Thread: 16 police arrested in connection with Mexico mass graves

16 police officers arrested in connection with Mexico mass graves

By the CNN Wire Staff
April 14, 2011 12:41 p.m. EDT

Mexico City (CNN) -- Sixteen municipal police officers from the northeastern Mexican town of San Fernando have been arrested for allegedly protecting those responsible for the mass graves uncovered there, the country's attorney general said.

The police officers worked to cover up the killings of the Zetas drug cartel, Attorney General Marisela Morales said.

Authorities recovered 10 more bodies from the mass graves Wednesday and Thursday, bringing the total number of bodies found to 126, state attorney general's spokesman Ruben Dario Rios Lopez said.

Morales said that to date, investigators have identified 17 people who participated in the executions of the victims, who have been arrested.

She identified the authors of the crime as Salvador Martinez Escobedo, Omar Estrada Luna, and Roman Paloma. Paloma is the leader of the Zetas in San Fernando, Morales said. Mexico is offering a reward of 15 million pesos ($1.3 million) for information leading to their arrests.

Authorities began finding the graves earlier this month during an investigation into a report of the kidnapping of passengers from a bus in late March. The investigation led them to San Fernando, Tamaulipas -- the same place where in August of last year, the bodies of 72 immigrants were found at a ranch.

Tamaulipas is one of Mexico's most active states when it comes to drug trafficking. The Gulf cartel and the Zetas cartel operate in the state and have strongholds there.

The Zetas have been blamed for the killings of the 72 migrants found in San Fernando last year.

Nationwide, the Mexican government says there have been some 35,000 drug-related deaths since President Felipe Calderon began a crackdown on the cartels in December 2006.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/ ... gletoolbar

Bodies of missing men found in desert south of Juárez

by Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/14/2011 07:01:49 AM MDT

The bodies of four men, possibly members of a group allegedly abducted by police, were found Wednesday buried in the desert south of Juárez, authorities said.

Investigators were attempting to confirm the identities of the bodies, but their characteristics and clothing matched those of four men missing since March 26, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman with the Chihuahua state attorney general's office. Investigators found the bodies about 2:30 p.m. during a search off the highway to Casas Grandes.

Families and human-rights groups clamored for an investigation after the disappearance of Juan Carlos Chavira Soprano, 28, Dante Castillo de la O, 25, Raul Navarro Soprano, 29, and Felix Vizcarra Torres, 22, whom witnesses saw being taken into police custody.

On Friday, state investigators arrested three members of the police Delta tactical unit accused of abducting the men.

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