Two Israelis shot dead in Mexico City were involved in money laundering and had links to local mafias, Mexico’s government said on Friday.
Alon Azulay, 41, and Benjamin Yeshurun Sutchi, 44, were gunned down in a restaurant inside a mall in the south of the sprawling capital city on Thursday.
Israel’s embassy in Mexico said both had “criminal records in Israel as well as Mexico.”
“These are a settling of scores between organized criminal gangs with various interests,” said Alfonso Durazo, the secretary of security and civilian protection.
He said the criminal gangs involved were in disputes for a variety of reasons but it was “mainly about money laundering.”
He said both Israeli and Mexican criminal organizations were involved in the affair.
A Mexican woman, believed to be one of two killers, was arrested trying to leave the scene and has been questioned by police.
She originally claimed she’d attacked one of the two men, with whom she had been in a relationship, because he’d been unfaithful.
However she later changed her story and gave details that led police to investigate organized crime links.
