Juárez: "La Linea" and "Mexicles" alliance to "cleanse the plaza" results in 5 murders a day

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  Reforma

An alliance between 'La Linea' and  'Los Mexicles' formed to cleanse the plaza

Violence is unleashed in this city.

According to data from the Chihuahua Prosecutor's Office, from January to November of this year, 1,402 violent homicides occurred in Ciudad Juarez, figures that exceed those reported throughout 2018 and 2017.

In the midst of a wave of shootings, narcoblocks with burning of vehicles, calcined bodies, bomb threats and even shooting at local facilities of the Chihuahuan Government, November became one of the most violent months on this border, with 140 homicides, an average of five a day.

In three days, from November 4 to 6, the toll was 22 people killed, six of them burned, in addition to 15 vehicles burned -10 trucks and 5 private cars- in different parts of the city.

In those events, a truck carrying personnel from a maquiladora was set on fire with people inside. One employee registered second-degree burns and died on November 25, after being hospitalized.

The State Attorney General, César Peniche, said that 70 percent of homicides in Ciudad Juarez are the result of the dispute over spaces for the sale of drugs.

He explained that they are investigating a possible alliance between the criminal groups "Los Mexicles" and "La Línea".

"The conditions that generated the rebound in the number of homicides are within the framework of an alleged alliance that could have had the people of 'La Linea' with 'Los Mexicles', and that is what motivated that 'Los Mexicles', by instruction of 'La Linea', they will enter for a kind of “clean”, "he said in an interview.

"That is, to eliminate rivals in the streets for the sale of drug trafficking, and that is what would explain why the increase in the number of homicides," he said.

Although Ciudad Juárez closed November as one of the most violent months, it is not the highest figure of the year, but the most violent for the way they occurred.

The Prosecutor says, homicides with these characteristics will continue.

"What we see right now is that the conditions have not changed in terms of that logic of that alliance of ‘La Linea” and 'Mexicles', and of course we assume that this security strategy of eliminating its rivals, it is a possibility that the violence will continue."

Peniche explained that a new group was not formed, and that each one retains its own identity.

"They are simply agreements that they reach to control and sell the drug of any of these groups and, of course, then eliminate competitors."

According to the Prosecutor, this alliance has generated confrontations between "Los Mexicles".

"Not everyone agrees to work with ‘La Línea'. So, that has been part of the confrontation and contributing to the number of homicides there have been. "

The "Mexicles" are identified as the armed arm of the Sinaloa Cartel and "La Linea" of the Juarez Cartel.