Accused associate of cartel known as “El Botox” arrested for murder of Mexican lemon farmers

Mexican authorities said Thursday they arrested an alleged organized crime figure in the western state of Michoacan in connection with the murder last October of an outspoken leader of the state’s lime producers.

The Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, said on social networks that the authorities arrested the man known as “El Botox”, allegedly responsible for extorting lemon producers and several homicides, including that of assassination of agricultural leader Bernardo Bravo.

A Michoacán state official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that the suspect’s full name was César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano, leader of a group known as the White Trojans or Whites of Troy. The group is known to work with Los Viagras, a criminal organization allied with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.

García Harfuch said that there were 11 arrest warrants against him for extortion and homicide. He has also been accused of attacking authorities with explosives.

García Harfuch, who published an image of Sepúlveda Arellano handcuffed, described him as a “priority objective and generator of violence in Michoacán.”

Last August, Sepúlveda Arellano was sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury.

Michoacán Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said in a statement that his arrest Thursday represented “a resounding blow against extortion” in the state, Mexico’s largest producer of limes and avocados.

In October, the body of Bravo, president of the Association of Citrus Producers of the Apatzingán Valley, was found in his vehicle on a road in the area.

Bravo had denounced “the permanent commercial hijacking by organized crime of any commercial activity.”

Two weeks after his murder, a gunman killed the popular mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Alberto Manzo, another outspoken critic of cartel control in Michoacán. TO Suspect linked to the Jalisco cartel was later arrested..

The two homicides and the popular protest that followed prompted the administration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to send more troops to Michoacán.

Last August, more than half of the lime packing warehouses in the Michoacán lowlands temporarily closed after producers and distributors said they had received demands from Los Viagras and other cartels for a portion of their income.

Of the various criminal groups that operate in Michoacán, several were declared foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration, including United Cartels, the New Michoacan Family and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Cartels in many parts of Mexico have expanded into kidnapping and extortion to increase their income, demanding money from residents and business owners and threatening to kidnap or kill them if they refuse.

In July 2024, a fishing industry leader who complained of extortion by drug cartels and illegal fishing was shot dead in the northern border state of Baja California. Minerva Pérez was murdered a few hours after she complained about widespread competition from illegal fishing.