A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murders of three people with ties to the US consulate in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexican officials said Monday, dpa reported.
Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the joint military and police operation in the state of Chihuahua, said the suspect was arrested Friday by the Army, although he refused to disclose his identity.
An American employee at the consulate, her husband - who worked in a US prison - and the husband of a Mexican employee of the mission were killed in Ciudad Juarez on March 13. The three had attended the same social gathering, but the US couple was killed in one incident and the Mexican man was killed minutes later - in both cases while they were driving.
Torres said the suspect belonged to the Los Aztecas gang. He also said the arrest was the result "of intelligence work and of the exchange of information which takes place between North American authorities and Mexican authorities."
Ciudad Juarez, in the state of Chihuahua and across the border from the US city of El Paso, Texas, is widely regarded as the most violent city in Mexico. It reported more than 2,600 killings last year, of a total of over 7,700 across Mexico.
In response to the recent killings in Ciudad Juarez, the US State Department authorized the temporary relocation of employees' families working in six consulates in the border area.