Soon after Zapopan authorities posted images of municipal cops doling out bags of essential goods to local residents from the back of a police truck,
an almost identical video showing people lining up under a centrally located Zapopan overpass to receive bags from armed, bullet-proof-vest-wearing members of the Cartel Jalisco Nuevo Generacion (CJNG) found its way onto social media. A recording of a narcocorrida (song honoring drug traffickers) played over a loudspeaker as the supplies were handed out to contented pedestrians and cyclists. A statement on Thursday from Zapopan City Hall said that the cartels were “putting on a show” to “confuse and scare people.”
The gang members only hung around for “three minutes” before taking to their heels, the statement read, and disappeared before police patrols got to the scene, following calls to 911.