Mexico City, Aug 25 (EFE) Municipal police chief Jesus Jimenez is no longer in his post after an attempt to rescue a kidnapping victim resulted in the deaths of the captive, her abductor and two cops, the Mexico City prosecutor’s office has said.
The statement issued by the prosecutor’s office Monday did not say whether Jimenez was fired or resigned, but it did identify his replacement as Mario Alberto Izazola Alvarez.
The move was part of an overhaul being carried out under a recently approved ordinance re-organising the capital’s law enforcement agencies, the statement said.
Mexican media reported last week that Jimenez would resign over the botched rescue operation, but district attorney Miguel Angel Mancera denied at the time that the chief was quitting.
Sixty police officers went to a house in the southern section of Mexico City in the early morning hours of July 3 after receiving a tip that a woman was being held hostage.
A shootout started in which high-ranking police officers Carlos Julio Rincon Juarez and Jose Antonio Moreno Sanchez were both killed by friendly fire.
The bodies of Yolanda Cevallos Coppel, who had been gagged and bound, and of a man in his mid-30s were found inside the house.
The man, known only as “El Ivan”, was apparently the leader of a kidnapping gang and committed suicide with a shot to the head.
Cevallos Coppel was director of prevention programs at Oceanica, one of Mexico’s most respected addiction treatment centres.
Juan Maya, the Mexico City prosecutor in charge of the anti-kidnapping unit, and two police officers were sacked earlier this month for their roles in the failed hostage-rescue operation.
