Daniel Arizmendi López el Mochaorejas new 50-year prison sentence, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (FGR) reported on Sunday that kidnapper Daniel Arizmendi López, known as “El Mochaorejas” for mutilating some of his victims, has been handed a new sentence of 50 years in prison. He has been incarcerated since 1998.
Authorities explained that a court issued the new sentence after prosecutors challenged his 2003 conviction, which required the judicial proceedings to be redone.
The ruling holds Arizmendi responsible for organized crime, operations with funds of illicit origin, and possession of weapons reserved for the Armed Forces. The court also imposed a fine of 916,312 pesos.
According to the Prosecutor’s investigations, Arizmendi led a criminal kidnapping organization that operated mainly in Mexico City and the State of Mexico. The group gained notoriety for the mutilations some of its victims suffered, as members cut off the ears of their captives, a practice that gave rise to the nickname “El Mochaorejas.”
The FGR said the judicial process was prolonged because the August 2003 sentence was challenged through amparo lawsuits. These legal appeals forced authorities to redo the proceedings and issue a new ruling.
The ruling also set prison terms of 22 years for one man and 16 years for one woman, both members of the criminal organization. However, the Prosecutor’s Office declared the sentences of these two individuals served, and both will remain in prison because they face other legal proceedings.
In December 2025, a court acquitted Arizmendi of a kidnapping offense after 27 years in prison. That ruling did not result in his release, as he faced other convictions.
By 2006, El Mochaorejas had accumulated sentences totaling nearly 400 years in prison for organized crime and unlawful deprivation of liberty in the form of kidnapping, across several cases.
Authorities also sentenced several of his accomplices. Investigators attributed roughly 40 kidnappings to the organization, mainly targeting businesspeople.
The criminals operated in Querétaro, Morelos, the State of Mexico, Puebla and what was then the Federal District, now Mexico City.
After his capture in 1998, Arizmendi confessed to committing 21 kidnappings and three murders. According to case reports, the last homicide occurred days before his arrest.
Since then, authorities have held the kidnapper at Federal Center for Social Readaptation No. 1, known as El Altiplano, located in the State of Mexico.
