Mexican Security Forces Search for “Boy Gunman”

Federal Police officers and army troops are searching for a boy suspected of working as a hired killer for the South Pacific drug cartel in the central state of Morelos, the press reported.

The 12-year-old boy, known as “El Ponchis,” was detained and released recently by army troops.

“Based on videos posted by the CPS (South Pacific cartel) on Youtube, soldiers found a ‘safe house’ belonging to the cartel on Oct. 24 in the city of Jiutepec, where they arrested six suspects, who confessed that they were the authors of the majority of the ‘executions’ perpetrated recently in Cuernavaca,” the La Jornada newspaper reported Saturday.

Soldiers “let a minor go, but the six suspects said in their statements that he was the bloodiest hitman in the group, in charge of cutting off the heads and genitals of his victims,” La Jornada said.

Morelos Gov. Marco Antonio Adame confirmed that the security forces are searching for the boy, the newspaper said.

State Attorney General Pedro Luis Benitez discussed the case, but he refused to mention either the boy’s name or nickname in response to a question from a Radio Formula reporter.

“Have you arrested this boy?” the attorney general was asked.

“One of them, yes, the other one, no, and we also have a (15-year-old) girl (who is) pregnant, in fact, who is also under arrest,” Benitez said.

The reporter posed a follow-up question about “this boy of 12,” but the state AG refused to go into details.

“There are more, there is information that we cannot provide because it’s an ongoing investigation,” Benitez said.

The children were apparently working under the orders of a man identified as Julio Radilla.

Morelos, which is close to Mexico City, has been caught up in a turf war between rival drug cartels.

Beltran Leyva cartel leader Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a shootout with marines in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos and main bastion of that criminal organization, in December 2009.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Chihuahua, meanwhile, said Saturday that four high school students were being sent for psychological treatment after terrorizing a city with a “joke that was in poor taste.”

Federal Police officers found a message last Thursday written on the front of a bank building that warned of a coming massacre in Ciudad Aldama, a city near Chihuahua city, the state capital.

“Attention: tomorrow Friday there will be general death at noon,” the message said.

Officials deployed 30 Federal Police officers and Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office agents to guard the approaches to Ciudad Aldama, where business owners urged employees to stay home.

Chihuahua, bordering Texas, has registered nearly 2,800 murders so far this year.

The four girls were detained after one of them, a 14-year-old, told her mother that she had taken part in the prank.

The students’ families immediately notified authorities of their involvement in the prank.

“We are the most embarrassed ones and are willing to let them face the consequences for their actions, whatever they are,” the mother of one of the students said.

The four teenagers were questioned by prosecutors, who determined that they needed counseling.

“They are good girls, but they need a specialist to guide them,” a spokesman for the AG’s office said.