A suspected drug trafficker coldly shot during a car rally in Mexico

UPDATE DAY

A man suspected of being a drug trafficker was killed in an armed attack on amateur car rally drivers, which killed 9 other people on Saturday in Ensenada, a city in the northern Mexico near the border with the United States, the prosecution said on Monday. 

Alonso Arambula Piña, who participated in the race as a pilot, was “the target of this attack,” Baja California prosecutor Ricardo Ivan Carpio said at a press conference.

In his car was an official working for a municipality in the region, José Eduardo Orozco Piña, also killed, according to the same source.

On Saturday, the participants in an off-road race were parked at the edge of a highway when several hooded men emerged from a van and opened fire in their direction.

The prosecutor explained that Mr. Arambula Piña had alleged links with the Sinaloa cartel, led by the sons of Joaquin “el Chapo” Guzmán – who is incarcerated in the United States – and that this attack was the consequence of disputes with the Tijuana cartel.

He added that “certain” other victims were involved “in illicit activities, including drug trafficking”, without specifying whether they had died or were among the ten injured. He also did not indicate whether they were among the pilots.

Baja California, with its desert expanses, is a mecca for all-terrain vehicle races in which pilots from all over the world participate. One of the most famous is the “Baja 1000” rally-raid.

Mexico, mired in a spiral of violence, has registered more than 400,000 dead and tens of thousands missing since the launch of a military anti-drug offensive in 2006, supported by the United States.

Sport is not spared. On May 15, six people, including three minors, were killed in an armed attack on fans of a football match organized by a family in Pachuca, Hidalgo state.