Drug cartel suspects detained in Mexico missing case

MEXICO CITY: Five suspected drug cartel members have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of five young people who were allegedly abducted by police officers in eastern Mexico, authorities said Wednesday.
Four men, all in their 20s, and a 16-year-old girl vanished on Jan 11 after they were detained by Veracruz state police officers in the crime-plagued town of Tierra Blanca.
Eight officers were detained and charged with "forced disappearance" – a term used for abductions committed by officials.
One of the officers told investigators that they delivered the youths to members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel at a ranch.
The officer said that the young people were killed and that their bodies were burned and crushed in a sugarcane grinder.
Roberto Campa, the deputy interior minister for human rights, told reporters that five cartel suspects were detained, though he did not say when or where.
Authorities said last month that a bone and blood stains found at the ranch matched the DNA of two of the victims.
The detained officer told authorities that he and his colleagues apprehended the young people because they suspected that they belonged to a rival drug cartel. — AFP