January 2, 2010. It’s a warm night in Mexico’s Sonora state when 36-year-old Hugo Hernandez is taking an evening walk. He has no idea that, in the next few days, his name will be in newspapers all over the world - for the most horrifying reason imaginable.
As he walks, he barely registers the van approaching from behind, until it pulls up next to him, and the side panel slides open. Several men in ski masks pile out and make a run for Hernandez. They beat him down, zip-tie his wrists, and pull a black sack over his head.
In a matter of seconds, this human cargo is bundled up into the back of the van, which speeds away from the curb with a screech of tires. He’s just been kidnapped by Sicarios from the Sinaloa Drg Cartel, one of the most feared and powerful drug cartels in all of Mexico. But Hugo’s ordeal isn’t over.
Not by a long shot. He’s about to find out exactly why the Sinaloas command so much terror. When Hugo Hernandez wakes up, he’s in Sinaloa territory.
The Sicarios beat him viciously while one among their number readies a chainsaw. This is where everything gets messy - Both in the room where Hernandez is being held and in our knowledge of the story. We don’t know for sure whether Hernandez was alive when they expertly peeled off his face.
We don’t know if he was alive when they cut off every one of his limbs, before tearing his head from his torso. We can only hope, for Hugo’s sake, that they were feeling merciful that day. What we do know is what happened afterward.
On January 8, after the Sicarios are finished with Hugo, his torso and all of the limbs that used to be attached to it turn up in two large plastic containers on the streets of Los Mochis. Hugo’s face, meticulously stitched onto a soccer ball, is found in a plastic bag near City Hall with a note that reads, “Happy New Year, because this will be your last. ” Because when it comes to the dark art of violence and torture, the drug cartels of Mexico are nothing if not disgustingly creative.
You’ve heard the stories - Shootings, stabbings, decapitations. It’s all true, and what’s more, it’s generally underselling just how brutal agents and even leaders of Mexico’s biggest drug cartels can be. This is a multi-billion dollar industry, and one of the most competitive in the world.
It’s why some of Mexico’s leading drug cartels, like the Sinaloas and the Zetas, need to go so above and beyond in establishing that they’re not to be messed with. And leading the charge is Joaquin Guzman, the now incarcerated leader of the Sinaloa Drg cartel, that you might know better by his nickname, El Chapo - “Shorty”, in English. And if the career of Joe Pesci has taught us anything, it’s that little guys with a homicidal streak are some of the scariest gangsters of all.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways that El Chapo has redefined brutality even as drug cartels go, with some of his uniquely strange and sadistic torture methods, starting with how he saw fit to punish rival drug peddler Israel Rincon, aka El Guacho. According to unsealed court documents, El Chapo’s men got ahold of Rincon and dragged him into a garden outhouse on one of his properties. There, the torture began: While Cartel agents filmed the interrogation, Rincon’s teeth were ripped out, and he was electrocuted in the ear.
He was beaten and humiliated as they extracted information from him, but Seventually, the pain got too much for Rincon to bear, and he fell unconscious. At this point, the Sinoloa torturers called in a doctor to treat and revive El Guacho so they could continue torturing him. Once the torturers got bored, they murdered Rincon and disposed of his body in Culiacán before posting the footage of the brutal torture to the internet.
And what happened to Rincon was only the tip of the iceberg. El Chapo is a hands-on torture enthusiast. While he often delegates his acts of brutality to some of his countless underlings, he’s also more than happy to roll up his sleeves and get to torturing himself.
According to one eyewitness, he beat two people with a branch until their bodies were, quote, “like rag dolls” from so many broken bones, before having them thrown onto a bonfire. Another incident had him non-fatally shoot a rival cartel boss before ordering that the man be buried alive to suffocate slowly. A witness at El Chapo’s trial, Isaias Valdez Rios, described the latter’s torture as follows: “He had burns made with an iron on his back, his shirt was stuck to his skin.
He had burns made with a car lighter all over his body. His feet were burned. ” It was only after days of being left for dead in an old wooden structure that El Chapo saw fit to bury the man.
One of the drug lord’s most trusted associates, Antonio "Jaguar" Marrufo, had a special room in his mansion built specifically for the torture and murder of their rivals in the drug trade. The room had a fitted drain in the ground to let the blood drain away more easily, as well as non-stick tiles and soundproofing technology to stop anyone from the outside from hearing the horrific screams from within. El Chapo’s apples didn’t fall far from the tree, either.
His sons - Iván and Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín and Ovidio Guzmán López - formed their own Sinaloa splinter cartel known as “Los Chapitos,” or “Little Chapos,” along with close El Chapo associate, hitman Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, aka El Nini. As you’ve probably predicted by now, they share their old man’s love of horrific torture, and keep a ranch in Navolato where the worst of it takes place. People close to the matter have reported that they twist corkscrews into the flesh of their victims before yanking them out and rubbing hot chilli peppers on the open wounds.
