Mexican authorities said they arrested an alleged organized crime figure known as “El Botox” in the western state of Michoacan in connection with last October’s killing of an outspoken leader of the state’s lime growers.
Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch announced the arrest on Thursday, saying the man known as “El Botox” was allegedly responsible for extorting lime growers and for various homicides, including the killing of agricultural leader Bernardo Bravo.
García Harfuch said there were 11 arrest orders for the suspect for extortion and homicide. The report also says the security secretary has been accused of attacking authorities with explosives.
A Michoacan state official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the suspect’s full name was César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano. The official said Sepúlveda Arellano led a group known as the White Trojans, or Blancos de Troya.
The AP report says the White Trojans are known to work with Los Viagras, a criminal organization allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. García Harfuch linked the arrest to extortion and killings in Michoacan connected to the lime-growers’ leadership.
Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said in a statement that the arrest represented “an overwhelming blow against extortion” in the state. The report notes Michoacan is Mexico’s largest producer of limes and avocados.
In October, the body of Bravo, president of the Apatzingan Valley Citrus Producers Association, was found in his vehicle on a road in the area. The report says Bravo had denounced “organized crime’s permanent commercial hijacking of any commercial activity.”
The AP report also says that two weeks after Bravo’s killing, a gunman killed popular Uruapan Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo, another outspoken critic of cartel control in Michoacan. It says the two homicides and a popular outcry that followed prompted President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration to send more troops to Michoacan.