There were more than one hundred hitmen from the Nueva Familia Michoacana, all hooded and equipped with AK-47 and R-15 rifles, who murdered seven residents of the community of El Duranzo, in Guerrero, including an 11-year-old boy.
It was around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 10, when 50 trucks labeled with the letters “FM” broke into the community located at the top of the Coyuca de Catalán mountain range, in the Tierra Caliente region.
According to federal and state sources, the men from the Michoacana Family took the victims from their private homes and took them to the field of the Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary School for what they called a peaceful community meeting.
However, when the locals all gathered, the hitmen fired at them and the bodies of six riddled people were left on the floor of the stadium, identified as José Luis, Vladimir, Isidro Gómez, Daniel Villanueva, Fernando, and Elder.
After the shooting ended, the hitmen toured the town and sprayed gasoline on the main street, and set fire to a man identified as Bonifacio Torres who was traveling on his four-wheeler.
They also continued to shoot at the facades of some houses and threatened to return and kill all the residents and burn their homes, according to reports. “They left the town shooting against various houses,” the prosecutor’s office detailed in a statement.
Almost 24 hours after the massacre, the bodies of the victims were still lying outside and inside the facilities of the Ignacio Zaragoza Elementary School, according to residents.
“Given the inaction of the authorities of the State of Guerrero, governed by the Morenista Evelyn Salgado, relatives of the dead decided to take them to a house and hold vigil in this region of Tierra Caliente, 334 kilometers from Chilpancingo,” the FGE newspaper detailed.
The authorities suspect that those responsible for this massacre was alleged hitmen linked to Jhony Hurtado, El Pez, the alleged leader of the criminal organization.
The residents of “El Durazno” considered that a movement to form new municipalities in the mountains was the reason for the massacre since the Nueva Familia Michoacana opposed this initiative to create new municipalities.
The community intends to separate from Coyuca de Catalán and create a new municipality. “There are more than 200,000 hectares of territory that they would no longer have, as well as money that would no longer reach them from that side, that’s why they came to assassinate us.”
On November 17, the United States Department of the Treasury issued new sanctions against the criminal group “La Familia Michoacana” and its leaders Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, alias “El Pez” and José Hurtado Olascoaga, “El Fresa”, for their contribution to drug trafficking.
The Hurtado Olascoaga brothers “are two of the most wanted criminals in Mexico”
“El Pez” and “El Fresa” have been classified as a “significant risk” for the United States by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and were even pointed out to be increasingly present in trafficking in rainbow fentanyl, a new presentation of the opioid that has recently been released.
Both have been described in the US as “two of the most wanted criminals in Mexico” since rewards of up to $500,000 Mexican pesos are offered for both of them for relevant and truthful information that leads to their arrest.
The Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, explained that the determination against the Hurtado Olascoaga brothers is aimed at hitting one of the “most violent and depraved” cartels.
There were more than one hundred hitmen from the Nueva Familia Michoacana, all hooded and equipped with AK-47 and R-15 rifles, who . . .
