Mexico City police's intelligence chief murdered amid crackdown on high-profile crimes

The chief of intelligence for Mexico City's police was murdered on Sunday while he was spending a day off with his family, the case being the latest in a series of high-profile crimes in the country involving activists and politicians.

Milton Morales Figueroa was shot to death in Coalco, in the northern region of Mexico State, while leaving a store on his way to his car. Two cars blocked him and several armed gunned him down in the middle of the crowded street. An agent accompanying him and his brother-in-law were injured and taken to a local hospital, while Figueroa died on the spot as a result of several gunshots to the head.

The official was among those leading a crackdown on high-profile crimes in Mexico City, El País reported. He was in consideration to join his former boss, Omar García Harfuch, in the national administration, following his appointment as Security Secretary in the incoming Claudia Sheinbaum administration.

Figueroa's current boss, Mexico City Security Secretary Pablo Vázquez, vowed to "identify, arrest and bring those responsible to justice."

Mexico City Mayor Martí Batres, on his end, described the attack as "cowardly" and said Figueroa was in charge of "important investigations to protect the peace and safety of Mexico City's residents." "We are working with authorities to capture those responsible," Batres added in a social media post.

It wasn't the first time high-ranking officials from the capital were targeted. In mid-2020, then-Security Secretary García Harfuch was heading to his office early in the morning when some 20 gunmen from the Jalisco cartel ambushed his car. They shot him with assault rifles, grenade launchers and fragmentation bombs, killing two people but failing to murder the official.

About half of the more than 50 people who took part in the attack have been apprehended, with a local court sentencing a dozen of them to long prison sentences.

So far there have been no arrests related to the crime, but authorities identified two cars spotted in the scene.