Seven elements of the Guadalajara and Tonalá police stations were arrested for the disappearance of four people

During the past weekend, seven elements of the Guadalajara and Tonalá Security Police Stations were arrested for their alleged responsibility for the forced disappearance of four persons in two isolated events in Jalisco.

According to the State Attorney General's Office (FGJ), in the first case three members of the Tonalá Police Station were arrested, derived from an investigation kit into the disappearance of three civilians. The first two arrests occurred last weekend, while the other was completed on 11 April.

“As a result of the investigations into this fact, data were obtained on the possible participation of the elements, so a supervising judge was asked to apprehend the corresponding arrest warrant,” said the Prosecutor's Office without specifying the date on which the disappearances were reported; it was only noted that this incident was reported in the Area Greater Guadalajara.

Meanwhile, the second case involved the disappearance of a man in the municipality of Guadalajara (the date on which it was reported was not detailed). Following the corresponding inquiries, the alleged involvement of four elements of the police station of that municipality was determined.

The capture of the alleged perpetrators was carried out last Monday, April 11 through a security operation in the entity. The detainees were placed at the disposal of the supervising judge to determine their criminal status.

It should be noted that in mid-February 2022, personnel from the Special Prosecutor's Office on Missing Persons (FEPD) arrested and linked an element of the Tonalá Police Station to trial for the disappearance of a man in 2021, when he left his home in the Santa Cruz de las Huertas neighborhood, in Tonalá, to go to a store in the company of two other people.

According to the Prosecutor's report, the three civilians were arrested by four uniformed men aboard labelled units of the Municipal Police of Tonala. However, since that day the whereabouts of the first man were unknown. As a result, four municipal police officers were arrested for the above-mentioned crime.

The police were identified as Juan Manuel D., Ricardo I., Luis Gerardo C. and Armando G. While the last detainee was identified as David M. Everyone will have to remain in informal pre-trial detention for six months as a precautionary measure.

According to the report “Search and Identification of Disappeared Persons” by the Undersecretariat for Human Rights, Population and Migration, Jalisco is among the states with the highest number of missing persons and with the highest number of bodies recovered from clandestine graves.

Since the start of the administration of Andrés Manuel Lóez Obrador (December 1, 2018) and until April 7, 2021, 3,906 missing persons have been reported who have not been located in Jalisco, accounting for 20% of the total cases. From March 15, 1964 to April 8, 2021, 12,105 cases of missing persons have been reported in the entity.

In 2020, 433 bodies were recovered from clandestine graves throughout the entity, “which means that almost 43% of the 859 bodies found in the country in this type of place were in Jalisco,” explained the Guadalajara University.

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