Security camera captures moment 'Jalisco cartel' gunmen ambush Mexico City's police chief with sniper rifles and grenades leaving two cops dead in city's most upmarket neighborhood
- Mexico City's police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch was shot at around 6.30am Friday
- A surveillance camera showed a group of assassins allegedly linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel preparing to carry out the assault
- Garcia Harfuch suffered three gun shot wounds and was 'out of danger' following the attack, according to Mexico City's mayor
- Two police officers, Edgar O. and Rafael O., who were assigned to Garcia Harfuch's security detail were killed
- Gabriela Gómez Cervantes was killed in the crossfire while she was inside her car. Her sister Tania Sandoval was wounded
- At least 12 suspects who participated in the attack were arrested. One of the individuals is a native of Colombia
Shocking surveillance camera footage captured the moment heavily armed gunmen ambushed Mexico City's police chief and killed two cops and a civilian Friday morning.
The Mexican capital's police Omar García Harfuch suffered three bullet wounds as he and his bodyguards were attacked by sniper rifles and grenades in the city's most upmarket neighborhood.
The two cops who were killed were identified as Edgar O. and Rafael O.
Security camera video shows more than a dozen of armed men spread across the flatbed of a white truck at a major intersection in Lomas de Chaputelpec, a neighborhood in the borough of Miguel Hidalgo.
Mexican newspaper El Heraldo de Mexico reported that the shooting lasted 15 to 20 minutes.
Mexico's National Intelligence Agency confirmed Friday that it knew of an imminent attack that was being planned against high-ranking official after it got wind of a recording that involved alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the country's most dangerous cartels.
Content of the audio was not released.
Mexico City police chief Omar García Harfuch was shot during an assassination attempt Friday morning which he accused the Jalisco New Generation Cartel of carrying out. The attackers killed two cops assigned to the police chief's security detail and a civilian
Surveillance footage shows the moment alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel readied themselves to execute their attack against Mexico City's police chief, Omar García Harfuch
Pictured: The armored vehicle that Mexico City police chief Omar García Harfuch was traveling in when gunmen shot at him with .50 caliber sniper rifles this morning
Pictured are three of the 12 individuals who participated in the Jalisco New Generation Cartel's alleged plot to assassinate the police chief of Mexico City on Friday morning
Some three hours later, apparently from his hospital bed, García Harfuch on Twitter blamed his injuries and the death of two bodyguards on a "cowardly attack" by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a gang renowned as one of the most violent in the country.
The attack on García Harfuch was the first on a top cop in Mexico City since 2008 when Julio César Sánchez Amaya, the then chief of the Federal District's Public Security, was targeted by the Sinaloa Cartel in a failed car bombing.
The police said in a statement that gunmen armed with .50 caliber sniper rifles and grenades exchanged fire with the García Harfuch security detail.
The Mexico City prosecutor's office said the cartel hired the assassins three weeks ago. They were split into groups of four with seven armed men in each group. One of the individuals who was arrested is a native of Colombia.
Pictured are the 12 men who participated in Friday morning's attack against the police chief of Mexico City
As of Friday afternoon, investigators were working on recovering more than 100 bullet casings and one grenade that did not explode.
García Harfuch's armored SUV was seen riddled with bullets and roped off by police.
Photographs from the scene also showed a high-sided construction truck with a number of rifles in the back that apparently were left behind by the gunmen after the ambush.
There were also images circulating on social media of García Harfuch being attended to by paramedics.
Cartel gunmen blocked a street intersection in the Mexico City neighborhood of Lomas de Chaputelpec where they tried to assassinate the police chief, Omar García Harfuch
Pictured: Weapons recovered from the scene which were reportedly used by the heavily armed gunmen when they attacked the Mexico City police chief this morning
Pictured: Local media reported that this image shows the Mexico City police chief being treated at the scene by paramedics. Harfuch was shot three times and one of his bodyguards died trying to protect him
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said on Twitter that public security chief Harfuch was 'out of danger' following the attack this morning that shocked residents of the Lomas de Chapultepec area of the city.
Sheinbaum said she would share more information at a news conference later in the day.
Local media reported that civilian Gabriela Gómez Cervantes, 26, died after being shot in the head in the crossfire while sitting in her car. Tania Sandoval, Gómez Cervantes' sister, suffered a gun shot wound to the hand in the attack.
Family at the scene told reporters that the pair were street vendors on their way to work at the National Auditorium.
Ernestina Godoy, attorney general of Mexico City, said 12 people had been arrested.
