MEXICO: New suspects artrested in high-profile kidnap and murder of 14-year-old Fernando Marti

Record ID: 300204

  • Title: MEXICO: New suspects artrested in high-profile kidnap and murder of 14-year-old Fernando Marti
  • Date: 18th July 2009
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY , MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) BANNER OF NGO " MEXICO UNITED AGAINST CRIME" VARIOUS OF MARTI ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE GENERAL VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE HELD BY MARTI
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Reuters ID: LVACC3J2ZUTCCQ7UN8Y7YURLK7TQ
  • Story Text: Mexican authorities said on Friday (July 17) they had identified the suspects responsible for the kidnap and murder of 14-year-old Fernando Marti-- almost 10 months after accussing a different group of the same crime.
    Long used to violent crime, Mexicans were nevertheless outraged by the murder of Marti, whose body was found in a car trunk outside Mexico City on August 1, 2008, even though his businessman father had paid a ransom.
    Luis Cardenas Palomino, an intelligence officer for Mexico's police, said Marti's killers were actually part of a gang known as 'Los Petriciolet'.
    "According to the statements we have right now, the gang police have identified has nothing to do with the one that abducted Fernando Marti. This is not based on rumors or imputations. It's based on the fact that we located the secure house that nine victims identified without a doubt as the place where they were held. And these nine cases showed the same modus operandi than Fernando Marti's case. Beside this, the bodyguard who survived the kidnapping identified, without a doubt, the security house and the one where he was held," Palomino said.
    Police arrested suspects Noe Robles and Jose Montiel Cardozo after federal agents entered a secure house in southern Mexico City to release two kidnapping victims.
    A police video showed Robles admitting to be present at the time of Marti's abduction.
    "The next to be kidnapped was Fernando Marti. My participation consisted of, just like in all the others, watching," he said.
    Police say Robles participated in the killing of Marti. According to Cardenas, for six years, the band had been operating in Mexico City and nearby states kidnapping businessmen or their sons.
    On the same video, Robles said that the suspects previously identified by the local attorney general's office were not involved.
    "Some people who didn't have and don't have any relation with this kidnapping were presented on TV. I saw an arrested woman and I noticed she is not the person who participated with others in the abduction," Robles added.
    Fernando Marti was kidnapped along with his driver in June 2008 while he was going to school.
    The boy's father, Alejandro Marti, posted $500,000 in ransom money only to have his son turn up dead inside the trunk of a compact car weeks later.
    The elder Marti became an anti-violence activist, demanding government officials commit to reforms in bolstering security in the country.
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