Officials are saying that a number of officers at northern Mexico prisons allowed members of Los Zetas drug cartel to hold their kidnap victims in the local jails while they awaited the ransom payments from the victims families. And as details of this story come to light, the drug-fueled violence has claimed more lives, as bodies of 32 victims were found in three Veracruz houses.
In Juarez, a suburb of Monterrey, it was discovered that prison officers, who are also believed to be members of Los Zetas, allowed prisoners to hold at least two kidnap victims in the prison.
Jorge Domene, security spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon, said the victims were freed from the jail cells. He added that last weekend, the state’s attorney general’s office arrested 73 local police officers from a number of communities throughout the state.
Background checks are said to have been performed on an additional 99 officer, with 21 being fired for refusing to cooperate.
As the investigation into how the kidnap victims were allowed to be held in the jail continues, the drug cartels continue to fight of territory and power, and officials believe the deaths of more than two dozen people found in Veracruz are a result of that fight.
It appears the battle between Los Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel has claimed even more lives, as the Mexican navy said it found 32 bodies in three separate homes in Veracruz Thursday.
