Overview
- Mexican Navy and Colima state police detained Yajaira Berenice Sánchez Castellano, alias ‘La China’, in Manzanillo, identifying her as a priority target tied to a CJNG operational cell.
- Authorities say she ran the top floor of Building 16 in the CROM complex as a command post and site for detentions and executions, and oversaw local drug sales concentrated in the CROM buildings.
- Intelligence reports link her to operators known as X8, X1 and X7 (Pilas) and to leaders Giancarlo ‘N’ (‘Raptor’) and Francisco ‘N’ (‘Chacalo’), with the cell connected to homicides in Colima and Villa de Álvarez.
- Investigators are probing her possible role in a double execution reported the day of her arrest, after a stop in the Santiago area yielded methamphetamine doses, cash, communications gear and an unplated motorcycle.
- Concurrent operations in Sinaloa uncovered four narco campamentos, seized weapons and thousands of marijuana plants in Elota, and led to the securing and destruction of 86 improvised explosive devices in Concordia.