Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Santoval clarified during a press conference that ten guards, seven prisoners and two attackers were killed. Fifteen other people, one prison staff member and 14 inmates, were injured, while five of the gunmen who carried out the attack were arrested.
Sunday’s raid on the Cereso 3 prison in Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico, aimed at an escaped drug lord, left 19 people dead and 25 inmates escaping, according to the latest casualty toll released by authorities on Monday.
Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Santoval clarified during a press conference that ten guards, seven prisoners and two attackers were killed. Fifteen other people, one prison staff member and 14 inmates, were injured, while five of the gunmen who carried out the attack were arrested.
The previous official count was 14 dead, including 10 security guards, and 13 wounded.
Among the fugitives is a gang leader allied with the Juarez cartel in its war with the rival Sinaloa cartel, once headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in the US.
Ernesto Alfredo Piñon is “head of a criminal organization, also known by the nickname ‘El Neto’,” Security Minister Rosa Isela RodrÃguez explained during the same press conference.
He is the leader of the Los Mexicles gang.
Behind bars since 2009, he has been sentenced to serve more than 200 years in prison for kidnapping and murder, according to prosecutors in the state of Chihuahua.
Gunmen had attempted to free him during his transfer. He had been injured in that attack.
The raid by the gunmen, who arrived in armored cars, took place in the early hours of Sunday, as families of inmates were waiting to enter the penitentiary to visit relatives in the New Year.
The prison, run by the state government in Chihuahua, has been the scene of repeated inmate clashes and riots, one of which left twenty dead in March 2009. It was one of the deadliest in the country’s history. In August 2022, a clash between rival gang members there resulted in the death of three inmates.
Yesterday, Monday, the police were looking for the escapees and the other members of the group that carried out the attack.
Ciudad Juarez, which neighbors the American city of El Paso, is a hub of strategic importance for drug trafficking destined for the US market.
According to official figures, Mexico has recorded more than 340,000 murders, the vast majority attributed to gangs, since the start of the controversial “war on drugs” involving the armed forces in December 2006.
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