Local media reported that civilian Gabriela Gómez Cervantes, 26, died after being shot in the head in the crossfire while sitting in her car. Tania Sandoval, (pictured) Cervante's sister, was wounded in the attack
Police officers arrive at the area where a shooting took place in Mexico City, Mexico, June 26, 2020
A police officer stands behind a cordon tape at an area where a shooting took place in Mexico City, Mexico this morning
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Speaking at a regular government news conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said García Harfuch had been injured in the attack and attributed the outbreak of violence to the work of local officials to establish order in the city.
Residents said heavy gunfire rang out for several minutes during the attack in Lomas de Chapultepec, which is home to many wealthy residents and the location of ambassadorial residences.
Police converged on the area in the west of the city, which is rarely troubled by the violence that in recent years has afflicted many parts of the country, particularly poorer ones.
A police officer (top center) leads one away of one the 12 suspects who participated in Friday morning's attack to kill the police chief of Mexico City
Residents said heavy gunfire rang out for several minutes during the attack in Lomas de Chapultepec, which is home to many wealthy residents and the location of ambassadorial residences
López Obrador offered his support and solidarity to Sheinbaum and the city's public security forces.
'It has to do without a doubt with the work he is carrying out to guarantee peace and tranquility,' López Obrador said.
Television images showed dozens of police cordoning off a main road in the area.
Who are the Jalisco New Generation Cartel?
Founded in 2009, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is a Mexican criminal organization based in Jalisco, to the east of Mexico City.
The cartel is headed by Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes, one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords.
The clan is currently at war with a number of other powerful drug cartels for control of various Mexican states.
Their criminal activities involve drug, arms and human trafficking, as well as murder, torture and extortion.
The CJNG are currently considered the second most powerful cartel in Mexico, trailing behind Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's Sinaloa Cartel.
In 2019, a bill was introduced in the US to designate the CJNG, among other criminal gangs, as foreign terrorist organizations.
Though President Trump agreed with the sentiment, he is holding off of the move at the request of the Mexican president.
They have has become Mexico's fastest-rising criminal organization, with a reputation for ruthlessness and violence unlike any since the fall of the old Zetas cartel.
In parts of the country it is fighting medieval-style battles, complete with fortified redoubts, to expand nationwide, from the outskirts of Mexico City, into the tourist resorts around Cancún, and along the northern border across from the United States.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has a presence in 24 of 32 states in Mexico and has shipped cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin to the United States
A burned bus (photographed October 16, 2019) sits on the side of road in El Aguaje, Mexico, where Jalisco New Generation Cartel gunmen ambushed and killed Michoacán state police agents
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel so likes violence and heavy armament that U.S. prosecutors said its operatives tried to buy belt-fed M-60 machine guns in the United States, and once brought down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.
But the transnational criminal organization is also mounting a propaganda campaign, using videos and social media to threaten rivals while promising civilians that it won't prey on them with extortion and kidnappings.
It is a promise that cartels in Mexico have long made, and always broken. But the cartel's onslaught is so powerful that it appears to have convinced some Mexicans, especially those who are tired of local gangs, to accept control by one large, powerful cartel.
'It seems like the Jalisco New Generation group is taking over everywhere,' said a priest in the western city of Apatzingan. 'It seems like they allow people to work, and they don't prey on civilians, they don't kidnap, they don't steal vehicles, they just go about their drug business.'
The priest, who is not being identified to prevent reprisals, would rather not have any gang in town. But one of his parishioners was recently kidnapped, raped and killed by members of a local gang, the Viagras, even after her family paid a ransom; locals are so sick of that gang they'd rather have anybody else move in.
He is not the only one. A restaurant owner in the central state of Guanajuato - where Jalisco is fighting for control with the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang - says he would prefer that Jalisco take over, because of the local gang's chaotic ways.
'Things are quieter when Jalisco is around,' said the restaurant owner, who also asked his name not be used.
A woman who has lived for years under Jalisco cartel rule in a small town says she seeks out local Jalisco enforcers to solve common crime problems. 'If you have a problem, you go to them. They solve it quickly,' she said.
It is all a lie, albeit one that the cartel likes to repeat.
'Beautiful people, continue your routine,' the cartel said in a banner hung from an overpass in 2019 to reassure residents of Apatzingan, Michoacán, that the cartel was moving in to kick out the Viagras. Beneath and around the banner a total of 19 corpses hung from ropes, lay piled on the roadway or were scattered, hacked to pieces.
