JUAREZ, Chihuahua (KVIA) — Martha Alicia Mendez Aguilar, also known as “La Diabla,” was arrested in Juarez on September 2, 2025. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced the news. A spokesperson for the office describes Mendez as a Jalisco New Generation Cartel-affiliated “baby trafficking ringleader.”
A joint operation between Mexican law enforcement and the The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s National Counterterrorism Center resulted in Mendez’s arrest. The spokesperson says that Mendez led a network that would lure pregnant women to remote locations, perform illegal cesarean procedures, harvest organs from the mothers’ bodies, then sell the newborns to U.S. couples for up to 250,000 pesos, or $13,523 U.S. dollars.
The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) El Paso, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) El Paso, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Fiscalia Especializada en la Mujer (the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Women) all participated in capturing Mendez, officials say…