25 people related to the Familia Michoacana cartel arrested for the ambush of 13 police officers in the State of Mexico

Crime scene where 13 police officers were attacked in Coatepec Harinas, in the State of Mexico.EDGARD GARRIDO / Reuters

The Attorney General's Office of the State of Mexico announced on Tuesday the first arrests for the savage ambush suffered by 13 police officers on a highway in Coatepec Harinas, in the State of Mexico.

The authorities have reported that they have arrested 25 people, allegedly related to the Familia Michoacana cartel, who worked for the three individuals who ordered the massacre of the agents.

The Prosecutor's Office has identified Alberto Romero Pérez, alias Macrina, Silverio Martínez Hernández, known as Fierros, and Gilberto Misael Ortiz Trujillo, indicated as Barbas, members of this cartel, as the organizers of the ambush, and has offered a reward of 500,000 pesos (about $ 25,000) for each of them.

On the afternoon of March 18, a group of 13 agents - eight state police officers and five investigators from the Prosecutor's Office - were crossing through the town of Llano Grande as part of an operation against drug trafficking in the area.

This town is located in a rural area of ​​the State of Mexico and borders some of the hottest spots in the country: Guerrero, Morelos and Michoacán.

An area of ​​marijuana cultivation and cocaine trafficking, according to authorities.

There they were gunned down on both sides of the road.

No member of the operation survived.

At the scene of the events, the Prosecutor's Office reported today, 672 casings were found.

Some of them, caliber 2.23, were fired by a weapon that is related to other homicides in Villa Victoria, very close to the state of Michoacán.

In addition, the agents found at the crime scene a long weapon linked to two other murders in this area of ​​Coatepec Harinas.

The brutal attack, which ended with criminals piling up the bodies of 13 police officers on the road, exposed the de facto power of criminal groups in the area.

After repeated promises that the "cowardly ambush" would not go unpunished, the Mexican Security Secretariat launched a joint operation with the National Guard, the National Defense Secretariat and the Navy, the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordination and the Center National Intelligence, which has 500 agents.

Its objective: "To identify the probable participants in these events, as well as the places where they could be kept hidden."

The day after the massacre, the so-called Rastrillo Operation began in the municipalities of Coatepec Harinas, Almoloya de Alquisiras, Zacualpan, Ixtapan de la Sal and Tonatico, with 190 agents.

It is they who have led to the arrest of 25 people "investigated for having some kind of relationship with the three subjects identified as the likely participants in these events," according to the statement from the State Attorney's Office.

In addition, they are being investigated "for carrying out illegal activities for the criminal group identified as the Michoacan Family" such as robberies,

and drug distribution.

Mexico counted more than 35,000 murders last year, similar numbers to the previous year.

The country has been going through a crisis of violence unparalleled for 15 years, as a result of the State's onslaught against criminal groups.

Without being as common as confrontations with the Army or the Navy, massacres of police officers like this have occurred in recent years.

In 2019, a massacre of eight state agents took place in a nearby municipality, in Almoloya de Alquisiras, some 30 kilometers away.

Also, in other parts of the country.

In October 2019, for example, 13 federal police officers were killed in Aguililla, Michoacán, a territory that suffers violence like few others.

Earlier, in April 2015, an armed group riddled a Jalisco police convoy, 15 officers died.

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