Mexican Teen Sentenced To 150 Years For Killing 6 In Gang-Related Attack

A 19-year-old teenager received 150 years in prison sentence in a Mexican court after he was found guilty of killing six people in early 2023.

The young man, identified as Jorge Manuel C.E., was 18 years old when he committed the crime, the official statement from the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office said.

Manuel C.E. and a younger accomplice, who was still a minor, were reportedly given guns and a red pickup truck by members of an unknown gang on Feb. 8, 2023, and instructed to kill several people in the Urbivilla del Prado neighborhood in Juarez, Mexico.

Investigations disclosed that the two went out between 11:30 a.m. and noon in a red Chevrolet pickup truck, carrying firearms. They first went to Prados de la Alameda Street, where they shot Tereso C.V., who was injured and later died from his wounds.

Next, they went to a house at the intersection of Prados del Eden and Prados de la Alegria streets, where they killed another person. They continued to the junction of Prados del Paraíso and Prados de las Flores streets and killed two more men there.

Finally, they went to a home at the intersection of Prados de las Haciendas and Prados del Paraíso streets, where they shot and killed two more men, before fleeing the scene in the truck. The police officers from the Municipal Public Security Secretariat arrested them shortly afterward.

The judge sentenced Manuel C.E. to prison at Cereso No. 3 in southern Juarez and ordered him to pay 9.5 million pesos (about $473,000) in compensation. The other suspect, still a minor, has not been named nor yet gone to trial.

For the past few years, Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui and state Public Safety Secretary Gilberto Loya have been warning that criminal gangs were increasingly using teenagers and minors to kill their rivals.

They believe these young people will face lenient punishment or avoid being sentenced as adults.

A former deputy attorney general Jorge Nava explained that cartels trying to expand the illegal drug market in Juarez often pay these teenagers as little as $150 per killing or give them crystal meth if they were addicted, as per Border Report.

Last year, Juarez witnessed over 1,100 homicides and would most likely surpass that figure in 2024. The police have counted 957 murders as of Nov. 7, which makes it an average of three murders daily.