An alleged hitman has been arrested in connection with the LeBaron massacre that saw three women and six children from a Mexican-American family of Mormons brutally murdered.
Mexico’s Specialised Prosecutor for Organised Crime (FEMDO) has now arrested Luis Alonso Quintana, known as ‘El Guacho’, for his alleged participation in the massacre of the LeBaron family.
The suspect is reportedly a hitman for La Linea, which is an armed branch of the Juarez Cartel. He is believed to have participated in the LeBaron massacre, which saw three women and six children murdered in a border community between the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora in November 2019.
A judge ruled on Wednesday that the suspect shall remain detained pending the outcome of the investigation. The judge also said that the suspect was linked to the investigation on suspicion of murder.
The news was reportedly revealed by Adrian LeBaron, whose daughter and several grandchildren were killed in the attack, shortly after Mexico’s Minister of Defence confirmed that there are currently 27 individuals detained over the massacre.
The Minister of Defence of Mexico, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, said on Tuesday during a conference presided over by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that nearly 30 people have been arrested for their roles in the massacre.
Five suspects are in custody suspected of having participated directly in the massacre. The authorities are reportedly looking for another 11 people.
Shortly after the announcement by the Minister of Defence, Adrian LeBaron said that El Guacho had been arrested in the municipality of Nuevo Casas Grandes in the state of Chihuahua.
LeBaron has asked to be part of the hearings and to assist in the investigations, saying: “It is my right as a victim.”
The LeBaron massacre took place on 4th November 2019.
On a dirt road in the mountains between Chihuahua and Sonora, vans transporting three women and 14 children were attacked by suspected armed robbers.
All the women and six of the minors, including two babies, died, with their bodies found riddled with bullets.
Investigators found hundreds of shell casings, and some of the vehicles had been torched.
The children who survived the attack, some of them with injuries, sounded the alarm. They travelled 15 kilometres (9 miles) to their community in La Mora in the municipality of Bavipe in the state of Sonora to raise the alarm.
It is in La Mora that the LeBaron and other Mormon clans have reportedly maintained their community for decades.
The LeBaron family slammed the authorities at the time, saying that during the eight hours that followed the attack, no authorities arrived at the scene.
The authorities are also reportedly studying the possibility that the victims were caught in crossfire between two warring cartels. However, the family has never been convinced of that explanation because of the viciousness the murderers exercised against the women and children.
The brutality of the massacre turned the LeBaron case into a huge, early challenge for the Lopez Obrador government.
The relatives of the victims, who were also US citizens, have been demanding justice from the authorities since the attack.
The Minister of Defence tried to be reassuring, pointing to the number of arrests and saying: “With this government there is no impunity.”
But in May 2021, one of the family’s lawyers, Abel Murrieta, who was also running as a candidate for mayor in the municipality of Cajeme, which is located in the state of Sonora, was murdered.
Sicarios – cartel hitmen – allegedly shot him in the street in broad daylight.
Julian LeBaron told Spanish newspaper El Pais at the time: “We live under terrorism.”
