A man in the western state of Jalisco suspected of orchestrating a string of crimes including more than 200 murders has been arrested by the Mexican police, the country's interior ministry said on Tuesday.
Felipe Viveros, 30, was captured alongside Jose Bernabe, 43 and Froylan Barrera, 40, the interior ministry said in a statement that did not indicate when they were apprehended, the Reuters reported.
The three men are suspected of committing crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and arms trafficking, but only Viveros is thought to have ordered the homicides, the statement said.
"It is presumed that Viveros ordered and participated in more than 200 murders committed against kidnapping victims, members of rival gangs and drug dealers. He has also been identified as one of the heads of a group extorting various authorities in Jalisco," the statement said.
According to Reuters, while Viveros is said to have been directly linked to at least 10 kidnappings, Bernabe and Barrera are alleged to have supplied information, security and communication to various criminal groups.
The western states of Jalisco, Guerrero and Michoacan have become the bloody epicenter of Mexico's drug war in recent months, harboring drug cartels and vigilante groups engaged in regular conflict with the country's security forces.
On Monday, Mexican authorities found the bodies of eight kidnap victims, some dismembered, on a highway in Guerrero.
Security in the state has been ramped up at various times over the past few years, but the violence has not ceased and 2012 ended with more than 2,600 killings in Guerrero, Reuters reported.
Since former President Felipe Calderon sent in the troops to tame the warring gangs in early 2007, more than 80,000 people have died. The number of homicides has fallen slightly since new President Enrique Pena Nieto took office last year.
Nonetheless, roughly 1,000 people are still killed each month in drug-related slayings, and the kidnapping and extortion rates have risen dramatically, Reuters reported.
