Chihuahua state police investigators have apprehended four suspected members of a violent gang in Juarez accused of being involved in over 20 dismemberment murders, including the removal of victims’ hearts, the state’s attorney general said. The arrests were made over the past two weeks in connection with the killings of individuals whose bodies, showing signs of torture and mutilation, were left in public areas, Carlos Manuel Salas, the state attorney general for the Northern Zone of Chihuahua, stated.

Juarez, where more than 1,100 murders have occurred this year, often sees the bodies of murder victims discarded in vacant lots, sidewalks, and along streets as a result of gang violence related to drug dealing and migrant trafficking. Salas revealed that the individuals in custody are associated with two dismemberment murders and are being investigated for their involvement in 15 other deaths provided by the suspects, with six confirmed victims in the process of being identified.

The individuals’ arrests have been linked to the Artistas Asesinos gang, a group that originated as a graffiti crew in the early 2000s before evolving into a violent street gang involved with the Sinaloa cartel. The gang operates in the streets and prisons of Juarez, and it is suspected that they carried out the murders following the orders of a female, incarcerated gang leader referred to as “El Niko.”

The breakthrough in the case occurred when municipal police stopped an individual found with blood stains near the location where a dismembered body had been dumped, Salas said. The stop led to raids at four locations, resulting in the arrest of four individuals who allegedly confessed to the crimes, as well as the discovery of blood evidence and cellphone information linked to the murders.

Chihuahua state police investigators have apprehended four suspected members of a violent gang in Juarez accused of being involved in over 20 dismemberment murders, including the removal of victims’ hearts, the state’s attorney general said. The arrests were made over the past two weeks in connection with the killings of individuals whose bodies, showing signs of torture and mutilation, were left in public areas, Carlos Manuel Salas, the state attorney general for the Northern Zone of Chihuahua, stated.