Mexico: 10 men captured at Izaguirre Ranch found guilty of murder
The defendants were found guilty of kidnapping and "aggravated homicide," said a statement from the Jalisco prosecutor's office.
View of the police cordon at Izaguirre Ranch.
Ten men who were arrested at a drug cartel ranch in the Mexican state of Jalisco were found guilty of murder and kidnapping in a trial that concluded last Monday, the state prosecutor's office said.
The site, called Izaguirre Ranch, allegedly served as a forced recruitment center for the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG), one of the country's most powerful cartels.
The defendants were found guilty of kidnapping and "aggravated homicide," reported a statement from the Jalisco prosecutor's office. The sentences will be read this week.
The men were arrested last September when they clashed with police and national guardsmen. Two men were being held captive at the site, and the investigation located one more who had already died.
An CJNG "extermination center"
Last March, the Guerreros Buscadores collective claimed that they had found hundreds of clothes and objects on the ranch that presumably belonged to missing persons who had been forced to join the cartel.
The activists also indicated that they found probable burned human remains and that the place had been a sort of "extermination center" for the CJNG.
However, the prosecutor's office, which took over the investigation, has assured that it has found no evidence to confirm these allegations, although it has acknowledged that it was a criminal training center.
Since March, another 15 people, including a mayor and several police officers, have been arrested in connection with the site.
Alarming number of missing persons in Mexico
According to the Registro Nacional de Personas Desaparecidas (RNPDNO), in Mexico there are more than 125,000 people whose whereabouts are unknown. According to the data, 88% of the total number of missing persons reports begin in 2006, the time when the first stage of the Mexican War on Drug Trafficking (Joint Operation Michoacan) began, under the presidency of Felipe Calderon.
As of July 1, 2025 (since 1952), there have been 129,789 "missing and unaccounted for" persons, of which 99,623 were men, 29,745 were women and 421 were of undefined sex.
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