News
March 17, 2023 | 3:12 pm
A 14-year-old boy nicknamed “El Chapito” has been arrested in Mexico in connection with the drug-related slaughter of eight people at a birthday party, officials said.
The federal Public Security Department announced on Thursday the arrests of the teenager and his alleged accomplice following the January 22 massacre in Chimalhuacan, a low-income suburb of Mexico City.
According to officials, “El Chapito” and a man known as “El Ñoño” were reportedly riding a motorcycle and opened fire on a family celebrating a birthday at their home.
The attack also injured five adults and two children, including a 3-year-old and a minor under the age of 14.
Federal police officers also arrested seven other accused gang members on drug charges during a 12-hour sting operation carried out in the suburbs of Mexico City over the weekend.
“El Chapito”‘s real name was not released, but his nickname, translated as “Little Chapo,” is an obvious nod to notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel serving a life sentence. serving in Colorado.
The motive behind the January killings has not been disclosed, but drug gangs in Mexico are known to engage in kidnappings and assassinations. They also target rivals who sell drugs on their turf or people who owe them money.
Investigators collared “El Chapito” and the others after the arrest of their gang’s leader, 28-year-old “El Lenguas”, on February 25.
“El Chapito” has been handed over to a specialized supervising judge in the comprehensive adolescent criminal justice system, while the adult defendants have been booked in the Neza-Bordo Penitentiary and Social Reintegration Center.
Child killers are not unheard of in Mexico.
In 2010, soldiers arrested a 14-year-old boy nicknamed “El Ponchis” or “The Cloak”, who claimed he had been kidnapped at age 11 and forced to work for the South Pacific Cartel. He said he had participated in at least four beheadings.
After his arrest, the boy, a US citizen identified as Edgar Jimenez Lugos, told reporters that he had been drugged and threatened into committing the crimes.
Lugos was subsequently found guilty of torturing and beheading four men and was sentenced to three years behind bars – the maximum sentence allowed by law, as he was a minor at the time of the murders.
After his release from prison in 2013, Lugos was allowed to return to the US.
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