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- Five Mexican childhood friends aged 19-22 vanished on the night of August 11 in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, after telling their families they were returning home
- Video soon circulated on social media of the five on their knees, having been kidnapped: one was forced to stab and behead one of the others
- Human remains of five have now been found: on Thursday a security expert said he believed they were duped by an offer of work and forced to join the cartel
A horrific video was then circulated on social media showing the five on their knees, with duct tape on their mouths, their faces bleeding and bruised.
The men were made to lie down, and one of the five ordered to beat, stab and decapitate him.
The five childhood friends were snatched by cartel operatives on August 11 in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco. From left: Roberto Olmeda; Diego Lara; Uriel Galvan; Dante Cedillo; and Jaime Martínez
The five are believed to have been taken to this abandoned building in the Orilla del Agua neighborhood of their hometown
Investigators search an abandoned property in Jalisco, Mexico, where human remains were recovered on Wednesday
Authorities in the early hours of Monday found a vehicle on fire with a dead body inside
On Wednesday afternoon, the Attorney General's Office found the property where the photo and video were allegedly taken in the La Orilla del Agua neighborhood.
Hours later, they identified a farm with the charred remains of four people, and are investigating whether the four bodies are those of the five missing youngsters.
A fifth body was found in the trunk of their burnt-out brown Volkswagen Jetta, found on fire early Monday on the highway between Lagos de Moreno and Encarnacion Diaz.
The five victims were 21-year-old bricklayer and soccer fanatic Jaime Adolfo Martínez Miranda; 22-year-old Dante Cedillo Hernández, a professional cyclist who won two gold medals in different categories at the 2016 National Olympics; and 20-year-old Diego Alberto Lara Santoyo, a blacksmith who according to El Pais owned the VW Jetta which was found burned.
The others have been named as 20-year-old Roberto Olmeda Cuellar, an industrial engineering student at the University of Guadalajara; and Uriel Galván González, the youngest, at 19, who was a keen boxer and cyclist.On Thursday, it emerged that the five might have been lured by the promise of work to a meeting by cartel operatives, then told they had to join their ranks.At least two of the five had on August 9 got in touch with a person they knew who had a contact in a call center, and knew of part-time work going as security guards.Federal sources told El Universal newspaper the five then arranged to meet their contact amid the annual city celebrations in honor of their patron saint.The Feria of Lagos de Moreno began on July 27 with the crowning of the city's festival queen, and concluded on August 13 after two weeks of music, feasting, rodeos and bullfighting.
On the night of August 11 the final weekend of revelry was in full swing, with a concert of popular Latin rock band Genitallica Plastiko. They were last heard of at 10:55pm, with one of the five texting a relative to say they were heading home. Sources told El Universal that one of the people they arranged to meet was a known member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which dominates the state.
The CJNG runs a series of call centers, federal sources told the paper, and uses them for the forced recruitment of new cartel members. The call centers post fake job offers at non-existent companies, offering attractive salaries and good benefits. Once through the door, they are then ordered to work for the cartel or be killed - and are often sent on the most dangerous jobs, such as working on sites where a rival cartel is known to operate. The majority of people recruited through the call centers come from the neighboring states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Colima, Nayarit, Guanajuato and Zacatecas. Investigators with the Jalisco state Attorney General's Office located human remains inside an abandoned property on Wednesday. The property could be the same one seen in a video that shows the students in captivity
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Investigators with the Jalisco state Attorney General's Office located human remains inside an abandoned property on Wednesday. The property could be the same one seen in a video that shows the students in captivity
Diego Lara, 20. His sister, Magalli Lara, was among the first to raise the alarm and say he was missing
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Diego Lara, 20. His sister, Magalli Lara, was among the first to raise the alarm and say he was missing
Roberto Olmeda, 20, was an industrial engineering student at the University of Guadalajara
Uriel Galvan was the youngest of the victims, at 19
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Uriel Galvan was the youngest of the victims, at 19
Dante Cedillo was a youth cycling champion, winning gold at national championships in 2016, and had since become a professional cyclist
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Dante Cedillo was a youth cycling champion, winning gold at national championships in 2016, and had since become a professional cyclist
David Sucedo Torres, a security analyst, told El Universal that the CNJG has established a network of these call centers.
