Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
-what kind of people did you get rid of?
-i didn’t know what kind of people they were.
-were they already dead?
-yes , they were
-did you shop them?
-no full bodies.
-how did you do the ” work”?
-i would just put them in an oil barrell and the acid dissolved them
The name El Pozolero” strikes fear into the hearts of these who know it. because that name belongs to the man who was paid to make soup.
but not just any kind of soup. A soup made of human flesh and bones. A soup that dissolved the evidence of hundreds of murders. committed by ruthless drug cartels.
This is the story of santiago lopez. allso knonw as El Pozolero, the stew maker.
he was the man who worked for the two most notorious drug cartels in mexico.
and was responsible for disposing of over a thousand bodies in barrells of acid. guess what he said when he was caputered- he said he was makins seafood soup.
but how did this man end up in this gruesome job?
what did he do wit the remains that didn’t dissolve?
and what happened to him after he was captured by the authorities?
today we’re going to explore the brutal life of El Pozolero, the man who made human soup for cartels.
To understand,how Santiago Meza Lopez became El Pozolero or the stew maker, we need to go back in tim to his orgigins.and the context of events leading up to his involvement in the mexican drug trade.
which can be traced to t the arrest of the godfather om mexican drug cartels.miguel angel felix gallardo.hwo goes by the alias El Padrino.
miguel felix gallardo was a mexican drug lord who founded the Guadalajara cartel in thr 1980s. he was one of the pioneers of large -scale.
illegal substance trafficking in mexico that established connection with colombian cartels to import coke and marijana into the Unites States.
He also controlled most of the smuggling routes in mexico and along the border with the United states.
However ,his drug empire began to crumble after he made what would be the greatest mistake of his life.
he ordered the abduction , tortue ,and murder of a DEA agent. enrique “kiki” camaraena in 1985.
this provoked a massice manhunt by the U.S and Mexican authorities
who raided his ranch and seized tons of drugs and weapons.
felix gallardo was was eventually arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for illegal substance trafficking and murder.
while incarcerated ,he trided to maintain the leadership of his cartel .
but he was eventually transferred to a maximum security prison in the 1990s
where he lost most of his influence and contact with the outside world.
as a result his old organization,the guadalajara cartel broke up into three main factions:
the tijuana cartel. led by his newphews , the arellano felix brothers
the juarez cartel . led by his former associate ,amado carrillo fuentes
and the Sinaloa Cartel ,run by his former lieutenants and sicarios.
hektor luis palma salazar.
and the infamous joaquin” el chapo” guzman.
this factions competed for territories and power. they often clashed violently witch each other and with other rivals groups
the juarez cartel was knon for its brutality and corruption
but it was weakened by the arrests and deaths of severals of its leaders.
with the juarez cartel out of the way , the tijuana catel and the sinaloa cartel emerged as the most powerful and resilient.
they expanded their operations across mexico and abroad , desipte facing multiple arrests and extraditions of its leaders.
the tijuana cartel controlled the lucrative smuggling routes in baja california and aong the border with the U.S,
while the sinaloa cartel operated in sinaloa ,sonora ,durango,jalisco , and other states.
the two carttels inititally cooperated , but soon became rivals over territory and market share. the was escalted in 1992
when ramon arellano felix ,the enforcer of the Tijuana cartel,
ordered a hit on rodolfo carrilo fuentes,the brother of amado carillo fuentes and an ally of the sinaloa cartel.
the sinaloa cartel retaliated by sending hitmen to take out ramona arellean o felix and his brothers .
this war turned into a bloodbath ,with hundreds of killings on both sides.
the violence spilled over into other states and cities, such as Guerrero , michoacan , Oaxaca , and mexico ctiy.
the war also involved other cartels , such as the Gulf cartel.
which sided with the sinaloa cartel ,and the jalisco new generation wich emerged as a splinter group from the sinaloa cartel.
and allied with the Tijuana cartel.
the war between the Tijuana cartel and the sinaloa cartel was the most violent and prolonged conflicts in the history of the mexican drug trade.
this war plagued mexico
with drug -related violence that claimed thousands of lived for decades.
as different criminal organization competed for control of the lucreative drug trade routes to the United states and other markets.
an average of 30 to 40 thousand people went missing every year from the final quarter of 1995 to the early 2000s
when former president felipe calderon launched a military campaign against the cartels.
this violence affected not only the cartel members .
but also innocent civilians , journalists , law enforcement officers,
and government officials who were caught in the crossfire.or targeted by the cartels.
what is worse was the terrible fate their victims suffered.many of them were tortured , killed. and disposed of in the most gruesome ways.
