Axes, a pistol and 100 bags of cocaine: this was the robbery at the Antara shopping center

The robbery was planned for a day before, but who knows, in these cases, what strange logic ends up marking the calendar; what mathematics dictates the thoughts of someone who is about to blow up the window of a luxury jewelry store. What is known is that the thieves entered separately, so as not to arouse suspicion, the Antara shopping center in Polanco, one of those exclusive and wealthy ghettos where successful businessmen, diplomats and politicians from Mexico City take refuge. Four people loaded with backpacks that hid axes and mallets, according to what the Secretary of Citizen Security of the capital, Omar Garcia Harfuch, has reported this Wednesday at a press conference.

What happened next, the whole country has already seen: three of them pulled out the axes and viciously attacked the window of the luxury jewelry store Berger. Meanwhile, the fourth was watching, armed with a gun —that, the watchman, is the only detainee at the moment, whose statement is opening the way for investigators. It was around 7:45 p.m. on Monday. There was still light, customers in the mall, stores open. Everyone was able to see the assault, everyone was able to record it on videos that have gone around the internet. Recordings in which an omnipresent bellowing siren is heard and the blows that try to burst the armored glass.

The thieves managed to break one of the windows and extract 15 of the watches on display in the window, valued at 1,800,000 pesos (more than $100,000), according to estimates by the Secretariat for Citizen Security (SSC). By the time officers, alerted by calls from several of the mall’s patrons, arrived at the crime scene, it was too late. The four of them, with their axes and watches safe, had vanished.

That was his mistake. Thus fell Marco N., the first and so far the only one to be arrested: a 27-year-old citizen with a history of robbery. At the time of his arrest, on Tuesday, he was carrying a short pistol at his waist and was accompanied by a 25-year-old woman whom the local press has identified as the creator of Internet content Yulissa Mendoza, who “is not directly related to with the assault”, Garcia Harfuch clarified. According to the police investigation, Marco is part of a group of robbers that operated in the Miguel Hidalgo and Gustavo Madero neighborhoods and parts of the State of Mexico.

Marco’s detection opened the first crack for the police to follow. Thanks to the interrogation, the agents discovered that the thieves “do not belong to a highly structured criminal record.” “We are sure that we are going to stop them soon,” said the Secretary of Security during the press conference. Investigators have already identified the other three involved, although their identity has not yet been released so as not to put the operation at risk.

During this early morning, the police carried out two searches. The first, in the building on Lago de Xochimilco street where Marco was arrested. There they found the vehicles used in the robbery. In one of them appeared the axes, the mallets, a motorcycle helmet, watch holders and the clothes that the thieves used in the assault. The Ford had already been insured in May 2022 for an arrest for illegal possession of a firearm. The second search was in the San Juan de Aragon neighborhood and the investigators arrested a 36-year-old woman, part of the criminal ID to which the robbers belonged, but not directly linked to this crime. She seized 100 bags of cocaine and a mobile phone.

The police continue to investigate. In a country where less than 1% of crimes are solved, according to an analysis by the civil organization Impunidad Cero, the virality of an assault in broad daylight in a luxury shopping center forces the authorities to act against the clock to put results on the table. Garcia Harfuch has indicated that they have no indication that the jewelry guards were related to the robbery, a suspicion that spread through social networks due to the inactivity of the center’s security. And once again, a crime has broken a mirage: in a country torn by violence, not even the rich neighborhoods are entirely safe from insecurity. Some crystals smashed with an ax attest to this.