Mexico City police chief shot

Cartel blamed as gunmen kill three in assassination attempt

MEXICO CITY — A high-sided construction truck and a white SUV pulled into the path of Mexico City’s police chief just as dawn was breaking Friday on the capital’s most iconic boulevard and assailants opened fire with .50-caliber sniper rifles and grenades on his armored vehicle.

The cinematic ambush involving two-dozen gunmen left chief Omar García Harfuch wounded with three bullet impacts and shrapnel. Two members of his security detail were killed, as was a woman who happened to be driving by.

The high-powered armament and brazenness of the attack suggested the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and hours after the attack, García blamed them via Twitter from the hospital.

“This morning we were attacked in a cowardly way by the CJNG,” García tweeted, using the Spanish-language acronym for Mexico’s most violent criminal group.

“Two colleagues and friends of mine lost their lives,” García wrote. “I have three bullet wounds and various pieces of shrapnel. Our nation has to continue standing up to cowardly organized crime. We will continue working.”

His office later said he was undergoing surgery.

Mexico City Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos said on Twitter that 12 suspects were arrested and that her office was investigating the attack.

The attack was meticulously planned and involved a total of 28 gunmen hired three weeks before, according to Ulises Lara, the spokesman for the Mexico City prosecutors office. It was so closely studied that three separate possible ambush points were set up on major thoroughfares, including one — which wasn’t used — in the heart of Mexico City, one block from the Independence Monument.

Lara said the gunmen had been divided into four different cells and were given ski masks and guns the night before. They were taken to the ambush points at 4 a.m. to lie in wait for their target.

Lara said the 12 suspects detained after the shooting included one Colombian, and men from five different states — Jalisco, Guerrero, Nayarit, Chihuahua and Michoacan — as well as Mexico City.

However, Lara did not say who the suspects said had hired them, or how much they were paid.