Cartel gunmen raided a drug house in the border city of Ciudad Juárez and killed four Honduran migrants. The cartel gunmen who stormed the property and opened fire early Friday morning. In addition to the two Central American migrants, two other unidentified victims were wounded and transported to a local hospital in very serious condition.
Municipal police in the border city of Ciudad Juárez responded to a call of multiple victims shot in colonia Riberas del Bravo. The community is located in the northern section of the city. When officers arrived at the property, they discovered four murder victims who sustained multiple gunshot wounds, local media reported. Additionally, two other victims were transported to a local hospital, the news reports stated.
The residence where the victims were killed is suspected of being a hangout for drug users — primarily those involved in the use of methamphetamine or “cristal.” Although a total of six people were shot, with four of the victim’s dying from their wounds, law enforcement sources indicated that at least an additional six others were able to flee when the cartel gunmen arrived and started indiscriminately firing at those on the property.
Investigative personnel from the state prosecutor’s office recovered at least 70 spent shell casings of .223 and 9mm rounds within the crime scene. Investigative personnel also recovered drug paraphernalia with traces of methamphetamine. The four murder victims, three adult males and one adult female, were initially identified by their Honduran government-issued identification cards, according to César Augusto Peniche, the Attorney General for the State of Chihuahua.
The border city of Ciudad Juárez has been inundated with Central American migrants who are staging in the city while they await their turn to file an asylum request with U.S. government officials. Mexican government officials in the border city reported that the migrant shelters are filled to capacity and so are the low budget hotels. Due to the uncontrolled influx of Central American migrants to the border areas, many are falling victim to criminal organizations operating on behalf of drug cartels and some are engaging in criminal activity. One local law enforcement source who spoke with Breitbart News related that if the migrants were engaged in criminal activity in their home country, they would continue in Mexico.
Robert Arce is a retired Phoenix Police detective with extensive experience working Mexican organized crime and street gangs. Arce has worked in the Balkans, Iraq, Haiti, and recently completed a three-year assignment in Monterrey, Mexico, working out of the Consulate for the United States Department of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program, where he was the Regional Program Manager for Northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas.) You can follow him on Twitter. He can be reached at robertrarce@gmail.com.