Mexico Sentences 10 Men Arrested at Cartel Ranch to 140 Years Each in Prison

New York Times

09-07-2025

A Mexican court on Tuesday sentenced 10 men to more than 140 years each in prison for killing one person and disappearing two others in a cartel-run recruitment and training compound in the western state of Jalisco.
The case had shocked the nation and underscored the ruthless methods Mexico's criminal groups use to abduct, train and kill young recruits. The 10 men were also ordered to each pay nearly $70,000 in reparations for the victims, officials said.
The men were arrested in September at Rancho Izaguirre, a remote property about six hour's drive west of Mexico City, after the authorities responded to reports of gunfire. At the site, officers were met with gunshots and discovered one person dead and two others held captive, state officials said.
In March, six months after the arrests, the site generated national headlines after volunteers searching for their missing relatives found what they called underground cremation ovens, burned human remains, hundreds of bone shards and discarded personal items inside the ranch.
Mexico's attorney general later said that there was no evidence the ranch had been the site of human cremations, but that the property had been used by a major cartel as a training hub.
The volunteer searchers did find apparent evidence of victims, however. Photos taken at the abandoned ranch, in the small community of Teuchitlán outside Guadalajara, the state capital, showed hundreds of shoes piled together and heaps of clothing, including a blue summer dress, a small pink backpack, pieces of underwear and what seemed to be bone fragments.
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