Seven arrested in torture murder of Mexican general

Seven members of drug cartel hit squad Los Zeta have been arrested in connection with the torture and murder of three people including a retired general in Cancun.

Seven members of drug cartel hit squad Los Zeta have been arrested in connection with the torture and murder of three people including a retired general in Cancun, law enforcement officials said.

HT Image

The arrests include Los Zeta leader Octavio Almanza, "who along with his brother Ricardo took part in the execution of general Mauro Enrique Tello," as well as an army lieutenant and a civilian, said Attorney General Special Investigations chief Marisela Morales.

The three murders were carried out with complicity of Cancun's municipal police chief Francisco Velasco Delgado, nicknamed "The Viking," who was arrested on Monday, she told a press conference.

The tourist resort city of Cancun, on the Caribbean coast, was shocked on February three when police found the tortured and bullet riddled bodies of Tello and two others inside a car on a highway outside the city. Tello had been in charge of a local security program.

Masked anti drug police were deployed in Cancun to carry out random checks in search of the killers.

Almanza and his six underlings in Los Zeta, a hit squad for the notorious Gulf drug cartel, were arrested on Monday in Cancun on an anonymous tip, Morales said.