A federal official said a mayor in western Mexico was arrested as part of a probe into a suspected drug cartel training camp, where forced recruits were allegedly tortured or killed if they refused to cooperate.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, a powerful drug trafficking group, allegedly used the ranch in Jalisco state to train newly recruited gunmen, senior officials have said.
The discovery of human bones and clothing at the ranch in the city of Teuchitlan in March — what Human Rights Watch has called an “apparent mass killing site” — caused shock in a country where murders and kidnappings are daily occurrences.
Teuchitlan Mayor Jose Murguia Santiago was arrested as part of an investigation by government prosecutors into probable omissions or complicity of authorities with the cartel, a federal source told AFP on Saturday.
The source requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Murguia was arrested late Saturday afternoon, according to federal arrest records.
The Guerreros Buscadores collective, a group dedicated to locating missing relatives, has described the Teuchitlan ranch as an “extermination center” with “clandestine crematoriums” where forced recruits were thought to have been held by the cartel.
Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told reporters in late March that there was “no evidence that it was an extermination camp.”
But he also said that an alleged recruiter — who was arrested — said that cartel members tortured and killed recruits who refused to cooperate or tried to flee.
The attorney general’s office, which has denied executions were systematically carried out, took over the investigation after a complaint from Guerreros Buscadores.
The group found buried bones, clothing, shoes and other objects at the ranch, which went unnoticed during a search in September by authorities who raided it following reports of gunfire.
According to the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, 10 people were arrested, two captives freed and a dead body found along with skeletal remains in September.
Besides Mayor Murguia, about a dozen others have been arrested in the case, including a police chief from a neighboring municipality and two of his officers.
More than 127,000 people are registered as missing in Mexico, most of them since 2006 when the government declared war on drug trafficking groups.
By state, Jalisco has the highest number of missing persons cases, with more than 15,000.
