{"id":95949,"date":"2025-07-27T05:36:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95949\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T05:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:36:28","slug":"commander-h-from-corrupt-police-chief-to-leader-of-la-barredora-gang-in-mexico-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/95949\/","title":{"rendered":"Commander H, from corrupt police chief to leader of La Barredora gang in Mexico | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 30, 2019, Trinidad Alberto de la Cruz Miranda \u2013 known as \u201cEl Pel\u00f3n de Playas\u201d (\u201cThe Bald Man of the Beaches\u201d) \u2013 was arrested. As the leader of Los Zetas<\/a>, one of the most dangerous Mexican drug cartels in the state of Tabasco, he was wanted for kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, arms dealing, illegal fuel sales and for co-opting government officials. <\/p>\n

His arrest triggered the torching of vehicles and buildings, along with the appearance of banners that demanded his release. One of these messages named Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez, who at the time was the newly-appointed secretary of Security and Citizen Protection for the state. Berm\u00fadez had been in office for 19 days at the time, having been appointed by Tabasco Governor Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez. The narco-banner read: \u201cWe\u2019re coming for you, Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez Requena, for being a traitor.\u201d This was the first of many times that the Regional Intelligence Fusion Center (CERFI) and the Ministry of Defense identified Berm\u00fadez, who would later adopt a code name. Following his appointment as head cop in Tabasco, he would be known as \u201cCommander H.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest crisis involving Morena, Mexico\u2019s ruling party<\/a>, bears his name. Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez \u2014 who has been a fugitive since January and has a Red Notice issued by Interpol \u2014 has leapt into the national spotlight, implicating one of the party\u2019s heavyweights: Senator Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez, the former state governor who also served as secretary of the Interior under the previous administration. Members of the party in the state of Tabasco had already been warning about the former police chief for months. <\/p>\n

Incumbent Governor Javier May publicly denounced Berm\u00fadez back in November 2024 and again in January 2025 for having led La Barredora, a criminal gang, in the face of what he described as the negligence or apathy of his predecessors. Last weekend, the case exploded when the state\u2019s military commander, General Miguel \u00c1ngel L\u00f3pez, revealed that an arrest warrant had been issued for the former secretary (who is also a member of Morena) back in February. <\/p>\n

Morena party members were quick to use the argument that previous governments have already used: just as former President Felipe Calder\u00f3n (2006-2012) appointed Genaro Garc\u00eda Luna \u2014 now serving time in a U.S. prison<\/a> \u2014 as his secretary of the Interior, Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez had no idea what his appointee was doing. \u201cHe probably had no clue,\u201d legislator Ignacio Mier opined. \u201cIt\u2019s all nonsense,\u201d added Senate President Gerardo Fern\u00e1ndez Noro\u00f1a. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not [Augusto L\u00f3pez] who has to clarify matters; the person under investigation is the former secretary of Security,\u201d affirmed Luisa Mar\u00eda Alcalde, the president of Morena, in an attempt to excuse him. However, on July 18, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum changed her tune: \u201cIt would be [advisable] for him to give his version of events.\u201d<\/p>\n

After this veiled order, Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez finally emerged, if only online: \u201cEven though I haven\u2019t been summoned, I\u2019m at the disposal of any authority that requests my presence,\u201d he wrote on X, after days of silence.<\/p>\n

\"Ad\u00e1nAd\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez and Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez Requena, in Acapulco, in August 2022.SSPC Tabasco<\/p>\n

Mexican Army documents released by the Guacamaya hacking group and accessed by EL PA\u00cdS show that the Ministry of Defense and its Regional Defense Center had identified Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez as a key player in Tabasco\u2019s criminal network. In 2021, he appeared as one of the officials giving orders to criminal groups. And, a year later, he was described as the head of La Barredora, the local cell of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel<\/a> (CJNG), which has been sowing chaos and violence in the state since last year. The military also collected several mentions of Governor Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez in the emails sent between criminal leaders. <\/p>\n

Kalimba\u2019s execution<\/p>\n

On December 4, 2020, a shock wave changed the criminal landscape in the state of Tabasco. Pantera and Toro (\u201cPanther\u201d and \u201cBull\u201d) \u2013 the aliases of two independent criminal leaders dedicated to fuel theft<\/a> \u2013 executed Kalimba, a huachicolero (\u201cfuel thief\u201d) leader linked to Los Zetas. With his assassination, they took control of four municipalities and part of C\u00e1rdenas, the second-most populous city in the state. They had permission to do so: it had been given to them by Commander H, the state head of Security and Citizen Protection. Pantera even received a call \u201cfrom the man in Villahermosa to express his gratitude, telling [Pantera] he could take the [territory],\u201d the Army noted, in a report from January 2021. The same report asserts that two state police commanders had offered to \u201cprovide [the fuel thieves] with support should they require it, both from the government and from individuals engaged in illicit activities (hitmen).\u201d Weapons were also offered. <\/p>\n

The state is a haven for fuel theft. And control of the municipalities means controlling PEMEX pipelines, the extraction and sale of fuel, as well as drug-trafficking, extortion, executions and migrant-smuggling. With Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez as the state\u2019s top cop, the Jalisco Cartel made its triumphant entry into the state. And, in the months following the organization\u2019s arrival, banners in the name of the cartel and La Barredora began to appear. <\/p>\n

