Four coordinated attacks in Jalisco; 5 dead

In four coordinated attacks by organized crime during Friday morning, two agents of the State Prosecutor’s Office (FE) were murdered, two alleged criminals killed, and a fifth male was killed. Security forces detained three alleged gunmen after a shootout that lasted almost two hours in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, Jalisco.

In the afternoon, the Jalisco prosecutor, Gerardo Octavio Solís, confirmed that the attacks began after 7 o’clock in the morning when, in the El Cerrito neighborhood in the municipality of Zapopan, an armed man approached the official vehicle in charge of the coordinator of FE relief posts and shot several times.

Despite this, the official was unharmed, but her husband, also a worker of the FE, was slightly injured. Minutes later in the Jardines del Edén neighborhood in Tlajomulco, armed men aboard a van killed investigative agent Jesús Adán Benavides outside his home and wounded his 9-year-old son, whose condition was reported as stable.

Upon the arrival of authorities to begin the investigation into the murder, the policemen were again attacked from a nearby house, which triggered a shootout that lasted almost two hours and forced the neighbors to remain refugees in their home, including students and staff of a nearby school.

Dozens of police from all the municipal units of the metropolitan area of ​​Guadalajara, as well as state and federal police and the Army, supported by an armored tank and two helicopters arrived on the scene.

After shooting down two gunmen, three other men who said they were kidnapped were arrested in the house, although the prosecutor Solis said that the Public Ministry will determine if they were also part of the armed group.

Nearby, in the Colonia Villas de San Martín, also in Tlajomulco, armed individuals entered the home of another FE agent assigned to the homicide area, whom they tried to kill while bathing. The victim managed to leave his house half-naked but was pursued and killed in the streets.

It was also reported that a man was run over and killed, it was unknown if he was oblivious to the attack or part of the group of armed men, an investigation into his role is underway.

Prosecutor Solis reported in the afternoon: The work carried out by this government, this security cabinet with the three levels of government, is surely hurting the interests of organized groups of crime and under that circumstance it is appropriate to understand that (what happened) may correspond to a violent reaction against this institution (the FE) in order to loosen these efforts.

Meanwhile, the Public Security Secretariat of Nayarit reported that along with the State Attorney General’s Office, as well as the municipal police of Bahía de Banderas (adjoining Puerto Vallarta), Ixtlán del Río and Amatlán de Cañas (bordering Guadalajara) shielded the roads to Nayarit. The staff ensures that participants in such attacks do not pass to the entity.