Governor Candidate in Michoacán Has Family Ties With Cárteles Unidos Ex-Leader

“MX” for Borderland Beat; TY to “Anonymous”

Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, the governor candidate in Michoacán for the National Regeneration Movement Party (MORENA), has family ties to a former leader of Carteles Unidos (United Cartels, CU), a criminal group made up of different cartels under a loose alliance. They are rival to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

According to a report from Grupo Reforma, Ramirez-Bedolla’s aunt Anabel Bedolla was married to former CU leader Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan Rodríguez (alias ‘El Fruto’), former mayor of Aguililla, Michoacan. They have a son named Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan Bedolla, who is in US custody.

In a press conference, Ramirez-Bedolla said that he had no contact with El Fruto or his immediate family.

Jesus Zambrano, the head of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), asked Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) to investigate Ramirez-Bedolla’s family links. He said the investigation was crucial in determining whether drug traffickers would rule over Michoacan should Ramirez-Bedolla be elected.

“Michoacán should not be involved in narcopolitics from its very own political structure”, he said.

Zambrano pointed out that the possible family connection between the leaders of criminal organizations with the current candidate is worrying.

“It would be very serious that beyond kinship there were other types of ties that bind him with drug traffickers … It is urgently necessary to investigate whether or not Ramírez-Bedolla has ties with these criminal groups.”

Zambrano pointed out that even when it is certain that MORENA will not win the governor post in Michoacán, there must still be an investigation.

Who is Adalberto Fructuoso Comparan Rodriguez AKA El Fruto?

El Fruto, 57, was mayor of Aguililla, Michoacan, from 2008 to 2010, under the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

As reported by Borderland Beat, he was arrested in Guatemala in March 2021 on a US extradition request.

Prior to El Fruto’s involvement with Carteles Unidos, he was a high-ranking member of the Knights Templar Cartel. One of the cited sources say he was a close associate of Servando Gomez Martinez (alias ‘La Tuta’), former Knights Templar Cartel boss.

He is suspected of coordinating methamphetamine and heroin shipments from Michoacan, Mexico, to the US cities like Houston, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia.

In 2015, he survived an assassination attempt in Mexico, but one his bodyguard Jose Luis Garcia Mendoza was killed. Two years prior, he had served as police officer in the Fuerza Rural (Rural Force) unit in Aguililla. This rural police force was a state-sanctioned unit that was born from the autodefensa (self-defense) groups that were active in Michoacan.

Sources: Reforma (1); (2); (3); South Florida Records