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By Mark Stevenson

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A former prosecutor and local police official was arrested Tuesday in connection with the grisly Oct. 6 beheading of a mayor.

Officials in the southern state of Guerrero confirmed that German Reyes had been arrested on homicide charges for the killing of Alejandro Arcos, just a week after he took office as mayor of the state’s capital. State, Chilpancingo.

The arrest was shocking because authorities had previously blamed the killing on a local drug and extortion gang, and Reyes was previously employed as a special prosecutor for Guerrero state, a high-level position.

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The implication was that Reyes – who was also a former military officer who, according to his official resume, had retired with the rank of captain in the military justice system – had somehow worked in collusion with the gang.

This suggests that at least one of the two warring gangs fighting for control of Chilpancingo is controlling, intimidating or working with authorities.

If Reyes is convicted, it would also be a scathing indictment of a policy adopted by cities across Mexico of hiring retired military officers for top local police positions, under the premise that they are less prone to corruption.

It was also telling that state detectives had to rely on federal forces – troopers and the National Guard – to make the arrest, suggesting they may not have had confidence in the state and local police who would normally perform such tasks.

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It is unclear what title Reyes held within the Chilpancingo municipal security force, nor whether he served under Arcos or the replacement mayor who took office after his assassination.

Mexico’s top federal security official, Omar Garcia Harfuch, said earlier Tuesday that Arcos, the mayor whose body was found in a van, with his severed head resting on the roof of the vehicle, was believed to have been killed by the same gang responsible for the 11th market assassination. sellers, including four boys, last week.

The sellers, members of an extended family, were kidnapped in late October while traveling to sell their wares. Their bodies were found last week in the bed of a pickup truck on an avenue in Chilpancingo.

Although neither Harfuch nor prosecutors would name the gang, a local human rights activist said the Ardillos were responsible for killing the market vendors.

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The activist, who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation, said the Ardillos gang controlled large parts of the state and that members of Congress and other officials worked for them.

The Ardillos have been engaged in a years-long battle for control of Chilpancingo with a rival gang, the Tlacos. This turf battle has left mutilated corpses scattered across the city in recent years.

Chilpancingo, a city of about 300,000 people, is so dominated by gangs that in 2023 one of them organized a protest of hundreds of people, hijacked a government armored vehicle, blocked a main highway and took the police hostage to secure the release of the arrested suspects. .

Violence in Guerrero has reached such unprecedented levels that earlier this year Catholic bishops announced they had helped arrange a truce in another part of the state between two warring drug cartels .

At the time, former President Andres Manuel López Obrador, who had refused to confront the gangs, said he approved of such talks.

“Priests, pastors and members of all churches participated and helped to pacify the country. I think it’s very good,” said Lopez Obrador, who left office on September 30.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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