Some are fed, either dead or alive, depending on how lucky they are, to the tigers some of El Chapo’s sons keep as pets. They’re also known for making drug mules out of the local civilians, in many cases killing them and their families if they refuse the offer. But Mexico’s cartel community isn’t going to let the Sinaloa syndicate have all the “fun.
” There are plenty of horrific instances of violence and torture from El Chapo’s many competitors, and now, we’re going to take you on a traumatic crash course through some of the worst ones. Seriously, we’re begging you, put down that sandwich. It’s gonna get really gross.
Probably one of the most infamous cases of cartel torture was the one committed against DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985 when his undercover investigation was blown open by members of the ruthless Guadalajara cartel. Kiki’s death was anything but quick, as his captors saw fit to torture him to death over the course of 30 hours of grueling and humiliating hours. On February 7th, 1985, he was ambushed by a group of armed men in Guadalajara on the way to the US Consulate.
He went without a struggle, knowing that he was outmatched, and he was taken to a secondary location where the torture commenced. He was bound to a chair while the cartel torturers recorded the interrogation, beating him so viciously that his skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones, and windpipe were crushed. We can only imagine the horror that Kiki felt when his captors produced a power drill, which they used to drill into his skull while he was still alive.
How do we know he was still alive? The toxicology report showed the presence of amphetamines in Kiki’s system, despite the fact that he never used the drugs himself. This implied to DEA investigators that Kiki was given the drugs so that he would remain awake and conscious during his torture.
In more recent years, members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (or CJNG) captured a member of a rival cartel, the aforementioned Los Chapitos, and decided to record his torture and murder. By the time the video started, the man’s face was already beaten and bloody, and his arms were tied behind his back on a chair. One of his torturers produced a chainsaw while another questioned him, and began sawing into the man’s legs.
Eventually, when the torturers had done all they wanted to, they sawed off the man’s legs entirely and poured water onto him. Then there are the horrific crimes of Los Zetas, one of the best-known drug cartels outside of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Zetas don’t have the Sinaloa’s numbers or name recognition, but they make up for it with their truly extraordinary acts of brutality.
In one video, a woman in a pink shirt is forced onto her knees by a Los Zetas agent, who holds up a straight razor before saying, “Well, gentleman, this is what happens to all those in the Gulf Cartel. On behalf of Los Zetas. ” The woman does not resist, seemingly drugged, as the man holds the razor to her throat and slices off her head over the course of a brutal 40 seconds, as her perforated throat wheezes air.
This particular video understandably garnered massive controversy when it was leaked on Facebook. Much like Los Chapitos, the Zetas even have their own murder, torture, and body disposal ranch: La Gallera ranch in northern Veracruz. After taking it over in 2011, the Zetas have used it as a hub of mass cremation, incinerating their victims to avoid evidence of their crimes ever coming to light.
These cremations were performed in the ranch’s twelve “Kitchens,” in a scene described by witnesses as something far worse than any horror movie could ever conjure up. Some victims were dissolved in bathtubs full of acid. Others were chopped up and fed to crocodiles.
In more pedestrian but no less horrifying cases, the bodies of the kidnapped, tortured, and murdered were buried in mass graves around the property. Perhaps the most upsetting part is that the locals knew this was happening for years, and even reported it, but the corrupt local police were in the pocket of the Zetas, and nothing was done. Whenever Los Zetas and the kitchen mixes, something horrible is sure to happen - and this fact is true all the way to the top.
Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, one of the alleged leaders of the cartel group, had a particular form of torture and execution he enjoyed that’s referred to as “El Guiso” or “The Stew. ” Victims would be forced into 55-gallon metal drums alive, and a fire would then be set underneath them, slowly boiling them alive. The incident that truly put Los Zetas on the map was the infamous 2011 San Fernando Massacre, where the Zetas kidnapped and murdered 193 people on La Joya Ranch.
After hijacking a number of buses, the victims were dragged to the ranch, where the women were brutalized and killed, and the men were given weapons and forced to fight each other to the death. People who were willing to kill to save their own lives were then recruited as more ruthless hitmen for Los Zetas in what is perhaps the most horrific job application process in modern history. The most horrifying part is that this isn’t even an isolated incident.
Multiple cartels have used forcing people to kill others as a source of psychological torment. A video that leaked online in 2023 appeared to show the horrifying fate of 5 students lured onto a cartel compound, who were forced to kill each other on camera when they refused an offer to join the cartel. The video depicted one student decapitating another with a machete, as another had their head beaten in with a piece of rock.
The cocky and in-your-face style of Los Zetas made them plenty of enemies. They hanged two members of the Gulf Cartel, and in one video, filmed themselves disposing of the headless bodies of 49 migrant workers whom they’d murdered. The former was seen as particularly insulting by members of the Gulf Cartel, because the Zetas had originally served as their security force, before splintering off and forming their own group.
In 2012, the Gulf Cartel struck back with some horrific violence of their own. They released a video of several captured members of the Zetas tied up, and pleading for mercy as they’re interrogated about their leaders. When the Gulf Cartel operatives tire of asking questions, they descend on the Zetas with machetes, brutally hacking off each of their heads without so much as a flicker of remorse.
