Mexican Army Detains Six Suspects in U.S. Customs Agent Killing
Mexican army personnel detained a main suspect and five others tied to the Feb. 15 killing of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata in San Luis Potosi state.
The suspects, led by Julian Zapata Espinoza, were captured in a safe house and belong to the organized-crime gang known as the Zetas, said Ricardo Trevilla, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, in a televised news conference yesterday in Mexico City.
Zapata Espinoza said the killing of the U.S. agent and the wounding of another, Victor Avila, resulted from confusion that the two belonged to a rival gang because of the armored sports utility vehicle they drove, Trevilla said.
Along with Zapata Espinoza, the military arrested Armando Alvarez, Mario Dominguez, Jesus Ivan Quezada, Martin Barcenas and Ruben Dario Venegas, who is Honduran, Trevilla said. Three women, one of whom is Zapata Espinoza’s wife, were also taken in custody.
At the safe house where the arrest was made, authorities confiscated five long firearms and a handgun as well as five vehicles, one of which was armored. Trevilla said a payroll list was also found. Zapata Espinoza, who has a criminal record, was chief of a Zetas cell that operated in the state, he said.
President Barack Obama spoke with Mexican President Felipe Calderon late yesterday and thanked him for the efforts to investigate the case and the arrest of suspects, the White House press office said in a statement. Calderon is scheduled to meet Obama in Washington during a trip March 2-3.
The investigation into the shooting incident will continue, said Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for Mexico’s Attorney General Office at the news conference.
Jaime Zapata was driving an armored sports-utility vehicle along Mexico’s Highway 57 when 12 to 15 armed men in two vehicles forced him to stop, according to Michael McCaul, a U.S. congressman who chairs a Homeland Security committee and was briefed on the incident. After Zapata and Avila identified themselves as U.S. agents, the gunmen opened fire and fled, said McCaul, a Texas Republican.
To contact the reporters on this story: Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at tharrison5@bloomberg.net and Thomas Black in Monterrey, Mexico, at tblack@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page