Jalisco cartel lures recruits with fake jobs through social platforms and kills those who resist

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Online recruiting techniques and complicit local authorities have been among the details revealed by the renewed investigation of a ranch in western Mexico where authorities say the Jalisco New Generation Cartel trained its recruits.

Lured by fake job offers, those who resisted risked death.

One of Mexico's most powerful cartels, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says has some 19,000 in its ranks, developed rapidly into an extremely violent and capable force after it split from the Sinaloa cartel following the 2010 killing of Sinaloa cartel capo Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal by the military.

The Jalisco cartel is led by Nemesio Rubén “el Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, for whom the U.S. government has offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his capture. Oseguera drew renewed attention this week after his image was projected as a band played at a music festival in Jalisco over the weekend.

The Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels have battled for control of various parts of Mexico, including Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. Both are among six Mexican organized crime groups recently designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the U.S. government.

One of authorities’ recent advances against Jalisco was the arrest of José Gregorio Lastra, allegedly in charge of the cartel’s recruitment.

The Jalisco cartel employs three recruiting methods: there are volunteers drawn by the pay and imagined lifestyle, which experts say make up the bulk of their number; there’s targeted recruitment of ex-military and police forces, who because of their professional training enter the cartel as trainers and leaders of squads of gunmen. Finally, there's the kind of forced recruitment that investigators say happened at the Jalisco ranch.

For that last category, authorities say the cartel uses social platforms — they’ve identified at least 60 pages — to offer fake job opportunities, especially as security guards, with weekly salaries of $600, well above the average for such positions. Once they have the applicants, they force them to join the cartel.

One recruit who reportedly survived the ranch has said that the cartel picked up recruits at bus stations under false pretenses and took them to the ranch where they were trained for a month in the use of weapons in addition to fitness training, Mexico’s Public Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said. Those who refused or tried to escape were beaten, tortured and killed.

Security analyst David Saucedo said Jalisco’s structure is vertical, with Oseguera at the top.

Last weekend, pictures of Oseguera were projected as a band started playing at a regional music festival in Jalisco. Some in the crowd cheered and on Monday President Claudia Sheinbaum, as well as Jalisco's governor, condemned the act. The Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office said it was opening an investigation. Such displays of respect for cartel leaders are not uncommon.

Below Oseguera are regional commands, as well as areas responsible for drug production and sales, Saucedo said.

The DEA says the cartel has a presence in 21 of Mexico’s 32 states, exceeding the Sinaloa cartel’s 19. Some analysts believe Jalisco is actually in as many as 25 states, including its home base in the state of the same name. It also maintains a presence in some 100 countries, according to the DEA.

In less than two decades, Jalisco became one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations and even managed to take control of some traditional strongholds of the Sinaloa cartel. Sinaloa has been weakened more recently by infighting among its factions following arrests of key leaders, including Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in the U.S., and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who was arrested last July along with one of Guzmán’s sons and is awaiting trial in the U.S.

Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology researcher Carlos Flores said Jalisco’s “capacity for violent action” and style of “irregular warfare” aided its speedy rise, which coincided with the emergence of fentanyl as a highly profitable revenue stream.

Saucedo says that Jalisco has also successfully allied itself with other criminal groups, allowing it to penetrate some territories with a sort of “franchise” model as in the central state of Aguascalientes and the key border city of Tijuana.

The case of the ranch also serves as an example of how the Jalisco cartel is able to operate with impunity in territory it controls thanks to the complicity of local authorities, Flores said.

Despite being discovered in September 2024 and 10 people being arrested, the ranch’s investigation stalled until family members searching for their relatives went there themselves in March and raised the alarm about hundreds of clothing items they found, as well as apparent bone fragments. Since then, authorities have detained three local police officers who were allegedly tied to disappearances at the ranch.

“There are signs that show publicly how those kinds of deals have allowed the Jalisco cartel to establish itself in certain states, while they go about eliminating their rivals, sometimes with the help of public safety forces,” Flores said.

