Cartel assassin ‘La Catrina’ shot dead by cops in Mexico
A 21-year-old Mexican cartel assassin — known for flaunting her curves and dangerous weapons on social media — was gunned down in a shootout with authorities, according to new reports.
Maria Guadalupe Lopez Esquivel, also known by her alias “La Catrina,” was shot in the neck Friday as Mexico’s army, National Guard and Michoacán state police raided the safe house where she stayed with several armed members of the murderous Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to Britain’s The Sun and the Mexican outlet El Universal.
A frightened and disheveled Esquivel collapsed behind a wall and was found with her face and clothes covered in blood, The Sun said.
Footage taken during the gun battle showed her struggling to breathe on the ground as a cop attempted to calm her down while she awaited a helicopter flight to the hospital, the site said.
“Calm down, kid. The helicopter is coming for you,” the officer says in the footage. “It is coming now, easy, easy, you are going to be OK. Try to hang on.”
Esquivel succumbed to her injuries several minutes after the helicopter took off, according to local reports.
The hitwoman — who shared her nickname with the female skeletal figure associated with Mexico’s Day of the Dead — was regarded as one of the leading figures in the cartel, according to The Sun.
She led a team of hitmen within the New Generation Cartel that killed more than a dozen state cops during an Oct. 14 ambush in Michoacan state’s Aguililla municipality, the outlet reported.
At the time of her death, she was responsible for paying other cartel members and coordinating assassinations, extortion and kidnappings, according to the report.
She joined the criminal organization in 2017 after falling in love with another leader, Miguel “El M2” Fernandez, who was also arrested during the raid, according to the report.
Since then, she rose up the ranks, and put her glamorous lifestyle on display.
The cartel rose to prominence between 2013 and 2015 and is considered by many analysts to be the “most dangerous and largest Mexican cartel,” according to a December Congressional Research Service report.
Analysts believe that it has operations throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe.
Its current leader is Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” who is wanted by both US and Mexican authorities.