Friday, July 18, 2025

2 Israelis victims of shopping center shooting in Mexico City

Two Israeli citizens with connections to organized crime were killed in a shooting at an upscale Mexico City shopping center on Wednesday afternoon.

The shooting took place when the two victims were eating in a restaurant in the Artz Pedregal shopping center in the Álvaro Obregón borough of the city. At 5:22pm, a man and a woman approached the victims and started shooting with pistols at close range.

One of the victims died at the scene, while the other died after being transferred to a hospital. While fleeing, the couple also shot and injured two other people, including a police officer.

The male shooter was able to get into a blue Nissan Versa and escape, while the female shooter, identified as 33-year-old Esperanza “N,” was arrested outside the mall. Police found a blond wig and a change of clothes that she had planned to use to aid her getaway.

After being arrested, Esperanza “N” told police that she had met one of the victims on social media and had started a relationship him. But when he became unfaithful to her, she decided to buy a handgun for 7,000 pesos and kill him.

One of the suspects in the shooting at Artz Pedregal.
The suspected who was arrested in the shooting at Artz Pedregal.

However, in a press conference on Thursday, Public Security Secretary Jesús Orta called Esperanza’s narrative “unsustainable.”

“The version of a crime of passion was the first story that the woman told the police,” he said. “However, as more investigation has been done, that narrative is not sustainable because of several pieces of evidence we have found.”

Orta added that police are looking for the male shooter, as well as another person the two shooters were seen talking to before the attack.

The victims were identified as Alon Azulay and Ben Sutji, both Israeli nationals. According to Israeli media, Sutji escaped in 2001 from an Israeli prison where he was serving a term for attempted murder. He is believed to have fled to Latin America to continue his criminal career, and was arrested in Venezuela and Mexico for drug trafficking.

Sutji is also an alleged associate of fellow Israeli Erez Akrishevsky, who Mexico extradited to Israel on Wednesday.

Source: Animal Político (sp), El Universal (sp), El Financiero (sp), Enlace Judío (sp)

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
A man stands by an open suitcase in an airport revision area

Foreign national caught with over a million pesos of ketamine in Cancún airport

0
Officials confiscated 2 kilograms of ketamine, a controlled substance in Mexico.
two people walkin gby a for rent sign

Can rent control stop gentrification? Mexico City officials plan to find out

9
Political leaders in the nation's capital have reached into their anti-gentrification toolkit and come up with an approach that goes straight to the heart of the problem.
cell phone with Uber

Mexican authorities slam Uber’s price hike: ‘Unilateral and irresponsible’

2
The ride-hailing app insists that the rise is necessary after recent labor reforms gave its drivers full employee rights, including IMSS membership.
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity