Since 2019, the state of Veracruz has accumulated more than 5,200 extortion investigation files, with a sustained increase of almost 40%, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System. The number of complaints rose from 794 in 2019 to a record 938 in 2024. Between January and May 2025 alone, 364 cases have been reported, suggesting that the year could close with a new record high.
The most recent case reflecting the severity of this phenomenon was the murder of Irma Hernández Cruz, a retired teacher and taxi driver in Álamo, whose body was found after her disappearance. The image of Irma kneeling before an armed group, while warning, “You don’t play with the Veracruz Mafia or you’ll end up like me,” went viral on social media and in the media, highlighting the level of violence perpetrated by criminal groups in the state.
This is not an isolated incident. Last April, businessman Daniel N., owner of the Jalisquito bar in Minatitlán, southern Veracruz, ran over two alleged extortionists after receiving constant threats and failing to pay his weekly dues. “Every week they wanted more. They don’t know what it costs to run a bar,” he declared. Shortly after, he closed the establishment, fearing for his life.
That same month, the Wichis bar in Xalapa, the state capital, suffered a second armed attack from a vehicle, causing panic among customers. In the south of the state, businesses are facing a similar situation: bars and restaurants have been targeted by Molotov cocktail attacks. The most recent occurred last Saturday, July 26, when the “El Descanso” bar in Coatzacoalcos was set on fire with homemade devices. According to the Coatzacoalcos Citizen Observatory, many business owners prefer to pay or close rather than file a complaint, and some companies pay up to 120,000 pesos annually for “right of way.”
Renato Riveroll Rivera, director of the Observatory, indicated that a formal proposal has already been submitted to the state Public Security Secretariat to create an anti-extortion unit. Meanwhile, Governor Rocío Nahle announced that a special group from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and National Intelligence is conducting operations to dismantle criminal organizations dedicated to kidnapping and extortion.
The Veracruz mafia expands control in the northern part of the state
In the north of the state, the criminal group known as “Sombra” (Shadow)—or the Veracruz Mafia—which claimed responsibility for Irma’s murder and for collecting fees from taxi drivers has expanded its presence. According to files leaked by the Guacamaya Leak collective from the Ministry of National Defense, this organization emerged in 2017 as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, with a presence in Álamo, Poza Rica, Tuxpan, Tantoyuca, Naranjos, and Pánuco.
In these areas, the Sombra Group began to dispute control of various illicit activities with the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel itself, such as drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, hydrocarbon theft, and illegal trafficking.
This territorial expansion has been accompanied by acts of extreme violence. This organization is attributed, for example, with the appearance of dismembered bodies in public spaces in Tuxpan. In 2024, then-Governor Cuitláhuac García Jiménez reported that the murder of four people in the center of that municipality, including a woman, was linked to an internal conflict between the criminal cell “Los Tercios”—made up of members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, Poza Rica, and the Grupo Sombra itself—and its parent organization, associated with the Gulf Cartel.
The violence continued. In the first months of 2025 alone, in Tuxpan—about 30 minutes from Álamo—four businessmen, a commander from the state Attorney General’s Office, and the former director of the Tuxpan prison, Antonio Huesca Figueroa, who had previously been threatened, allegedly by members of organized crime, were murdered.
These events add to a series of acts documented in the report “Crime and Violence Threaten a Project” by Rocío Nahle in Veracruz, which exposes the rise of violence in the northern region. It also highlights that in 2024, at least 13 bodies were abandoned in coolers and black bags next to the Tuxpan tourist signs, accompanied by messages attributed to criminal groups.
In March of that same year, a new act of terror was reported in Cazones—about 62 kilometers from Tuxpan—where the criminal group left dismembered bodies in front of the tourist signs and fired shots in the air.
Two years earlier, in 2022, Tuxpan mayor Beatriz Piña was detained by individuals who identified themselves as members of the Sombra Group, who demanded that she “cut it out.”
Coparmex: 2 out of 3 business owners are victims of extortion
Juan Carlos Díaz Morante, president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) in the Xalapa region, warned that business owners with establishments in municipalities such as Xalapa, Poza Rica, Tuxpan, and Coatzacoalcos have reported an increase in extortion cases, which include intimidating messages, extortion charges, and direct threats. Given this situation, he noted that many owners have chosen to close their businesses as a protective measure.
“Severer penalties must be established for these criminals. They often end up in the Prosecutor’s Office, but if there is no strict law, they go free, or are not even prosecuted as they should be,” he stated.
According to the Data Coparmex survey, two out of three business owners in the country have been victims of some type of extortion. This represents more than 54% of the sector. Therefore, Díaz Morante insisted that legislators should set aside initiatives with no real impact and focus on more forcefully punishing crimes that are directly affecting business owners and citizens alike.
Extortion, a crime under the federal government’s scrutiny
Following the murder of teacher and taxi driver Irma Hernández Cruz, the federal government announced that the case is being investigated as a dispute between criminal groups over the collection of fees or extortion. However, the increase in this crime in Veracruz had already been on the radar of federal authorities for months.
Veracruz was included in the National Strategy against Extortion, presented by Secretary of Security Omar García Harfuch a few weeks ago. He ranked the state as the fifth state with the highest number of investigation files for this crime, behind only the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Nuevo León, and Mexico City.
Since October 2024, 585 extortion files have been opened in Veracruz. Annual figures show a sustained increase in the crime: 714 cases in 2020, 744 in 2021, 834 in 2022, and 881 in 2023. Between January and May 2025 alone, 364 cases have already been recorded.
Given this situation, both the federal and state governments have promoted various strategies and reforms. The national strategy includes the creation of specialized units in the states, victim assistance protocols, training of 089 operators in crisis management, preventive campaigns, the participation of the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) to freeze linked accounts, judicial blocking of telephone lines used for extortion, and surprise operations in prisons to confiscate cell phones.
At the state level, Governor Rocío Nahle García proposed reforming the Veracruz Penal Code to increase penalties for extortion. He was confident that this measure could reduce the incidence, as it did with kidnapping. “From our perspective, it has to be the same. The penalty for extortion has to be increased; we have to be tough,” he stated.
Source: proceso
