Borderland Beat

Shifting Map: Configuration of Criminal Organizations Active in Michoacán

Posted: 12 Mar 2015 07:26 PM PDT

Lucio R. republished from Animal Politico

Quantity of Criminal Organizations operating in Michoacán Municipalities

Note: click images to enlarge

By Victor Sanchez (Causa en Común)

The rapid decline that the Knights Templar in the last year and a half, have suffered has left a series of municipalities of Michoacán, without criminal organizational power, which are being filled by other organizations such as the Cartel Jalisco new generation, Los Viagras, la Familia Michoacana, and La Tercera Hermandad ( the third Brotherhood) as well as criminal cell linked to Homero González Rodríguez, alias "El Gallito".

As a result, today there exists a new configuration of the criminal activity in Michoacán.

Until a year and a half ago, Los Caballeros Templaios were the dominant criminal organization in the state of Michoacán , which maintained control of most of the illegal markets in the region and had a permanent presence in at least 81 of the 113 municipalities in the state.

However, the emergence of autodefensas groups in several municipalities of Michoacán, as well as the implementation of Plan Michoacán (which meant a significant deployment of federal forces in such entity), disrupted the hegemony of C.T. in the region. In a very short time, federal authorities managed to decimate the sources of income of the criminal organization, minimized its area of influence and have captured or killed the majority of the leaders of that group.

The fact that the area of influence of the Knights Templar has been reduced from 81 to only 17 municipalities (all in the southern part of Michoacán), and the arrest of leader Servando Gómez Martínez, gives us reason to believe that the operational capacity of the criminal organization is coming to an end, because although it is likely that some of the local cells of the organization survive and continue using the name of Caballeros Templarios, the fact is that this criminal group will no longer be a major player in the criminal map of our country.