A new blow in the framework of the Enjambre operation has arrived, now in Puebla. The Government of Mexico reported this Monday the arrest of nine people linked to a criminal cell dedicated to cargo transport theft, including Isaac Rodríguez Ochoa, municipal president of Esperanza for Morena, operating on the Puebla-Veracruz highway. According to the authorities, 23 raids were carried out in different homes in the municipality (bordering the Veracruz entity), which also resulted in the arrest of Abigail Contreras Camacho, former director of Public Security, and Manuel Rodríguez Ochoa, brother of the mayor.
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The official statement links the detainees to Los Zúñiga, a criminal group led by Genaro Zúñiga, alias May, identified as one of the main operators of cargo transport theft in the region, captured on August 15 in Cuitláhuac, Veracruz, for health-related crimes and possession of firearms exclusive to the Army. Investigations point to a relationship between Los Zúñiga and Los Chokos, another criminal group operating between kilometers 198 and 214 of federal highway 150-D Puebla-Veracruz. The first group operates between kilometers 210 and 217 of the same route.
In the operation, carried out jointly by the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), the Army, the National Guard (GN), and the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), 35 firearms, 52 magazines, tactical clothing, 11 vehicles, a drone, and a signal jammer were seized. They also located a warehouse used to unload the stolen units. In their statement, the authorities highlighted that they identified “possible protection networks and mechanisms used by the organization to facilitate their criminal activities, including surveillance tasks, blockades to prevent authorities’ entry, and possible information leaks about operations.”
Through his social networks, Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of Security, has emphasized: “These arrests represent a strong blow against the operational capacity and possible protection networks of these criminal organizations, and will have a direct impact on reducing highway theft, cargo and passenger transport theft, and extortion.” The official pointed out that the action is part of the Enjambre Operation “and the zero impunity policy” of the president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
These latest arrests add to other blows that the federal government has dealt during this six-year term, affecting municipal structures. The case of Morelos, where last May the municipal presidents of Atlatlahucan and Cuautla and the former mayor of Yecapixtla were captured, resonated because it is an entity where extortion complaints had been piling up for years. Earlier, the capture of the mayor of Tequila, Diego Rivera, had also grabbed attention due to accusations from brewing and tequila companies in Jalisco, including the José Cuervo factory, revealing a corruption network within the city council.
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