Mexican federal and city authorities detained a man identified as Jovany “N”, alias “La Muñeca”, in Yautepec, Morelos, on 26 June, describing him as a key suspect in the May 2025 murder of two Mexico City government employees. The victims, Ximena Guzmán Cuevas and José Muñoz Vega, were ambushed on Calzada de Tlalpan in an operation that, according to the capital’s security secretary Pablo Vázquez Camacho, involved at least six people and seven vehicles and had been planned for twenty days. The suspect was found with a handgun, a gram scale and doses of a substance presumed to be narcotics, and is believed to have coordinated the attack as a member of a cell engaged in drug dealing and extortion. The arrest was the product of a special task force comprising city and federal prosecutors, the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection, and the National Intelligence Centre, which has been meeting weekly since the killings.

In a separate case, the Mexico City attorney general’s office announced the capture of a man and a woman suspected of drugging and robbing two men in a hotel in the Cuauhtémoc borough in March 2026, leaving one victim dead. Prosecutors said the method—incapacitating targets with substances to steal valuables—mirrors the modus operandi of a group known as “Las Goteras”. The suspects, Melanie Michell “N” and Kevin Iván “N”, were arrested in Tezoyuca, State of Mexico, after investigators traced their escape route using public and private surveillance cameras. Meanwhile, city police reported detaining three minors in separate incidents on 29 June: a 16-year-old accused of fatally shooting a man in Iztapalapa, and two 16-year-olds found in possession of AK-47-style rifles, a bulletproof vest, drugs and radios in the Tepito neighbourhood. Under Mexican law, minors face a maximum of five years’ internment for homicide.

In Bogotá, a judge validated the arrest of British national Matthew Foster, who was captured in Ecuador and returned to Colombia to face charges of aggravated femicide and evidence tampering in the death of Natalia Villalba Angarita. The 36-year-old’s body was discovered inside a suitcase in an apartment in the El Chicó district on 22 June. Colombian prosecutors allege Foster entered the flat, killed Villalba, placed her body in the luggage and then took steps to alter the crime scene before fleeing the country. Foster told a British tabloid he was watching a football match at a pub at the time, but security-camera footage reportedly places him at the building that afternoon. The next hearing, at which charges will be formally presented, was postponed at the defendant’s request.

Viewed from the region’s capitals, the flurry of detentions also drew attention to the intersection of politics and criminal investigations. In Mexico City, former Cuauhtémoc mayor Sandra Cuevas acknowledged a romantic relationship with Eduardo Pérez Tueme, who was arrested on 26 June on fraud charges in Coahuila. This followed the late-2025 arrests of two other former partners: Alejandro “N”, alleged leader of the La Chokiza group, and Giovanni Mata, a former official in her administration suspected of ties to the Unión Tepito. Cuevas has denied any involvement and said she would hold a press conference to disclose alleged crimes involving a sitting senator. All investigations remain ongoing, authorities in both countries said.