Michoacán News: Knights Templar Cartel Member Arrested In Mexican State For Child Organ Harvesting

Authorities in Mexico have made an arrest in the western state of Michoacán of an alleged Knights Templar cartel member. According to officials, the suspect, Manuel Plancarte Gaspar, is believed to be responsible for kidnapping children to harvest their organs. Authorities claim that Plancarte Gaspar is the nephew of nephew of Enrique Plancarte Solis, a high-ranking Knights Templar leader.

On Monday, Michoacán state Public Safety Secretary Carlos Castellanos Becerra told media outlets that Plancarte Gaspar, 34, was a player in the Knights Templar cartel's organ-trafficking ring, which would kidnap children. After kidnapping young kids, the organ-trafficking ring would allegedly take them to a secondary location--a rented home with medical equipment -- and remove the organs of the children.

"We have several statements in open investigations that point to a network of several suspects who would identify people with certain characteristics, especially children, and kidnap them," he said to The Associated Press, adding that Plancarte Gaspar and an associate were detained last week after being arrested in a stolen car and being in possession of crystal meth.

While Castellanos Becerra could not divulge further information about the open investigation, members of a local vigilante group have reportedly told a radio station that locals were well aware of the Knights Templar cartel's involvement in organ trafficking, as many children have been rescued while being transported in a refrigerator in a van.

"They were inside a refrigerated box, tightly wrapped in blankets," said Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, leader of the civilian "self-defense" group in Tepalcatepec, in an interview with MVS radio. "They were all children from the same Mexico City school."

While cartels in Mexico are notorious for drug trafficking, Mexican authorities have revealed that the Knights Templar cartel's largest source of income does not come from organ trafficking or drugs. Instead, the main portion of their money flow comes from illegal mining, illegal logging, and extortion.