The ranch of horrors in Mexico: a hitman from the Jalisco cartel confesses to hundreds of executions

The map of drug trafficking in Mexico has in the state of Jalisco one of its most critical hotspots. For years, different criminal organizations have used poorly monitored rural areas to set up clandestine camps, where they forcibly recruit people, extort them, and erase any trace of their victims.

One of the darkest places in this network is Rancho Izaguirre, a vast property located in the municipality of Teuchitlán. Originally discovered by groups of mothers searching for their disappeared children, the site quickly became a symbol of impunity and the lack of clear answers from local and federal authorities.

The investigation into what happened on that ranch has been surrounded by controversy from the very beginning. While the victims' relatives were finding clothing, footwear, and bone remains on the property, the official experts' reports indicated that there was no evidence that a clandestine incinerator had operated at the site.

That divide between the government's investigations and the accusations of social groups kept the case at a crossroads. However, the emergence of a direct witness from within the very heart of the criminal group has completely changed the story.

The revelations that challenge the official version

In a report recorded by the Italian public broadcaster Tg1, hosted by journalist Stefania Battistini, a man with his face covered claimed to be an active hitman for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). In the interview, the man stated that more than 500 people were executed at Rancho Izaguirre and confessed that he himself incinerated 250 of them. In addition, he revealed that he received a fixed wage of four thousand pesos per shift, regardless of how many lives he took in a single day.

These statements directly contradict the reports issued at the time by the Attorney General's Office (FGR), then headed by former attorney general Alejandro Gertz Manero. The official version maintained that the property was only a training and recruitment camp, ruling out the presence of furnaces because the temperatures at the site were not high enough to burn bodies.

By contrast, the interviewee explained that the remains were almost entirely destroyed and stated that he now secretly collaborates with the Madres Buscadoras de Jalisco collective to tell them the exact spots where they can find small fragments of bone or teeth.

The Izaguirre Ranch and the web of complicity 

The property of more than 10,000 square meters was first located in March 2025 by the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco collective thanks to an anonymous tip. The way the authorities handled the scene sparked outrage among the families, who accused that the land was altered and cleaned up before the press and independent experts could inspect the graves and the abandoned belongings.

As the investigation progressed, it was discovered that the site operated thanks to a network of accomplices. Among those arrested in connection with the case is the former mayor of Teuchitlán, José Ascensión Murguía, who is accused of using the municipal police to guard the ranch. Key cartel operatives also fell, such as José Gregorio Lastra Armida, known as "El Lastra," and his successor Alma Rosa Rivera, alias "La Leona," accused of deceiving young people with fake job offers posted on networks such as TikTok and then taking them by force to the camp.

The pattern of extermination extends to neighboring states

The testimony gathered by Italian television matches recent findings in other parts of the country. In the neighboring state of Nayarit, the local prosecutor's office confirmed the discovery of a very similar property in the municipality of Xalisco. The prosecutor of that state, Elvia Ludmila Heredia, described the place as an "extermination center by incineration" and stated that it is an exact copy of what was happening in Jalisco, where homemade furnaces and metal drums were used to make the bodies disappear.

This type of finding confirms that the use of remote ranches to make people disappear is a recurring strategy of organized crime in the Mexican Pacific region. While the FGR, now under the leadership of Ernestina Godoy, keeps the proceedings against nearly 50 detainees open, the families of the disappeared are demanding that all the recovered bone remains be thoroughly analyzed to learn the truth about the fate of their loved ones.