some had their heads removed from their bodies. their remains hanged from bridges
while some were thrown into rivers.
or left in public places as a message to the rival cartel.
it was a horrifying sight.but then ,something changed. the bodies stopped appearing , was this a sign of peace? no,it was far from it because the violence continued and people were still missing by thousands . so what happened to their bodies?
santiago meza lopez made them into soup.
santiago meza lopez was born in 1964 in Guamuchil, sinaloa . guamuchil is located in the heart of the heart of the golden triangle,
a region that produces most of the marijuana and opium poppy in mexcio.it is also the home of the sinaloa cartel,one of the most powerfull and violent criminial organizations in the world.
santiago was one of nine childrewn of his parents, like many senaloan families at the time,santiago was born into poverty.
but he didn’t wait for anyone to put food on his table. he learned to fend for himself at a very young age. and became a highly skilled mason.
the young man was s ogood att his skill that his work caugt the eye of some members of the tijuana cartel.
run by the arellano brothers.they hired him to do some construction work for them and take care of their horses.
santiago proved to be a loyal and hardworking employee who never questoned his bosses or complained about his tasks. he worked like a soldier with an incredible work ethic.
so they decided to bring him on board and teach him the ropes of their drug trade business because he has proven himself to be a valuable asset.
and this marked the beginning of his journey into the world of organized crime. he rose through the ranks of the cartel,from drug dealer to the rank of a drug officer keeper.
he was in charge of overseeing the cartel´s depots in Tijuana, where they stored and distributed their drugs.it was a risky job, but a few years down the line , santiago was still alive and still had his job.
however, things got more complicated when the arellano elix organization entered into a brutal war with their rivals.
the sinaloa cartel.
the streets of Tijuana became a battleground with thousands of people were killed and their bodies abused daily.
the remains of their victims were hung on bridges.some littered on the streets , and other dumped in the rivers.
this gruesome scene attracted the attention of the mexican authorities.
as well as the american law enforcement agencies, such as the DEA and FBI.
the cartels realized that they had to find a way to get rid of the bodies quickly and discreetly or else they woul’d be tracedback to them one way or another and that would not be good for their line of business. but how could they possibly get rid of thousands of human bodies that were causalties of their drug war without leaving any traces?
so ,the arellano felix brothers decided to seek some expert advice from some shady characters who were skilled at making people disappear their solution was simple.bbut sinister
because they were told to turn their victim’s into soup.
and their bones into dust.
the arellano brothers loved this ingenious iden for several reasons.first ,it would make their victim vanish without a trace
secondly , it was cost -effective and no DNA evidence would be left behind.
but there was a catch. they needed someone they could trust to do the dirty work someone who would not squeal, faint , or vomit at the human remains.someone who had the stomach for it.
so they asked their most trusted lieutenants, efrain perez and jorge aureliano felix ,to find such a person. and guess who they pointed at ? santiago lopez , but hey decided totest him with an experiment to ascertain his suitability for this new assignment.
A twisted trial by fire
they invited santiago to a room where they had prepared a 200 -liter drum filled with caustic concoction of soda, water , and other chemicals.
they handed him a large piece of meat and asked him to drop it into the drum and stir it until it dissolved.
santiago did as he was told without asking any questions.
he watched as the meat melted into the liquid ,turning it red and bubbly. he didn’t flinch gag, or hesitate. he passed the test .
but he must have had thousands of thoughts running through his mind as he carred out the strange task.
however , everything became clearer to him six monts later. as they called him in fot the second pahase of the experiment, the human trial. the set up was pretty much the same expect that this time several henchmen were watching and the object of the experiment was no longer chunk of meat. but the dead body of a victim of the cartel’s war.
santiago was ordered to strip the body and stuff it into the drum of death containing corrosive solutions and different chemicals. he did as he was asked . without blinking an ey they watched as some part of the body started evolving into the liquid a few moments later , so they left it there overnight.
the next morning ,they came back to see that the body had completely dissolved
into the liquid leaving behind a barrell of sludge and som bone fragments.
santiago would then resume his new duty under the title El Pozolero which means the stewmaker.
this name comes from the word pozole,which is a traditional mexican soup or stew made with meat ,corn and other ingredients.
this title was most suitable for him, since he stirred the bodies in the barrel of chemical mixture as though he was making a pot of pozole.
as the stewmaker , santiago meza lopez had a simple but gruesome task,
to de dissolve the bodies of their victims in acid and making them disappeared without a trace.
while the cartel’s sicarios were fighting in the brutal war and destroying the cartel’s enemies.
el pozolero was making stew with what was left of their bodies and erasing every bit of evidence of the cartel’s crimes.
