At 5:15 a.m. on Monday, March 23, a red Beetle and a motorcycle arrived at a shopping plaza. The occupants’ objective was to kill a suspected drug dealer.
The target was partying at a table with about eight other people inside the Mikali bar on División del Norte, in the Acoxpa area in southern Mexico City (CDMX).
Closed-circuit security footage shows that two hooded hitmen got off the motorcycle. Another individual stepped out of the Beetle and opened the parking gate of the plaza.
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The gunmen then walked toward the bar’s entrance, and there was no security personnel to stop them.
According to the investigative file CCI-FIEDH/2/UI-1C/D/00119/03-2026, they burst into the place in less than 20 seconds and opened fire on those seated at a table.
The body of Rodrigo Solano Flores, “El Miclo,” was left there, while four other young people were injured.
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Authorities believe it was a settling of scores between drug traffickers.
Disputes Over Drug Trafficking
According to the investigation, the owner of Mikali is an individual known as “El Justin,” nephew of Agustín López Robles, “El Agus,” an aging drug trafficking leader who operated from Tlalpan to the state of Morelos.
“El Agus” was arrested in February 2021, which triggered a series of shifts in the criminal landscape in southern Mexico City.
Tlalpan and Morelos had been under fire since 2010, starting with the killing of Arturo Beltrán Leyva, known as “El Barbas,” followed by disputes involving Édgar Valdez Villarreal, “La Barbie,” and later Óscar Oswaldo García Montoya, “La Mano con Ojos.”
But the capture of “Don Agus” marked the fall of the last major drug trafficking leadership in Tlalpan, Coyoacán, and Morelos. What followed was a succession of new leaders and the incursion of other criminal groups into the area, a situation that continues to this day.
Criminal Gangs
Nightclubs and bars in southern Mexico City have been under the control of different criminal groups since the fall of Agustín López Robles, “El Agus.”
According to investigations by Mexico City police and prosecutors, gangs such as “Los Rodolfos,” La Unión Tepito, “Los Yayos,” and “El Rorro” have moved into the corridor along División del Norte, Miramontes, and Calzada de Tlalpan.
The only ones remaining are cells linked to “El Rorro,” operating from the Santo Domingo neighborhood in Coyoacán, following the alleged death of their leader.
“Los Yayos,” led by Gerardo Mora, “El Yayo,” operate out of the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood in Coyoacán.
La Unión Tepito also had its moment in the area, controlling retail drug sales in Acoxpa and Miramontes with accomplices of David García Ramírez, “El Pistache.” But after his arrest and that of several of his successors, they withdrew from the zone.
The last person in charge of La Unión in that corridor was “El Mitsuru,” who remains a fugitive.
The Current Dispute
According to investigators, the man behind the killing of the drug dealer at the Mikali bar could be an individual known as “El Gordo Galván.”
Authorities believe he ordered the killing of “El Miclo” for encroaching on territory controlled by “Los Yayos.”
For the past couple of years, there had reportedly been a truce between “Los Yayos” and members of the Santo Domingo neighborhood, who control drug sales at Ciudad Universitaria.
However, “El Miclo” was linked to them, and this killing appears to signal the end of that truce.
Police detained three Mikali employees for taking “El Miclo’s” body outside and cleaning the crime scene.
The owner of the bar is currently being sought by authorities to clarify these events, as well as over administrative issues, since the establishment was operating beyond permitted hours.
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