The Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (Cártel de Santa Rosa de Lima – CSRL) is a regional criminal group based in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. It was formed by a cooperative of small local gangs who united to fight back against increasing incursions into the state by the larger and more powerful Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG). The group primarily engages in fuel theft, known in Mexico as huachicol.
Security crackdowns have weakened the CSRL and captured some key leaders. But the group continues to drive violence in Guanajuato and has diversified its criminal portfolio to include extortion and the sale of methamphetamine.
History
The CSRL started in 2014 as a collection of small criminal gangs dedicated to fuel theft and a hodgepodge of other criminal activities, including mugging, burglary, and drug sales. By banding together, the gangs survived the expansion of Mexico’s larger criminal mafias, notably the Zetas and the CJNG.
Starting in 2014, the CSRL scaled up its fuel theft operations, and the group eventually became one of the largest criminal organizations specialized in huachicol in Mexico. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of illegal taps on pipelines owned by state-owned oil giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) in Guanajuato spiked, from 165 to 1,842, according to data from the company.
At its height, the CSRL made between $800,000 and $1.2 million per day from fuel theft, indicating that it stole about 3.9 million barrels of fuel a year, equivalent to 1.5% of Pemex’s production. The CSRL used its new financial muscle to launch increasingly brazen attacks against its rivals.
The CSRL shot to national prominence in 2017, after a viral video showed its then leader José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro,” flanked by dozens of heavily armed men, declaring war on the CJNG.
In the months before, tensions between the CJNG and the CSRL had been ratcheting up. The CJNG wanted to develop drug trafficking routes into the state of Guanajuato, which was also a lucrative drug consumption market. Both groups had thriving side hustles selling drugs, most notably methamphetamine, but the CSRL wanted to control all of Guanajuato.
In an attempt to forge a more cooperative relationship with the CSRL, the leader of the CJNG, Nemesio Oseguera Ramos, alias “El Mencho,” sent his nephew to meet with El Marro. The nephew allegedly proposed splitting Guanajuato’s criminal economies in two: in exchange for letting the CJNG develop drug trafficking, the CSRL would be left to control the state’s booming market for huachicol, according to local media reports. The offer was swiftly rejected by El Marro, who murdered El Mencho’s nephew in a coffee shop in Irapuato.
Violence in Guanajuato exploded, and the state quickly became one of Mexico’s most violent. Both the CJNG and CSRL started carrying out brutal acts of violence against each other as well as civilians, political leaders, and security forces.
To help identify targets to kill, the CSRL dyed their methamphetamine blue, while the CJNG sold a white product. Street dealers selling the wrong product in the wrong place were frequently murdered. An analysis by Small Wars Journal found that conflict between the groups for local drug markets focused on tire repair shops, which were used by both groups to sell methamphetamine. Over 200 people were killed in attacks on tire repair shops in Guanajuato between 2013 and 2023, according to the outlet.
As deaths climbed, messages began appearing across cities in the state via which the criminal groups blamed each other for the violence. One of the narcomantas, allegedly signed by the CSRL, threatened Mexico’s then president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known by his initials AMLO, and demanded that he withdraw security forces from the state.
Squashing the CSRL became a top security priority for the AMLO administration, and starting in 2019, more than 1,400 alleged operatives of the group were arrested, including members of El Marro’s family. El Marro himself was captured in August 2020, in the town of Juventino Rosas.
At the time, the government crackdown and growing presence of the CJNG felt like a terminal blow for the CSRL. However, while the group lost some territory, it remains a stubborn force in Guanajuato that continues to drive homicides.
Leadership
The first prominent leader was José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, alias “El Marro,” who climbed to the top spot after the mysterious disappearance of David Rogel Figueroa, a one-time Zetas operative who left the group to found the CSRL in 2014.
The eventual capture of El Marro in 2020 led to prolonged instability in the CSRL, which cycled through leaders who were rapidly detained by law enforcement. One successor, Adán González Ochoa, alias ‘El Azul,’ lasted just 73 days before being arrested and handed a 29-year jail sentence on drugs and weapons charges.
In recent years, the CSRL has lost its hierarchical structure and has become a horizontal network of cells with regional leaders who coordinate criminal activities within Guanajuato. Members of El Marro’s family remained active in the group following his arrest.
Geography
The CSRL is named after the town of Santa Rosa de Lima, a rural settlement nestled in the hills of Guanajuato. The town served as a base for the group’s first leader, El Marro, who shared the spoils from the group’s criminal activities with residents in exchange for protection from rival criminal organizations and the security forces.
As the CSRL’s involvement in fuel theft deepened, the group fanned out across Guanajuato. The state is crisscrossed by major polyducts, which are pipes that transport highly processed hydrocarbons between a major refinery in the city of Salamanca and storage facilities across Mexico. Perforating and stealing from these pipes fueled the group’s lightning growth.
The CSRL cultivated strongholds in towns throughout the region. Juventino Rosas, a small town between Salamanca and Celaya, was a center for the group’s criminal operations. In recent years in the surrounding hamlets, authorities discovered several clandestine graves. Many of the group’s victims were drenched in oil and dumped in wells.
Allies and Enemies
The CSRL has primarily been defined by its war with the CJNG, which transformed the state of Guanajuato into one of the most violent states in Mexico. The groups continue to fight each other over criminal economies including oil theft, extortion, and the sale of drugs, in particular methamphetamine.
Violence between the groups is concentrated in a corridor of cities that include León, Irapuato, Salamanca, and Celaya, which are connected by state highways and oil pipelines, and is home to much of Guanajuato’s industrial activity.
Cells of the Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel, and other criminal groups have also provided support, including weapons and fighters, to the CSRL to help sustain its war with the CJNG. These alliances have allowed the CSRL to maintain its grip over large swathes of Guanajuato.
The CSRL maintains business partnerships with criminal groups in the state of Michoacán, who provide the group with the blue methamphetamine that it sells in Guanajuato.
Prospects
Sustained security operations and competition from criminal rivals have weakened the CSRL, but it remains a formidable force in Guanajuato and maintains control over at least 10 major municipalities in the state.
Counter-fuel theft operations have pushed the CSRL to diversify its criminal profits. It continues to tap Pemex pipes, but has grown its participation in predatory criminal activities, including the sale of methamphetamine and extortion. The CSRL has also received support from criminal groups from across Mexico in recent years, who view it as an important buffer against the power of the CJNG.
Shifts in US foreign policy may open up space for the CRSL to grow. In February 2025, the US Department of State designated eight criminal groups, including the CJNG, as “foreign terrorist organizations” . The move could add pressure to the Mexican government to step up enforcement actions against the CJNG, which could remove pressure from the CSRL.