El Pozolero operated in several locations , mostley in remote ranches or farms near the border with the United states.
he took deliveries of ther bodies at different locations where they hadbeen told they would be dropped off for him.
in very good months,the stewmaker got 30 to 50 bodies to dissolve. as a seriously -minded businessman
El pozolero made sure that he had his tools handy .
and enough ingredients to make his recipe at all times.These included oil barrels ,latex gloves , gas masks and corrosive chemicals like caustic soda
which is a highly corrosive substance that can burn skin ,eyes and mucous membranes.
El pozolero used a mixture of water ,caustic soda, and other corrosive chemicals to dissolve human remains
he would chop up the bodies into smaller pieces.
and dump them into the barrels filled with the solution.
the process could take several hours,depending on the size and number of bodies.
he would stir the mixture occasonally with a wooden stick or a metal rod.
as he added more water or caustic soda
as needed to maintain the right consistency and temperature.
the parts that did not dissolve completely, like teeth and some bone fragments ,were burned with gasoline.
and buried in shallow graves or underground pits.
while the liwuid that remained in the barrels was poured into pits or wells,were dumped into rivers or streams ,
but as he advanced and became more skillful, he constructed drainage systems.
that made it easier for him and his crew to dispose of the remains without having to carry the heavy barrels of liquefied human bodies.
El Pozolero was said to have disolved over a thousand bodies during his career.and for his services he was making around 600 dollar weekly which was about three times the national average salary in mexico.
however ,the stewmaker estimated that he dissolved at least 300 bodies in his nine year of active service.
but forensic investigation sources suggested that the number could be much hire.
he said that he did not kill anyone and technically he didn’t.
he was only following orders from his boss theodoro garcia simental-el teo.
whom he started working directly under at some point in his career.
theodoro garcia simental was one of the most violent and ruthless drug lords in mexico who rose to promincence in the late 2000s as a leeader of a splinter faction of the Tijuana Cartel.he was known for his brutal methods of disposing of the cartel enemies
which invoved abduction torturing and eventually ending their lives. the victims of his killings eventually ended up in el pozolero’s corrosive solution barrels,
so it make sense that the two worked hand in hand.together a el teo and el pozolero were responsible for the dusaooearance and death of hundreds of people in Tijuana and its surroundings
el teo started his criminal career in 1995,when he joined the Tijuana Cartetl as an enforcer.
under the orders of ramon arellano felix one of the founders of the organization .
he quickly gained a reputation for his cruelty and efficiency whitch en him the nick name el teo , el tres letras el lalo el alamo.
he also became close friends with another cartel boss, Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera better known as El Chapo the leader of the rival sinaloa cartel.
In 2008 , after the arrest of eduardo arellano felix another founder of the Tijuana cartel , a power struggle erupted within the organization
between El teo and Luis fernando sanchez arellano.
a nephew of the arellano felix brothers. El teo decided to break away from the cartel and from his own gang
with the support of el chapo and the sinaloa cartel.this sparked a bruital war over the control of Tijuanas’s druig trafficking routes.and wich resulted in a surge of violence in the city.
meanwhile ,El teo tool the stewmaker, el pozolero alongside him when he left the Tijuana to join forces with el chapo in the sinaloa cartel .this duo would then form a formidable force against heir former colleagues at the Tijuana cartel.
while El teo and his sicarios were doing the killings. El pozolero and his crew were making ht stew off the boides of their former comrades.
for nearly ten years ,El pozolero operated under the radar.leaving no trace of his victims.
He was a ghoust , a legend, a myth,. no one knew who he was , where he was or what he was doing .
he was the perfect weapon for the cartel.but his reign of terror came to an end on january 25th, 2009.when he was discovered by the authorities.it was a day that changed his life , and the lives of many others.
I t all started in 2005 when two kidnappers affiliated with El Teo were apperhended and interrogated .