'In the last two years or so in various regions surrounding Lagos de Moreno a series of training and recruitment centers have emerged,' he said.
'They have made Lagos de Moreno a key operational site, specifically for recruiting and training squads of hitmen.'
Saucedo Torres said he believed the five were swept up in the cartel's recruitment drive.
'The five young people who were kidnapped seem by all indications to have been caught in some sort of training program by the Jalisco Cartel, which sets tests for the new recruits - forcing them to carry out assassinations.'
He said escapees told how new forced-recruits were made to kill someone to prove their courage, daring and loyalty to the cartel.
The security expert said he believes, from the footage, that one of the five was made to kill one of the others as an initiation.
'But at some point things started to go wrong, and the hitmen decided to kill them all,' he added.
Sacedo Torres said he was surprised the video leaked, but said perhaps it was published by an ally of the rival Sinaloa Cartel, to shine a spotlight on the CJNG and make them a target of the federal government.
He said there was no doubt the CJNG was the 'material and intellectual author of the kidnap and assassination of the youngsters.'
He added: 'For the Jalisco Cartel, Lagos de Moreno is vitally important in the recruitment and capture of new blood to continue their war with Sinaloa for control of the region.'
Ten years ago, in July 2013, six young men were seized under similar circumstances, and their bodies found days later.
Mexico's president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was accused on Thursday of ignoring a question about federal response to the murders, and insisted that he had not heard the shouted question the day before.
The building where the five are believed to have been tortured and killed
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The building where the five are believed to have been tortured and killed
The building contained what appeared to be bloodstains on the floor, and the caption: 'A slaughtering is the best medicine'. It also featured the tag MZ, for Mayo Zambada, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel - the rival to the CJNG which is believed to have killed the five
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The building contained what appeared to be bloodstains on the floor, and the caption: 'A slaughtering is the best medicine'. It also featured the tag MZ, for Mayo Zambada, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel - the rival to the CJNG which is believed to have killed the five
He said he had nothing to apologize for as he had not done anything wrong.
Despite the anger, he gave little attention to the case on Thursday, spending about a minute saying the killings were 'very regrettable' while spending far more time discussing baseball.
Enriue Alfaro, the independent governor of Jalisco, said it was clear that drug cartels were involved in the crime, and called for federal prosecutors to take over the case.
'What we are seeing here is an act clearly linked to organized crime,' Alfaro wrote in his social media accounts.
He called the killings - and an attack in July, in which a drug cartel set off a coordinated series of roadway bombs in western Mexico killing four police officers and two civilians - acts that threaten the state's stability.
'These are irrational, violent and direct attacks against the stability of Jalisco state, and they demand a reaction from the (federal) government,' Alfaro wrote.
Lopez Obrador has been criticized for not doing enough to take on the cartels, and the grim video took Mexicans back to the worst days of cartel violence, with ever more horrifying public executions.
The 69-year-old will leave office in December next year at the end of his single six-year term - Mexico does not allow a president to serve more than one term.
The front-runner to succeed him is his hand-picked successor, the former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, who would be the first female president of Mexico.
Last month, Lopez Obrador continued his antagonism with the United States over security policy, and questioned U.S. estimates about the strength of Mexican drug cartels, saying the United States lacked 'good information.'
The comments come in response to testimony from U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Chief Anne Milgram on Mexican cartels as part of a hearing in the U.S. Congress.
Among other findings, Milgram testified the DEA estimated that the CJNG and Sinaloa Cartel have more than 45,000 members, associates, facilitators and brokers in some 100 countries.
She added Sinaloa and CJNG have a presence in 21 and 19 of Mexico's 31 states respectively, and that the DEA is mapping how both have spread around the world.
'No,' the president said in response to a question from a journalist about if the information from the U.S. official were true.
They don't have good information. We don't have that information. I don't know where the woman from the DEA got it,' he said.
The pushback from Lopez Obrador is the latest in ongoing tensions between the Mexican government and the DEA.
Since coming to power in 2018, Lopez Obrador has criticized the presence of US security agencies in the country and taken steps to undermine cooperation, such shutting down an elite police unit that worked closely with the DEA.
His government dropped the case against Mexico's former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, who the DEA alleged colluded with drug lords. Lopez Obrador accused the DEA of fabricating the case.