The Mexican State Attorney’s Office arrested on Monday in Ecatepec, in the north of the province, Juan Manuel Maya, known as Mayathe alleged leader of Los Mayas, a criminal group specializing in the illicit trade of water pipes in different parts of the Mexican state, the agency said in a statement published online. The authorities indicated that the Mayan, whose age was not revealed, was one of their priority targets.
It’s the same criminal organization it calls itself We are Mayans, we are strongAlthough authorities summarize the name as Los Mayas. The group carries out its pipeline operations in three municipalities in northern Mexico: Ecatepec, Acolman and Cualcalco. The Public Ministry carried out the operation jointly with the Minister of the Navy and the Ecatepec Municipal Police. The authorities seized weapons, drugs, two vehicles – one of them a luxury one – and clothes similar to those of the official authorities themselves.
Last Friday, Public Prosecution agents also arrested Cristian Jesús Castillo, Jimmya member of the Chalco City Council which the agency also highlighted as one of its priority targets. The official used the October 22 Union as a cover organization to distribute and sell water illegally in the region, in addition to carrying out looting operations in various properties that had water wells, which they extracted for illegal sale.
The arrest of the Mayans comes at a time of dissatisfaction among residents of Mexico State, the most populous region in the country with a population of 17 million, where dissatisfaction with water shortages has worsened in recent months. It was also a breeding ground for this type of illegal trade. The unrest in cities like Ecatepec was exacerbated by desperation elsewhere like Nezahualcoyotl, where residents and merchants called for a march last Friday to demand the repeal of the mandate of the city’s mayor, Adolfo Cerqueda.
The municipality of Ecatepec is one of the areas of concern in the country. 84.4% of its residents consider the place unsafe, according to September data issued by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGE). The data makes the city the second most worrisome in the agency’s records, after Culiacan, Sinaloa, which scored 88.3%. Although Ecatepec has risen, the data shows an improvement compared to June, when the percentage of residents who considered the place unsafe reached 90.7% (Culiacan also raised the figure to 90.8%). The rest of the territory of the State of Mexico was not immune to crime. In May – the latest record – the area recorded 116 homicides, more than 1,500 robberies and more than 3,860 injuries.