| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Mexico Arrests 14-Year-Old Hitman
 Agence France-Presse
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December 03, 2010
| | Edgar Jimenez aka 'El Ponchis,' | |
Mexican authorities have arrested a 14-year-old boy possibly born in the United States and accused of beheading and mutilating his victims as a drug cartel hitman, officials said on Friday.
The youth, identified as Edgar Jimenez and nicknamed 'El Ponchis,' was arrested at an airport in central Morelos state around midnight Thursday as he attempted to board a plane to see his family in the border city of Tijuana, a military official told AFP.
Morelos Governor Marco Antonio Adame told reporters police found identity papers on the boy indicating he was born in San Diego, California on July 1996 - on the other side of the US-Mexico border.
'We're trying to determine if they are authentic,' he added.
Authorities had sought El Ponchis - 'the cloaked one' - since late October after military forces released him due to his young age.
He had earlier been arrested along with six suspected hitmen for the South Pacific Cartel.
The suspects, including Jimenez, allegedly confessed in videos posted online that they had killed several men found hanging from bridges in Cuernavaca, less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Mexico City.
They said the boy was in charge of cutting the victims' heads and genitalia, local media said.
Jimenez, however, denied the reports in comments to reporters after his arrest.
'I've killed four people. I slit their throats. I felt awful doing it. They forced me, told me if I didn't do it they would kill me. I only cut their throats, but I never went to hang (people) from bridges, never,' he said outside the Morelos attorney general's office.
Jimenez also said he was arrested along with one of his sisters, aged 19 and with whom he was trying to fly to San Diego, home of their stepmother lives who had sent them money for the flight.
According to the videos broadcast on Mexican media, the boy carried out his murders in complicity with his sisters, who sometimes served as decoys to lure victims.
Jimenez told reporters he and his sisters would get between $US2,500 ($A2,567.0) - $US3,000 for each kill.
Media reports also said that when they were arrested, Jimenez and his sister both had mobile phones containing photographs they allegedly took of their victims as they were being tortured.
Cuernavaca, a city near the site of the arrests where many wealthy Mexico City families keep a secondary residence, is witnessing a fierce battle between rival drug traffickers fighting for control of the Arturo Beltran Leyva cartel after its leader of the same name was killed by military forces last December.
Jimenez's arrest follows the senate's approval Wednesday of a new law tightening sentencing for minors accused of major crimes such as kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking, in response to a public outcry over the spiraling bloodshed in Mexico.
A young US woman and her Mexican friend were earlier shot to death in Guadalupe, a town near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city across from El Paso, Texas.
The American was identified as Vicky Veronica Calderon, from El Paso, a Chihuahua state official told AFP, adding that she had been arrested in Ciudad Juarez last month in the company of suspected drug hitmen, but was released without charge last week.
Mexico in the grip of a growing tide of drug-related violence despite a major crackdown by thousands of security forces launched in 2006 by President Felipe Calderon. More than 28,000 people have since been murdered across the country.
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