The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (Cártel de Santa Rosa de Lima– CSRL) is a regional criminal team based in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. It was developed by a cooperative of little regional gangs who united to eliminate back against increasing incursions into the state by the bigger and more effective Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación– CJNG The team mainly participates in fuel burglary, known in Mexico as huachicol
Safety and security crackdowns have actually deteriorated the CSRL and caught some key leaders. But the team continues to drive physical violence in Guanajuato and has actually diversified its criminal profile to consist of extortion and the sale of methamphetamine.
Background
The CSRL began in 2014 as a collection of tiny criminal gangs dedicated to fuel theft and a hodgepodge of various other criminal activities, consisting of mugging, robbery, and medicine sales. By banding together, the gangs endured the expansion of Mexico’s bigger criminal mafias, notably the Zetas and the CJNG.
Beginning in 2014, the CSRL scaled up its gas burglary operations, and the group at some point became one of the largest criminal organizations specialized in huachicol in Mexico. In between 2013 and 2017, the variety of prohibited faucets on pipes owned by state-owned oil titan Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Guanajuato increased, from 165 to 1, 842, according to information from the firm.
At its height, the CSRL m a de between $ 800, 000 and $ 1 2 million each day from fuel burglary, indicating that it swiped concerning 3 9 million barrels of gas a year, comparable to 1 5 % of Pemex’s manufacturing. The CSRL utilized its new monetary muscle to release progressively brazen strikes versus its competitors.
The CSRL shot to national importance in 2017, after a viral video clip showed its then leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias” El Marro ,” flanked by dozens of heavily armed guys, declaring war on the CJNG.
In the months in the past, tensions in between the CJNG and the CSRL had actually been ratcheting up. The CJNG wished to establish medicine trafficking paths into the state of Guanajuato, which was also a lucrative medication intake market. Both groups had flourishing side rushes marketing drugs, most significantly methamphetamine, however the CSRL wanted to control every one of Guanajuato.
In an effort to build a more cooperative relationship with the CSRL, the leader of the CJNG, Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, alias” El Mencho ,” sent his nephew to meet with El Marro. The nephew apparently recommended splitting Guanajuato’s criminal economic climates in two: for letting the CJNG establish medicine trafficking, the CSRL would be left to regulate the state’s flourishing market for huachicol, according to local media reports. The deal was swiftly rejected by El Marro, who killed El Mencho’s nephew in a coffeehouse in Irapuato.
Violence in Guanajuato blew up, and the state swiftly turned into one of Mexico’s the majority of fierce. Both the CJNG and CSRL started performing ruthless acts of violence against each various other as well as civilians, politicians, and safety and security forces.
To help determine targets to kill, the CSRL dyed their methamphetamine blue, while the CJNG sold a white product. Road dealerships marketing the incorrect product in the incorrect place were often murdered. An analysis by Small Battles Journal located that dispute in between the teams for neighborhood medicine markets focused on tire repair shops, which were utilized by both teams to market methamphetamine. Over 200 individuals were killed in strikes on tire service center in Guanajuato in between 2013 and 2023, according to the electrical outlet.
As fatalities climbed, messages started showing up throughout cities in the state using which the criminal groups condemned each other for the physical violence. One of the narcomantas, allegedly signed by the CSRL, intimidated Mexico’s after that president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, understood by his initials AMLO, and required that he take out safety and security forces from the state.
Squashing the CSRL became a top safety top priority for the AMLO management, and beginning in 2019, greater than 1, 400 declared operatives of the team were apprehended, consisting of participants of El Marro’s family members. El Marro himself was captured in August 2020, in the community of Juventino Rosas.
At the time, the federal government suppression and expanding existence of the CJNG felt like a terminal strike for the CSRL. Nonetheless, while the group lost some area, it continues to be a stubborn pressure in Guanajuato that continues to drive homicides.
Leadership
The first prominent leader was José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro,” who climbed to the top spot after the strange disappearance of David Rogel Figueroa, an one-time Zetas operative who left the group to found the CSRL in 2014
The eventual capture of El Marro in 2020 caused extended instability in the CSRL, which cycled via leaders who were quickly apprehended by law enforcement. One successor, Adán González Ochoa, alias ‘El Azul,’ lasted simply 73 days prior to being arrested and handed a 29 -year prison sentence on medications and weapons charges.
Recently, the CSRL has actually lost its hierarchical framework and has ended up being a straight network of cells with local leaders who coordinate criminal tasks within Guanajuato. Members of El Marro’s family members continued to be energetic in the group following his arrest.
Location
The CSRL is named after the community of Santa Rosa de Lima, a rural negotiation nestled in the hills of Guanajuato. The community worked as a base for the group’s very first leader, El Marro, who shared the spoils from the group’s criminal tasks with locals in exchange for security from rival criminal companies and the safety and security forces.
As the CSRL’s involvement in gas theft deepened, the group extended across Guanajuato. The state is crisscrossed by major polyducts, which are pipes that transfer highly refined hydrocarbons between a significant refinery in the city of Salamanca and storage facilities across Mexico. Perforating and stealing from these pipes sustained the team’s lightning growth.
The CSRL cultivated strongholds arounds throughout the area. Juventino Rosas, a village between Salamanca and Celaya, was a center for the team’s criminal procedures. In recent years in the bordering communities, authorities uncovered numerous private graves. A number of the group’s targets were soaked in oil and unloaded in wells.
Allies and Adversaries
The CSRL has actually largely been specified by its battle with the CJNG, which transformed the state of Guanajuato into among one of the most terrible states in Mexico. The teams continue to fight each various other over criminal economies including oil burglary, extortion, and the sale of medications, in particular methamphetamine.
Violence between the groups is focused in a passage of cities that consist of León, Irapuato, Salamanca, and Celaya, which are linked by state highways and oil pipelines, and is home to much of Guanajuato’s industrial task.
Cells of the Sinaloa Cartel , Gulf Cartel , and other criminal groups have actually also given support, including tools and boxers, to the CSRL to assist endure its battle with the CJNG. These partnerships have allowed the CSRL to keep its hold over big swathes of Guanajuato.
The CSRL preserves company collaborations with criminal teams in the state of Michoacán, who provide the team with heaven methamphetamine that it markets in Guanajuato.
Leads
Sustained security operations and competition from criminal opponents have actually compromised the CSRL, yet it remains a powerful pressure in Guanajuato and maintains control over a minimum of 10 major communities in the state.
Counter-fuel burglary operations have actually pushed the CSRL to expand its criminal earnings. It continues to tap Pemex pipes, but has actually expanded its participation in predatory criminal tasks, consisting of the sale of methamphetamine and extortion. The CSRL has actually additionally received assistance from criminal teams from across Mexico in recent years, who watch it as a vital buffer versus the power of the CJNG.
Changes in United States diplomacy may open up area for the CRSL to grow. In February 2025, the US Department of State designated eight criminal groups, including the CJNG, as “international terrorist organizations”. The action might include stress to the Mexican government to tip up enforcement activities against the CJNG, which might eliminate stress from the CSRL.