Mexico City police arrest a man for the murder of French businessman Lormand

Flowers and candles accumulate at the French Embassy in Mexico City in honor of Baptiste Lormand, the French-Mexican businessman whose body was found in a gutter last Saturday. So far, a man has been detained “possibly related to death,” the capital’s Security Secretary, Omar García Harfuch, reported on Monday. The investigation points to a robbery during an alcohol sale. The meeting could have been a decoy to attract partners and steal merchandise valued at $ 25,000, according to the theory that the police are considering. The bodies of Lormand and his partner Luis Orozco appeared two days later with signs of torture.

For the moment, the authorities rule out that it has been a case of attempted kidnapping, extortion or collection of a flat as denounced by some restaurant owners in Polanco, the exclusive area of ​​the capital where the businessmen operated and where a march is taking place this afternoon to demand justice in the face of homicides. The Head of Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, has reported that the investigations are “very advanced.” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised this Monday that he will work hard to find those responsible for the murder of Lormand and his business partner, Luis Orozco. “Work is being done to carry out a thorough investigation so that everything can be clarified: find those responsible and the motive for these murders,” he declared at his morning press conference.

Lormand and his partner were last seen on Thursday afternoon, when a traffic camera captured the image of both in different vehicles in the San Pedro Mártir neighborhood, in the Tlalpan mayor’s office, 27 kilometers south of the businessman’s home. The first hypothesis of the authorities is that Lormand moved to this colony to sell alcohol. The main lines of investigation indicate that the victims were assaulted and murdered when they were going to sell a batch of bottles valued at $ 25,000, as identified by the Secretary of Citizen Security of Mexico City, in charge of Omar García Harfuch.

The investigations are focused on clarifying whether the arrangement for the appointment was part of a hoax by an alleged buyer to rob them and steal the exclusive merchandise. The first theory points to a robbery at a home at the time of carrying out the transaction. Ulises Lara, spokesman for the capital prosecutor’s office, has detailed in an interview for Radio Image, that there is more and more data to support this hypothesis and ensures that there are vehicle tracks that are being compared with the database as well as a telephone record to know who the victims contacted before being tortured and killed.

The police have reinforced surveillance in the Polanco neighborhood, an exclusive commercial and business area where this Monday the march in honor of Lormand and his partner takes place to ask for the case to be clarified. The businessmen who operate in this place report that robberies, extortion and attempts to collect money from organized crime are frequent. Despite the large police presence in the area, the restaurateurs will take advantage of the demonstration to demand more security from the Government to carry out their activity.