Man arrested in connection with massacre of Mormon women and children in Mexico
A man has been arrested in connection with last year's massacre of nine Mormon American-Mexican citizens on a remote dirt road in northwestern Mexico.
Alfredo L was detained in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city across the US-Mexico border from El Paso, Texas, the Mexican attorney general's office said.
It's alleged he's a "member of a criminal organisation with a presence in the north of (Mexico), and is likely a participant" in the killings of the three women and six children in Mexico's Sonora state on November 4, 2019.
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Christina Langford Johnson and her daughter Faith. Facebook
The extended family were heavily flanked by members of the military who are investigating the massacre. AP/AAP
Members of the Lebaron family watch the burned car where part of the nine murdered members of the family were killed and burned during an gunmen ambush on Bavispe, Sonora mountains, Mexico, on November 5, 2019. AFP via Getty Images
The man is being charged with homicide and organised crime, though no details about what led authorities to believe he was involved in the deaths were immediately released.
The announcement of the arrest came exactly one year after the massacre happened.
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The women and children - dual US-Mexican citizens and members of an independent Mormon community in Sonora state - were in three vehicles well outside that community when attackers opened fire on them in two separate locations, authorities said.
In total, nine family members driving in the three-car caravan were killed in the massacre. 9News
One of the vehicles was about 16 kilometres behind the others.
Eight other children survived the assaults, including a baby found hidden in one vehicle, and a 13-year-old boy who walked about 23 kilometres back to the Mormon community, La Mora, to seek help.
Though the victims had different last names, they all had ties to the extended LeBaron family in Mexico.
Photographs posted by family members of victims of the Mexico massacre. Facebook
The LeBaron family has a long history of land disputes in the Mexican Sonora region. AP/AAP
Mexican authorities last year said they believed drug cartel members, long a driver of violence in the country, committed the massacre. No arrests were immediately made in the month of the attack.
Authorities last year offered various theories as to why the shooting happened, but no single definitive explanation was released.
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