A suspect has been arrested in connection to the brutal slayings of nine Americans in Mexico.
Mexico’s Ministerial Agency for Criminal Investigation announced Tuesday that it detained a suspect found near the Arizona border holding two gagged and bound hostages in a truck. The suspect was also found in possession of four assault rifles, ammunition, and various large vehicles, including a bullet-proofed SUV.
The arrest followed the massacre of at least six American children and three adults who were traveling through the area when they were attacked by gunmen believed to be members of organized crime. The victims were members of a fundamentalist sect separate from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that settled in the region.
Mexican authorities are not sure what the motive behind the attack was but suggested that the gunmen might have mistaken the group’s large SUVs for those of a rival gang.
“These acts in which women and children lost their lives makes it clear that we need a collaboration and a union of forces,” the statement said. “Criminality should be analyzed and combatted, not only in local protest, but also regional, national, and transnational.”
After news of the tragedy broke, President Trump offered to assist Mexico in wiping the country’s drug cartels “off the face of the earth.” The Mexican president, however, declined the offer.
