Man Arrested in Killings of 2 U.S. Citizens

Mexican police have arrested a suspect in the Tijuana slayings of two U.S. citizens--the 1998 killing of a San Diego private investigator and the July death of the son of Mexican singer Beatriz Adriana Flores, prosecutors announced Sunday.

Humberto Iribe Monroy, 26, was arrested Saturday at his mother’s home in Rosarito, a Mexican beach town about 15 miles south of San Diego, said Alberto Ramos, director of the Mexican attorney general’s office in Tijuana.

The United States has requested Iribe be extradited to face charges there in the torture slaying of San Diego private investigator Richard Post. Post was allegedly killed in Tijuana, but California prosecutors say the murder may have been planned on U.S. soil.

However, the attorney general’s office said in a statement that it has already taken pretrial testimony from Iribe on the slaying of Leonardo Martinez, the son of ranchera singer Beatriz Adriana Flores. That indicates Mexico will try Iribe here before extraditing him.

Under a special arrangement between the two countries, Mexico can try and sentence suspects, then immediately extradite them for trial in the United States, so that they face quick sentencing in both countries before serving jail time.

U.S. authorities allege in an indictment that Post, 52, was lured to Tijuana by his former girlfriend and boss at a company that sold an alternative medical treatment.

He allegedly was seized by two men posing as Mexican police officers, tortured for five days and killed.

Mexican prosecutors say Iribe is also suspected of kidnapping and killing Martinez and a Mexican companion, Aquiles Velgiz, and dumping their bodies outside Tijuana.

Flores, who now lives in Corona, Calif., was a well-known actress and singer in the late 1970s and early 1980s and recently revived her career.

Her son, born in the United States, was visiting Mexico on vacation when he was killed. Prosecutors say Velgiz was the target of the kidnapping and Martinez was seized because he was with him.