Mexico: "El Vaca", the alleged head of the killers of the CJNG cartel, before the courts

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In Mexico, the trial of Jose Armando, nicknamed "El Vaca", opened on Monday June 29. He is the alleged head of the hired killers of a cartel, of which around twenty members have been arrested in recent days. "El Vaca" is particularly suspected of being the mastermind of the attack on the Mexico City police chief, Friday, June 26.

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The spectacular attack on the Mexico City police chief shocked by its scale.

It was early in the morning, in a wealthy district of the capital, where the ambassadors reside, that a police convoy was ambushed and a barrage of gunfire. Hit by several bullets, the prefect survived but the attack left three dead: his two bodyguards and a civilian.

The day before, the government had announced measures against cartels in the Mexico region. It has six, including Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), known for its ultraviolence and which has become in a few years the most powerful in the country.

Blocked bank accounts, arrests: the organization is currently the target of an offensive by the Mexican state, supported by the American drug agency. But his counterattack brought the violence up a notch in a capital so far relatively spared.

Senior officials are now targeted. The gang is also said to be involved this month in the assassination of a federal judge and his wife. 

Mexico recorded a record loss last year, with more than 35,000 homicides. And confinement, decreed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, did not mitigate this violence. On average, 80 people died a day in March.

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• Mexico
• Crime
• Drug

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