Thread: Man suspected in killing 20 tourist arrested in Mexico

Man suspected in killing 20 tourist arrested in Mexico

August 02, 2011 11:02 AM
JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — An alleged drug trafficker suspected of helping abduct and kill 20 Mexican tourists has been arrested in the resort city of Acapulco, federal police said Tuesday.

Moises Montero Alvarez, nicknamed "The Korean," was captured Monday along with a 21-year-old and two teenagers believed to be accomplices. Alvarez is suspected of being a leader in the local Independent Cartel of Acapulco.

Alvarez, 42, is accused of helping to carry out the Sept. 30 kidnapping of 20 vacationing men from Michoacan state. Some of the men's decomposed bodies were later identified in a mass grave by relatives.

Authorities believe the tourists had been mistaken by drug traffickers for members of the rival La Familia cartel.

Alvarez is also suspected of ordering the killings of rival cartel members at in the port of Acapulco, the kidnapping of police officers and the April 7 burning of a supermarket that left at least one man dead. He was previously arrested in 1999 on extortion charges, police said.

Federal police have reported more than a dozen killings have been reported in the area in the last two days. In one case, a 35-year-old man's torso and right arm found on a busy street near the 23-story beachfront Grand Hotel Acapulco. In another, a taxi was found with the bodies of three men in their 20s killed with assault rifles.

At least five women in their 30s and 50s were also reported killed in that period, several in outlying areas of the surrounding state of Guerrero. The women were shot and several were found bound with ropes and tape. It is not known if the murders are linked.

Meanwhile, authorities were still looking for six pollsters for a nationally prominent polling firm who disappeared in Michoacan. There has been no sign of three workers who went missing Saturday in Apatzingan, nor of their three colleagues went to look for them.

Federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said Tuesday that national authorities had offered to assist state officials and the firm, Consulta Mitofsky, in investigating the case.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articl ... ested.html

Alvarez, 42, is accused of helping to carry out the Sept. 30 kidnapping of 20 vacationing men from Michoacan state. Some of the men's decomposed bodies were later identified in a mass grave by relatives.

I'm confused. Michoacan is allegedly a dirt poor state, no? After all, the majority of their population is here in the US, most of them illegally. Some my question is, how can 20 men from there afford to "vacation" in Acapulco? Makes me go hmmmmmm.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Alvarez, 42, is accused of helping to carry out the Sept. 30 kidnapping of 20 vacationing men from Michoacan state. Some of the men's decomposed bodies were later identified in a mass grave by relatives.

I'm confused. Michoacan is allegedly a dirt poor state, no? After all, the majority of their population is here in the US, most of them illegally. Some my question is, how can 20 men from there afford to "vacation" in Acapulco? :roll: Makes me go hmmmmmm.

The families of the men, many of whom were related, have said most of them were mechanics who saved up money to take a vacation together each year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11834379


24 November 2010 Last updated at 17:19 ET

Mexico drugs baron admits tourist deaths mistake

Carlos Montemayor is the latest in a series of alleged drugs barons to be arrested

A suspected drugs baron has revealed that 20 tourists kidnapped and murdered in Acapulco were the victims of mistaken identity, Mexican police say.

The suspect, arrested on Tuesday, said a faction of his gang mistook the Mexican tourists for members of a rival cartel, according to police.

The tourists disappeared in September, and 18 bodies were later found in a mass grave.

The suspect, Carlos Montemayor, was arrested in Mexico City on Tuesday.

He is accused of being the successor to alleged drugs lord Edgar Valdez - known as "Barbie" - who was detained in August.

Known as "El Charro", Mr Montemayor is Mr Valdez's father-in-law.

Both men are alleged to have been members of the powerful Beltran Leyva cartel, which splintered into warring factions after Mexican marines killed cartel boss Arturo Beltran Leyva in a gun battle in December 2009.
Outrage

Mr Montemayor is the latest in a series of alleged cartel leaders to be killed or captured in Mexico.

The dismantlement of the Beltran Leyva cartel has been one of the biggest successes in President Felipe Calderon's campaign against the drugs gangs.

More than 28,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Calderon began deploying troops to fight the cartels in late 2006.

But the kidnap and murder of the tourists in Acapulco caused particular outrage.

They disappeared on 30 September after they left their home town of Morelia. Witnesses last saw them looking for their hotel in Acapulco.

The families of the men, many of whom were related, have said most of them were mechanics who saved up money to take a vacation together each year.

Two of the tourists remain missing.

Acapulco has been the scene of a bloody conflict between rival drugs cartels fighting for control of smuggling routes to the US along the Pacific coast.