The terror was foreshadowed as early as 2019. In May of that year, a report told the story of Francisco, a young man who survived what national and international media outlets dubbed “The Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s Little School.”
The atrocities described in that journalistic piece raised concerns for a few days before fading into the vastness and immediacy of the information flowing through the media. However, what was described in those pages would resonate powerfully in 2025 when a group of missing persons exposed the horrors of Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlán, Jalisco.
Like a domino effect, the discovery of the training camp by the Jalisco Search Warriors marked a turning point for the criminal organization founded and led for at least 15 years by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho.
The public outrage reopened the wounds left by years of disappearances and forced recruitment in the country, but also led to numerous investigations that ultimately pointed to a single name: Hugo Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán, alias El Sapo (The Toad). Just one month after the discovery of Rancho Izaguirre, authorities in Mexico City announced the arrest of José Gregorio “N,” alias El Lastra or Comandante Lastra, identified as the leader of a cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel whose objective was to recruit new members for its ranks.
