Mexican Authorities Investigating After Alleged Cartel-Drone Attack: Report

Mar. 15, 2025

Soldiers in the remote town of Buenavista de los Hurtados in the Mexican state of Guerrero, following a drone attack Jan. 4 that incinerated five people in a vehicle.Photo:Fiscalía General Del Estado De Guerrero/Facebook

Fiscalía General Del Estado De Guerrero/Facebook

Two days afteralleged cartel-controlled droneswere used during an attack in a remote Mexican village in the state of Guerrero, another city in the same state erupted in gunfire when armed men descended on a local cockfight.

The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Guerrero confirms thatfive people were burned to deathin the January 4 attack and anothersix people are dead and 13 injuredin the Saturday night shootout.

FRANCISCO ROBLES/AFP via Getty

The Ministerial Investigative Police had collected “charred bone remains corresponding to five people in a burned vehicle,” per prosecutors, who attributed the attack to a “confrontation” between warring criminal groups La Familia Michoacana and Los Tlacos, “who maintain a dispute for control of the area.”

But, state prosecutors said in the translated press release that when they offered relatives the opportunity for genetic testing “to determine the identity of the victims” and “to generate new lines of investigation,” they were categorically “rejected.”

Investigators are trying to piece together what happened in Buenavista de los Hurtados Jan. 4. Inhabitants of the area, which is a hotbed for drug violence, have not cooperated with the investigation.Fiscalía General Del Estado De Guerrero/Facebook

Several police organizations and military groups had attempted to interview locals but prosecutors said “no information was obtained regarding people injured, missing or deprived of their freedom.”

The inhabitants of Tetela del Río had even removed the charred bones from the crime scene before investigators arrived, per prosecutors, who noted that “only one burned vehicle was found.”

Running along the Pacific Coast, the southwestern state of Guerrero is one of Mexico’s poorest states.Fiscalía General Del Estado De Guerrero/Facebook

Fiscalía General Del Estado De Guerrero/Facebook

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José Filiberto Velázquez, the center’s director, told the AP that community members contacted the center Thursday afternoon, telling him that the cartel, La Familia Michoacana, was using drones to launch “explosive devices.” Soon after, Velázquez could not establish further contact with the town, he told the outlet.

Such tech-heavy attacks are becoming more common, with drug organizations even charging locals for cartel-operated WiFi in the country,the AP reports.

Petatlán became the second area under violent attack in Guerrero, when, state prosecutors say, two criminal organizations opened gunfire during a weekend cockfight.FRANCISCO ROBLES/AFP via Getty

Prosecutors said members of the criminal organization, El Gavilán, had fired at members of another local criminal group bearing the town’s name, El Ruso de Petatlán, as part of their “dispute for control of the area.” (Prosecutors did not specify if the violence at the arena was cartel-related.)

State prosecutors said the Ministerial Investigative Police “will remain in the area until these events are fully clarified and the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice.”

source: people.com