Mexico has shut down the operations hub of the country’s most powerful drug families — a remote ranch with a lake full of gators and lions on the prowl.
The Monte Rico compound, in the state of Veracruz, was registered to brothers Jacinto and Alberto Rodríguez of the infamous the Los Piñas Cartel.
The twosome turned their land into a place where they tortured their rivals, officials said.
Last week’s raid by the military went down after months of planning spurred by the disappearance of the Ortiz family in November, reported E-Consulta Veracruz.
The Belén González Search for Missing Persons Collective asked the Veracruz government to search for human remains in the lagoon.
The bodies have yet to be found.
Other animals found on the ranch included five deer, an ostrich, a peacock, and two pigs. The zoo-like set-up is much like that of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in at his home in Colombia.