Death Toll Reaches 17 in Revenge Attack From La Familia Michoacana Against Police

“MX” for Borderland Beat

Note: First attack left 13 dead in Coatepec Harinas. Second attack left 4 dead in Alquisiras. Investigators say both incidents are related.

Gunmen from La Familia Michoacana (LFM) ambushed and killed 17 law enforcement members in the State of Mexico: eight state officers and five prosecution investigators in Coatepec Harinas, and four more state officers in Almoloya de Alquisiras. 

Authorities say that the officers killed in the first location were carrying out patrols when they were ambushed by cartel members. The last four officers were killed while they were heading to the first location to help their fallen comrades.

Images shared below show the bullet-ridden police vehicles and bodies lying by the side of the road. Rodrigo Martínez-Celis, state security minister, called the attack an “an affront to the Mexican state”.

“We will respond with all force and support of the law,” he told reporters.

The National Guard and the Mexican Armed Forces are searching by land and air for the perpetrators.

The Attorney General’s Office in the State of Mexico confirmed that the ambush was carried out by LFM as revenge for a law enforcement operative carried out near the area on March 16.

On that day, security forces working in Zacualpan municipality seized three vehicles and a notebook owned by LFM. That notebook contained confidential information about LFM’s hiding, spying, and drug sale locations.

LFM, a criminal group born in the state of Michoacan, splintered in 2011 after the arrest of its last main leader Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas (‘El Chango’). However, it continued to operate in smaller cells that carried out drug trafficking, kidnappings, and extortions in parts of Michoacan, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico.

The State of Mexico was the second most-deadly state in all of Mexico for police officers last year. It registered 39 police murders, only behind Guanajuato with 84. These states are followed by Veracruz (39), Guerrero (37) and Chihuahua (35).

WARNING – Graphic Images Below

Victims

State of Mexico officers:

• Alejandro Lovera Hernández 
• Guillermo Torres Mixteco 
• Víctor Manuel García Vázquez
• Mauricio Rodríguez Zárate 
• Juan Morales Dario
• Ernesto Mondragón Ramírez
• David Pedroza Guadarrama
• Martín Solares Morales

Prosecution investigators:

• Abraham Hipólito Legorreta
• Jonathan Enrique Lazcano
• José Luis Gumara Bernal
• Juan Carlos Villa Luciera
• Ricardo Ramírez Mondragón

Sources: Milenio (1); (2); Lopez Doriga; Diario de Juarez; Proceso; SeUno Noticias