Chilpancingo Public Security Secretary Arrested for Mayor's Decapitation in Guerrero

“They had been in office less than a week,” Moreno wrote on his social media accounts. “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”

During a break in his November 13 hearing, Reyes called out to the media stating he had nothing to do with the kidnapping and murder of the Mayor. “This is a political matter,” Reyes told the media, after saying in the hearing that he was a scapegoat and that he had nothing against Alejandro Arcos, who nominated him as Secretary of Security.

Finally, he said that he did not initially know the motives or the crime he was arrested for.

His arrest was based on witness statements, including that of a merchant who was later murdered. One of the key testimonies came from Domitilo Candia Pila, a businessman who was kidnapped and tortured on a ranch in Quechultenango by alleged members of the Petaquillas community police.

The Quechultengo ranch was where the mayor of Chilpancingo was allegedly murdered.

In his complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office, Candia stated that he had heard a conversation between his captors, in which Germán Reyes was identified as the mastermind behind the councilman’s murder, along with names of people nicknamed ‘El Jimi’, ‘El Junior’ and Marco Antonio Osorio Castrejón.

Candia was found dead at his home on November 6, just days after having gone to the Prosecutor’s Office to give his testimony.

The judge also considered an anonymous statement from an alleged municipal agent who, via email, also pointed to Reyes Reyes as responsible for the crime. Both testimonies were evaluated as “coincident” elements in the investigation.

The Prosecutor’s Office version indicates that Germán Reyes is a member of Los Ardillos and kidnapped Alejandro Arcos from the ranch in Quechultenango. The office also maintains that Alejandro Arcos was murdered after refusing to include in his cabinet individuals linked to the criminal group ‘Los Ardillos’ that operates in Quechultenango and other areas of Guerrero.

Market Vendor Massacre

Mexico’s newly named top federal security official, Omar García Harfuch, said earlier this month that Arcos, the Mayor whose body was found in a pickup truck, with his severed head placed on the roof of the vehicle, was apparently killed by the same gang responsible for killing 11 market vendors, including four boys.

The vendors, members of an extended family, were abducted in late October as they traveled to sell their wares. Their bodies were found dumped in the bed of a pickup truck on an avenue in Chilpancingo. While neither Harfuch nor state prosecutors would name the gang, a local human rights activist said Los Ardillos were responsible for killing the market vendors.

The activist, who did not want to be quoted for fear of reprisals, said Los Ardillos gang controlled large parts of the state and had state congressmen and other officials working for them.

Chilpancingo Violence

Los Ardillos have been locked in a years-long battle for control of Chilpancingo with a rival gang, Los Tlacos. Chilpancingo, a city of about 300,000, is so completely dominated by gangs that in 2023, one of them staged a demonstration of hundreds of people, hijacked a government armored car, blocked a major highway and took police hostage to win the release of arrested suspects.

Violence in Guerrero reached such unprecedented levels that earlier this year, Roman Catholic bishops announced they had helped arrange a truce in another part of the state between two warring drug cartels.

At the time, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he approved of such talks. “Priests and pastors and members of all the churches have participated, helped in pacifying the country. I think it is very good,” said López Obrador, who left office Sept. 30.

Sources Dallas News, AP News, Infobae, Nacion321, Expreso, El Financiero