Following the safe release of Juan Andrés Vega Carranza—the municipal president of Taxco de Alarcón—and his father, local media outlets reported that the mayor had allegedly met voluntarily with a criminal group to negotiate his father’s release. These reports suggested that the group demanded the handover of Juan “N”—known as “El Gokú” or “El Sargento”—in exchange for the father’s freedom.
Omar García Harfuch, the Secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection, stated that the La Familia Michoacana cartel was behind the disappearance of Juan Andrés Vega Carranza—the municipal president of Taxco de Alarcón—and his father, Juan Vega Arredondo, a pediatrician and director of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) Bienestar hospital in the municipality.
On April 8, 2026, federal and state forces arrested Juan “N”—alias “El Gokú” or “El Sargento”—in Taxco de Alarcón. The Guerrero Attorney General’s Office informed the press that this individual is accused of aggravated homicide, an incident that occurred on May 2, 2010, in the La Mira neighborhood of Acapulco. According to authorities, he was apprehended *in flagrante delicto* (in the act of committing a crime) in possession of six packages of dried vegetation resembling marijuana, a precision scale, and a motorcycle.
The operation—which involved personnel from the National Guard, the Secretariat of National Defense, the Secretariat of Public Security and Citizen Protection, and the State Police—is part of an institutional offensive aimed at curbing drug-related crimes and bolstering public security in the northern region of Guerrero. The seized items and the detainee were placed at the disposal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has opened the corresponding investigative file.
