The Cartel Ties of Football in Guadalajara, Mexico
Two years ahead of hosting the 2026 World Cup, Mexico has questions to answer over how organised crime influences its football leagues.
Mexico’s Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG) has its fingers in many pies. While drug trafficking remains a primary earner, its empire of extortion across Mexico collects contributions from avocado farmers, tequila producers, hotel owners, and cattle ranchers, among many others.
Much of the money so collected is laundered in the CJNG’s “home province” of Jalisco (as documented in World of Crime’s CJNG - A Quick Guide to Mexico’s Deadliest Cartel.) US and Mexican authorities have extensively documented the network of front companies, restaurants, hotels, and shopping centers the CJNG runs to launder illicit funds.
But that’s not all. The CJNG has ties to the two top-tier football clubs in Jalisco, Atlas F.C. and Club Deportivo Guadalajara, better known as Chivas. For the first, the cartel has reportedly infiltrated the club’s fan base, especially the supporter group known as Barra 51.
This piece is part of Seasons of Crime’s ongoing series about football and crime. To read more about the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG), please buy World of Crime’s CJNG - A Quick Guide to Mexico’s Deadliest Cartel.
With Chivas, a group of local football players are reportedly in close contact with CJNG members and have used these connections in business ventures and even to have the coach threatened if they are left on the bench.
With Guadalajara chosen as a host city for the 2026 World Cup, World of Crime investigates how deep connections between football and organized crime run.
Don’t Trust Shopping Mall Sushi
Jaret Boryeti Hernández Quezada did what any wise footballer should do: have a plan for after retirement.
Jaret may have been destined for a career in football. His parents named him for Mexican footballing legend, Jared Borgetti. He played as a goalkeeper in the Mexican leagues. Jaret began at the lower-league Atotonilco FC but then graduated to Chivas, one of the most well-known clubs in the country.
This has become a family tradition.
His young brother, named Zinedine Sidane, signed a professional contract with Chivas in January 2024.
Besides his footballing chops, Hernández Quezada dipped his toes in business. His investment partners left something to be desired, however.
In September 2017, US authorities identified the Kenzo Sushi restaurant as a money laundering front for the feared Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most violent criminal organizations. It was one of many restaurants, hotels, real estate firms, and shopping centers that formed part of a large money laundering network for the CJNG in Jalisco.
More specifically, up to $1.5 million dollars were alleged to have been laundered through Kenzo Sushi between 2015 and 2018.
The holding company for Kenzo Sushi was named as Operadora Los Famosos, which was owned by men close to Abigael González Valencia, brother-in-law and best friend of CJNG kingpin, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho.”
In 2017, Kenzo Sushi was sold by Operadora Los Famosos to a new company, Corporativo Sushi Provi. This company was co-owned by Jaret Boryeti and was designated by the US as continuing money laundering authorities for the CJNG.
“Corporativo Sushi Provi, S. de R.L. de C.V. acts as the new management company for Kenzo Sushi, a restaurant in Guadalajara, Mexico designated on September 14, 2017, because it is owned or controlled by CJNG and Los Cuinis,” read a US Treasury Department press release from March 2020.
The company was sanctioned, meaning that US persons or entities are forbidden from carrying out any transactions with it.
At least one branch of Kenzo Sushi mentioned in US sanctions continues to operate to this day inside Plaza La Rue, a shopping mall in Zapopan, Jalisco. It even has decent reviews.
It is important to note that Jaret Boryeti has faced no legal actions or charges inside Mexico.
This case is just one of several alleged links between the CJNG and Chivas, the most successful club in Jalisco.
Goodbye, Coach
In late 2023, Chivas decided to suspend two prominent players, Alexis Vega and Cristian “Chicote” Calderón. The official communiqué from the club said the pair had “breached” internal guidelines, but gave no further information, although press reports alleged the pair brought women into their hotel rooms against club instructions. Both Vega and Calderón soon left the club.
While top-rated players being suspended is nothing new, it was the fallout that proved particularly controversial.
Days after the suspension, Mexican newspapers reported that Chivas’ then-coach, Serbian Veljko Paunović, had suffered threats and pressure from organized crime related to not playing certain Chivas players. The reports did not connect this directly to the Vega and Calderón suspensions and provided scant details.