During questioning they confessed to abducting and fatal harming three individuals before transferring them to the leader of sinaloa cartel cleanup crew known as El pozolero.
there testimonies accompanied by precise accounts of santiago’s appearance and actions, proved pivotal in revealing the identity of the infamous stewmaker.
from that point on ,he became a prime target of interest for law enforcement agencies across multiple countries.
however El pozolero managed to evade the authorities for 4 years ,but they eventually caught up with him and his crew members in 2009.
when the authorities received intel that they were partying in the baja , season’s neighborhood.so the law enforcement officers decided to pay them a visit.
the raid was successful ,but not without complications. El Teo , El Pozolero’s boss , managed to escape, along with some of his men
but El pozolero was so drunk and was in the midst of making another pot of soup that he did not know what was going on.when the authorities asked him what he was stirring , he said he was making seafood soup.
after his arrrest on january 25 th ,2009, the stewmaker confessed to dissolving more than 3oo bodies in acid over a period of nin years.
but with what authorities found at a place called chicken coop, they estimated that the actual number was aboive 1000 bodies.
the chicken coop was an a area in the city og maclovio rojas , baja mexico,where
El pozolero installed a drainage system , and turned it into a massive clandestine grave, where thousands of huma nremains were found.
in august 2017 , three new graves were found with over 500 pounds of human bone fragments and this was what confirmed the fears of the authorities
that santiago’s body count was not 300, it was infact in the tens of thousands. after his arrest and confession, El Pozolero faced the justice system for his crimes.
he was charged with organized crime , criminal association, and illegal secret burial .
he was not chared with murder ,because there was no direct evidence linking him to the deaths of the victims.
He was sentenced to 1o years in prison 2012 , after oleading guilty to all the charges leveled against him.
during his trial that he never dissolved the bodies of women or children. he insisted that he was not a dealer or killer or monster. he said he was just a man doing his job for a cartel, that wouldn’t take no for an answer. but his wife told the press that he would always say
” i prefer my job than for my family to die of hunger”
-El Pozolero
In closing statement ,he asked god for forgivness and he apologized to all his victims families.
but the families of his victimes never accepted his apologies. because El Pozolero never cooperated with the authoritites
to reveal the locations of therest of his victim’s remains.
They believed that his apology was not genuine.since he weasn’t willing to coperate with authorities.
and help in writting some of the wrongs he had done all this life.
his sentence was criticized by many as too lenient and anjust considering the magnitude and gravity of his crimes.
some argued that he should have faced life imprisonment or even the death penalty, which is not legall in mexico.other claimed that he was a scapegoat for the gorenment and the cartels and that he did dnot receive a fair trial or due process.however he was released from prison in april 2022.
this sparked an outrage and indignation among the families of the victims hwo believed that even though he didn’t directly kill the victims, he should have done more years behind bars. because many of his victims were never identified.
to date , mecian authorities are still retrieving human bone fragments and up to 16,500 liters of human matters across Tijuana and its surroundings.
now imagine all the remains that still hahven’t been found , all the victims that will remain nameless forever, and who knows how many of hid disciples are stilll in the buisness of making soup with the remains of human bodies.
Did El Pozolero get a fair sentence or should he have spent more years in prison.then he did even though he was not directly responsible for the death of his victms?
THE CHICKEN COOP
These two bodies were mummified in duct tape and dumped next to a school (Image: municipal Police Release)
Human remains found at Meza Lopez’s farm known as the Chicken Coup (Image: CEN/Fernando Ocegueda Flores)
A VIEW OF THE MACLOVIO ROJAS NEIGHBORHOOD, WHERE THE SPOT KNOWN AS THE CHICKEN COOP WAS FOUND. PHOTO BY JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/VICE NEWS
A MAN LEAVING WITH HIS WHEELBARROW, WHICH WAS USED DURING THE EXCAVATION OF THE SITE. PHOTO BY JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/VICE NEWS
BEHIND THIS WALL IS THE ENTRANCE TO THE AREA WHERE THE SO-CALLED “WELL MAN” DISSOLVED THE BODIES. PHOTO BY JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/VICE NEWS
ENTRANCE TO THE CHICKEN COOP, GUARDED BY MEXICAN POLICE. PHOTO BY JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/VICE NEWS
THE PERIPHERY OF THE CHICKEN COOP WAS CORDONED OFF SO THAT NOBODY ENTERED THE SITE DURING THE EXCAVATION. PHOTO BY JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/VICE NEWS
WALL SURROUNDING THE LOCATION WHERE 250 KILOS OF BONES WERE FOUND. PHOTO BY JOEBETH TERRIQUEZ/VICE NEWS
EXCAVATIONS BEGAN IN AUGUST, EIGHT YEARS AFTER THE DETENTION OF THE WELL MAN. PHOTO BY FERNANDO OCEGUEDA/UNIDOS CONTRA LOS DESAPARECIDOS
THE GRAVES WHERE HUMAN REMAINS WERE FOUND. PHOTO BY FERNANDO OCEGUEDA/UNIDOS CONTRA LOS DESAPARECIDOS
The hitman began his macabre task in thegrave known as valle bonito
