Mexican officials are facing renewed scrutiny following the discovery of a ledger purportedly showing a series of bribes paid by slain Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera to police, security forces, and other authorities, the Financial Times said. 

The documents were reportedly found by Mexican newspaper El Universal at a country club in Tapalpa, Jalisco, where authorities killed Oseguera in an ambush on February 22. The published excerpts suggest the cartel boss moved large sums of money through one small area of western Mexico while also maintaining a network of alleged payments to officials and criminal operatives, the FT said. 

The excerpts published by El Universal suggest Oseguera generated nearly $500,000 in income in December alone from marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl sales, as well as slot machines. The illicit sum stems solely from activity linked to Tapalpa, one of 125 municipalities in Jalisco, according to the FT. 

The same records allegedly showed about $8,000 in bribes to police and roughly $70,000 in salaries for 26 gunmen, 30 security guards, and other expenses in the municipality during that month. The ledger also listed payments to state security forces, federal prosecutors, and a team of hackers, the Financial Times said. 

The so called “narco-ledger”, which mostly focuses on payments in Tapalpa and nearby municipalities, also included entries of $36,600, $4,000, $1,100 and $850 that El Universal reported could correspond to two branches of the National Guard, police forces, and Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. 

CJNG is believed to be active in most of Mexico’s 32 states, with regional cells likely keeping their own records. Steven Woodman, a Guadalajara-based security analyst who spoke with the FT, said that “no one would believe the situation the document depicts is unique to this area of Jalisco.” 

“If genuine, [the records] would clearly show how crime groups rely on officials to operate,” Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, a director at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, told the newspaper. “The government would have to investigate.”

Read more at the Financial Times