Chihuahua, Chih.- In an ambush that occurred yesterday in the Nuevo Delicias ejido, El Sauz section, six members of ‘La Empresa’ were killed by members of the Sinaloa Cartel, while two other people managed to escape with gunshot wounds. With this murder, there are at least 29 victims in high-impact events in said locality since 2022 to date.
It was around 8:00 in the morning yesterday when a confrontation with six dead people was reported in El Sauz. Upon arrival, a man and a woman with gunshot wounds were first located near the highway to Juárez, at kilometer 74. 7.62×39 caliber shell casings were found at the scene.
Later, the District Attorney for the Central Zone, Heliodoro Araiza Reyes, confirmed that they also located six bodies in a camp located 20 kilometers from where the injured were; all of them were wearing tactical equipment.
He added that since the discovery, they have launched an investigation to determine the mechanics of the events and the identities of the people killed, as well as to establish the motive for the attack.
However, unofficial sources from the State Investigation Agency (AEI) revealed that the fatalities belonged to the La Empresa group, who were ambushed by members of the opposing group of the Sinaloa Cartel, also known as “Chapos.”
For its part, the Municipal Public Security Directorate (DSPM) reported that seven ballistic vests, eight helmets, two radios, a gas tank and even a power plant were seized at the camp.
Regarding the injured people, the DSPM indicated that it is a man from Zacatecas, who was hit in the foot, and a woman from Campeche, injured in the shoulder. According to what they declared to the agents of this corporation, they were heading towards the United States; However, the Prosecutor’s Office indicated that it is not yet possible to confirm this version.
A history of blood
This brings to at least 29 people the victims of violent acts in the El Sauz region, a section of the capital where, according to state and municipal authorities, the theft of hydrocarbons or huachicol persists.
According to records from the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) and the State Public Security Secretariat (SSPE), reports of fuel theft in the El Sauz area date back 10 years and have now been identified as the main reason for massacres and executions in this area, both by the heads of both corporations, as well as by municipal authorities.
In addition to yesterday’s incident, nine other high-impact events have occurred in this community in the last two years. The first of these was on April 24, 2022, when seven people were massacred on the El Mezquite racetrack. Among the victims was Óscar Alanís Bustamante, alias “El Coman”, identified as a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and a target of the hitmen.
On June 12 of that year, authorities located a murdered couple in a home on Brasil Street. According to the narrative of the events, the victims’ throats were slit.
In 2023, one of the bloodiest events occurred on October 12 within the Nuevo Delicias ejido, where the dismembered corpses of three people were found, two men and a woman, who had been “lifted” weeks before in the urban area of Chihuahua.
Two of the victims, one of the men and the woman, had been reported missing, Mario Josafath MT, and Valery Alejandra PD; the other body was later identified as Sebastián CS
The two men and the woman were mutilated in the arms, heads, legs and had their hearts removed, according to investigations.
On December 13 of that same year, two men were executed at the junction that connects El Sauz with Nuevo Delicias, during a shootout between antagonistic groups; one of them, Emilio ER, died at the scene and the other, unidentified, while receiving medical attention at a hospital in this city.
At the scene they found a white RAM pickup truck with license plates DN-8657-A, which had several gunshot wounds and which was seized to establish the investigations.
Earlier this year, on January 15, four bodies were found at kilometer 53 of the Chihuahua-Juarez highway. The victims were identified as Paco Maldonado Garcia, 23 years old; Reynaldo Lopez Solis and Luis Fernando Rangel Lopez, both 19 years old; and Bryan Alejandro Romero Diaz, 17 years old.
Following these events, the DSPM in coordination with state and federal authorities, deployed an operation to patrol the area and inhibit the commission of criminal acts that, according to Mayor Marco Bonilla, and the heads of the SSPE and the FGE, Gilberto Loya and César Jáuregui, were related to ‘huachicol’.
Even so, on February 10, a man, nicknamed “El homie,” was executed in a home in the community of El Sauz. The attackers also injured neighbors who witnessed the events, leaving an injured man, who was identified as Manuel LT, 64 years old.
Days later, on February 28, Edgar Marquez Martinez, 39 years old, was found dead. He had been reported missing. His body was abandoned among machinery and with a gunshot wound to the head about 5 kilometers from Nuevo Delicias. It was also reported that the body had been dead for at least two days and had been ‘shot in the head’.
A day later, Ciro de Jesús CC, driver of a trailer, and Rogelio SR, employee of the place, were murdered in a dispatch located at kilometer 74 of the Chihuahua-Juárez highway. In those events, a green pickup truck was also burned.
Just a few weeks ago, on June 11, at kilometer 54 of the Chihuahua-Juárez highway, a man was executed with 7.62×39 weapons known as ‘cuerno de chivo’ and .223 R-15; The deprivation of liberty of one person was also reported.
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