| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2009 
Suspects Detained in Mexico Shooting of Frenchman
 Associated Press
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| | Gangs Targeting People at Mexico City Airport? Thieves apparently targeting people who exchange money at Mexico City's international airport shot a French citizen in the head on Tuesday, and authorities warned that gangs have put lookouts at exchange windows in the terminal. | |
Mexico City – Mexico City prosecutors said Friday they have detained two suspects in the shooting of a French man during a robbery near the city's airport, the fourth such case involving foreigners in the last year.
The two suspects, aged 19 and 29, are believed to have been involved in a similar robbery in 2008.
Assistant city prosecutor Luis Vasquez said a total of 17 such robberies of people leaving the Mexican capital's airport have been reported since March 2008. The attacks appear to be the work of two or more gangs, or one organization with several cells.
Vasquez said the victims in four of the cases were foreigners: an English man, two Ecuadoreans and a man from Guinea. The rest were Mexican citizens.
Victims in all the attacks were apparently followed in vehicles after they exchanged money at the city's airport and robbed outside the terminal.
Officials have said criminals apparently have lookouts posted near the airport currency exchange counters. Once a potential victim is spotted having exchanged a sizable amount of money, the lookouts use radios or cell phones to alert accomplices waiting outside the airport.
French citizen Christopher Augur, 48, was in serious condition at a Mexico City hospital on Friday after suffering a gunshot wound to the head in a robbery on Tuesday.
Augur, a biotechnology researcher working at a local university, was assaulted as he and a driver traveled along a major boulevard after leaving the airport where he exchanged euros.
The driver later identified one of the suspects as the man who broke open the car window, grabbed a bag containing money and shot Augur.
Vasquez said prosecutors believe a total of seven assailants were involved in the attack, in which three vehicles surrounded Augur's car and forced the driver to stop. |
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