Oaxaca authorities raid ASAEO syndicate offices amid violent crime probe

Authorities in Oaxaca, Mexico, are conducting raids on the offices of the Alianza de Sindicatos y Asociaciones del Estado de Oaxaca (ASAEO) as part of an ongoing investigation into extortion and violent crimes. Investigators seized documents and computers from the organization's offices in Oaxaca City to gather evidence against current leaders and those currently at large, including the Río Suárez brothers.

Several members of the ASAEO have been detained and transferred to various prisons, including the San Francisco Tanivet women's prison and a federal prison in Guanajuato. The charges include extortion, protection money (cobro de piso), land dispossession, contract killing, and homicide.

The State Attorney General, Bernardo Rodríguez Alamilla, linked the syndicate to a climate of violence in the region, noting that the group operated in the area where journalist Alejandro Leyva was murdered in July. The investigation also touches upon the deaths of transport leaders Caleb Rodríguez Ortega and Iván Tomás Luis Villaseca, as well as an attack on CIT leader Marco Sánchez that resulted in six fatalities.