Authorities this Thursday arrested five other people for the attack on journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva, including the man who fired the gun inches from the window of the communicator’s car. Those arrested will be added to the 11 this Wednesday, leaving 16 jailed for the attempted murder. This was reported via social networks by both Prime Minister Claudia Sheinbaum and the Mexico City Public Prosecutor’s Office. Gómez Leyva was attacked on the night of December 15 by two men on a motorbike, who shot him dead as he was driving home in his truck from the TV station where he works. The perpetrators shot him from head height, but thanks to the vehicle’s armor they were unable to injure him.
Sheinbaum has reported that the alleged assailant, specifically the man who fired the gun, was arrested in Michoacán state, although he did not provide the geographic location of the entity. “The person allegedly responsible for the shooting of Ciro Gómez Leyva has been arrested in Michoacán. This is the person who was co-piloting the motorcycle on the day of the attack. Our commitment is to end impunity,” the Prime Minister wrote on her Twitter account. The operation this Thursday was carried out with the help of the army and the Michoacán prosecutor’s office, he assured.
According to the authorities, not only the motorcycle was involved in the attack, but also two other vehicles that had been monitoring the journalist days earlier and had blocked the passage of Gómez Leyva just before the attack. Almost simultaneously, prosecutors reported four other arrests this Thursday in the state of Mexico in the municipalities of Chalco and Los Reyes, during which they carried out two searches and seized “vehicles, mobile phones, weapons and possible drugs”.
This Thursday comes on top of what was announced a day earlier. The capital’s authorities reported this Wednesday morning the conduct of 12 searches, carried out in collaboration with the National Intelligence Center, during which they arrested 11 people accused of being linked to the December 15 attack . According to a press conference by Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, at least nine of those detainees belonged to a criminal organization dedicated to assassination, extortion and drug trafficking.
On the night of December 15, two cars, a black Seat Ibiza and a gray Chevrolet Corsa, along with a motorcycle with two men, were parked near the canal where the journalist was at around 10:44 p.m. As Gómez Leyva leaves for his home, one of the cars is placed in front of him, while the motorcycle and the other vehicle are behind him. The first car eventually blocks the path to the communicator, causing it to slow down and causing the motorbike to move to one side, firing at the victim at around 11:10 p.m.
Harfuch said Wednesday that the attackers had prepared the attack several days in advance and monitored Grupo Imagen, where the communicator works, on December 6, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Monitoring the images from C5, Mexico City’s Center for Emergency Response and Citizen Protection, allowed authorities to reach the suspected perpetrators of the attack.
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