The bodies of two men were hanged off a bridge south of Juárez as a spike in drug-related violence continued in the Mexican border city.
The unidentified dead men, who apparently had been executed, were found dangling off an overpass on Friday, June 13, at the intersection of the Panamerican Highway and the road to the Santa Teresa area, El Heraldo de Juárez reported.
A message against “huachicoleros” and “cristaleros” was left on the windshield of a black Dodge Nitro with Durango state license plates abandoned beneath the bridge, according to news photos from the scene. “Huachicoleros” is the common term for persons involved in fuel thefts. “Cristaleros” refers to crystal methamphetamine dealers.
There have been about 55 homicides in Juárez this month in a spike in violence that law enforcement officials attribute to warring drug cartels and gangs.
Makeshift armored trucks seized in Special Operation Ojinaga
Chihuahua state police seized 11 vehicles in raids of two garages where makeshift armored vehicles were being constructed in the Ojinaga border region in the eastern part of the state last week, Chihuahua State Public Safety Secretary Gilberto Loya said at his weekly news conference on Monday, June 16.
The Ojinaga border has been an off-and-on hot zone since last year in a conflict that has spread to Juárez between La Linea, or New Juárez Drug Cartel, and Los Cabrera, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel.
A deployment of state police backed by helicopters, drones and a SWAT team dubbed Special Operation Ojinaga took place last week in the Ojinaga region, located across the border from Presidio, Texas, Loya said.
Nine of the 11 vehicles seized had been reported stolen, Loya said. Police patrols in the rural desert area made two unrelated arrests — a man found with a handgun and cocaine and a man wanted on a warrant on a robbery charge.
On June 10, the bodies of four men who had been shot to death were found on the highway connecting Aldama to Ojinaga.
The state attorney general’s office identified the slain men as: Francisco Javier M.M., 26, Kevin Ulises M.M., 24, Jonathan Israel L.C., 26, and Edgar Adrian T.I., 36, who had all been reported missing on June 7 after being abducted. Last names were not disclosed by officials in keeping with rules in Mexico regarding the naming of crime victims.
An investigation into the killings continues.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Drug cartels: Bodies hanged from bridge outside Juárez. Armored vehicles seized.
Reporting by Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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