Man Held in Mexican Newspaper Editor’s Slaying
Police on Friday arrested a man accused of gunning down a northern Mexican newspaper editor. They said the killing was a hit ordered by a drug lord unhappy with the newspaper’s reporting.
Rolando Arroyo Palacios, nicknamed “Long Hair,” was arrested in San Luis Rio Colorado, 20 miles southwest of Yuma, Ariz., Sonora state Atty. Gen. Rolando Tavares said in a telephone interview from the state capital, Hermosillo.
Tavares said Arroyo allegedly was hired by the brother of a local drug lord angered by articles written by the editor, Benjamin Flores Gonzalez.
Drug lord Jaime Gonzalez Gutierrez was sentenced last month to 12 years in prison after he was caught with 1 3/4 tons of marijuana. His brother allegedly paid Arroyo for the hit.
Flores Gonzalez’s newspaper, La Prensa, had reported after Gonzalez Gutierrez’s arrest early this year that the drug lord was enjoying special treatment in the jail where he was being kept.
According to Tavares, the drug lord’s lawyer contacted Flores Gonzalez’s lawyer about two months ago and offered him money in exchange for the newspaper’s silence. The editor’s lawyer refused.
Flores Gonzalez, 29, was killed Tuesday by one of four gunmen who pulled up behind him in a car.
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