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.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS