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Mexico’s FGR Calls It ‘False’: Masked Man Who Told Italian TV He Burned 250 People at Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, Is Contradicted by Federal Prosecutors

By The Narco Blog · October 15, 2026 · Updated October 15, 2026

A masked investigator in a dark vest marked FEPD stands beside yellow tape and an orange cone at a dirt lot dotted with small marker flags, with a long block wall behind.
An investigator stands at the taped-off ground of Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, during a prosecutors’ tour for the press. Photo: Fernando Carranza García (Cuartoscuro), via Eje Central. This photo is not from this week’s announcement.

Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) said on Oct. 14, 2026, that a hooded man’s claim to have burned 250 people at Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, “is false.” The man said he was a CJNG gunman. He made the claim on Italian public television, El Imparcial and Eje Central reported. The FGR also said its forensic processing of the ranch is 92% complete.

What the man told Tg1

According to El Imparcial, RAI’s Tg1 news program aired the interview on Oct. 10. Reporter Stefania Battistini spoke with a man whose face was covered. Asked what he did, he answered: “Trabajo con el jefe, soy sicario” (“I work with the boss, I’m a hitman”). El Imparcial reported these claims from him:

  • More than 500 people were killed at the ranch, and he took part in incinerating 250 of them.
  • Twenty people were executed in a single night.
  • He was paid 4,000 pesos regardless of how many people he killed.

El Imparcial said his identity, his ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and his figures have not been independently verified.

What the FGR said

In a statement on X, the FGR referred to “a video in which an alleged member of a criminal group claims to have carried out a mass incineration of people” at the property, and said “dicha afirmación es falsa.” Eje Central reported that the FGR’s human rights prosecutors have brought 15 people to trial who are “possibly related” to what the agency called a training camp. The FGR cited phone records, analysis of mobile devices under court control, and victim testimony. Both outlets noted that the statement did not detail the evidence behind the denial or give a date for finishing the forensic work.

In April 2025, then-Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero said analyses had not found enough evidence of a crematorium, El Imparcial recalled. He said the temperatures detected did not exceed 200 °C.

Dozens of worn backpacks and bags laid out on a blue tarp against a brick wall, each marked with a numbered yellow evidence card.
Backpacks found at Rancho Izaguirre, laid out with numbered evidence markers. Photo: Fiscalía del Estado de Jalisco, via El Imparcial. This photo is not from this week’s announcement.

The case so far

El Imparcial reported the case’s history:

  • The National Guard detained 10 people at the ranch in September 2024.
  • In March 2025, the search collective Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco found clothing, shoes, backpacks and bone fragments there.
  • In March 2026, the FGR reported 64% forensic progress and 47 people detained.
  • Former Teuchitlán mayor José Ascensión Murguía Santiago is being held in pretrial detention on organized crime and forced disappearance charges.

Being sent to trial is not a conviction, and everyone charged is presumed innocent.

Latinus coverage of the interview and the FGR’s response:

Related coverage: ‘Another Version of Rancho Izaguirre’: Bodies Burned in a Drum of Diesel, Gasoline and Soap, Bones Dumped in a Creek at Xalisco Site Near Tepic, Nayarit’s Top Prosecutor Says

Sources

Reported Oct. 15, 2026, from the FGR statement and the Tg1 interview as described by the outlets above. The Narco Blog has not seen the full Tg1 broadcast and did not independently verify the man’s identity or claims.