10 killed, bodies and buses burned in violent night of 'revenge' in Juárez, Mexico

Daniel Borunda | El Paso Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada talks about violence, migrant influx.

A deadly night of "revenge" by organized crime, filled with shootings and burned bodies and buses, struck Juárez on Tuesday.

The chaos was the latest wave in increased violence in the Mexican border city, where daily drug-related murders are routine and more than 1,200 people have been killed this year.

Juárez Mayor Armando Cabada said the attacks were retaliation by criminals for an impending prison search.

The attacks were intended as a distraction by the Mexicles gang from a search planned to begin at midnight Wednesday at the Cereso No. 3 prison in Juárez, Chihuahua law enforcement authorities said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

The gang allegedly hired crystal methamphetamine addicts to set the fires, officials said. Four people have been arrested.

"As we have all witnessed, in the last hours a wave of violence has been unleashed throughout the national territory, of course our city is being affected by these acts of revenge among criminal groups," Cabada said in a Facebook post.

City and state police set up a command center to respond to the coordinated assault Tuesday night.

The Mexicles is a prison-street gang dating back to the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Various gangs and drug-trafficking groups have been battling for control of the drug trade in Juárez for years.

Shootings, buses burned

Ten people were killed starting Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

The Norte Digital news website reported that five of the dead were set on fire and a security guard was wounded when shots were fired outside Chihuahua state offices on Eje Vial Juan Gabriel street.

Authorities said attackers set fire to 10 public transportation buses and five cars in different parts of Juárez.

Burning vehicles have been utilized by Mexican drug cartels as a tactic to block streets to hamper the response by law enforcement.

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Some passengers, including two older women, received first and second-degree burns when they tried to escape through the back door of a burning bus, Cabada said.

About 800 federal, state and municipal police and soldiers conducted a search for weapons, drugs and prohibited items at the Cereso No. 3 in Juárez, authorities said.

The gang might have been tipped off about the impending prison search by the arrival of two Mexican federal police airplanes carrying officers specialized in prison operations, Cabada said.

"These (detention) centers are command centers for criminals; a lot of orders come out of the Ceresos," State Security Commissioner Oscar Alberto Aparicio Avendaño said.

The prison crackdown will continue, Aparicio said.

"We are not going to take one step back in these operations," he said.

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Municipal police backed by state police officers and the Mexican military also were deployed to neighborhoods that were the scene of recent homicides, the mayor said.

Teen paid $180 per murder, police say

The violence followed the arrests of three suspected hit men for La Empresa crime organization Monday

Police made the arrests in separate cases of members of La Empresa, or The Company, which emerged after a fracture among factions of the Juárez drug cartel.

Police arrested Jesus Alfonso F. F., alías “El Frijol” (The Bean), 34, after he was accused of trying to kill a man in Colonia Toribio Ortega in south Juárez, police said.

Denilson C.R., 21, was arrested while allegedly in possession of an assault rifle and a handgun, police said. He is suspected of killing a man and a woman and wounding two others Monday in Colonia Manuel Valdes in eastern Juárez.

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Police also arrested a 17-year-old boy suspected in at least six murders for La Empresa.

The accused teenage hit man was arrested after a vehicle chase that began when police were informed that he was firing gunshots out of a Ford Explorer, police said. A 9 mm handgun was seized.

The boy allegedly told police that he was paid 3,500 pesos for each murder, or about $180 in U.S. dollars, officials said in a news release. The teen allegedly admitted to killing two people at the Barbaros barbershop and four others in separate street shootings.

From 2017: US warns of rise in drug cartel violence in Chihuahua

Full names were not released per rules in Mexico regarding the naming of crime suspects.

On Jan. 17, a similar night of chaos erupted, causing the U.S. Consulate in Juárez to issue a security alert to U.S. citizens after a bus was set ablaze to block a street and coordinated attacks targeted police.

Those attacks were suspected of being committed by La Linea crime organization and the Mexicles gang, authorities said.

The U.S. government for years has issued a travel advisory for Mexico.

The current yellow, Level 2 advisory advises U.S. citizens to "exercise increased caution" and says to "reconsider travel" to Chihuahua state due to widespread violent crime and gang activity.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.