Mexican cartel boss arrested over Mormon massacre in which nine died

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Mexican cartel boss arrested over Mormon massacre in which nine died

• Roberto González Montes and two others detained late Monday
• Outcry after three women and six children killed in 2019 attack

David Agren in Mexico City
@el_reportero
Tue 24 Nov 2020 22.52 GMT

Mexican security forces have arrested a local drug cartel boss implicated in the 2019 murder of nine women and children from an isolated Mormon community, raising hopes among victims’ relatives it might lead to an explanation for the attack.

Even in a country long used to violence, the 4 November massacre of three women and six children as they travelled a lonely road through the Sierra Madre mountains shocked many Mexicans – not least because there seemed no explanation for the bloodshed.

Roberto González Montes, nicknamed El Mudo (The Mute) or El 32, was detained late on Monday in an operation carried out by the federal prosecutor’s office and members of the army and navy, according to Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario de Juárez.

Adrián LeBarón, whose daughter Rhonita Miller and her eight-month-old twins were murdered in the attack, confirmed the arrest on Twitter, where he described it as “a step toward knowing the truth about who killed my children”.

He also identified González as “leader of La Línea cartel section (Nuevo) Casas Grandes” – a city in Chihuahua state near the US border with New Mexico.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/24/mexico-drug-cartel-boss-arrested-mormon-massacre

[Squinch]

1. There's always more to the story than meets the eye when the LeBarons are involved.