The federal Public Safety Department announced on Thursday that Mexican officials have arrested a 14-year-old boy known as "El Chapito" for the drug-related murder of eight persons close to Mexico City.
The teenager allegedly approached a home in the low-income Chimalhuacan district of Mexico City on a motorcycle and started shooting. In connection with the murders on Jan. 22, another guy was also detained, and seven further gang members were detained on drug-related charges.
At the time of the incident, which also left five adults and two children injured, the victims were hosting a party at their residence. It was allegedly a birthday celebration.
Although the boy's name was not made public, his nickname, "Little Chapo," appears to be a nod to drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is now serving time in prison.
Drug gangs routinely engage in kidnapping and contract killing in Mexico, although the reason behind the deaths has not been made public. They also murder those who give them money or sell drugs on their rivals' territory.
Child killers are nothing new in Mexico, reports NBCDFW.
A 14-year-old boy with the alias "El Ponchis" was seized by troops in 2010 after he claimed he was kidnapped at age 11 and forced to work for the Cartel of the South Pacific, a division of the Beltran Leyva gang that had split off.
He claimed to have taken part in at least four decapitations.
The child, who was only given his first name by the authorities, Edgar, told reporters that he was threatened and drugged into perpetrating the acts after being apprehended.
Three people were killed, and six others were injured on Monday as an 18-year-old shooter roamed around a neighborhood in New Mexico, shooting indiscriminately at houses, cars, and onlookers before being shot dead by police outside a church, according to authorities.
The late-morning shooting rampage took place in a residential section of Farmington, New Mexico, which is located about 180 miles (290 km) northwest of Albuquerque. Farmington is a significant retail hub and a regional headquarters for the fossil energy industry.
Police responded, "to find a chaotic scene where a male subject was actively firing upon individuals in that neighborhood," Baric Crum, deputy chief of operations for the Farmington Police Department, said in a news briefing hours later, Reuters reported.
According to Farmington police spokesperson Shanice Gonzales, three civilians were killed and six people were wounded, including two officers struck in an exchange of gunfire with the suspect before he was fatally shot by police.
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