A suspected local chief of the notorious Zetas cartel was arrested on Wednesday in connection with the murder of a journalist, reports BSS.
Soldiers acting under a court order captured the suspect — identified only as Manuel N and his alias “El Cachorro” — in the Mexican state of Veracruz, state prosecutor Luis Angel Bravo told reporters.
“The detainee is head of a group calling itself a criminal part of the Zetas,” Bravo said.
Investigations showed he was among a group of armed men who burst into the home of Anabel Flores Salazar before dawn in February and took her away.
Her bound and half-naked body was discovered the following day with her head covered with bags on a road in the neighboring eastern state of Puebla, the authorities said.
The 32-year-old mother of two died of asphyxiation. She worked as a crime reporter for the newspaper El Sol de Orizaba in Veracruz. Another man accused of taking part in the murder and also identified as a Zetas member was arrested in May.
Wracked by a wave of drug-related violence, Mexico is considered one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, with more than 90 journalists killed and another 17 reported missing since 2000, according to press freedom group Reporters Without Borders.
Veracruz is the most dangerous region for journalists inside Mexico, with 19 journalists murdered in the last six years.
