The chief of police in a northern Mexico municipality has been arrested in connection to the mass murder of nine members of two Mormon families in Sonora last month, The Daily Beast reports.
Three women and six children, all members of the large LeBaron and Langford families that have lived in Sonora and Chihuahua for years and had dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship, were murdered on Nov. 4. Mexican authorities attributed the massacre to a local organized crime group and arrested three individuals in early December, claiming that the incident was a mistaken attack on what the group thought was another gang, but the LeBaron family and others dispute the official hypothesis.
The family claims that the attack “was something premeditated against the community,” according to Adrian LeBaron, who is the father of one of the victims, and that the gunmen “knew that they were killing women and children.”
Last Thursday, authorities announced that Janos, Chihuahua chief of police Fidel Alejandro Villegas had been arrested and detained in Mexico City in relation to the crime, but did not provide further details, according to Mexico News Daily.
“The entire northwest [of Mexico] has a reputation that all police officers work for organized crime, and that's what high school kids tell you. It’s not a mystery,” LeBaron family spokesperson Julian LeBaron told local outlet Aristegui News not long after Villegas was arrested.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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