Mexico City pressures organized crime in the city center from the Tepito neighborhood: about fifty arrested in one month

The shooting murder of a 42-year-old man at the beginning of last week three blocks from the Zócalo once again broke the uneasy calm that hangs over downtown Mexico City. It was the latest clear evidence of the crime that runs through the Cuauhtémoc Borough, accustomed to accumulating the highest crime figures in the capital. To try to curb this situation, Mexico City authorities have set their sights on Unión Tepito and Antiunión Tepito, two opposing local organizations seeking criminal control of the capital and to whose struggle several of these violent episodes in the area are linked. The Secretariat of Security reported this Tuesday the arrest of 54 of their members since early July.

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Mexico City prosecutor Bertha Alcalde explained that cases like last week’s murder downtown are permeated by clashes between criminals in the area. “Some of them are indeed related to confrontations, reshuffling among criminal groups in different parts of the city,” the prosecutor said during a press conference. The city police have included weakening organized crime as part of their comprehensive security strategy to combat high-impact crimes in the city.

Unión Tepito and Antiunión emerge from the tough neighborhood of Tepito, in the central area of Cuauhtémoc Borough. The former is one of the cartels that for more than a decade has shaken the capital’s calm, associating with other criminal groups such as the Venezuelan-origin Tren de Aragua; the latter, with less media exposure, maintains the same criminal footprint as Unión. The dispute between the two organizations has led to violent clashes. Alcalde pointed out at the conference that the area where that last high-profile crime occurred, near the National Palace and that neighborhood, is an area where “historically a higher number of homicides have occurred because of the presence of this type of criminal groups.”

Of the 18,604 investigation files opened by the Prosecutor’s Office in Mexico City, 2,843 were related to crimes occurring in Cuauhtémoc Borough, that is, 15.3% of the total. The economic center of the capital also concentrates more than half a million inhabitants.

Since July, the police have seized from the organizations 15 boxes and more than 900 bags of marijuana, nearly 200 doses of cocaine, and another 100 packages of methamphetamine. The market value of the substances has not been detailed. The major seizure occurred on July 18 in the Centro neighborhood, when the agency arrested Melchor N, José N, and Alfredo N, from whom they confiscated those 15 boxes of marijuana and 18 of the bags. “According to investigations, the detainees were in charge of storing and distributing narcotics for Unión Tepito,” the Secretariat of Security pointed out this Tuesday.

Despite the media surge of the cases, prosecutor Alcalde indicated in the presentation of the results report that the 2025 figures showed a significant reduction in high-impact crimes compared to previous years: 56% compared to 2019 and 12% compared to 2024. However, the city’s Public Ministry opened 255 investigations for intentional homicides in Mexico City, with the highest number of those months in April (71). To maintain the fight against crime, Alcalde pointed out, they not only work against homicide crimes, “but also in identifying criminal groups.”

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