Overview

• Social media videos show presumed CJNG members handing out grocery bags to flood victims in Tihuatlán while announcing the deliveries as from the cartel.
• The men appear hooded and armed with assault rifles, unloading from a dark pickup as residents line up, with Movimiento Ciudadano campaign material for mayor-elect Raúl Hernández Gallardo visible in the background.
• President Claudia Sheinbaum called the conduct unacceptable, said locations in the clips have not been fully verified, and announced federal shipments of despensas and heavy equipment to the affected region.
• Reporters frame the episode as “narcocaridad,” a recurring tactic to build local influence where official relief is viewed as slow, citing prior cases in Tabasco in 2025 and Zacatecas in 2021.
• The distribution was reported in the Papantla–Poza Rica–Álamo–Tuxpan corridor, an area with competing operations by CJNG, Cártel del Noreste and remnants of Los Zetas.