According to El País, an international publication, two teenagers confessed to authorities that they were forced to eat the flesh of their victims as an initiation into the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Mexico earlier this year.
The publication reported that the 16- and 17-year-olds told officials in Tabasco, a Mexican state on the southern tip of the country, some flesh-eating occurred in May during an incident involving the CJNG.
Cartel members, the publication reported, busted into a car dealership in Tabasco on motorcycles, decapitated five people and left a signed note on May 22.
A reporter said a now-deceased Zetas cartel leader used to eat the flesh of victims, In an interview with Mexican publication El Blog del Narco posted on July 19, 2017.
Four days later, another dismembered body was discovered west of Tabasco in Nacajuca, according to El País.
After authorities connected both incidents to the CJNG, they discovered parts of the body found in Nacajuca stored in a freezer in one of the cartel’s houses, according to El País. The teenage members of the cartel were drugged and had to eat some of the victim’s flesh, the publication reported.
This is not the first time acts of cannibalism within Mexican cartels has been reported.
Earlier this month, a Mexican journalist told El Blog del Narco that a former Zetas cartel leader used to eat the flesh of his victims.
The journalist told the publication he had seen former Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano, or “El Lazca,” eat human flesh, according to El Blog del Narco. He said after the cartel leader would have someone killed, and then the victim would be cleaned and shaved, according to the publication.
Lazcano would have the flesh prepared in a tamale dish, the journalist said in the report, and would consume skin from a victim’s buttocks, the journalist said in the report.