Boy, 14, nicknamed El Chapito arrested for drug-related murders of 8 people

A 14-year-old boy dubbed ‘El Chapito’ has been arrested in connection with the drug-related killings of eight people in Mexico.

The boy – whose identity was not released but has been nicknamed after jailed drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman – was taken into custody near Mexico City, said the federal Public Safety Department on Thursday.

Victims were having a party, reportedly celebrating a birthday, at their home in the low in-come suburb of Chimalhuacan on January 22.

The boy is accused of riding a motorcycle to the residence and shooting at the family.

Besides the eight fatalities, two children and five adults were hurt.

Another man was arrested and seven more members of the gang were taken into custody on drug charges.

The motive of the shooting has not been released to the public.

It is not the first child killer in Mexico.

In 2010, a 14-year-old boy named Edgar and nicknamed ‘El Ponchis’ was detained by soldiers. He claimed he was kidnapped when he was 11 years old and was drugged and threatened into working for the Cartel of the South Pacific, which is linked to the Beltran Levya gang. The boy admitted to taking part in at least four decapitations.

Drug gangs in Mexico often kill their rivals selling drugs in their territory and sometimes participate in kidnapping and contract killing.

El Chapito’s arrest comes more than two months after Mexican authorities captured one of the sons of El Chapo Guzman. The drug lord’s 32-year-old son Ovidio Guzman Lopez was detained in the northwestern city of Culiacan in early January.

Lopez was held in Mexico City and awaited extradition to the US on drug trafficking charges.

El Chapo was arrested in 2016 and a few of his sons took control of the Sinaloa Cartel. His sons became known as ‘los Chapitos’ or ‘little Chapos’. The latest 14-year-old boy to be arrested is not known to be related to El Chapo’s family.

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