However, Blog del Narco, a well-respected source for news about Mexican cartels, cited sources within the club that Paunović had received a threatening message from the CJNG and that players on the roster had “friends” within the cartel. Paunović left Chivas in December 2023 and has since been hired to coach Chivas rivals, Tigres UANL.
Stories have linked the CJNG to football for years, although some seem relatively innocuous.
In 2022, Chivas defender Antonio “Pollo” Briseño recorded a message on a Cameo-like platform in which he personally thanked “Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes” for his support of a charity. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes is the full name of “El Mencho,” one of Mexico’s most-wanted men and the supreme leader of the CJNG.
Briseño denied knowing who the message was intended for and the club passed it off as a joke played on their defender.
CJNG Among the Fans
At Atlas F.C, the allegations are more concerning. On March 5, 2022, Atlas travelled to the city of Querétaro in central Mexico to play a match against Querétaro F.C. The two teams have had a bitter rivalry since 2007 when Atlas defeated Querétaro, relegating them from Mexico’s top division.
The game was taking place against the backdrop of a far more violent rivalry. Since 2017, the CJNG had been involved in a bitter feud with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (SRLC) for control of oil theft, known as huachicol. This conflict was largely centered in the state of Guanajuato, neighbouring Querétaro, and made it the most violent place in Mexico.
The Atlas-Querétaro match apparently proved too tempting for leaders of both sides to pass up. An investigation by Mexican journalist Oscar Balderas revealed that crimianls connected to both the CJNG and the SRLC were in attendance that day.
On the Atlas side, men connected to Salvador Reséndiz Hernández, alias “El Rex,” were among the members of Barra 51 in the stadium, alongside a known CJNG member, “El Herón.” El Rex was the leader of a prominent oil theft gang in Querétaro who worked for the CJNG.
He was arrested in October 2021 after a long rivalry with another oil theft gang connected to SRLC and led by a man known as “El Betito.”
Betito was also there for the match with several accomplices, reportedly stirring up animosity amongst La Resistencia, the fans of Querétaro F.C.
Both Barra 51 and La Resistencia are representative of barras bravas, groups of hardcore football supporters across Latin America connected to violence in stadiums, riots, and links to different organised crime groups.
At 63 minutes, Atlas was leading 1-0 when vicious fighting broke out around the stadium. Fans who were not involved sought safety on the pitch. Despite attempts by the referees and stadium officials to regain control, the violence continued to spread. Barricades separating the two sides were dismantled. Rival fans were isolated, stripped naked, and beaten on the floor. Some stripped off and threw away their jerseys to try and hide their allegiance and avoid being targeted.
According to official statistics, 26 people were injured, several critically. Initial reports also spoke of several deaths, although these have always been denied by authorities.
Fans brawl in the Corregidora Stadium of Querétaro F.C. (Source: AP.)
The sanctions were swift. Querétaro bore the brunt of the blame for being the home team. The Liga MX decreed all of Querétaro’s home games would be played behind closed doors, with no fans in attendance, for a year. Its barras bravas were banned from official attendance for three years. And it forced the owners of Querétaro F.C. to sell it to another owner.
The Atlas owners were fined and its fan clubs banned for six months.
The Atlas-Querétaro riot remains a dark day in modern Mexican footballing history.
And tragedies involving the Jalisco clubs remain all too frequent, even when the CJNG is not involved. In July 2024, during a match between Chivas and Tijuana, fans of both sides started yet another brawl inside the stadium. One Tijuana fan was shot in the head and killed.
The CJNG and its leadership love the limelight. It routinely shows off its armed strength with parades of men, vehicles and weapons on camera. The group has normalised the taping of acts of barbarity. Influencing the Atlas-Querétaro match was yet another chance for the CJNG to make its influence publicly seen.
Yet, have any lessons been learned? The violence at Corregidora Stadium did not stop Mexico from winning the right to co-host the 2026 World Cup. Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco and base for the CJNG, will host four games.
Rooting out the influence of the CJNG over Jalisco, and the state’s football scene in particular, by then is next to impossible.