The members of Jalisco seekers again entered the property and made several findings.

The dissemination of images of hundreds of shoes, burned bones, bullet caps and farewell letters of some of the people who remained in the place, which the activists found on the property, shocked part of Mexican society.

Portrait of the Attorney General of Mexico — Photo foot, The Attorney General of Mexico assured that the Izaguirre Rancho was only a center of operations and training of the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel.

For several years, Jalisco seek warriors and other similar organizations have denounced that young people are attracted to criminal groups with deceptive employment offers and promises of attractive salaries, and that the victims end up in sites such as the one that worked in Teuchitlán to be trained in crime or die.

A report published in 2023 by the Mexican organization weaving childhood networks indicates that between 30,000 and 35,000 minors are victims of forced recruitment every year in Mexico.

On the other hand, more than 125,000 people have disappeared in recent years in the country, the Ministry of the Interior (Ministry of Interior) acknowledged a few weeks ago, which reported that 90% of these cases occurred from 2006 and more than 60,000 people were lost their trail since 2019.

Most victims are young men: there are about 40,000 missing whose ages range between 20 and 34 years, according to official figures.

Some shoes next to candles — Photo foot, More than 125,000 Mexicans have disappeared in the last two decades, most of them young men.

“Only a training center”

The statements that the Izaguirre Rancho was another organized crime extermination site, similar to the other five that have been found in the last two decades in different part of the country, were rejected by Mexican authorities.

“Were there a cremation site? There is no single evidence to prove that saying,” said the Attorney General of Mexico, Alejandro Gertz Manero, on April 29.

“What has been found? Ditches and some holes have been found where (the criminals) made fires,” added the official.

Regarding the bone remains found, the prosecutor admitted that some were found, but denied that they can be considered as proof that the ranch was an extermination center.

“A small vessel with very small bone fragments was found with a very important age,” he said.

Gertz said that all evidence suggests that the enclosure was a base of drug traffickers operating in the area.

“We already have totally proven that this was a recruitment center, training and operation of the Jalisco Nueva Generación poster (CJNG). That is tested for confessions, testimonies, documents,” he said.

In this case, the mayor of Teuchitlán, José Murguía Santiago, was also arrested last May, to whom the Prosecutor's Office indicates with the CJNG to facilitate its operations in the area, in exchange for money. Some versions that the former official has denied.