Man arrested in connection with family massacre in Mexico
Nov 5, 2020, 8:55 PM | Updated: Jan 25, 2023, 11:53 am
Members of the Lebaron family watch the burned car where part of the nine murdered members of the family were killed and burned during an gunmen ambush on Bavispe, Sonora mountains, Mexico, on November 5, 2019. - US President Donald Trump offered Tuesday to help Mexico "wage war" on its cartels after three women and six children from an American Mormon community were murdered in an area notorious for drug traffickers. (Photo by Herika MARTINEZ / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by Herika MARTINEZ has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [AFP PHOTO / Herika MARTINEZ ] instead of [AFP PHOTO / STR ]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) — A man has been arrested in connection with last year’s massacre of nine American-Mexican citizens who were members of a polygamist group on a remote dirt road in northwestern Mexico, officials in that country said Wednesday.
The man, “Alfredo L.,” was detained in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city across the US-Mexico border from El Paso, Texas, the Mexican attorney general’s office said.
He “is a member of a criminal organization with a presence in the north of (Mexico), and is likely a participant in the events that occurred” in the Nov. 4, 2019, killings of the three women and six children in Mexico’s Sonora state, the office said.
The man is being charged with homicide and organized crime, though no details about what led authorities to believe he was involved in the deaths were immediately released.
The announcement of the arrest came exactly one year after the massacre happened.
The women and children — dual US-Mexican citizens and members of an independent church community in Sonora state — were in three vehicles well outside that community when attackers opened fire on them in two separate locations, authorities said. One of the vehicles was about 10 miles behind the others.
Eight other children survived the assaults, including a baby found hidden in one vehicle, and a 13-year-old boy who walked about 14 miles back to the Mormon community, La Mora, to seek help.
Though the victims had different last names, they all had ties to the extended LeBaron family in Mexico.
Mexican authorities last year said they believed drug cartel members, long a driver of violence in the country, committed the massacre. No arrests were immediately made in the month of the attack.
Authorities last year offered various theories as to why the shooting happened, but no single definitive explanation was released.
