EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A group of sicarios allowed a woman to retrieve her 2-year-old son before murdering her brothers and some guests, then setting fire to their corpses inside a home in Juarez, Mexico, over the weekend, a newspaper reported.
The unidentified woman told El Diario she and a female friend had been consuming crystal meth inside the home, left momentarily to the store, then came back to find armed men holding people inside the house hostage. The woman told the newspaper the men let her get her child out but she couldn’t convince them to spare her brothers.
The gunmen killed five men and a woman inside the house Saturday after fatally wounding a seventh victim and injuring three others in the backyard, Chihuahua state police told Border Report on Monday. The attackers then set the six bodies inside the house on fire.
Drugs sales appear to be the motive behind the Saturday night attack, police said.
“A solid line of investigation points to the sale of drugs,” said state police spokesman Alejandro Rubalcava. “Investigators have compiled statements regarding drug sales in that home, specifically crystal methamphetamine.”
The spokesman said no arrests had been made as of late Monday morning. A total of 20 people were murdered between Friday and Monday in Juarez, a city used by two drug cartels – La Linea and Sinaloa – as a staging point for drugs into the United States and where domestic or in-house drug sales have skyrocketed in the past few years as well.
Residents of the Division del Norte neighborhood told KTSM they had repeatedly complained to police about drug activity at the home, but never got a response. Residents said a group of four or five men with guns and rifles arrived at the home late Saturday in a white Chevrolet Suburban before shots rang out.
Juarez police officials in the past have blamed drug cartels for attacks on civilians who police believe are involved in illegal activities and aren’t giving a cut to the cartels. Last month, members of one such organization allegedly burned cars in four junkyards and left a sign accusing the owners of selling stolen vehicles, El Heraldo reported. Authorities later arrested members of La Linea on arson charges.
Last year, members of a criminal organization shot and cut off the hands of a man they accused of stealing auto parts, La Verdad reported. A sign warning other alleged thieves was left next to the man, who survived the assault. The warning was signed by the New Juarez Cartel.
Juarez has recorded more than 1,000 homicides this year, including 91 so far in September.