Officials positively identified the victim of a shocking execution-style murder of a patient inside a central Mexico hospital as a high-ranking member of a Mexican drug cartel. The killing is believed to be part of an ongoing turf war between rival criminal gangs.

The Governor, as well as the Director of Public Security of the state of Michoacán, confirmed the identity of a murder victim killed inside Hospital Acueducto in Morelia, Michoacán. The victim, identified as Jesús Cancino Téllez aka “El Apá Michoacano” or “El Chuy Cancino,” is reported to be a high-ranking member of La Familia Michoacána. Cancino Téllez survived an ambush on September 4 in the neighboring state of Querétaro while traveling in a white pickup truck with a driver who died during the attack, according to local reports at the time. Cancino Téllez was allegedly targeted by assassins of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

Officials reportedly transported Cancino Tellez to a local hospital in Querétaro under heavy police guard. According to the director of public security for the state of Michoacán, Israel Patron Reyes, Cancino Téllez was moved from a hospital in Querétaro to the Hospital Acueducto in Morelia, Michoacán this past weekend. Before being transferred, he had been provided heavy security in the Querétaro hospital by elements of the Mexican army and state police.

The attorney general of the State of Querétaro vehemently denied initially that the male transferred from the Querétaro hospital to the hospital in Michoacán was Cancino Tellez. Alejandro Echeverría Cornejo explained to the local media that the name of the victim treated in the Querétaro and later murdered in the hospital in Morelia was purely coincidental.

Breitbart, Texas initially reported the murder of Cancino Téllez. It occurred this past Thursday in Morelia, Michoacán, at Hospital Acueducto. According to witnesses who spoke to local reporters, at least two gunmen entered the building at 7 am and found the victim on the third floor. A gunman pulled a firearm from his waistband and shot the patient execution-style in the presence of doctors and support personnel. The gunman fled without further violence. La Familia Michoacána is involved in a bitter turf war with the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce completed work assignments in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year tour in Monterrey, Mexico, for the U.S. Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program. As the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico in charge of the Mexican states of, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas) You can follow him on Twitter or reach him at robertrarce@gmail.com.