Carteles Unidos

(also CARTELES UNIDOS)

(also CARTEL DEL ABUELO, CARTEL DE TEPALCATEPEC, TEPALCATEPEC CARTEL)

Factions include: Cartel del Abuelo (also known as Cartel Tepalcatepec), Los Viagras, Los Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar), La Nueva Familia Michoacana (also known as The New Michoacán Family; LNFM), La Familia Michoacana (also known as The Michoacán Family; La Familia), Los Blanco De Troya (White Trojans). Cárteles Unidos (CU) is an alliance between a number of Mexican criminal groups to combat Jalisco New Generation Cártel (CJNG)’s entrance into the Michoacán state. The current incarnation of the CU consists of Cartel del Abuelo (a.k.a. Cartel Tepalcatepec), Los Viagras, Los Caballeros Templarios and Los Blanco de Troya. The strategic goals of the entity include protecting its influence over the Michoacán state, as well as keeping control of drug trafficking routes and its share in local illicit economies including drug production and the extortion of ranchers, and avocado and lime producers. The CU furthers its goals by destabilizing their region of operation. It does so through the use of violence, inflicting terror onto the local population, in order to gain and maintain control. Since the start of their conflict with CJNG in 2019, the entity has used various displays of military might, violence, hostage taking, extortion, seizing land, destruction of public infrastructure, and attacks against local law enforcement to destabilize the area, intimidate the public, and assert their dominance to facilitate their activities. In September 2020, CU operatives drove military tanks through the town of Bonifacio Moreno in Aguililla and recorded themselves heavily armed, showing off how they rode in a war tank through the streets, warning CJNG that this territory belonged to them. In 2021, there were reports that the entity used drones to drop gunpower bombs over the region, wounding two members of the Michoacán state police force. In December 2024, two soldiers were killed and five others were injured from a landmine explosion, after CU used dismembered bodies to lure the soldiers to where the landmine was set.