Mexican teenager sentenced to 150 years in prison for killing six people in gang attack

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

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

Manuel CE and a younger accomplice, who was still a minor, were reportedly armed with weapons and a red pickup truck by members of an unknown gang on February 8, 2023, and ordered to kill several people in the Urbivilla del Prado neighborhood of Juárez. Mexico.

The investigation revealed that the two drove off in a red Chevrolet pickup truck with guns between 11:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. They first went to Prados de la Alameda street, where they shot Tereso CV, who was injured and later died from his wounds.

They then 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 intersection of Prados del Paraíso and Prados de las Flores streets and killed two more men there.

They eventually went to a house at the intersection of Prados de las Haciendas and Prados del Paraíso streets, where they shot two more men before fleeing the scene in the truck. The police from the city's public security secretariat arrested her shortly afterwards.

The judge sentenced Manuel CE to prison at Cereso No. 3 in southern Juárez and ordered him to pay restitution of 9.5 million pesos (approximately $473,000). The other suspect, still a minor, has not been named or brought to justice.

In recent years, Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui and Public Security Secretary Gilberto Loya have warned that criminal gangs are increasingly using teenagers and minors to kill their rivals.

They believe these young people can receive more lenient punishments or avoid being convicted as adults.

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

There were over 1,100 murders in Juarez last year and will most likely surpass that number in 2024. Police have counted 957 murders as of November 7, an average of three murders per day.