Mexican police on Friday arrested one of the alleged perpetrators of the death of 13 people during a party attack on April 19 in Minatitlan, Veracruz state, local authorities said.
The attack had occurred during a family rally: individuals had opened fire and killed seven men, five women and a minor, and injured four people. The attackers wanted revenge on a drug trafficker, according to the state government of Veracruz.
A crime related to drug trafficking
The arrested man, portrayed as Adrian N., is the local leader of the powerful Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, and is linked to crimes such as kidnapping and extortion, in addition to numerous executions of members of rival groups, according to a judicial source who has required anonymity.
Located along the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Veracruz is plagued by the violence of drug cartels, with the highest rate of missing persons. The cartel of Zetas and that of Jalisco Nueva Generacion fight violently for the control of the drug routes, as well as for the fuel traffic.
Seventeen people released
In addition, the Mexican authorities announced the release of a total of 17 persons who were sequestered, in two separate cases, in the state of Jalisco. They all had stab wounds or other marks of torture. Some may have a criminal record and be linked to drug trafficking, said local prosecutor Gerardo Octavio Solis Gomez. The state of Jalisco has experienced many outbreaks of violence in recent months.
A country hit by a wave of violence
More than 40,000 people are currently missing in Mexico, hit by a wave of drug-related violence, especially since then-president Felipe Calderon launched the armed forces in 2006 in a massive anti-trafficking operation. drug traffickers. Since then, some 250,000 people have been murdered in Mexico, according to official figures that do not specify how many of them have been victims of clashes between mafias.