10 arrested at Mexican drug cartel ranch found guilty of murder
GUADALAJARA : Ten men arrested at a farm linked to a drug cartel in the Mexican state of Jalisco were found guilty of murder and kidnapping in a high-profile trial that concluded yesterday, the prosecutor's office said.
The Izaguirre ranch allegedly served as a forced recruitment centre for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most powerful criminal gangs in the country.
The men were found guilty of 'disappearance committed by private individuals' and 'qualified homicide', according to a statement from the Jalisco prosecutor's office.
The men were arrested last September when they exchanged gunfire with police and national guard officers.
The Guerreros Buscadores collective, a group dedicated to locating missing relatives, reported in March that hundreds of objects and items of clothing had been found on the same property, allegedly belonging to missing people who had been forced to join the cartel.
The group also stated that they found probable charred human remains and that the site had been a sort of 'extermination centre' for the CJNG.
But the attorney-general's office, which carried out the investigation, stated that it did not find evidence to confirm these allegations, although it said the farm served as a criminal training centre.
Since March, about 15 other people, including a mayor and police officers, have been arrested in connection with this site.
The case has received significant press coverage in a country where more than 100,000 people have gone missing, most of them since 2006 when the federal government launched a widely criticised anti-drug military operation.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Malay Mail
The mystery of the princes in the tower: Did Richard III really murder his nephews or did they survive?
LONDON, July 19 — It is one of history's most intriguing 'murders' — the mysterious disappearance over five centuries ago of two young princes from the Tower of London. Nearly 200 years after they disappeared, two small skeletons were found in a wooden box at the historic tower and reburied at Westminster Abbey. The remains were believed, but never proved, to be those of the two brothers — heir to the throne Edward, 12, and Richard, nine, the sons of King Edward IV of England, who were reputedly murdered at the behest of their uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester. William Shakespeare later immortalised him in Richard III as a scheming hunchback who did away with his royal nephews so he could take the crown himself, sealing his reputation as a child killer. Now British author Philippa Langley, who helped unearth Richard's body from a central England carpark in 2012, has claimed that the princes — far from being killed — actually survived. The elder prince, Edward, was heir to the throne at the time of his disappearance and would have ruled as King Edward V of England. Langley decided to delve into the mystery after coming to believe that the conventional narrative in which Richard had the young princes killed smacked of 'history being written by the victors'. She was finally spurred into action after reading an article about Richard's reburial at Leicester Cathedral in 2015 which questioned whether the nation should honour a 'child killer'. 'I think I'd always realised that the story sort of developed during the reign of the Tudors,' she said, adding that it was then 'repeated and repeated over time' until it became 'truth and fact'. Tudor mud The last English king to die in battle, Richard ruled from 1483 until his brutal death at the Battle of Bosworth near Leicester in 1485, aged 32. Bosworth was the last major conflict in the Wars of the Roses and changed the course of English history because the Tudor dynasty of Henry VII captured the crown from Richard's Plantagenets. Langley attributes the accepted story that Richard had the boys murdered to King Henry VII, a 'very, very intelligent individual, but suspicious and highly paranoid'. 'He had a massive spy network working for him. And he was able to completely control the narrative,' she said, adding that Richard ended up 'covered in Tudor mud'. An undated handout picture released on February 4, 2013 from the University of Leicester shows the skeleton of king Richard III found at the Grey Friars Church excavation site in Leicester. — AFP pic Taking a cold case review approach to the historical 'whodunnit', Langley says she assembled a group of investigative specialists, including police and lawyers, to advise her. 'They said: 'Look, if you haven't got any confirmed, identified bodies, then it has to be a missing persons investigation and you have to follow that methodology'. 'They said: 'You have to actively look for evidence'. That's when it really started to get interesting.' Langley put out an appeal for volunteers to scour archives, only to be inundated with offers of help from people ranging from ordinary citizens to medieval historians. The result was the decade-long Missing Princes Project which she says unearthed a significant amount of information pointing to the survival of both young princes. Survival theory Langley now believes that it is up to Richard's detractors to disprove the survival thesis, which she outlines in the new book 'The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case'. 'The onus is now on them to find the evidence that the boys died. 'They cannot say Richard III murdered the princes in the tower any more because we found numerous proofs of life everywhere,' she said. Key to Langley's conviction that both boys survived are documents discovered supporting a rebellion by 'Edward IV's son'. During the rebellion in 1487, Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne who came forward after Richard's death, was crowned in Dublin. According to fresh references found by the project, the boy was 'called' or said to be 'a son of King Edward', which she believes points to Simnel being the elder prince, son of Edward IV. The reaction to Langley's research has been mixed. Michael Dobson, director and a professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute, expressed scepticism. 'Given the ways of dynastic monarchy, I think Richard would have been taking a very big risk in leaving those princes alive,' he said. 'The chances of their having accidentally gone missing while incarcerated on his orders in the Tower of London seem pretty remote.' — AFP
Malay Mail
3 days ago
- Malay Mail
The mystery of the princes in the tower: murdid Richard III really murder his nephews or did they survive?
