Homero Figueroa Meza, alias La Tripa, identified by authorities as the leader of Los Tlahuicas or Comando Tlahuica, built his criminal career in Guerrero and Morelos.
However, in Morelos, he made the regions of Ayala, Cuautla, Jantetelco, Yecapixtla, and Zacualpan de Amilpas his main stronghold, according to federal records.
The main crimes he is accused of are extortion and homicide, in addition to being labeled a “generator of violence.”
His face became widely known in 2022 when he posed in a photograph alongside former governor, former soccer player, and current federal congressman, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, next to two other criminal leaders: Irving Eduardo Solano Vera, alias El Profe, and Raymundo Isidro Castro, alias El Ray.
The photo was made public that year, but it was taken in December 2018 after a “mass” on the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Since then, federal authorities had already identified him as one of the most influential criminal operators in the eastern part of the state and as the heir to a complex network of alliances, ruptures, and criminal realignments that shaped the violence in Morelos for more than a decade.
His career began in a landscape dominated by organizations like Guerreros Unidos and the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA), groups that extended their operations beyond Guerrero and found in Morelos a strategic area for drug trafficking, extortion, and territorial control.
Over the years, Figueroa Meza went from being a secondary operator to building his own structure. He even navigated internal power struggles.
Authorities indicated that he founded and led the Tlahuica Command, a group that confronted the remnants of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, Guerreros Unidos, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and local groups.
La Tripa managed to establish his own base of operations. His organization was linked by federal and state authorities primarily to extortion.
Over time, his name began to appear frequently in intelligence reports and police reports about the violence plaguing Cuautla and the eastern part of the state.
But one of the most significant episodes in which he was mentioned occurred far from armed confrontations.
Homero Figueroa’s name surfaced in connection with the Cuernavaca Water and Sewerage System (SAPAC), an agency that for years was the focus of political, financial, and operational disputes over control of wells, contracts, and public resources.
During Cuauhtémoc Blanco’s administration as mayor of Cuernavaca, Figueroa was even identified as the agency’s legal advisor.
This relationship fueled suspicions of possible criminal infiltration attempts in strategic areas of the municipality and in various sectors of Morelos.
