The shooting death of a man believed to be Óscar Noé Medina González, known as El Panu, in a central Mexico City restaurant has raised numerous questions about his identity and security. His wife claims he was Óscar Ruiz, a hotelier from Mazatlán visiting for the holidays. The incident unfolds amid the Sinaloa Cartel's internal war, which has led to over 1,800 murders since July 2024.
On Sunday, a gunman dressed in black, wearing a cap and face mask, entered a restaurant in Mexico City's Juárez neighborhood and fired 12 shots at the victim, who was dining with his wife, without saying a word. The victim lay face down in a pool of blood, with at least two bullet wounds in his back. Mexican authorities have not confirmed the identity, but he is presumed to be El Panu, right-hand man of Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, leader of Los Chapitos, the Sinaloa Cartel faction at war with Zambada's heirs since July 2024, when Joaquín Guzmán López handed 'Mayo' over to the United States.
The DEA describes El Panu as responsible for Los Chapitos' territorial expansion in Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas, as well as torturing and killing rivals and the 2017 murder of three Federal Attorney General's Office agents. The United States offers up to $4 million reward for him. DEA photos show a man with a clenched jaw, short black hair, thick nose, and eyes between sleepy and defiant, matching images from his detention in Culiacán on October 17, 2019, and a more recent one trying on a white shirt.
The wife, María José Rojo—daughter of Sinaloa's undersecretary of Tourism—stated they arrived on December 20 and that her husband was a businessman with no criminal ties. The restaurant is near the Federal Attorney General's offices. Questions remain: how did a high-priority target move so freely? The assassin fled on foot through a surveilled area, with no bodyguards or crossfire. Two days later, on Tuesday, the father-in-law and brother-in-law of Iván Archivaldo—Mario Alfredo Lindoro Navidad, 'El 7', and Mario Lindoro Elenes, 'El Niño'—were arrested in Zapopan, Guadalajara, key financial operators in Jalisco, territory of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The conflict has added nearly 800 disappearances.
