Axes, a gun and 100 bags of cocaine: this was the robbery at the Antara shopping center

Police outside the jewelry store assaulted in the Antara shopping center, on June 27. Edgar Negrete Lira (CUARTOSCURO)

The robbery was planned for a day before, but who knows, in these cases, what strange logic ends up marking the calendar; What mathematics dictates the thoughts of someone who is about to hack the window of a luxury jewelry store. What is known is that the thieves entered separately, so as not to arouse suspicion, the Antara shopping center, in Polanco, one of those exclusive and wealthy ghettos where successful businessmen, diplomats and politicians of Mexico City take refuge. Four people loaded with backpacks that hid axes and mallets, according to the Secretary of Citizen Security of the capital, Omar García Harfuch, this Wednesday at a press conference.

What happened next the whole country has already seen: three of them extracted the axes and viciously attacked the window of the luxury jeweler Berger. Meanwhile, the fourth was watching, armed with a pistol — that, the vigilante, is the only one arrested at the moment, whose statement is opening the way for investigators. It was around 19.45pm on Monday. There was still light, customers in the mall, shops open. Everyone could see the assault, everyone was able to record it in videos that have gone around the internet. Recordings in which a siren is heard that roars omnipresent and the blows that try to burst the armored glass.

The thieves managed to break one of the windows and extract 15 of the watches displayed in the window, valued at 1,800,000 pesos (more than 100,000 dollars), according to estimates by the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC). By the time officers, alerted by calls from several of the mall's customers, arrived at the crime scene, it was too late. The four, with their axes and watches safe, had vanished.

Then, as in any great robbery, there was a great escape: a white motorcycle, a black motorcycle and a gray Ford escaped through Miguel de Cervantes to get lost in the congested streets of the city at that time. The thieves arrived at a house on Lago de Xochimilco Street, in the Anahuac neighborhood. There they abandoned the clothes they had worn during the robbery and the vehicles. The drivers of the motorcycles left the house first. Half an hour later, the driver of the car asked for a vehicle by an application, but returned to the house, according to security cameras in the area.

That was his mistake. Thus fell Marco N., the first and the only one at the moment to be arrested: a 27-year-old citizen with a record for theft. At the time of his arrest, on Tuesday, he was carrying a short pistol in his waist and was accompanied by a 25-year-old woman whom the local press has identified as the creator of online content Yulissa Mendoza, who "is not directly related to the assault," García Harfuch clarified. Marco is part, according to the police investigation, of a group of robbers that operated in the Miguel Hidalgo, Gustavo Madero neighborhoods and parts of the State of Mexico.

From the robbery of the jewelry store in Antara Polanco, we report that the first arrest has already been made after carrying out several operational actions during the night. There are more people to arrest and this fact will not go unpunished in our City. All will be arrested. pic.twitter.com/XXjwJ5YGGC

— Omar Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch) June 27, 2023

Marco's arrest opened the first crack that the police were to follow. Thanks to the interrogation, the agents discovered that the thieves "do not belong to a very structured criminal card." "We are sure that we will arrest them soon," said the Secretary of Security during the press conference. Investigators have already identified the other three involved, although their identity has not yet transcended so as not to jeopardize the operation.

During this morning, the police carried out two searches. The first, in the building on Lago de Xochimilco Street where Marco was arrested. There they found the vehicles used in the robbery. In one of them appeared the axes, the mallets, a motorcycle helmet, watch holders and the clothes that the thieves used in the assault. The Ford had already been secured in May 2022 for an arrest for illegal possession of a firearm. The second search was in the San Juan de Aragón neighborhood and investigators arrested a 36-year-old woman, part of the criminal ID to which the robbers belonged, but not directly linked to this crime. They seized 100 bags of cocaine and a mobile phone.

Police continue to investigate. In a country where less than 1% of crimes are solved, according to an analysis by the civil organization Impunidad Cero, the virality of an assault in broad daylight in a luxury shopping center forces the authorities to work against the clock to put results on the table. García Harfuch has indicated that they have no indication that the guards of the jewelry were related to the robbery, a suspicion that spread through social networks due to the inactivity of the center's security. And again, a crime has broken a mirage: in a country broken by violence, not even wealthy neighborhoods are entirely safe from insecurity. Glass shattered with axes attests to this.

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