A drug cartel boss, known as El 22, has died in the hands of his own hitmen when they mistook him for an enemy in Mexico.
The shootout took place at a private health clinic in Culiacán, Mexico, where a cartel member was receiving treatment last Thursday night, September 28.
Sinaloa Cartel gunmen loyal to Los Chapitos – the sons of infamous drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán – were at the hospital to protect one of their cartel’s men under care.
Trouble started when the hit men on guard noticed that a man arrived at the hospital armed and with others equally armed.
According to El Blog del Narco, that man was the elusive “El 22,” who is thought to have been the gangster responsible for running the cartel’s operations in Guamúchil, Sinaloa.
In the hierarchy of their cartel, the man who arrived was their boss, but the hitmen did not know him physically, as they apparently took their orders from those who received them from El 22.
“That’s the bad thing about not knowing the boss,” a source said. It is thought that El 22 was visiting the clinic in order to pay for the wounded man’s surgery. The gunmen assumed he was a rival hitman coming to finish the injured man off. They opened fire on him and his team.
Four people died in the fighting including a medical personnel at the hospital, Dr Otniel Montoya, who was caught in the crossfire.
One of the hitmen who killed his own boss required medical attention when the fighting came to an end. It has been reported that he used a gun on himself after realising his fatal mistake, choosing to take his own life rather than face whatever gruesome punishment the cartel would’ve had in store for him.
Videos have since emerged on social media purporting to show El 22’s funeral. In them, flower displays are seen alongside the names of El Chapo’s sons, who were showing their respect.