LONDON, July 19 — It is one of history's most intriguing 'murders' — the mysterious disappearance over five centuries ago of two young princes from the Tower of London. Nearly 200 years after they disappeared, two small skeletons were found in a wooden box at the historic tower and reburied at Westminster Abbey. The remains were believed, but never proved, to be those of the two brothers — heir to the throne Edward, 12, and Richard, nine, the sons of King Edward IV of England, who were reputedly murdered at the behest of their uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester. William Shakespeare later immortalised him in Richard III as a scheming hunchback who did away with his royal nephews so he could take the crown himself, sealing his reputation as a child killer. Now British author Philippa Langley, who helped unearth Richard's body from a central England carpark in 2012, has claimed that the princes — far from being killed — actually survived. The elder prince, Edward, was heir to the throne at the time of his disappearance and would have ruled as King Edward V of England. Langley decided to delve into the mystery after coming to believe that the conventional narrative in which Richard had the young princes killed smacked of 'history being written by the victors'. She was finally spurred into action after reading an article about Richard's reburial at Leicester Cathedral in 2015 which questioned whether the nation should honour a 'child killer'. 'I think I'd always realised that the story sort of developed during the reign of the Tudors,' she said, adding that it was then 'repeated and repeated over time' until it became 'truth and fact'. Tudor mud The last English king to die in battle, Richard ruled from 1483 until his brutal death at the Battle of Bosworth near Leicester in 1485, aged 32. Bosworth was the last major conflict in the Wars of the Roses and changed the course of English history because the Tudor dynasty of Henry VII captured the crown from Richard's Plantagenets. Langley attributes the accepted story that Richard had the boys murdered to King Henry VII, a 'very, very intelligent individual, but suspicious and highly paranoid'. 'He had a massive spy network working for him. And he was able to completely control the narrative,' she said, adding that Richard ended up 'covered in Tudor mud'. An undated handout picture released on February 4, 2013 from the University of Leicester shows the skeleton of king Richard III found at the Grey Friars Church excavation site in Leicester. — AFP pic Taking a cold case review approach to the historical 'whodunnit', Langley says she assembled a group of investigative specialists, including police and lawyers, to advise her. 'They said: 'Look, if you haven't got any confirmed, identified bodies, then it has to be a missing persons investigation and you have to follow that methodology'. 'They said: 'You have to actively look for evidence'. That's when it really started to get interesting.' Langley put out an appeal for volunteers to scour archives, only to be inundated with offers of help from people ranging from ordinary citizens to medieval historians. The result was the decade-long Missing Princes Project which she says unearthed a significant amount of information pointing to the survival of both young princes. Survival theory Langley now believes that it is up to Richard's detractors to disprove the survival thesis, which she outlines in the new book 'The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case'. 'The onus is now on them to find the evidence that the boys died. 'They cannot say Richard III murdered the princes in the tower any more because we found numerous proofs of life everywhere,' she said. Key to Langley's conviction that both boys survived are documents discovered supporting a rebellion by 'Edward IV's son'. During the rebellion in 1487, Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne who came forward after Richard's death, was crowned in Dublin. According to fresh references found by the project, the boy was 'called' or said to be 'a son of King Edward', which she believes points to Simnel being the elder prince, son of Edward IV. The reaction to Langley's research has been mixed. Michael Dobson, director and a professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute, expressed scepticism. 'Given the ways of dynastic monarchy, I think Richard would have been taking a very big risk in leaving those princes alive,' he said. 'The chances of their having accidentally gone missing while incarcerated on his orders in the Tower of London seem pretty remote.' — AFP
Free Malaysia Today
3 days ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Court acquits labourer of double murder in Johor Bahru
M Jaykumar was charged with the murders of K Kamala, 51, and S Silvaraja 59, at a flat in Skudai between 7pm on Oct 31 and 3am on Nov 1, 2018. (Bernama pic) PETALING JAYA : The Johor Bahru High Court today discharged and acquitted a labourer of a charge of murdering a single mother and her male friend at a flat at Taman Ungku Aminah in Skudai, Johor Bahru, seven years ago. Justice Abu Bakar Katar made the ruling after finding that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against M Jaykumar, 39, at the close of its case. In his judgment, Bakar said the prosecution failed to prove that the deaths of K Kamala, 51, and S Silvaraja, 59, were caused by injuries inflicted by the accused. He said the court also took into account that no traces of the victims' blood were found on the accused's clothes or belongings, and that the investigating officer did not seize these items to test for the victims' DNA. 'The prosecution also failed to prove that the jewellery pawned by the accused belonged to Kamala, as her children could not confirm its ownership during testimony. 'There is reasonable doubt since some jewellery was still found with Kamala. 'The prosecution attempted to rely on the theory that the accused was the last person seen with the victims, setting the timeline between 7pm on Oct 31 and 3am on Nov 1. 'However, according to a witness, Kamala was still on the phone at 11.50pm. How could the prosecution fix 7pm as the starting time when the victim was still alive? 'This court finds that without other supporting evidence, it is insufficient to link the accused to the murders,' the judge said. Jaykumar was charged with the murders of Kamala and Silvaraja at a flat at Jalan Hang Jebat 14, Taman Ungku Aminah, between 7pm and 3am on Oct 31 and Nov 1, 2018. The charge, framed under Section 302 of the Penal Code, provides for the death penalty, or 30 to 40 years' jail and no fewer than 12 strokes of the cane, upon conviction. Twenty witnesses were called by the prosecution, led by deputy public prosecutor Juanita Said, while Jaykumar was represented by lawyers Freda Sabapathy and K Sarawanan.
