Kevin Arzate Gómez, one of the eight leaders of La Familia Michoacana sanctioned and designated by the United States Treasury Department as targets for drug and human trafficking, was shot to death along with at least two of his bodyguards in Coyuca de Catalán, in the Tierra Caliente region of Guerrero.
The armed attack against the criminal leader and bodyguards was carried out early Sunday morning in the town of Placeres del Oro, when they were leaving a rodeo.
Kevin Arzate, alias “El K03”, died there. The death of two armed men who were guarding him was also confirmed, including a cousin. Although there is a version that in total there were four members of his security team killed by gunfire.
The information was confirmed by security sources in the area, although the central offices of the Guerrero prosecutor’s office assured that they did not have information that could confirm the fact.
What the state prosecutor’s office did report was that, in mid-September of last year, ministerial agents, Army personnel and the National Guard secured a ranch in the town of Pungarabatito, municipality of Coyuca de Catalán, where they found tactical equipment, two vehicles and weapons, related to Kevin Arzate.
Right in Pungurabatito, on Monday afternoon, the funeral of the criminal leader and one of his cousins was held. Dozens of family members, friends and acquaintances attended the funeral, according to images published by those attending.
Proceso reported on June 20 that Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, through the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), indicated that eight members of La Familia Michoacana traffic fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamines, as well as immigrants to that country.
For this reason, OFAC announced sanctions to contain the financial flow and labeled Rodolfo Maldonado Bustos, Josué Ramírez Carrera, Josué López Hernández, David Durán Álvarez, Uriel Tabares Martínez, Kevin Arzate Gómez, Euclides Camacho Goicochea and Lucio Ochoa Lagunes as significant drug traffickers.
The criminal organization is led by brothers Johnny and José Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, El Pez and El Fresa, respectively, identified by the Joe Biden government as a specialist in fentanyl, a drug that it produces in the states of Guerrero, Morelos, Mexico City, Jalisco, Sinaloa and the State of Mexico.
Regarding Arzate Gómez, OFAC identifies him as a money launderer and operator of La Familia Michoacana in the Nuevo Laredo-Reynosa region. It also identifies him as close to “El Fresa”.
Sources consulted in the region indicate that Kevin Arzate also served as lieutenant of Rodolfo Maldonado Bustos, the “JP” or “José Pineda,” third in the hierarchy of La Familia Michoacana.
In addition to being the boss of the plaza in Ciudad Altamirano and Coyuca de Catalán.
More than a fragmentation in the structure of this criminal organization, one of the versions is that the murder of this criminal leader was due to his closeness to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).
The CJNG is based in Zirandaro, the only one of the nine municipalities of Tierra Caliente in Guerrero that La Familia Michoacana does not control.
Source: proceso
