La Nueva Familia Michoacana Organization

La Nueva Familia Michoacana (English: The New Michoacan Family), La Nueva Familia (English: The New Family) or LNFM is a criminal organization that specializes in illegal drug trafficking, illegal mining, and extortion. It is currently headed by Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga, alias ”El Pez”, and his brother, Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, alias ”El Fresa”. The Organization formed as a splinter group in 2011 after the original La Familia Michoacana lost their power in 2010 with the formation of the Knights Templar Cartel and with Nazario Moreno's suspected death (he was not proven dead until 2014 with a DNA test). The Organization mainly dedicated to drug trafficking and battling the CJNG criminal organization out of Tierra Caliente region in Michoacán and Guerrero. According to The United States Department of the Treasury, the organization is primarily involved in the distribution of cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine to the United States, but it’s also involved in growing marijuana and poppies. Many of its leaders have been arrested for threatening and blackmailing people on social media. La Nueva Familia Michoacana operates in at least 35 municipalities in the southern areas of Mexico.

Social media threats
In 2019, a leader from the cell called El Zarco threatened El Mencho by telling him they were going to kill his hitmen by the Balsas River. The threat went viral that a few weeks later CJNG members threatened to assassinate El Zarco.

Sanctions
In November 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury sanctioned La Nueva Familia Michoana and its alleged leaders Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga pursuant to. The Treasury alleges the group is implicated in a mix of criminal and drug trafficking activities, including the cultivation of opium poppy and U.S. distribution of heroin and, in an emerging trend, “rainbow” fentanyl (pills and powders whose bright colors, shapes, and sizes are marketed to young users).

In 2024, the DEA were reportedly seeking Rodolfo “Don Jose” Maldonado-Bustos and Euclides “El Quilles” Camacho-Goicochea.