Mexico: Suspect arrested in 2019 massacre in Sonora

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A man who is allegedly connected to a massacre of nine Mexican-Americans committed by suspected drug traffickers in the state of Sonora in 2019 has been arrested, the Attorney General's Office announced Sunday.

The individual, identified as Leonardo “L”, was arrested during an inspection of a home in the municipality of Ascensión in the state of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, carried out by elements of the Federal Ministerial Police, the Criminal Investigation Agency and experts from the Prosecutor's Office, with the support of members of the Secretariat of the National Defense.

The detainee, who had an arrest warrant for his probable responsibility for the crime of organized crime, was transferred to the Federal Center for Social Rehabilitation #1 “Altiplano”, in the State of Mexico, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

Local media identified the man by the alias “El Chamona”. He is a member of the criminal group La Línea, an armed arm of the Juarez Cartel that has been linked to the murders of three women and six children of the Langford, LeBarón and Miller families that occurred on November 4, 2019 in the Bavispe municipality of Sonora, also in the north of the country, and which shocked Mexico.

In July 2020, relatives of the victims filed a federal lawsuit in the United States in which they accused the Juarez Cartel of perpetrating the attack in retaliation for public criticism and protests carried out by the LeBarón against the criminal organization.

General Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Secretary of National Defense, announced last month that 27 people had been arrested to date for their alleged responsibility for the 2019 Sonora massacre.

On that occasion Sandoval said that “we have 11 more linked to this act who have an arrest warrant and that work is being done to secure their arrest.”