Mexico arrests Zetas leader accused of migrant killing

In 2010, gunmen for the Zetas drug cartel killed 72 migrants in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando. (Pixabay photo)

MEXICO CITY — Mexican police and military personnel on Tuesday arrested an “old school” Zetas cartel leader who allegedly co-ordinated a 2010 killing spree that included the massacre of 72 Central American migrants in the border state of Tamaulipas, authorities said.

The 56-year-old suspect was identified as Martiniano Jaramillo. Prosecutors said he was arrested at a hospital near the Tamaulipas state capital.

He faces charges of organized crime and kidnapping, including the abduction of a U.S. citizen.

Authorities said Jaramillo was linked to the May 10 killing of activist Miriam Rodriguez, who spent years searching for her missing daughter and discovered her body.

In 2010, gunmen for the Zetas drug cartel killed 72 migrants in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando. Investigators said the migrants were slain after they refused to work for the cartel.

The next year, 193 bodies were found buried in San Fernando, most of them migrants who had been kidnapped off buses and killed by the Zetas.