Corpses in fridge, cannibalism hallmark of Mexican cartel linked to UP drug bust

A startling link to a deadly Mexican cartel was revealed as law enforcement agencies busted a methamphetamine lab in Greater Noida, in the National Capital Region. Members of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), were involved in the underground drug laboratory. The Mexican drug cartel operates like a paramilitary force with armoured vehicles, and one of the initiation processes of its gang members involves cannibalism.
Approximately 95 kg of drugs were seized in the raid in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.
The investigation of the lab bust has exposed the extensive global network of the powerful and ruthless CJNG cartel which, according to reports by Mexican and other international media outlets, is involved in cannibalism and other heinous practices.
The CJNG drug cartel is said to have made cannibalism a part of its boot camp for recruits at barbaric “terror schools” where they are forced to eat human flesh, according to a 2022 report in The Daily Beast.
The secret lab in Greater Noida, to which Mexico’s CJNG was linked, was run by a former warden of Delhi’s Tihar Jail, one of India’s largest prisons. The quality of the drug produced in the lab was tested by a member of a Mexican cartel living in Delhi.
Further investigation has revealed that the methamphetamine lab was linked to the CJNG, a cartel known for expansive drug-trafficking operations.
The CJNG, which splintered from the infamous Milenio Cartel in 2010, has rapidly grown into one of Mexico’s most powerful and feared cartels, with operations spanning across more than three dozen countries, including the United States, Europe, and now, apparently, India.
The notorious CJNG cartel, based in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, was founded by El Mencho, the most wanted man in Mexico and one of the most wanted men in the USA.
According to reports, the CJNG is locked in a deadly battle with the Sinaloa Cartel of the infamous former Mexican druglord Chapo Guzmán.
The CJNG cartel has a history of extreme violence and gruesome practices, and the use of violence as a tool of control is a hallmark of its operations. Hence, it is not unprecedented for such groups to resort to cannibalism as a form of psychological warfare.
In July 2024, several members of the cartel were blacklisted by the US’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for their association with the CJNG, “a notoriously violent group that has made cannibalism part of the training and initiation of its sicarios,” reported the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global network of investigative journalists.
Another instance of the gruesome cannibalism practice by the CJNG in their ‘terror schools’, exposed in a 2022 video, was referred to by The Daily Beast as ‘a sort of Olympics of cruelty and sadism.’
“I’ve been there and there was a lot of [cannibalism],” a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel told the Daily Beast.
“First they teach them how to cut people,” said the man. “They start by learning how to sever the extremities.”
Experts told The Daily Beast that recruits are often coerced into becoming man-eaters during the three to four months of boot camp.
“They are given a choice of one of those pieces to eat in front of the boss. You have to do it without reacting or vomiting, or you are beaten,” a source told the Daily Beast. “If you didn’t want to [eat human flesh] they wouldn’t let you leave, they had you there.”
A 2017 report in Mexico News Daily revealed that even minors were also involved in the training to eat the victim’s flesh.
They kept the corpses in a fridge and for a period of time cut off and eat pieces of the flesh, according to the report.
Boys as young as 12 could be part of the same process, reported Mexico News daily in 2017.
The CNJN cartel, which according to the US Department of Justice, is “one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world”, is said to have full-time soldiers equipped with sophisticated machine guns and armoured vehicles, with a detailed heirarchy.
“Meet the CJNG, or Jalisco New Generation Cartel. They’re armed to the teeth and have military equipment and experience. Drug cartels are paramilitary now,” noted Malaysian journalist Ian Miles Cheong on X.
The bust of the meth lab in Greater Noida and the revelation of CJNG’s involvement is a reminder of the global reach of the cartel and the ruthless nature of Mexican drug gangs casting a shadow on India.