A vicious Mexican drug gang forced some members to eat the hearts of murder victims as part of a gruesome initiation rite to root out infiltrators, a government security official said on Tuesday, citing witness testimony.
Details about the cannibalism came to light during a local Mexican television interview with federal security commissioner in Michoacan, Western Mexico. He said the practice wasn’t widespread, but that various eyewitness accounts indicate that heart-eating was part of an initiation used by La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar.
Both gangs were founded by crime boss Nazario Moreno, or “The Craziest One,” who was killed in March 2014 – well after the previous government declared him dead in 2010. Castillo didn’t say who provided the testimony or when or where the rituals took place; he simply said the gangs used the practice to root out infiltrators.
Over the past year, the agricultural state of Michoacan has been the center of an intense struggle between vigilantes and drug cartels which have splintered into violent factions. A mid-December shootout between two rival gangs killed 11 people.