Mexican mayor and officers arrested in murder of 10 people found burned
Michoacán state prosecutor says that the mayor gave the order to four officers to kill 10 people and burn their bodies, motivated by a rivalry over drug sales
Michoacan, Mexico murder
Forensic experts work at the site where nine people were found burned in a vehicle in Michoacán, Mexico, on Saturday. Photograph: Luis Enrique Granados/EPA
Associated Press in Mexico City
Tuesday 2 August 2016 11.45 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 2 August 2016 15.32 EDT
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A mayor and four local police officers have been arrested in a western Mexican state in connection with the murder of 10 people, who were killed and burned over the weekend.
Governor Silvano Aureoles of Michoacán said in an interview with Imagen Radio on Tuesday that authorities initially thought the bodies found in a pickup near a gas pipeline in Cuitzeo had been somehow connected to illegal pipeline taps.
However, Aureoles said that the investigation eventually revealed that police from the town of Álvaro Obregón had detained the victims.
Speaking with Milenio television, Aureoles said that interviews “point directly to the mayor who gave the order”. Without naming the mayor, he said he and four police officers had been transported to prison.
The state prosecutor José Martín Godoy also said in a news conference on Monday night that the mayor gave the order. “After they were detained, on instructions from the mayor, the civilians were transported to a place in Álvaro Obregón where they were killed and then they took the bodies to a property in Cuitzeo where they set them on fire,” he said.
The motive appeared to be related to a rivalry over street-level drug sales, Aureoles said.
The state of Michoacán has been convulsed for years by drug violence.