Gisela Mota: Female mayor of Temixco assassinated less than 24 hours after taking office 'killed for less than $30,000'

The mayor was thought to be just one person on a list of 'at least half-dozen' found in the team’s car

Bishop Ramon Castro officiates the funeral mass of Gisela Mota (Mayor of the time) at his home (Rex Features)

The female mayor assassinated within 24 hours of being elected on an anti-corruption campaign was killed by a group paid $29,000, it has been reported.

Gisela Raquel Mota Ocampo, the first woman elected as Mayor of Temixco in Morelos, Mexico, assumed office on New Year’s Day.

According to Mexican newspaper Reforma, the group was paid $29,000, although it is unclear if that was collectively or individually.

Police were called to the 33-year-old's apartment, where she had been beaten and shot in the head.

Officers embarked upon a car chase with the suspected killers, which left two of them dead, while "three others - which included a minor, a 32-year-old woman, and an 18-year-old man - were captured alive,” reported The Intercept.

The mayor was also thought to be just one person on a list of “at least half-dozen” found in the team’s car.

The state prosecutor’s office reported police found “loads of ammunition, a 9mm pistol, an Uzi submachine gun, bulletproof vests and balaclavas,” inside the suspect’s vehicle.

The governor or Morelos, Graco Ramirez, said the detained suspects had said the group known as Los Rojos were behind the plot of the mayor’s assassin, according to The Intercept.

The news site also reported: "In a radio interview, Mr Ramírez indicated Mota’s assassination might have been linked to a national government effort to replace municipal authorities with a single, unified state command.

“Following the murder, he ordered the State Security Commission to assume control of police in 15 municipalities, including the capital.”

Ms Ocampo was hoping to take on organised gun crime during her role as mayo. The area of Temixco, 60 miles south of Mexico City, has been plagued by political corruption and US-bound drug trafficking.

She is now part of a list of public officials - including almost 100 mayors according to the Association of Local Mexican Authorities - who have been killed since the “war on drugs” intensified in Mexico.