Former Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz was shot in the Dominican Republic by a man who mistook him for a different person, officials say.

Jean Alain Rodríguez, the Dominican Republic’s attorney general, and Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte, director of the Dominican Republic’s national police, told reporters that the attempted murder was ordered by Victor Hugo Gomez, an associate of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel.

Mr Gomez, who is believed to be in the United States, had hired assassins to murder his cousin, Sixto David Fernández, who he suspected of turning on him several years ago, it is claimed.

Mr Fernández is friends with Mr Ortiz, a native of the Dominican Republic who is known to visit often.

He was with the former baseball star on the night of shooting, seated at a table just next to him at an upscale bar in Santo Domingo.

The hired gunman entered the cafe’s area and fired, apparently from the back.

Rodríguez and Bautista said the mistake was the result of a blurry photograph taken by an accomplice of the gunman while Mr Fernández was seated near Mr Ortiz.

“It was a badly lit photo taken minutes before the attack,” the chief prosecutor said.

Mr Ortiz, who fans often refer to as “Big Papi,” is currently recovering at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was moved after doctors in the Dominican Republic removed his gallbladder and part of his intestine. Doctors in the Boston hospital have upgraded his condition from guarded to good.

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At least 11 people have been arrested in the case so far, including the alleged gunman, minor accomplices, and drivers involved