This is how El Kalimba was left, who underwent surgeries to change his face and erase his fingerprints
According to the first reports, they shot him when he was traveling in a car with one of his closest associates. However, the images show the bodies destroyed by the bullets of the attacking hitmen. Jesús Martín, known as the Kalimba in Puebla, central Mexico, did not have time to mislead his enemies with a new identity.
They shot him dead in the middle of the operating room while they performed surgeries on his face and erased his fingerprints. A group of armed men broke into the EPMAC medical center in the Lomas 5 de Mayo neighborhood on Monday afternoon, while Martín was undergoing surgery.
They killed not only him, but three other people, who are presumed to be his girlfriend, his bodyguard and a doctor, according to local press.
Martín was wanted by the authorities for considering him the leader of one of the main criminal gangs in Puebla dedicated to the theft and trade of gasoline and diesel.
An illegal business that prevails there and that, at the national level, has become one of the biggest problems in the country after drug trafficking.
"He was being investigated as one of the‘ huachicoleros ’leaders in the area," Cristina Ortiz, spokesperson for the Puebla prosecutor's office, told BBC Mundo.
The "huachicoleo" is the Mexican nickname for fuel theft, especially in the Red Triangle, the Puebla region made up of the municipalities of Tepeaca, Acatzingo, Palmar de Bravo, Acajete and Quecholac.
The state prosecutor's office said they did not know if Martín had a criminal record, explaining that the theft of hydrocarbons is a federal crime "and before as a state we had no major intervention that that," said Ortiz.
News of the Kalimba's death made headlines across the country, but there were fewer reviews of other murders that occurred on the same day. They can also all be related.
According to the prosecution, those who orchestrated the death of el Kalimba also had to do with the murder on the same day of five people in a field in the municipality of Tlaltenango, about 28 kilometers from the EPMAC clinic.
One of the deceased was identified as Alfredo "N" alias el Cuino or el Kino, whom the authorities link as a member of the same criminal gang as Martín.
"At the property, they found hoses, valves and pumps for the theft of fuel, and three vehicles with a report of theft," the prosecution said in a statement.
The investigation accuses of the homicides a man nicknamed the Irving, "who at the command level is part of the same group" as the deceased.
Ortiz told BBC Mundo that the events of Monday are an example "of the increase in violence within the criminal gangs themselves" that sell hydrocarbons illegally in the area.
The body of Jesús "El Kalimba" Martín was identified and claimed on Wednesday by his relatives, but the question remains about who will replace his powerful place, said the correspondent for BBC Mundo in Mexico, Alberto Nájar.
The answer to that question will not come without more confrontations, said Najar.
"The dynamics of the‘ huachicoleros ’will not necessarily change after their death. In organized crime, the place that the boss leaves is occupied by others. What is expected is that violence will increase due to the internal dispute of his group to obtain control, "he warned. The Mexican state oil company Pemex reported in the middle of this year that the theft of hydrocarbons generates annual losses of about US $ 1.1 billion.
Despite the efforts of the states and the central government to combat the problem, the presence of criminal gangs continues in regions such as Puebla, close to oil facilities.
