Mexico arrests alleged massacre plotter

Mexican federal police announced they had arrested a man suspected of plotting a 2009 massacre in Juarez that killed 17 people at a drug rehabilitation center. Police said Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a senior member of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was arrested in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, the El Paso (Texas) Times reported. Officials said during the Friday arrest, they seized four weapons, crystal meth, a Land Rover and undisclosed communication equipment, the newspaper said. Marrufo is suspected of planning and directing the attack on the Juarez rehab center, in which 17 people were lined up and systematically shot Sept. 2, 2009. He is also suspected by Mexican authorities in other homicides, kidnappings, drug trafficking and extortion. He is also wanted in the United States on drug and weapons charges, the newspaper said. Marrufo's Sinaloa cartel has been locked in a gory turf war with the rival Juarez drug syndicate since 2008. Mexican officials estimate as many as 9,300 people have been killed by the gang violence.