United States Extradites Mexican Man Linked To 2014 Kidnapping, Killing Of 43 Students

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

U.S. officials have extradited to Mexico a man wanted in connection to the 2014 disappearance of 43 students in the city of Iguala.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers turned over to Mexican authorities Alejandro Tenescalco-Mejia, a 41-year-old Mexican citizen who was apprehended in the United States in December and found to be residing here but undocumented.

He was transferred to Mexican custody at the Santa Teresa, N.M., port of entry on Wednesday, ICE said in a press release Thursday.

U.S. officials said Tenescalco-Mejia came to the United States on Dec. 14 by climbing the border wall near Santa Teresa, where he was apprehended by authorities and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He had been detained in an El Paso processing center until being removed Wednesday.

In 2014, 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College disappeared after being forcibly abducted in Iguala. Later investigations indicated the students had been detained by municipal police before being handed over to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang before being killed.

The kidnapping caused a national scandal in Mexico, as suspicions settled on the town's mayor, José Luis Abarca, who was arrested and charged with ordering the attack.

In 2015, Mexican authorities officially declared the 43 three students dead after a suspect confessed that students had been killed and their bodies had been burned and disposed of in a river.

In August 2022, authorities arrested former Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam in connection with the disappearance. He is the highest-ranking official to face legal consequences over the kidnapping.

In the subsequent years authorities have identified the bodies of three of the missing students.

UPI