More than one month after the launch of Operation Jalisco, the major security campaign designed to rein in the violence in the state, only one senior cartel member has been captured by authorities.
Despite the fact that the rising Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) launched a wave of coordinated road blockades and downed a military helicopter, most senior operatives of the organization have so far successfully evaded capture.
Victor Manuel Garcia Orozco, 47, is the only leading member behind bars after security forces arrested him in Tlajomulco on May 28. Garcia Orozco is suspected of running the cartel’s criminal activities in the Cienega region on the shores of Lake Chapala.
He is also accused of the kidnapping and murder of two federal police officials in November 2013 in the neighboring state of Michoacan, the ministry said in a statement.
Since the launch of Operation Jalisco, the federal Attorney General’s Office has so far only charged one person in relation to the violent disturbances of May 1. Alejandro Gomez Dominguez was arrested trying to ignite a bus. He attempted to flee the scene and shot and injured a Zapopan police officer.
Despite the damage to petrol stations, banks and the cost of replacing burned buses, compensation has not been paid to local businesses affected by the attacks.
In its attempt to restore order to Jalisco, the government disarmed police forces in Villa Purificacion and Union de Tula on May 15, yet investigators wer
e unable to prove links between the detained officers and the CJNG. Forces in Pihuamo and Jilotlan de los Dolores, also in southern Jalisco, were disarmed on Monday, June 1.