“Char” for Borderland Beat
This article was translated and reposted from EL UNIVERSAL
Sergio Gilberto Gómez Romero had been free for three months after his release from prison in March.
JUNE16, 2024
Sergio Gilberto Gómez Romero, alias “El Chanda” or “El Señor de Úspero”, who was one of the Knights Templar’s lieutenants in Parácuaro and a former member of the self-defense groups in the Tierra Caliente region of Michoacán, was executed early Saturday morning.
Following a citizen’s report, elements of the Municipal Police located Gomez Romero’s body, with several bullet wounds, under a bridge on the highway connecting the municipalities of Apatzingan and Nueva Italia, state authorities reported.
Alias “El Chanda” or “El Señor de Úspero” had been at large for three months after his release from prison in March. In 2017, he was arrested by the Mexican Army and agents of the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office in Nueva Italia, the municipal capital of Múgica, for the crime of aggravated kidnapping and others related to drug trafficking.
According to Michoacan authorities, Sergio Gilberto Gomez Romero, alias “El Chanda,” was the head of the Knights Templar in the communities of Uspero, Cuatro Caminos, Nueva Italia, Buenavista and Gabriel Zamora.
He was associated with the criminal cell of Ignacio Rentería, “El Cenizo” and Antonio Torres González, “El Americano,” who had a dispute with “Los Viagras” in Apatzingán.