Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, July 27, 2026 – Jalisco security officials are investigating whether a property seized last week in El Zancudo was used as an organized-crime training camp, a significant shift from the state’s initial description of the operation as a weapons and vehicle seizure.
Firearms, ammunition, tactical equipment and three vehicles were recovered from the rural property, according to Roberto Alarcón Estrada, Jalisco’s strategic security coordinator. No one was arrested.
Alarcón said a possible training operation is now among the principal lines under examination. His statement remained tentative, and officials have not publicly identified the criminal organization suspected of using the site or disclosed what evidence beyond the seized material supports the training-camp theory.
The investigation grew out of a July 21 security deployment along the rural corridor between Las Palmas and El Zancudo, near State Highway 544 and the route toward San Sebastián del Oeste. The operation involved the Mexican Army and state security forces, with three vehicles, magazines, ammunition, and tactical equipment reported seized.
Jalisco Security Secretary Juan Pablo Hernández González later said several people were present when officers reached the property but escaped through the surrounding terrain. Two Nissan Frontier pickups and a Jeep were among the vehicles left behind. The Army and State Police secured the site after the suspects fled.
Officials have not released the property’s ownership, the exact number or calibers of the weapons and cartridges recovered, or the agency now directing the criminal investigation. They also have not said whether additional searches have been conducted in nearby communities.
El Zancudo had already drawn attention during a separate missing-person investigation. Three young people were last seen in the community on June 25 before being located alive on July 6. The Jalisco Prosecutor’s Office said they reached a relative’s home on their own and were in good health, although investigators continued examining the circumstances surrounding their absence.
PVDN previously reported that federal investigators were reviewing possible forced recruitment in a wider group of student disappearance cases involving Puerto Vallarta and Lagos de Moreno. No state or federal agency has publicly connected those cases to the property seized last week. The shared location alone does not establish a link.
The distinction is important because officials have so far described the El Zancudo property as a suspected training site, not a confirmed recruitment center. They have reported weapons, equipment and vehicles, but no detainees or identified victims.
Jalisco’s security cabinet is scheduled to meet in Puerto Vallarta on Thursday, July 30. The meeting could provide the first fuller account of what investigators found, which authority controls the case and whether the search has expanded beyond the secured property.
