Gang Member Held in Slaying of Cardinal

A seventh gang member from San Diego has been arrested in connection with the May 24 shootout at Guadalajara’s airport that left a Roman Catholic cardinal and six others dead.

Jesus Zamora-Salas, 30, a member of the Calle Treinta gang from the Logan Heights section of San Diego, and known by the street name “El Cougar,” was arrested Friday at a church in Lompoc and brought to the Metropolitan Correctional Center here for arraignment Monday.

Authorities believe that Zamora was among a group of San Diego gang members retained as hired guns by a Mexican drug kingpin.

Zamora was arrested by U.S. officers under a Mexican warrant charging him with complicity with the gang that planned and carried out the bloody ambush at the Guadalajara airport that mistakenly killed Cardinal Juan Jose Posadas Ocampo.

Federal officials would not say what Zamora’s role was in the May 24 murders. He is being held without bail on a variety of federal weapons charges pending a Sept. 28 hearing.

Of the seven arrested, six are in custody and one has been released.

Investigators have said up to 30 members of the Calle Treinta gang may have served as soldiers for the Arellano brothers of Sinaloa who ran drug trafficking in northwest Mexico.