Mexico City detains man in kidnap, killing of 12

This file photo composite of images taken from flyers made by relatives show ten of 12 young people that were kidnapped in broad daylight from an after hours bar in Mexico City on May 26, 2013. From left to right, top row; Josue Piedra Moreno, Aaron Piedra Moreno, Rafael Rojas, Alan Omar Athiencia Barragon, Jennifer Robles Gonzalez. From left to right, bottom row; Jerzy Ortiz Ponce, Said Sanchez Garcia, Guadalupe Morales Vargas, Eulogio Foseca Arreola, Gabriela Tellez Zamudio. Prosecutors said this Thursday May 22, 2014, that they have arrested the suspected mastermind behind the kidnapping of the 12 young people from a Mexico City bar who were later found slain and buried in a clandestine grave. AP

MEXICO CITY—Police have arrested the suspected mastermind behind the kidnapping of 12 young people from a Mexico City bar who were later found slain and buried in a clandestine grave, prosecutors said Thursday.

Witnesses told investigators that the arrested man, Joel Javier Rodriguez Fuentes, planned and participated in the abduction last year, prosecutors said in a statement.

The group vanished from an after-hours bar a block from leafy Reforma Avenue, the capital’s main boulevard. Their bodies were found months later in a rural grave in neighboring Mexico state.

The mass kidnapping resonated across this city of 9 million people because many had come to believe it was an oasis from violence elsewhere in the country.

Authorities said last year that the group was targeted as revenge for the killing of a drug dealer in the capital.

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