A team of cartel gunmen in Mexico killed a woman known as a fortune teller who provided protective spells and readings to organized crime members. The murder took place in Guanajuato, a once peaceful central state seeing an uptick in violence as cartels fight for control of fuel theft operations.

The murder took place this week in Abasolo. When authorities responded to a house in the Las Margaritas neighborhood, where they found the bodies of a woman and a young man next to an altar.

Preliminary information points to a team of gunmen riding in three SUVs pulling up to the house and murdering the couple inside. Before leaving the area, the gunmen ransacked the home but did not touch the altar or offerings before making a clean getaway. In Mexico, “Saint Death” (Santa Muerte) and “Jesus Malverde” are commonly used by drug traffickers who believe that such figures provide protection from law enforcement.

Guanajuato is suffering a dramatic spike in violence as gunmen from Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, led by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, continue to fight for control of the region against the hyperviolent Cartel Santa Rosa de Lima, led by Jose Antonio “El Marro” Yepez Ortiz.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart News traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Tony Aranda from Nuevo Leon.