Gruesome moment Mexican cartel fighter instructs henchmen to fire shots at executed rivals dumped inside truck as gun battle leaves 19 people dead
Gruesome cell phone video captures the moment an alleged member of the Sinaloa cartel orders one of his henchmen to shoot at his rivals, already dead, in a garbage truck in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
The images, leaked by the criminal organization itself last Friday, showed 14 bodies piled on top of each other after a gunfight in the town of La Concordia, 158 kilometers (98 miles) from the Guatemalan border.
The victims were still wearing their bulletproof vests and had their high-powered rifles lying on their bodies until one of the Sinaloa cartel members climbed into the truck.
The cartel member, whose voice can be heard in the video, claims in the video that the victims were supported by Ataulfo López, a local farmer.
The man orders his henchmen to take the weapons from the victims. But before he does so, he tells one of the members to shoot one of the victims.
The Chiapas State Attorney General’s Office was alerted on Saturday and sent officers to the scene, where they found a pickup truck and a dump truck blocking the road.
Mexican authorities discovered 14 bodies in a garbage truck on Sunday, two more inside it and two more on the ground next to it, after suspected members of the Sinaloa cartel killed the victims in a shootout on Friday.
According to the Chiapas state prosecutor’s office, the victims were hitmen linked to the Guatemala and Chiapas Cartel, an organization linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is at war with the Sinaloa Cartel over weapons, drugs and migrant smuggling routes in La Concordia, a town 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the Guatemalan border.
Investigators found two more bodies in the cab and two more on the dirt road next to the truck. Another body was found 100 yards away from the pickup truck that was shot in the attack.
Authorities in Chiapas confirmed that six of the victims were Guatemalans and members of an alleged murder gang operating under the Chiapas and Guatemala Cartel, which has ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
The Guatemalan victims were identified as Mario ‘N’, Geremías ‘N’, Fredy ‘N’, Baudulio ‘N’, Óscar ‘N’ and Luis.
Their surnames were withheld by the government due to due process laws. The remaining 13 victims were not identified because they did not have legal documents.
While filming the gruesome footage of the 14 victims in the dump truck, one of the alleged members of the Sinaloa cartel claimed their activities were supported by Ataulfo López (right), a local farmer whose daughter Lucero López (left) was murdered on May 16 while campaigning for mayor of La Concordia, a city in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
During Tuesday’s press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador linked the killings to the ongoing conflict between criminal organizations.
“What motivates this? Drug trafficking and also migrant trafficking,” López Obrador said. “That said, human trafficking is a route. Unfortunately, in these killings there are people from Guatemala, they are Mexicans and Guatemalans, Guatemalan brothers. We are already investigating this.”
In recent months, the Mexican army has made several arrests related to arms and drug trafficking and the smuggling of migrants in the area around La Concordia.
At least 1,200 troops from the armed forces and National Guard were deployed last week to increase security.
López’s daughter, 28-year-old mayoral candidate for La Concordia, Lucero López, was one of six people shot dead at a campaign rally on May 16.
Two weeks before her death, gunmen attacked Ataulfo López’s ranch, killing 10 people. Several vehicles and properties nearby were set on fire.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Ataulfo López for comment.