Ricardo Mejía, Undersecretary of the Secretariat for Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), released his report on the arrest of José Manuel Sánchez Cruz, known as Manu Vaquita, during yesterday’s morning press conference of President López Obrador.
Sánchez is the former owner of the Distrito 5 Restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, where former Jalisco Governor Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz was assassinated on December 18, 2020.
Mejía said, “It was a detailed follow-up that allowed us to show how this person, José Manuel Sánchez Cruz, met with a criminal leader.”
He said that Manu Vaquita met with Saúl N, “El Chopa,” a criminal kingpin, who was sitting next to Sandoval’s table, and left around 00:30 to go to a pharmacy, where he met with people who were aboard the vehicle seen near the bar at 1:20.
The SSPC revealed the chronology of the crime:
December 17, 2020: at 11:45 p.m. they saw “El Chopa” at a table next to Sandoval at the bar.
December 18, 2020: at 12:30 a.m., “El Chopa” left the bar, and met outside a pharmacy with those who are believed to have perpetrated the crime against Sandoval; at 1:15 a.m., Sandoval went to the bathroom, and a man shot him on the stairs; 1:21 a.m., Sandoval was transferred to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
