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Trained in 7 different countries to hold negotiations, analyze telephone data, conduct investigations, and carry out strategy and intelligence operations, the Specialized Anti-Kidnapping and Extortion Unit of the state of Morelos broke down in an exclusive interview with EL UNIVERSAL how the Rojos and Guerreros Unidos criminal organizations carry out their gruesome business.
Today, the team headed by the anti-kidnapping prosecutor, Adriana Pineda Fernández, says that La Familia Michoacana cartel split off from the powerful Gulf Cartel in 2006.
In the interview, Pineda Fernández explained that her organization has the resources needed to stop these criminal groups from advancing in the State of Mexico and Guerrero. However, kidnappers who have been arrested are from Sinaloa, Baja California and Sonora, states that are not within her jurisdiction.
She claims that during Mexico's last administration, the federal government didn't have the infrastructure needed to provide aid and support to victims of this crime, but thanks to the creation of the Specialized Anti-Kidnapping and Extortion Unit, kidnappings have dropped from 19 per month to three.
Over the last three years, the organization has worked on 344 cases, it has arrested 630 people and 340 kidnappers were handed down prison sentences.
What criminal organizations operate in Morelos?
– This year we've detected La Familia Michoacana. Morelos is in the middle of a conflict. Mexico City, Puebla, the State of Mexico and Guerrero. This corridor that has such a high number of kidnappings puts us in a conflict zone because the Cuernavaca metropolitan area is believed to have a high economic potential.
If we analyze the seven states in the central region of the country (Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, Puebla, State of Mexico, Mexico City, Morelos and Guerrero), 37% of the country's total population lives here and 45% of all kidnappings take place here.
Do the Rojos and Guerreros Unidos groups kidnap citizens in Morelos?
– The Rojos had a boom in terms of kidnappings. We recently caught that group's leader and we are within days of finding out for how many years he'll be sent to prison. He's from Taxco and moved to Morelos, where he led the group between 2013 and 2014. He was arrested in May 2015 in Tijuana.
In 2015, he was replaced with someone else, but that leader was arrested only after his first kidnapping. With Guerreros Unidos, we worked to break up their presence in Jiutepec and Cuernavaca, and the group's leaders were arrested. There was also a turf war within the group that led to the death of its several members.
We've broken up both of the group's presence in the area. La Familia Michoacana attempted to take control of the southern region, but we've since stopped them from advancing.
How many cases have you worked on?
– We started on April 1, 2014, but we officially stared back in October 2013, when we started to make projections and processes for the organization. There was no infrastructure to handling these cases. The organization had been left in shambles.
We closed 2013 with 199 people arrested and 150 kidnapping cases. In 2014, we worked on 128 cases and arrested 245 people. In 2015 we were down to 32 cases and 126 arrested. This year we've worked on 34 cases and arrested 60 people so far.
This is thanks to the new work structure we created for the organization, which involves not only holding negotiations in order to secure a feasible ransom and rescuing victims. We're now developing investigation protocols that allow us to carry out rescue operations without the need of outside sources.
We've expanded the scope of our services and we now even go all the way to trial and have helped put 340 kidnappers behind bars.
From what countries does your organization receive training?
– United States, El Salvador, Colombia, Germany, France, Israel and Spain, but also Mexico. Our organization is considered to be among the best in this field.
