MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities have arrested a 14-year-old boy nicknamed “El Chapito” for the drug-related murders of eight people near Mexico City, the Department of Public Safety released Thursday.
The boy presumably rode up on a motorbike and opened fire on a family in the poor suburb of Chimalhuacán. Another man was arrested for the January 22 murders and seven gang members were charged with drug offences.
The victims were at a party, apparently for a birthday, when the attack took place, which also left five adults and two children injured.
The name of the boy, whose nickname apparently alludes to drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, imprisoned in the United States, was not released.
The motive for the killings has also not been revealed, but drug gangs in Mexico often engage in kidnapping and murder-for-hire as well. They also kill rivals who sell drugs on their territory or people who owe them money.
Murderous children are not a rarity in Mexico.
In 2010, the army detained a 14-year-old boy nicknamed “El Ponchis”. He said he had been kidnapped at age 11 and forced to work for the South Pacific Cartel, an offshoot of the Beltrán Leyva gang, and that he had used it in at least four beheadings.
After his arrest, the boy—identified by authorities as Edgar—told reporters that he had been drugged and forced to commit the crimes with threats.
