Mexican police arrest ‘massacre organiser’ Edgar Huerta

MEXICAN police have detained an alleged Zetas drug gang member accused of coordinating the massacre of 72 migrants last August and other killings in northeast Mexico.

Edgar Huerta, a former soldier, allegedly admitted to “personally leading abductions from two trucks containing more than 70 undocumented Central Americans who were killed”, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the anti-narcotics division of the public security ministry.

The Central Americans were found shot to death on a ranch in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state, last August, a ministry press officer told AFP.

Huerta, who was detained on Thursday in northern Zacatecas state, was also linked to 183 bodies found in hidden graves in San Fernando last April, Pequeno said.

Huerta allegedly admitted to personally killing 10 people and ordering abductions from at least six buses, whose passengers were later tortured to see if they belonged to the rival Gulf drug gang, the ministry said.

A brutal turf war between the Gulf gang and their former enforcers the Zetas has spread violence and fear through Tamaulipas and neighbouring areas near the US border in recent years.