Mexican Army and Federal Attorney General's Office (FGR) personnel raided 19 houses in Cenobio Moreno neighborhoods of Apatzingán, Michoacán, early Friday morning during a mega operation targeting Alejandro Sepúlveda Álvarez, alias "La Fresa," cousin of "El Bótox," according to posts on X by @foro_militar shared over the past hour. Authorities secured cell phones containing extortion victims' numbers, drugs, and promissory notes signed by victims who purchased merchandise or borrowed money under threat of death, as reported in the @foro_militar updates. The operation involved bursting into homes and searching businesses owned by "El Bótox." Sepúlveda Álvarez serves as second-in-command of Los Blancos de Troya and faces links to the October 2025 murder of lemon businessman Bernardo Bravo, per the same X posts. Additional actions in Apatzingán by Mexican Army, State Security Secretariat (SSP), and National Guard resulted in one man detained along with a Volkswagen vehicle, two 7.62x39mm firearms, one 9mm handgun, 120 cartridges, and five magazines. In nearby Marcos Castellanos, Michoacán, National Guard and Mexican Army personnel freed two individuals deprived of liberty and secured one long gun, 10 magazines, 414 cartridges, two ammunition belts with 65 links each, two handmade mortars, one fragmentation grenade, two improvised explosive devices, explosive materials, and one vehicle, according to another @foro_militar post. Separate operations unfolded elsewhere: in southern Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexican Army elements besieged private paths and entrances to Alturas del Sur; in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, State Guard, Mexican Army, anti-drone, and anti-bomb teams investigated a strange metal object on a pole; and in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexican Air Force conducted airspace surveillance exercises ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup with civil and military organizations, as noted in @foro_militar reports over the past hour.
