Alleged killers of journalists in Mexico captured

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MEXICO CITY -- Authorities in the troubled, coastal state of Veracruz announced Wednesday that they had arrested members of a drug-trafficking gang responsible for the slayings of five Mexican journalists.

Veracruz authorities said seven members of a branch of the Sinaloa cartel, recently moving into their state, were captured and had confessed to killing the journalists. Until recently, the state was controlled by the Zetas cartel, bitter enemy of the Sinaloa group.

The Veracruz justice ministry said Isaías Flores Pineda, whose nicknames include ‘The Maniac,’ was the head of the local Sinaloa operation and had been captured, leading to the chain of confessions that broke the case.

Veracruz has seen a bloody spike in violence in recent months. The port city has long been a stronghold of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which in July was reelected to the presidency after a 12-year absence. A number of journalists in Veracruz say they are as afraid of the local government as they are of drug traffickers.

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