Mexico arrested two alleged drug cartel enforcers over the weekend, including a purported hit man accused of threatening officials and bribing police, and a suspect in the 1993 slaying of a Mexican cardinal.
Former local police chief Hector Izar Castro was detained on Sunday in the north-central state of San Luis Potosi on weapons, armed robbery and drug charges, federal police spokesman Edgar Millan said.
"This man is suspected of making a series of threats against local and state officials and has also been identified as the person in charge of paying off local police," said federal police spokesman Edgar Millan.
Police said Izar Castro had a rifle, pistols and cocaine in his possession at the time of his arrest, as well as three wooden clubs marked with the letter "Z" -- apparently signifying the Zetas, the gang of Gulf cartel hit men for whom he allegedly worked.
Late on Saturday, the commander of an army base in Tijuana announced that another alleged drug gunman had been collared: Alfredo Araujo Avila, also known as "Popeye," who allegedly worked for the Arellano Felix drug cartel as a hit man for more than two decades.
Araujo Avila is suspected of participating in the slaying of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, who was riddled with bullets on May 24, 1993, while he sat in his car at the airport in the city of Guadalajara, General German Redondo told reporters.
Investigators have concluded that gunmen working for the Arellano Felix cartel mistook the cardinal's luxury vehicle for that of a rival drug trafficker whom they were targeting for assassination -- and whose own security forces were at the scene and returned fire.
But Church authorities have long disputed that official version of events, arguing that Posadas Ocampo was killed because he knew about alleged relationships between drug dealers and government officials.
Six people besides the cardinal were also killed. Twelve people have since been convicted and imprisoned for the attack, most recently ex-police commander Humberto Rodriguez Banuelos in 2005.
Redondo said on Saturday that Araujo Avila is also suspected in the 1997 shooting of Tijuana journalist Jesus -, who survived and died of natural causes at age 70 in 2006.
Araujo Avila was detained at a house in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California, on outstanding warrants. Redondo said he is also wanted on charges in the US, but did not elaborate.
The general said the suspect holds US citizenship, but US consular authorities were not immediately available to confirm that. A pistol and a police identification card were found in the house.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
HIGH HOPES: The power source is expected to have a future, as it is not dependent on the weather or light, and could be useful for places with large desalination facilities A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source. The possibility of generating power from osmosis — when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one — has long been known. However, actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass. Engineers in Fukuoka, Japan, and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world’s second osmotic power plant. It generates
Hundreds of Filipinos and tourists flocked to a sun-bleached field north of Manila yesterday, on Good Friday, to witness one of the country’s most blood-soaked displays of religious fervor, undeterred by rising fuel prices. Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga Province’s San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in the scorching heat. Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said they saw devotees deliberately puncturing their skin with glass shards attached to a small wooden paddle to ensure their bleeding during the ritual, a way to atone for sins and seek miracles from
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
RSS