Multiple people believed to be associated with last week’s slaying of six children and three women in northern Mexico have been arrested.
Mexican Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said that an “unspecified number” of people have been arrested after a group of assailants attacked a family from an offshoot Mormon group who were traveling via SUVs in the region. Some of the family members were shot, and others were trapped inside a burning vehicle.
“There have been arrests, but it’s not up to us to give information,” Durazo told reporters, noting that prosecutors in Sonora and federal officials were leading the investigation into the nine deaths.
There is speculation that the attack may have been carried out by an armed wing of the Juárez cartel called La Línea. La Línea, who is fighting with the Salazar gang, could have mistaken the family’s vehicles for those of the rival group.
Following the shootout, President Trump offered to help Mexico “wipe” the drug cartels “off the face of the earth.” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has pushed a policy with the catchphrase of “hugs, not bullets,” rebuffed that offer and said it wasn’t “in agreement” with the country’s convictions.
The FBI is also investigating the massacre.
