In July 2019, two Israeli underworld figures will be sitting with Vanessa Ballar Fallas at a restaurant in Mexico City. At one point during their meeting, Ballar Fallas calls a call and moments later, two attackers come to the table and shoot both men up close. Ballar Fallas then got up calmly, walked out of the restaurant and disappeared – until now.
According to reports from Mexico, Ballar Fallas was arrested on Thursday for allegedly mastering the murder of the two men. The couple, Alon Azulay and Benjamin Yeshurun Sutchi, were reportedly in Mexico City to collect a $ 14.5 million money laundering debt she had with them. But the shadowy agreement was entangled with the brutal cartels of Mexico City, and the men were aware that they were in danger before the meeting.
Reports on cellphones found at the scene – a restaurant in the upscale Plaza Arts Mall – allegedly revealed that the victims only agreed to meet in person if it all happened in a busy public place. Ballar Fallas booked the table where Azulay and Sutchi were shot, and was there to meet them before hell broke loose in the building. In the cellphone video of the incident, panicked food was hidden under the tables of gunfire.
Ballar Fallas, known by the monk “La Güera”, believes the investigators lured Sutchi and Azulay to the restaurant with the promise of giving them millions of dollars worth of money. In a statement issued Friday, Mexico’s attorney general allegedly described her as a “trusted partner” of the leadership of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which is being blamed for organizing the assassinations.
The newspaper El Universal reported that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel had attempted to use the two Israelis to launder the millions, but believed that the two would not give them their share, and so arranged the hit work with Ballar Fallas and rented guns.
At the time of the killings, the shooters were named as Esperanza Gutierrez, a 33-year-old woman, and the 23-year-old man Mauricio Hiram. They both believe they belonged to the Tláhuac cartel, which was allegedly linked to the larger Jalisco New Generation cartel. Gutierrez was arrested moments after the July 2019 hit, while Hiram was only tracked down and arrested in September of that year.
According to the Israeli embassy in Mexico, the two dead men had previous criminal records in both Israel and Mexico, and Mexican police noted that the evidence suggests the shooting was related to a financial dispute between criminal groups with the Israeli mafia.
“The incident yesterday leads us to relate the facts to the settlement of scores among criminal groups and / or organized crime,” Ulíses Lara López, a spokesperson for the city prosecutor, said in 2019. the Israeli mafia, therefore a complete identification [of the victims] was possible, along with their criminal records. ”
In August 2019, Mexico asked Interpol for help finding Ballar Fallas. On Thursday, a year and eight months after she allegedly mastered the deadly hit, she was finally located in Mexico City.