The Cartel of Santa Rosa of Lima (SRLC) is a regional criminal group based in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. It was formed by a cooperative of small local gangs which united to fight against the increase in incursions in the state by the largest and more powerful of Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – Cjng). The group is mainly engaged in fuel flight, known in Mexico Huachicol.
Security repression weakened the CSRL and captured certain key leaders. But the group continues to stimulate violence in Guanajuato and has diversified its criminal portfolio to include the extortion and the sale of methamphetamine.
History
The CSRL began in 2014 as a collection of small criminal gangs dedicated to food flight and a meli-melius of other criminal activities, including aggression, burglaries and drug sales. By grouping together, the gangs have survived the expansion of the great criminal mafias of Mexico, in particular the Zetas and the CJNG.
From 2014, the CSRL increased its fuel flight operations, and the group has finally become one of the largest criminal organizations specializing in Huachicol in Mexico. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of illegal taps on pipelines belonging to the petroleum giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Guanajuato increased from 165 to 1,842, according to data from the company.
At its height, the CSRL MAof Between $ 800,000 and $ 1.2 million a day of the fuel flight, which indicates that it stole approximately 3.9 million fuel barrels per year, which is equivalent to 1.5% of the production of Pemex. The CSRL used its new financial muscle to launch increasingly cheeky attacks against its rivals.
The CSRL resulted in national importance in 2017, after a viral video showed its leader then José Antonio Yepez Ortiz, alias “El Marro“, Flanked by dozens of heavily armed men, declaring war on the CJNG.
During the previous months, tensions between the CJNG and the CSRL had increased. The CJNG wanted to develop drug trafficking ways in the state of Guanajuato, which was also a lucrative market for drug use. The two groups had flourishing side jostles selling drugs, including methamphetamine, but the CSRL wanted to control all Guanajuato.
In an attempt to forge a more cooperative relationship with the CSRL, the chief of the CJNG, Nemesio daresgue will Ramos, alias “El Mencho». according to to local media reports. The offer was quickly rejected by El Marro, who murdered the nephew of El Mencho in a cafe in Irapuato.
Violence in Guanajuato exploded and the state quickly became one of the most violent in Mexico. The CJNG and the CSRL began to carry out brutal acts of violence as well as civilians, political leaders and security forces.
To help identify the targets to kill, the CSRL has their methamphetamine blue, while the CJNG sold a white product. Street dealers selling the wrong product in the wrong place were often murdered. An analysis of the Small Wars Journal revealed that the conflict between groups for local drug markets concentrate In tire repair workshops, which were used by the two groups to sell methamphetamine. More than 200 people were killed during attacks on tire repair workshops in Guanajuato between 2013 and 2023, depending on the point of sale.
As the dead rose, messages began to appear in state cities via which criminal groups blamed for violence. One of the narcomantas, which would have signed by the CSRL, threat The president of Mexico, Andrés, Manuel López Obrador, known in his initials Amlo, and asked to withdraw state security forces.
The CSRL court has become a safety priority higher than the AMLO administration, and from 2019, more than 1,400 presumed group agents were arrested, including members of the El Marro family. El Marro himself was capture In August 2020, in the city of Juventino Rosas.
At the time, the government's repression and the growing presence of the CJNG looked like a terminal blow for the CSRL. However, while the group has lost a territory, there remains an obstinate force in Guanajuato which continues to drive homicides.
Direction
The first eminent leader was José Antonio Yepez Ortiz, alias “El Marro”, who climbed at the forefront after the mysterious disappearance of David Rogel Figuel, a unique Zetas agent who left the group to found the CSRL in 2014.
The possible capture of El Marro in 2020 led to prolonged instability in the CSRL, which traveled by managers who were quickly held by the police. A successor, Adán González Ochoa, alias “El Azul”. hard Only 73 days before being arrested and inflicted a sentence of 29 years in prison for drugs and weapons.
In recent years, the CSRL has lost its hierarchical structure and has become a horizontal cell network with regional leaders who coordinate criminal activities within Guanajuato. El Marro family members stay active in the group after its arrest.
Geography
The CSRL is appointed according to the city of Santa Rosa of Lima, a rural colony nestled in the hills of Guanajuato. The city served as the basis of the group’s primary leader, El Marro, who shared the loot of the group's criminal activities with residents in exchange for protection against rival criminal organizations and security forces.
While the involvement of the CSRL in the fuel flight was deepening, the group died through Guanajuato. The state is crisscrossed by major polyductes, which are pipes which transport very processed hydrocarbons between a major refinery in the city of Salamanca and storage facilities across Mexico. The perforation and theft of these pipes have fueled the group's lightning growth.
The CSRL has cultivated bastions in the cities of the region. Juventino Rosas, a small town between Salamanca and Cesya, was a center for the group's criminal operations. In recent years in the surrounding hamlets, the authorities discovered Several clandestine tombs. Many group victims were soaked in oil and thrown into wells.
Allies and enemies
The CSRL was mainly defined by its war with the CJNG, which transformed the state of Guanajuato into one of the most violent states of Mexico. The groups continue to fight each other on criminal economies, including oil theft, extortion and drug sales, in particular methamphetamine.
The violence between the groups is concentrated in a corridor of cities which include León, Irapuato, Salamanca and Cesya, which are connected by the highways of the State and the Oléagnes, and houses a large part of the industrial activity of Guanajuato.
Cells of Sinaloa cartel,, Gulf carteland other criminal groups have also provided support, in particular weapons And Fighters, to the CSRL to help maintain his war with the CJNG. These alliances have enabled the CSRL to maintain its grip on large expanses of Guanajuato.
The CSRL maintains commercial partnerships with criminal groups from Michoacán's state, which provide the group with blue methamphetamine that it sells in Guanajuato.
Prospects
The sustained security operations and the competition of criminal competitors have weakened the CSRL, but it remains a formidable force in Guanajuato and maintains control of at least 10 major municipalities in the state.
The counter-combustion flight operations prompted the CSRL to diversify its criminal profits. He continues to operate the Pemex pipes, but has developed his participation in predatory criminal activities, including the sale of methamphetamine and extortion. The CSRL has also received the support of criminal groups from all over Mexico in recent years, which consider it an important stamp against the power of the CJNG.
Travel in American foreign policy can open a space for CRSL to increase. In February 2025, the US State Department designated Eight criminal groups, including the CJNG, as “foreign terrorist organizations”. This decision could add pressure to the Mexican government to intensify application measures against the CJNG, which could remove the pressure from the CSRL.
