A 17-year-old girl tortured her last victim on May 12. That day, prosecutors’ agents raided a house in the southeast of Ciudad Juárez, on the US-Mexico border, and found the person she had kidnapped the day before — still alive.
During the operation, the teenager was arrested alongside four other young people, ages 17 to 20, with whom she had formed a kidnapping cell months earlier. She was allegedly the group’s leader and was responsible for torturing and mutilating victims, as well as sending videos of these acts to their families to pressure them into paying ransom, according to accounts gathered by local media and independently corroborated by InSight Crime.
The case shocked Juárez society. But it was not an isolated incident — it was the latest in a string of violent acts carried out by youth gangs seeking new sources of funding in the city.
Just two years earlier, many of these young people had enjoyed an economic boom working for local criminal organizations like La Empresa and the Mexicles, which capitalized on the record number of migrants arriving at the border between 2022 and 2024. From coordinating irregular crossings into the United States to kidnapping, extorting, and exploiting this population, these groups multiplied their income in a short period.
“We estimated they were generating around $100 million a month, even more than what they earned from drug trafficking,” Gilberto Loya, security secretary for the state of Chihuahua, told InSight Crime.
But with the tightening of US migration policy after Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the number of migrants seeking to cross the border dropped sharply. With shelters nearly empty and many migrants returning to their countries of origin, the funds to cover the payroll for these youths dwindled substantially.
Young Kidnappers
In response to this new reality, criminal groups adapted, allowing lower-ranking members to generate income by carrying out the crimes they once committed against migrants on the local population. Kidnapping initially appeared to be a promising alternative.
During the first half of 2025, reports of kidnapping in Ciudad Juárez reached their highest level in a decade, with 36 cases recorded, according to data from the Citizen Observatory of the Competitiveness and Citizen Security Trust (Fideicomiso para la Competitividad y Seguridad Ciudadana – FICOSEC).
Although in previous years the real number of kidnappings was likely higher — since those involving migrants are rarely reported — recent records show a change in the profile of the victims, with more locals targeted, including business owners, factory managers, merchants, drivers, and tourists.
The profile of the perpetrators, however, has remained consistent. Most are young and resort to extreme levels of violence, members of Ciudad Juárez’s Social Reintegration Commission for Adolescents told InSight Crime.
In another recent case, a group of young people kidnapped a rideshare driver when he arrived at the address where the ride had been requested. To demand ransom, they sent videos to his family showing him being tortured, including the moment they cut off one of his fingers.
SEE ALSO: ‘Children of War’: How Violence and Addiction Rob the Youth of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
These incidents quickly caught the attention of local authorities. While many perpetrators had prior experience, particularly in kidnapping migrants, Loya said the new gangs are disorganized, unsophisticated, and do not necessarily take orders from or receive direct backing from major criminal groups.
“We are catching the perpetrators very quickly. These gangs are not lasting long,” he said.
Between January and June 2025, local media reported that authorities had arrested at least 51 people for kidnapping in Ciudad Juárez. In at least four cases identified by InSight Crime, the perpetrators were caught after their victims managed to escape.
The profits for these gangs also appear to be limited, preventing kidnapping and extortion from becoming a stable source of income for these youths. While they initially demanded ransoms in the millions, the amounts they typically received ranged from $1,000 to $2,600, which they split among members of each cell, Loya explained. By contrast, during the migrant smuggling boom, ransom demands could reach $10,000 per person.
Return to Street-Level Drug Sales
During the height of migrant smuggling and kidnapping, groups like La Empresa and the Mexicles devoted most of their resources to these activities, even reassigning members who had formerly worked in other areas, such as drug sales.
But after the collapse of the migrant business and the failure of alternatives like kidnapping locals, they chose to reassign members to street-level drug sales, a lower-risk activity that offers more stable income.
“When La Empresa sent its members back to drug sales points after leaving migrant smuggling and kidnapping behind, other groups had already taken them, so now they are fighting to get them back,” Loya said.
Ciudad Juárez has a sizable domestic drug market, historically controlled by various criminal factions that divide the territory and set rules about which substances can be sold and who is allowed to sell them.
In central areas and along the border strip with Texas — controlled by splinter groups of the Juárez Cartel such as La Línea and La Empresa, as well as the Barrio Azteca gang — heroin, crack, marijuana, and cocaine dominate the market, while synthetic drugs are restricted. By contrast, in the southern outskirts, factions allied with the Sinaloa Cartel and the Artistas Asesinos and Mexicles gangs focus on methamphetamine sales.
SEE ALSO: In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Old Criminals Form New Criminal Guard
While the revenues from this market can be substantial, the environment is highly violent. Selling in rival territory or distributing unauthorized substances can be deadly, a distributor told InSight Crime. Disputes over these issues occur so often that authorities link most of the city’s violence to this market.
In this context, recent territorial reshuffles have not been without conflict. Many of the homicides recorded between January and July 2025 were concentrated in border areas between territories controlled by different groups.
A More Sophisticated Migrant Smuggling Trade?
Despite these shifts, migrant smuggling has not disappeared entirely. There is still a small number of people arriving at the border seeking crossing services and willing to pay a higher price, according to officials who work with migrants in Ciudad Juárez and spoke to InSight Crime on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
But smuggling networks no longer operate as openly as before, they said, so further details are unknown.
“They used to advertise their services on social media. Now they keep a very low profile,” they said.
That discretion may be linked to a rise in sophistication in the services offered. For example, the officials said they were aware of recent cases in which migrants were offered “travel packages” from other continents, including air transport to Mexico and crossings through less-patrolled and difficult-to-access points.
Security authorities share this assessment. During the migration boom, numerous criminal actors sought to capitalize on the opportunity, creating fierce competition and the need to split profits. Now, however, Loya believes the business is concentrated in fewer hands, estimating that crossing costs may have doubled.
Steven Dudley contributed reporting.