Army secured arsenal in Michoacán after responding to aggression

On Sunday, April 3, elements of the Mexican Army secured an arsenal belonging to suspected members of organized crime, which was located after responding to an armed attack during patrolling in the municipality of Tuzantla, Michoacán.

In a statement, the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) reported on the assurance, which was carried out by personnel attached to the 21st Military Zone of Morelia, who were carrying out preventive work in the town of Chirangueo, where alleged members of a criminal group used their weapons against military elements.

After responding to the attack and subjecting the alleged hit men, the military found 10 long guns of different calibers; a handgun; useful magazines and cartridges of various calibers; six tactical vests; six ballistic plates and three vehicles, as well as several tactical uniforms of a civilian and military nature.

The insured was made available to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), a unit that will integrate the evidence into the investigation folder for the case; no detainees were reported for the incident, but it is expected that the alleged hit men have been presented to the federal authorities.

On March 3, the FGR carried out the largest arms assurance in the country's history in Sonora, as it conducted searches of homes in which the Los Salazar cell, operators of the Sinaloa Cartel, who had almost three million useful cartridges in their possession.

The authorities carried out four searches at homes located in various parts of La Navojoa, Sonora, through which they managed to secure 2,950,000 useful cartridges of various calibers; 14,722 magazines; 128 long guns of various calibers, 100 ballistic plates; 89 grenades; 54 trimmings; 38 handguns; 19 machine guns; 12 tactical vests; 8 vehicles; 10 kilograms of marijuana; six .50 - caliber rifles and one submachine gun.

The authorities also secured the four buildings in which the arsenal was located, four trailers, a shredder and a grinding machine, as well as a power plant; all of which were transferred to the FGR facilities.

Prior to the operation that led to the securing of the arsenal, hit men from Los Salazar clashed against elements of the Sedena and the State Police in a town in Caborca, Sonora, which resulted in the pursuit of the attackers, who tried to hide in one of the entity's safe houses.

The State Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) reported on what happened in a statement, in which it announced that, after attacking the security elements, the hit men were overtaken by agents of the Armed Forces and the local police, so they fled the scene.

The confrontation between the two sides resulted in the killing of two hit men, the arrest of two of them and the securing of five vehicles, as well as various long guns, magazines and useful cartridges, which were used by the alleged criminals to attack the security forces.

Through his Twitter account, Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo acknowledged the work of the security elements, as well as that of the three levels of government. “Thank you for your work, always,” he wrote.

During the first two years of President Andrés Manuel López Obrado's six-year term, arms assurance fell from an average of 3,019 in 2017 to 754 in 2019; which increased this year with the various blows against criminal cells, including that against the Salazars.

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