Timeline of CJNG Safe House Shootout in Guadalajara That Left 3 Dead, 30 Arrested, and 6 Kidnapping Victims Freed

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Police officers at the resident where the shootout took place (photo credit: Reforma)

The Initial Incident

On April 19, 2021, Guadalajara authorities receive an anonymous call reporting that kidnapping victims are being held captive at 1285 Chapalita Avenue in the city of Guadalajara. At roughly 9:40am, Guadalajara municipal police officers arrive at properties located near 1285 Chapalita Ave and ask neighbors what they know about the 1285 residence.

The officers then leave the area. The officers return to the area an hour later. At roughly 10:45am one of the policemen knocks on the door of 1285 Chapalita Ave to ask if everything was in order. A woman came out to answer the knock but when she realized he was a police officer, she quickly closed the door on him. Several people then tried to flee 1285 Chapalita Ave by crossing over the rooftop to neighboring rooftops.

At some point after this, two suspected cartel members and the same woman who answered the door attacked the officer who had knocked. Linked security footage shows what is believed to be this moment.

In the footage, the officer looks up over the body of a gray truck and realizes that people from the house are running towards him. He crouches down behind the truck, using it as cover. The officer seemingly yells at the approaching people.

One criminal subject swings around the left side of the truck towards him, another one towards the right. On the left side, the subject tries to crouch up and tackle the officer. The officer grabs him and after a bit of wrestling the officer gets the man face down to the ground. With the first criminal subdued, the officer glances up over the truck again and sees an additional two people from the house approaching him.

The criminal subject who earlier crouched around the right side of the truck uses the moment when the officer is looking up in order to attack him by surprise. She jumps on top of the policeman and appears to punch him repeatedly. The criminal held face down on the ground tries to capitalize on the chaos of her attack and he squirms free of the officer, crawling away from the truck. Meanwhile, the woman struggles to get the officer's gun and as this happens the officer's gun appears to go off. The shot possibly hits one of the two additional suspects running at the officer. The video then cuts off.

The Gun Battle

Backup is called in. More municipal police arrive and in addition members of the National Guard and State authorities arrive on scene as well. Authorities report over a 30 minute long gunfight between the law enforcement and the residents of 1285 Chapalita Ave occurs.

At 10:53am someone posts a video of the gunshots they can hear near Chapalita.

At 10:57am, a reporter films law enforcement moving to the incident. A helicopter over can be heard overhead, in later press conferences it is said that they received aerial support from a HALCON helicopter from Zapopan.

At 11:07am, someone tweets out a video of law enforcement watching down a residential street as very loud gunshots can be heard in the background.

At 11:29am, someone tweets out a video in which the helicopter can be seen flying quite low.

At 11:47am someone tweets out a video in which over a dozen law enforcement officers can be seen moving around a residential street in a seemingly hurried manner.

At 11:51am, the same person tweets out a video in which in the officers appear to no longer be alerted, as if the imminent threat has ended and they are now processing the scenes. It should be noted that for all these videos the posting time and the filming time may not correlate.

ADN40 compilation of other footage (with needlessly dramatic music)

In the end, the initial attack on the officer and the ensuing gun battle results in two suspected cartel members being killed and the attacking woman receiving serious injuries. She was transferred in serious condition to an IMSS hospital. No officers were seriously injured. In the buildings that neighbored 1285, the State Police found and apprehended additional suspects that they believed had fled via the rooftops earlier.

The scene was cordoned off by police officers (photo credit: SinEmbargo)

The Arrests and Rescues

Authorities in total arrested 33 suspected CJNG cartel members from the 1285 Chapalita Ave residence and the two adjacent properties. Some photos of those arrested and one suspect who was killed. And more photos. Photo showing both of the suspects who were killed on the street.

On Twitter, a video shows over a dozen suspected CJNG members subdued, lying face down on the ground, waiting to be arrested by the police.

Over 40 guns were seized from the property. Full list of items seized see details section below.

In addition, authorities discovered 6 living and 1 deceased kidnapping victims were being held captive in the CJNG property. The victims were recovered by law enforcement and the Special Prosecutor for Missing Persons will be stepping in to aid the victims and determine their legal status. State Prosecutor Gerardo Octavio Solís Gómez told reporters that the kidnapping victims had been held captive for at least a week.

Solís Gómez said of the deceased kidnapping victim: “The person who was found lifeless inside the home is a man. He is handcuffed, his face is bandaged. It is evident that this person was deprived of his liberty by these subjects.”

The First Hearing

On April 22 2021, 30 of those who were arrested in the Chapalita incident are charged.

Initially, the Guadalajara Police Station and the Jalisco Public Security Secretariat detained 33 people suspected to be involved from the 1285 Chapalita residence and the surrounding properties. Of the 33 people, 2 persons were found to have no connection to the crimes and were released. Another person (who was technically detained) died of her injuries while receiving medical care in a IMSS hospital.

This leaves 30 people (29 adults and 1 minor) still in custody and all 30 were presented before the Public Ministry of the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office on Thursday, April 22, 2021. They were brought up on charges that include:

• Kidnapping
• Aggravated Kidnapping
• Qualified Assault 
• Qualified Homicide
• Qualified Attempted Homicide
• Crimes committed against law enforcement authorities

In their initial hearings they were all found to have been legally detained.

More Details

The final count of items seized at the 1285 Chapalita Ave property comes in at:

• 23 long barrel firearms
• 9 short barrel firearms
• 1 firearm “of clandestine manufacture” (una de fabricación clandestina, meaning clandestinely manufactured/converted possibly?)
• 22 ballistic vests
• 7 molotov cocktails
• 6 motorcycles
• 2 vehicles
• 7 “electronic tablets with the CJNG logo” (Siete tabletas electrónicas con la leyenda CJNG as described by NTR. Although alternatively, other sources report these as cell phones, not tablets.)
• 1 kilo of “white powder” (test results must come back before they can officially state it is cocaine)

Some interesting demographics of the 30 people charged:

• 20 were originally from the state of Jalisco.
• 10 were not from Jalisco originally

Other states the 10 came from include: Nayarit, the State of Mexico, Sinaloa, Mexico City, Michoacán and Zacatecas.

• 1 is under the age of 18
• 12 are between the ages of 18-25
• 17 are over the age of 25
• 27 were male
• 3 were female
• 14 to 16 of them have been found to have an existing criminal record

The Jalisco State Prosecutor brings up that this is just an initial number and the prosecution may discover through the course of the investigation that some of the detainees are using false names to hide their identity and criminal past.

Update 5/21/2021: Preliminary reports indicated none of the 6 kidnapping victims had criminal records. Three days after this was written, on 4/29/20210, Blanca Trujillo Cuevas, the prosecutor who specializes in missing persons, clarified that 2 of the 6 released victims did have criminal records. Please see this source.

Sources: El Occidental, Milenio, La Jornada, Quadratin , Borderland Beat, Proceso, NTR Guadalajara Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Informador Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, Article 4, Article 5, Infobae