Suspected “hit teams” from Mexico’s powerful Juarez Cartel killed two Americans and a Mexican man linked to the US consulate in Ciudad Juarez in coordinated weekend shootings that marked an ominous turn in the drug war ravaging northern Mexico.
US officials said the two separate attacks on Saturday killed a US employee of the US consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, her US husband and a co-worker’s Mexican husband.
The government of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua identified the victims as US consular worker Lesley Enriquez, her US husband Redelfs Arthur Haycock and Mexican national Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros.
Salcido Ceniceros was married to another employee of the US consulate, Mexican authorities said.
There was no confirmation of the identities from the US side. In a press release, the Chihuahua government said that based on the information exchanged between Mexican and US federal agencies, it was established that the investigation would focus on hitmen “belonging to a gang known as ‘The Aztecas,’” which works for the Juarez Cartel.
No motive for the killings was suggested, but several prominent drug kingpins have been recently extradited by Mexico to the US to stand trial. Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, son of Sinaloa Cartel chief Ismael “el Mayo” Zambada-Garcia, appeared last month in a Chicago court on drug trafficking charges.
Meanwhile, Miguel Caro Quintero, a brother of another notorious Mexican drug baron, Rafael Caro Quintero, was sentenced earlier by a federal judge in Colorado to 17 years in jail.
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