The Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office confirms that the man murdered in the Zona Rosa was El Panu, head of security for Los Chapitos

The Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office has finally confirmed, after four days, that the man murdered this Sunday in an armed attack in the Zona Rosa of the capital was Óscar Medina, alias The Panuwho served as head of security for the Los Chapitos faction within the Sinaloa Cartel. The Public Ministry has carried out expert examinations that have certified the identity of who was the main lieutenant of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Joaquín’s eldest son El Chapo Guzmán, former leader of the criminal organization. According to the report from the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) of the capital, the attack against Medina occurred this Sunday while he was eating in a restaurant in the Juárez neighborhood, on Niza Street. It was in the premises where two subjects began to shoot at him and his companions, a man and a woman. The hitmen fled on a motorcycle.

The identity of the murdered subject was shrouded in mystery for several days. It was this Christmas Thursday when the capital authority confirmed that it was El Panu. According to the US State Department, El Panu was a high-ranking leader in the ranks of the Sinaloa Cartel, and the day-to-day commander of the security apparatus of Guzmán Salazar and his brothers, Los Chapitos. Medina supervised each of the regional commanders of the faction of Chapo’s heirs.

The federal anti-drug agency of the neighboring country to the north, the DEA, offered a reward of up to 4 million dollars for information that led to the arrest or conviction of the lieutenant, “for crimes related to international drug trafficking, as well as for his alleged operational role within the Sinaloa Cartel, a criminal organization with transnational impact,” says the statement from the capital’s Prosecutor’s Office, which has initiated an investigation for qualified homicide.

Much of the confusion over Panu’s identity has to do with his wife’s statement after the murder. The woman, María José Rojo, a model, daughter of the Undersecretary of Tourism of Sinaloa, assures that her husband’s name was Óscar Ruiz and he was a hotel businessman from Mazatlán, the Sinaloa coast, who was visiting the capital with his family for the Christmas holidays. Another element of intrigue points to the authorities’ intelligence apparatus. The murder occurred a few blocks from the offices of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), in one of the busiest neighborhoods. With such freedom, one of the most high-profile men in the Sinaloa cartel and one of the most wanted by the United States moved in the heart of the city.