Cartel members live by the machete, and die by the machete. Filming their crimes, as you may have noticed, is pretty standard for cartels. In one particularly vile video filmed by a group of unknown cartel members, you can see them goofing off with a severed human face while surrounded by dead bodies.
One of them puts the face on like a Halloween mask, while his cartel friends laugh and joke about it. You may be feeling a little queasy hearing about all this murder and mayhem - though it kind of makes us wonder why you clicked on a video called “Mexican Cartels' Most Brutal Torture Methods” - but, at the very least, we’ve got a consolation: The Cartel isn’t running unopposed. Mexico’s finest are on the case, the top cops who want to put cartels like the Sinaloas and the Zetas on notice.
Like Luis Cárdenas Palomino, a law enforcement official once voted “Mexico’s best police officer,” and he won’t rest until-- Wait, he was working for the cartel, too? AND he was also involved in torturing people! ?
That’s right, while we personally think that Palomino’s “best police officer” award should be revoked, he’s in the runnings for one of its most criminal and corrupt. He was arrested for abusing suspects under his care, facilitating torture, and essentially being a glorified errand boy for El Chapo. His former boss, Genaro Garcia Luna, was also imprisoned for corruption and drug trafficking, so he’s been doing a fine job holding up institutional traditions.
Palomino has a shady past, having been implicated in a murder in his adolescence, before proving himself to be a reliable asset for cartel bigwigs who wanted a friend on the inside of Mexican law enforcement. Because of crooked cops like Palomino, Mexican law enforcement and special forces have been accused of a bevy of horrific crimes - from taking bribes to committing straight-up massacres on the cartel’s behalf. And, of course, there’s plenty of torture, too!
One of the favorite methods of people like Palomino is known locally as the chicharra, which involves using a cattle prod to repeatedly shock the genitals of a prisoner in order to induce confessions - even if they know the person they’re tormenting is innocent. They’ve also been known to repeatedly suffocate victims with plastic bags, employ Guantanamo-style waterboarding techniques, and beat victims within an inch of their life, sometimes accidentally killing them in the process. Dr Robert Bunker, a research director at the security consulting firm C/O Futures LLC, said of the torturous cartel cops, “Basic [torture] techniques can include the use of bladed instruments, pliers, and clippers, but fire, water, and electrical-based approaches can also be readily applied.
” But we can’t lay the responsibility of all this torture at the feet of Palomino; it’s far more systemic in nature than that. An anonymous Mexican police commander told the Daily Beast, “Torture is committed on a grand scale, and it will never disappear, because our institutions lack the resources and capacity to prosecute someone for what is done through torture. ” This same anonymous commander to his cartel-corrupted co-workers employed psychological tortures as well as physical, like arresting the families of victims and threatening to kill or torture them too in order to induce confessions.
Former DEA chief of international operations Mike Vigil actually claimed that brutal torture methods have been a part of the Mexican law enforcement credo even outside of Cartelian influence. He said, “All of Mexico’s security forces have used torture since their very inception, and it has become normal for them. They look at it as an easy way to solve cases and don’t understand that it is a violation of human rights or that anyone will confess when tortured.
” Of course, Mexican drug cartels don’t have an absolute monopoly on disturbing cartel violence. After all, one of the most feared and infamous drug kingpins of all time, Pablo Escobar, was Colombian. However, one of the most popular factoids about how Escobar’s Medellin Cartel liked to torture people is actually an urban legend: The dreaded Colombian Necktie.
Now, we don’t mean that it was a total myth like the Iron Maiden, it was very much practiced on people for a number of years. The torture involves slitting the victim’s throat, and yanking the tongue out of the wound, so it rests against the upper chest like a bloody necktie. However, while it’s commonly misattributed to Pablo and his gang, it was actually a feature of a brutal period of the Colombian Civil War known as La Violencia, which went on for a decade between 1948 and 1958 - predating the 1976 rise of the Medellin Cartel by decades.
For all our torture and mutilation fans out there, La Violencia was a goldmine of atrocities - From the Colombian Necktie to the “Flower Vase Cut,” where victims’ limbs were cut off and stuffed into their body, to a torture where - much like the Mexican cartels - victims’ genitals were cut off and shoved into their mouth. And, perhaps most upsetting of all, cases where pregnant women had the fetuses cut out of their wombs and replaced with a rooster. The cruel irony of all the coverage of Mexican Cartel brutality - including this video - is exactly what the cartel wants.
The theatrical brutality of the cartel is a brutal but sophisticated PR move, advancing their image as feared and unstoppable gangsters who rule their respective territories. Very similar to the tactics employed by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS with their own traumatic videos of horrific violence. But the acts of torture and murder are often so audacious; how could they not provoke some kind of reaction?
But if this video has taught you anything, it’s hopefully this: If you find yourself taking a vacation to Mexico any time soon, and you happen to run into someone involved in a drug cartel - Remember to be polite. If we make another one of these videos, we’d hate for any of our subscribers to appear in that sequel. Now check out “El Chapo Versus Pablo Escobar - How Do They Compare?
” Or watch this video instead!
