Mexican court indicts 26 Zetas in mass-graves case

July 06, 2011 8:47 PM
THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD

Mexican authorities on Wednesday announced the indictment of 26 Zetas in connection with the murder of 193 people, most of them apparently bus passengers, who were buried in clandestine mass graves earlier this year in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

The individuals were indicted by a Mexican federal judge in Villa Aldama, Veracruz, at the request of the Or-ganized Crime Division, known as the SIEDO, of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office.

The group is accused of engaging in organized criminal activity, crimes against pubic health, and kidnapping, according to the SIEDO. The suspects were turned over to the SIEDO in April — shortly after their arrest by the Mexican military — after being tied to the disappearance of bus passengers passing through San Fernando, some 80 miles south of Brownsville.

In early April, Mexican authorities announced finding a number of mass graves in the rural areas around San Fernando. As the days went by, more bodies were found, and to date there are 193. Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office, known as the PGR, has taken 120 of the victims to Mexico City for forensic testing.

According to a separate release from the PGR, authorities have identified 20 of the victims and returned their remains to their families.

Mexican authorities have arrested more than 80 members of the Zetas who are blamed for the massacre.

The Zetas allegedly hijacked the buses as a way to identify and capture suspected Gulf Cartel members who may have been traveling incognito, according to PGR documents.

In August, Mexican authorities announced a similar find in San Fernando after a firefight there. Mexican ma-rines had found a warehouse containing 72 bodies of Mexican and Central American migrants who had been kid-napped as they tried to make their way to the United States.

INDICTED ZETAS

1. Armando Cesar Morales Uzcanga, “El Locoâ€