On May 13, 2021, the Ministry of Defense for the first time identified Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez as the head of the criminal network in Tabasco. He was the one who settled disputes between local leaders: he ordered executions and determined when it was appropriate for gangs to \u201csettle their differences.\u201d He dictated when a criminal group could enter a specific territory<\/a>, while setting the price of releasing gang members. <\/p>\n

\u201cPantera received a call from [Commander] H. The deal [consisted of him] sending half-a-kilo (possibly 500,000 Mexican pesos, or $27,000) with the three wives of [three] detainees to free them. Furthermore, he doesn\u2019t want any [lawyers involved]; he doesn\u2019t want anyone to find out about the deals being made,\u201d the Mexican Army reported more than four years ago.<\/p>\n

The state at the service of the CJNG<\/p>\n

In his only statement about the case, Senator Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez has defended the reduction in violence that his gubernatorial administration oversaw between January of 2019 and August of 2021. Homicides fell from more than 500 in 2018 to 250 under his tenure as governor. Kidnappings, meanwhile, plummeted by 87%, while extortion cases<\/a> fell by 83%. However, what Mexican Army documents from those years reveal is that, clearly, \u201cthe authorities [within] the Prosecutor\u2019s Office and the [Tabasco Public Safety Secretariat] are the [parties that] control the plaza bosses in their jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mexican Army\u2019s map of the criminal structure in Tabasco identifies Hern\u00e1n Berm\u00fadez as the leader. He also acted through Javier Reyes, the coordinator of the Municipal Police; Ulises Pinto, known as \u201cEl Mamado,\u201d his second-in-command at the Secretariat, and Carlos Tom\u00e1s D\u00edaz Rodr\u00edguez, known as Licenciado Tom\u00e1s, who had been an advisor to the director of Mexico\u2019s Federal Ministerial Police (PFM) in the Tabasco Prosecutor\u2019s Office. Furthermore, according to reports from the Ministry of Defense, Jos\u00e9 Felipe Padilla Casta\u00f1eda, the coordinator of the National Guard in Tabasco, and Leonardo Arturo Leyva \u00c1valos, who was simultaneously the director-general of the State Police and leader of the CJNG in Tabasco, were also part of the criminal structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis demonstrates the ongoing corruption of the authorities<\/a>, highlighting that the CJNG can utilize the capabilities of the operational, technological, intelligence and information structures available in the state of Tabasco. [There\u2019s total institutional neglect] of the objective of combating the organized crime prevalent in [Tabasco], which is being exploited by the cartel for its criminal purposes,\u201d read the final comments drafted by the Southeast Regional Intelligence Fusion Center (CERFI) in July of 2021. At the time, Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez was still the governor of Tabasco. <\/p>\n

\u201cPantera is with the governor\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjam\u00edn Mollinedo is the real name behind the alias Pantera. He operated in the cities of C\u00e1rdenas, Huimanguillo, as well as in the state capital, Villahermosa. He changed his cell phone every two weeks and had \u201can operational structure consisting of approximately 50 people, who travel in Ford Platinum vehicles (possibly armored) with high-caliber weapons<\/a> (Barretts, AK47s, AR15s, M4s, etc.).\u201d He was arrested in September 2021, but before that, he went on a rampage of shooting and dismembering people in the state of Tabasco. Through him, two mentions of Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez were found.<\/p>\n

\"Ad\u00e1nAd\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez in Mexico City, August 15, 2024.Nayeli Cruz<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defense, the Navy and the National Intelligence Center provided information to CERFI. On December 13, 2020, following surveillance of members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), communication was obtained between Taca and Joncha, two cartel members involved in fuel-trafficking in C\u00e1rdenas. \u201cIt was [determined] that the person responsible for the execution of Andr\u00e9s Rodr\u00edguez Vasconcelos, alias Kalimba, was Benjam\u00edn Mollinedo (\u201cPantera\u201d), with the support of officers who received orders from the governor (perhaps referring to Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez Hern\u00e1ndez, governor of Tabasco),\u201d the CERFI report notes. <\/p>\n

The information center adds just below that Toro, whose real name is Samuel Paz, \u201cspecified that Pantera is [working] with the government, with the governor (perhaps Ad\u00e1n Augusto L\u00f3pez Hern\u00e1ndez, governor of Tabasco) […] In fact, the state leader offered him [payment] in exchange for [some work].\u201d The CERFI report explains that this refers to Kalimba\u2019s murder. <\/p>\n

In its latest mapping of cartel structures, from August 2022, documents from the Mexican Army emphasize what they\u2019ve been documenting for years: \u201cA climate of insecurity has prevailed in the state of Tabasco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On December 30, 2019, Trinidad Alberto de la Cruz Miranda \u2013 known as \u201cEl Pel\u00f3n de Playas\u201d (\u201cThe…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":95950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,2222,63174],"class_list":{"0":"post-95949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-mexico","14":"tag-tabasco-mexico"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114923581514475045","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}