Mexico: Five killed in attack likely linked to organised crime

As many as five people were fatally shot in an attack in central Mexico City late Sunday, which is being linked to the organised crime by the police, Channels TV reported, citing the local security secretariat and local media reports. The shooting occurred at a town hall in Miguel Hidalgo, one of the most populous districts of Mexico City. An emergency alert was sounded to the local police, that arrived on the crime scene and found five people on the ground with gunshot wounds, according to the statement by Mexico City's secretary of public security. A probe has been ordered into the crime to ascertain the involvement of a cartel gunman.

Mexico city’s law enforcement rushed the other two bodies to the nearest hospital, while three others that sustained bullet injuries were declared dead on the spot, according to the local press, that cited Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection’s statement.  At least one of the victims was identified belonging to a local Union Tepito cartel, but the body is subject to verification. Mexican criminal market and cartels have posed security concerns across several cities for Mexican law enforcement. Last year, gunmen intercepted the Mexico police chief’s car as he was travelling to work. Gunmen opened fire on Mexico City's secretary of public security, Omar Garcia Harfuch, in a brazen attack, killing three and severely wounding the police chief. Sources of AP reported, that the shooting claimed the life of a woman and at least two police officers. 

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Cartel CJNG involved in previous attack

Following the attack, security videos from the scene, aired on television and the Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the criminal act on Twitter. In the footages that emerged, a suspicious-looking truck and one other vehicle pulled up on the road where the police chief’s motorcade passed, and heavily armed men were seen getting out at about 6.30 am. Shortly, the powerful drugs cartel ambushed the capital’s police chief in an upscale residential district, killing one passer-by in a serious bullet attack and injuring the police chief with three bullets. Having recovered at the hospital, Omar García Harfuch, the police chief tweeted from hospital: “This morning, we suffered a cowardly attack by the CJNG,” the Spanish acronym for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

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(Image Credit: Brookings.edu)