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.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS