3 police dead in Mexico City shootout with cartel gunmen

Three police officers and a suspect were killed and seven suspected drug cartel members arrested on Friday after a dramatic gun battle broke out in Mexico City’s east end.

It was a glimpse of drug cartel violence that the nation’s capital rarely sees, but which has become commonplace in the northern and western parts of the country.

Two officers were killed early Friday in a town east of the capital when they approached a house where a kidnapping and murder gang is believed to be hiding, according to police in Mexico state, which controls the capital. attached to the border. He said that the murder accused are also being searched.

The four victims of the kidnapping were found in the house before the gunfire rang out. The initial gunfire occurred near the town of San Antonio La Isla, about 35 miles east of the capital.

The suspects then fled in a vehicle to Mexico City, and continued shooting at pursuing officers, killing one capital police officer. The suspects then crashed their car into a lamp post. Some were injured in the crash, and some fled on foot but were taken into custody.

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A woman is also among those arrested. Weapons recovered from the scene included several high-powered rifles.

City police chief Omar Garcia Herfuch said the suspects apparently worked for the ultra-violent Jalisco cartel. “They say they belong to a group in Jalisco,” said García Herfuchs. “They were carrying insignia associated with the Jalisco Cartel.”

He said the suspects were trying to reach a safe haven that the gang operated in Mexico City.

Three police officers were killed by suspected drug cartel members in a shootout.

Mexico City officials have long acknowledged that the country’s major drug cartel has some presence in the capital. But he boasts the sheer size of the Mexico City police force – 90,000 officers in some cases – and horrendous traffic jams have prevented cartel gunmen from operating as openly in the city as they do elsewhere.

García Harfuch himself was targeted by the Jalisco Cartel in a 2020 attack on a street in Mexico City.

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In the 2020 attack, some two dozen gunmen ambushed García Harfuch’s armored vehicle before dawn on one of the capital’s main streets. In the brazen attack, he was hit by three bullets and two of his bodyguards and a passerby were killed.

Prominent Mexican journalist Ciro Gomez Leyva survived an attack last December but was tried to kill him by two gunmen on a motorcycle in a late-night attack on a Mexico City street. He survived as his SUV was bullet proof.

During the raid and search, which detained 11 suspects, police found a hat with the letters CJNG, the initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.