Veracruz prosecutors accuse alleged CJNG operator El Tanque of homicide and injuries in a 2023 attack, adding to an existing kidnapping proceeding.
Veracruz prosecutors have brought a new homicide-and-injuries accusation against Iván “N,” known as “El Tanque,” adding a case involving a January 2023 armed attack to an earlier kidnapping proceeding. Authorities identify him as an alleged regional operator of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. His responsibility for the specific crimes remains to be established.
The latest accusation concerns an attack on January 22, 2023, described in prosecutors’ accounts as occurring in Boca del Río. During the initial hearing, a judge ordered mandatory pretrial detention under case number 862/2026. That order determines his custody while the proceeding continues; it is not a conviction.
The available reports disagree on the attack’s precise location and casualty count. Some reports discrive it as three adults and two children killed, with another person injured. Others associates the case with the Las Bajadas attack along the Veracruz–Xalapa highway and gives a different death toll. The prosecutor’s statement referres to three adult and three minor victims without distinguishing who died and who was injured. Those differences remain unresolved.
The separate kidnapping case concerns two people allegedly abducted on February 18, 2025, at a shopping center on the Boca del Río–Antón Lizardo highway, identified by Milenio as being in Alvarado municipality. Prosecutors allege that Iván participated in their abduction and subsequently demanded money from relatives, along with ownership invoices for vehicles the victims used to transport water, as conditions for their release.
That case had already advanced before the October 23 report. Earlier coverage documented a judicial decision allowing the aggravated-kidnapping proceeding to continue under file 836/2026, with pretrial detention maintained. The new development is therefore the homicide-and-injuries accusation; the kidnapping proceeding forms part of the existing case history.
Iván remains at the Altiplano federal prison in the State of Mexico while the Veracruz proceedings continue. His capture was announced October 5 following an operation in Zapopan, Jalisco.
He also faces a separate prosecution in the United States. On October 22, the U.S. Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia had indicted Iván Cazarín Molina for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for importation into the United States and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. That indictment concerns different alleged conduct and does not establish his responsibility for the Veracruz abductions or killings.
The Veracruz accusations connect the prosecution to specific victims, incidents and alleged demands. What the reviewed reporting does not explain is the evidence linking Iván to the 2023 attack or whether prosecutors accuse him of carrying it out, ordering it or participating in another capacity. Those questions, together with the conflicting descriptions of the victims and location, remain central to understanding the case.
