Raúl ‘N’ was only 16 years old when he was arrested in Celaya in 2022 by agents of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) for the crime of extortion. He had barely finished middle school and entered high school.
He is the son of Cristina Villalobos, who was a PAN councilor at the time; she resigned from her position after this incident.
According to authorities, Raúl ‘N’ was dedicated to threatening and extorting merchants at the Celaya Central de Abastos (Bakery Market). His case is one of many in which young people voluntarily join the ranks of crime.
According to figures from the State Attorney General’s Office, Raúl ‘N’ is on the list of nine minors who were arrested in Celaya between 2020 and the first half of 2025 for participating in extortion activities.
This city leads the ranking, as the Attorney General’s Office reports that within the state’s industrial corridor, only 11 arrests of adolescents linked to extortion have been recorded during the aforementioned period.
The city of Celaya accounts for 81 percent of the arrests, with nine; it is followed by the municipalities of Irapuato and Salamanca with one case, respectively. The adolescents arrested were between 15 and 17 years old at the time. León and Silao have not reported any arrests.
Minor was an expert at extortion
On the afternoon of August 23, 2022, the FGE reported that, through the Specialized Unit for Combating Kidnapping and Extortion, they captured Raúl ‘N’, who was extorting merchants at the Celaya Central Market. The young man was detained under the Constituyentes Avenue bridge.
At the time of his capture, cell phones—which he used to make the extortion calls—a vehicle, and cash were seized.
After receiving the complaint, Criminal Investigation agents initiated strategic actions that led to the arrest of the young man, who was already an expert in the crime.
His capture, documented in videos circulating on social media, caused surprise in the area; people walking by filmed the apprehension. When he was captured, the young man was carrying a box of money that a merchant who had extorted money had just given him.
After this incident became known, the state leadership of the PAN in Guanajuato asked the councilwoman to resign from her position and leave the city council.
“Young people voluntarily join the CSRL”
According to security analyst and expert David Saucedo, the incorporation of young people into criminal activities in Guanajuato has two aspects.
In the case of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel—which operates in the Laja-Bajío region, including Celaya—recruitment occurs voluntarily.
Meanwhile, in the case of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), it often resorts to forced recruitment through deception and deprivation of liberty.
“Foreign mafias, such as the Gulf Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or the Sinaloa Cartel, because they don’t have such a deep-rooted social base of support, resort to forced recruitment through the kidnapping of children and young people between the ages of 15 and 25 to join a criminal enterprise,” explained Saucedo.
The expert listed some of the factors that foster this criminal activity: the non-imputability of children and adolescents involved in crime; the fact that cartels pay minors less than adults, making them more profitable; and tactics such as addicting them to substances and offering them the drugs as payment to keep them from abandoning these activities.
“Local mafias (like the CSRL) resort to voluntary recruitment, primarily due to the competitive salaries they offer.
“Due to the state’s unemployment rate, many young people have only three options: migrate to the United States—very rarely—, join the informal trade, or join the drug cartels, especially local mafias,” he concluded.
Six municipalities have a higher risk of child recruitment
In Guanajuato, six municipalities have a higher risk of recruitment of children and adolescents by organized crime: León, Celaya, Irapuato, Apaseo el Grande, Salamanca, and Yuriria.
This is according to the study “Strategic Mechanism for the Recruitment and Use of Children and Adolescents by Criminal Groups and Organized Crime in High-Crime Areas in Mexico,” published by the Ministry of the Interior.
This report indicates that there are three criminal groups in Guanajuato. who are behind the recruitment of minors: Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel.
Juan Martín Pérez García, coordinator of Tejiendo Redes Infancia (Weaving Childhood Networks) in Latin America and the Caribbean, lamented that Guanajuato is one of the states with the highest risk of child recruitment.
Guanajuato is estimated to be the fifth state in the country with the highest percentage of children and adolescents at risk of being recruited or used by criminal groups.
According to the Recruited Children Redim study, published in 2021, it is estimated that there are between 10,584 and 18,310 minors in Guanajuato in this situation.
“In recent years—except in 2024, when homicide rates dropped slightly—Guanajuato has had high levels of disappearances, and it is a state where we have documented high levels of recruitment,” said the specialist.
He asserted that there are cases of forced recruitment, which Tejiendo Redes Infancia has even followed:
“There is a paradigmatic case that we are following, of a child who disappeared and was recruited in Guanajuato, allegedly by the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel, where the Prosecutor’s Office at the time, under Zamarripa, did absolutely nothing.”
This case concerns Luis Enrique, who was 15 years old when he disappeared on August 18, 2019, in Salamanca, Guanajuato. Six years have passed, and his whereabouts are still unknown.
The specialist stated that this case was brought before the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), but nothing happened.
Forced Recruitment Hits Seven States
Nationwide, it was estimated that seven states account for approximately 55 percent of the population of children and adolescents at risk of recruitment: the State of Mexico (9.7%), Jalisco (8.6%), Chiapas (8.1%), Puebla (7.8%), Guanajuato (7.3%), Veracruz (7.2%), and Michoacán (6.5%).
Across the country, forced recruitment has increased: for reference, in 2010, it was estimated that between 35,000 and 40,000 adolescents were recruited each year, and by 2021, the number had skyrocketed to between 140,000 and 250,000 adolescents with risk factors for recruitment.
The recruitment of minors stems from the conditions they face, as the profile includes poverty, abandonment, lack of opportunities, victimization due to domestic violence, social context, or proximity to areas with the presence of criminal groups.
It also highlights school dropouts or a history of committing a crime, which makes them targets for the more than 50 criminal groups estimated to exist in Mexico.
Source: msn
