U.S. and Mexican authorities have captured Martha Alicia Mendez Aguilar, better known as “La Diabla” (The She-Devil), a senior member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) accused of running a horrific infant trafficking network. Aguilar was apprehended on September 2 in Juarez, Mexico, marking what officials describe as a significant victory against cartel-driven human trafficking.
According to investigators, Aguilar orchestrated a gruesome scheme targeting vulnerable pregnant women, luring them to remote safehouses under pretenses. Once isolated, the victims were subjected to illegal cesarean procedures, which often resulted in their deaths. Afterward, cartel operatives reportedly harvested the women’s organs, while the newborns were sold into illicit adoption markets.
Authorities estimate that infants were sold for as much as 250,000 pesos (around $14,000) to buyers in the United States.
“This is an example of what terrorist cartels will do to diversify their revenue streams and finance operations,” said Joe Kent, Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). “The lives of innocent women and children depended on stopping this operation.”
Aguilar’s arrest culminated months of intelligence work led by the NCTC. Analysts traced her movements and coordinated with Mexican authorities and multiple U.S. agencies, including the FBI El Paso, U.S. Marshals Service, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
On the Mexican side, the Fiscalía Especializada en la Mujer (Special Prosecutor’s Office for Women) played a central role in the operation.
The case unfolds against a backdrop of shifting U.S. policy toward Mexican cartels. In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the State Department to classify cartels and transnational gangs as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). The CJNG was officially designated in February.
This classification allows U.S. agencies to use expanded counterterrorism tools—from enhanced intelligence operations to financial sanctions—against cartel members. Authorities report that more than 21,000 cartel affiliates have since been added to U.S. terrorist databases, creating 35,000 linked identities.
Led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho”, the CJNG is considered one of Mexico’s most violent and powerful cartels. Beyond its estimated $12.6 billion drug trade in cocaine and methamphetamine, the group has diversified into kidnapping, extortion, illegal mining, and human trafficking.
Emerging in 2009 as a splinter of the Milenio Cartel, CJNG now operates across 27 Mexican states and has increasingly embraced terror-style tactics to project power.
Aguilar remains in Mexican custody as investigators work to identify victims and dismantle the wider trafficking network. Authorities say her arrest underscores both the brutality of modern cartel operations and the effectiveness of U.S.-Mexico intelligence cooperation under the new counterterrorism framework.
“This case is a chilling reminder of the lengths cartels will go to profit from human suffering,” Kent said. “But it is also proof that when we align our resources and strategies, we can dismantle even the most horrific of enterprises.”
