A grenade attack on the U.S. Consulate General in Guadalajara on Friday evening may have been ordered by the leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), Mexican newspaper are reporting.
Two explosive devices were thrown into the consulate compound at around 11 p.m., causing minimal damage, reports said.
No one was injured in the attack, which took place after the diplomatic mission had closed for the day.
At first, local police called to the scene believed someone had lobbed firecrackers into the consulate compound. According to La Jornada, federal investigators later revealed they had recovered fragments of two grenades, one of U.S. origin and the other from South Korea.
The Mexico City based daily quoted “sources close to the case” who had reviewed surveillance footage showing the culprit to be a single, unidentified man, who quickly fled the scene after detonating the devices.
Various news sources have speculated that the attack was the work of the CJNG, whose leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), has been targeted by U.S. authorities, with a $US10 million bounty placed on his head.
A video posted on social media in November shows a badly beaten man, with his hands tied and a bandage over his head and one eye, talking of how Oseguera Cervantes had ordered a bomb to be placed at the Guadalajara consulate, as a warning to “leave Señor Mencho in peace.”
Family members and associates of “El Mencho” have also been targeted and sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department through the Kingpin Act.
The Guadalajara Consulate opened for business Monday, December 3 and was working on a normal schedule. However, a beefed-up security presence was much in evidence.