Two state police officers were murdered in recent days in separate attacks in the border city of Mexicali, Baja California, crimes that authorities say could be linked to operations against an organized crime group.

Ruben López, a 27-year-old Baja California state police officer, and his 26-year-old wife, Anayeli Anaya, were shot dead by armed men outside their home in Mexicali last Friday night. The woman was shielding her three-year-old boy when she was shot, according to state officials. The boy survived the attack.

🚨 El secretario de Seguridad, Laureano Carrillo señaló que los asesinatos de dos agentes estatales ocurridos con menos de 24 horas de diferencia son una respuesta a los operativos en el Valle de #Mexicali que han derivado en la captura de presuntos integrantes del grupo criminal… pic.twitter.com/E5r7S5KxaB

— La Jornada Baja California (@LaJornadaBC) June 28, 2026

The next day, 32-year-old state police officer Manuel Enrique Guerrero Sánchez was gunned down at a taquería in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California. A woman was wounded in the attack and was reported in serious condition in the hospital. Both deceased police officers were off duty when they were murdered.

At a press conference on Sunday, Baja California Security Minister Laureano Carrillo and state Attorney General María Elena Andrade said that the attacks could be related to recent security operations in the Valley of Mexicali, where an alleged member of the Los Rusos criminal group — a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel — was killed in a confrontation with state police.

The person who was killed, known as “El Wicho” or “Compa Wicho,” was a high-ranking criminal group member, Carrillo said.

“He was a very close relative of one of the [criminal] leaders we are aware of in the Valley of Mexico and that is the main reason why this reaction by them occurred,” he said, referring to the murders of the two police officers allegedly perpetrated by members of Los Rusos.

According to the news outlet Zeta Tijuana, “Compa Wicho” was the son of an old Sinaloa Cartel leader called Eduardo Alarcón Guillén, alias “El Colorado.” He was the brother-in-law of a criminal leader known as “El Isra,” according to Zeta.

Carrillo said that both slain police officers directly participated in investigations and intelligence work that allowed state police to locate and carry out operations against Los Rusos.

Those investigations led to operations that resulted in arrests and seizures of drugs, planes and stolen vehicles, the state security minister said. Following the operations, state police officers received intimidating messages and direct threats, he said.

No arrests have been reported in connection with the two murders, but five suspects have been identified, Carillo said. State and federal security forces are involved in an operation aimed at their arrest.

Andrade said that vehicles used by the perpetrators of the murders were located by authorities. One of them had been burnt out, she told the press conference on Sunday. Andrade said that the main hypothesis is that the murders were related to the police officers’ investigative work. She noted that the murders were committed with large-caliber weapons and appeared to have been well-planned.

Baja California was Mexico’s second most violent state in the first five months of 2025 in terms of total homicides. Mexican police officers are frequently killed in armed confrontations with criminal groups, but planned murders of off-duty officers are relatively rare.

With reports from N+, Reforma, Proceso and La Jornada