Mexican teens killed after allegedly bullying son of drug boss
MEXICO CITY | Wed Jul 3, 2013 4:39pm EDT
(Reuters) - Two Mexican schoolboys accused of bullying the son of a notorious drug trafficker have been murdered in a suspected revenge attack.
The bodies of Luis Ortiz and Andres Barba, both 15, were found on Tuesday after they went missing on June 21, according to state prosecutors in the western region of Jalisco.
A 17-year-old arrested in relation to the case said the boys had bullied a schoolmate who was the son of Jose Angel Carrasco, known as "El Changel," prosecutors said. A spokesman for the Jalisco state government said on Wednesday it was unclear whether the boys knew who the father of their classmate was.
The teenagers disappeared after responding to a lucrative offer to join a local criminal gang, prosecutors said. The killers asphyxiated the boys, whose corpses were buried in a forest outside the central city of Guadalajara.
The 17-year-old confessed to having participated in the murders with various accomplices, Jalisco's government said. Prosecutors did not name the suspect because he is a minor.
Carrasco was a prominent figure in the Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico's most wanted kingpin, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, according to Mexican media reports. Carrasco was arrested in January.
More than 70,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since late 2006, when former President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led offensive against the warring cartels.
His successor, Enrique Pena Nieto, has pledged to go after the gangs, but says his first priority is to reduce levels of murder, kidnapping and extortion.
(Reporting and writing by Mexico City Newsroom; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