FILE - Demonstrators attend a vigil at the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, March 15, 2025, for the victims whose skeletal remains were discovered at a ranch in Jalisco state. The sign reads in Spanish "No more disappeared." (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

FILE - A woman holds up a photo of a missing person at a religious Mass after skeletal remains were discovered at Izaguirre Ranch in Teuchitlan, Jalisco state, Mexico, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Alfredo Moya, File)

FILE - Mexican National Guards arrive to Izaguirre Ranch where skeletal remains were discovered in Teuchitlan, Jalisco state, Mexico, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alejandra Leyva, File)

FILE - Barricade tape set up by authorities cordons off the interior of Izaguirre Ranch during a tour for the press, days after skeletal remains were discovered on the premises, in Teuchitlan, Jalisco state, Mexico, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Alfredo Moya, File)

FILE - Barricade tape set up by authorities cordons off parts of Izaguirre Ranch during a tour for the press, days after skeletal remains were discovered on the premises, in Teuchitlan, Jalisco state, Mexico, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Alfredo Moya, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Industry groups representing hundreds of chemical and petrochemical manufacturers are seeking blanket exemptions from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene.

The request by the American Chemistry Council and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers comes as the Trump administration offers industrial polluters a chance for exemptions from rules imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has set up an electronic mailbox to allow regulated companies to request a two-year presidential exemption under the Clean Air Act to a host of Biden-era rules.

The chemistry council and the petrochemical group said in a letter Monday to the EPA that regulation of the chemical industry is supposed to be based on sound science and “reflect a reasonable assessment of the risks and benefits involved.”

“Unfortunately,” the groups wrote, an EPA rule on air pollution from stationary sources “undermines those important objectives and advances improper and significantly costly requirements on an unworkable timeline.”

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter on Friday.

Costs for the rule’s risk-related requirements alone could exceed $50 billion, the groups said, “significantly more than the $1.8 billion for the full rule that EPA estimated at final publication” last year.

Environmental groups have denounced the administration’s offer to grant industry exemptions, calling the new email address a “polluters’ portal” that could allow hundreds of companies to evade laws meant to protect the environment and public health. Exemptions would be allowed for nine EPA rules issued under former President Joe Biden, including limits on mercury, ethylene oxide and other hazardous air pollutants. Mercury exposure can cause brain damage, especially in children. Fetuses are vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mother’s womb.

The Environmental Defense Fund accused the chemical and petrochemical companies — which include giants such as ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Chevron, Dow and DuPont — of “hiding behind their associations to get a presidential exemption from pollution safeguards that keep our kids healthy and safe.”

New EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin “has opened a back door for hundreds of companies to avoid complying with reasonable limits on the most toxic forms of air pollution, and they’re rushing through it with no regard for the communities around them,'' said Vickie Patton, the group's general counsel.

Granting the exemption would be “a huge blow to American families who now must worry about their loved ones breathing dirtier air, their kids missing more school days because of asthma attacks and more cancer in their families,” Patton said. "There is no basis in U.S. clean air laws — and in decency — for this absolute free pass to pollute.”

EDF has filed a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act for all records related to the EPA portal — including the names of those seeking exemptions — and pledged to go to court to obtain the records if necessary and make them public.

The EPA's offer to grant exemptions marks at least the third time Zeldin has moved to weaken enforcement of environmental laws since he took office less than two months ago. He previously announced a series of actions to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles.

Zeldin also said he would push for a 65% spending cut at the agency, and has moved to drastically reduce EPA staffing. The agency is considering a plan to eliminate its scientific research office and has sought to claw back $20 billion in “green bank” grants approved by the Biden administration to promote clean energy.

Use of presidential exemptions to EPA rule is rare, although Biden offered some last year after tightening emission standards for ethylene oxide from commercial facilities that sterilize medical equipment.

The EPA directed questions about the possible exemptions to the White House, noting that authority for any exemption rests with the president. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said no decisions have been made, but said, “we can confirm President Trump’s commitment to unleashing American energy, protecting our national security interests and ensuring environmental stewardship.”

The chemistry council said in a statement Friday that its members “greatly appreciate the current administration’s willingness to offer a pathway for relief from the unrealistic timelines” set by the Biden administration.

“We look forward to working expeditiously with EPA throughout this process to develop appropriate, science-based requirements that help protect public health and safety without imposing unnecessary regulatory burdens on domestic manufacturers that would undermine our national security and American competitiveness,” the statement said.

Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin arrives before President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)