The former police chief of the Mexican city of Iguala -- where 43 students disappeared two years ago -- was arrested Friday in connection with the case, according to Mexico's National Security Commission's Twitter page.

Felipe Flores Vazquez, who had been sought since the students went missing, had been labeled as one of the "probable masterminds" of the disappearance by then-Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam.

Karam said in November 2014 that the students were abducted on orders of a local mayor, turned over to a gang who killed them, burned their bodies in a landfill and tossed the remains into a river.

Of the missing 43, authorities have been able to identify the remains of one. </s> (CNN) One of the "probable masterminds" of the disappearance of 43 Mexican students was arrested Friday morning after being on the lam for more than two years , according to Mexican officials.

The announcement was made by Mexico's National Security Commission via Twitter.

"(We) have executed the arrest warrant against Felipe Flores, former Iguala police chief," the commission tweeted.

The attorney general offered a reward of up to $2.5 million pesos (about $134,392 dollars) last year for any information that led to his capture.

Felipe Flores Velázquez was captured as he was visiting his spouse in Guerrero, the state where the students went missing in 2014, National Security Commissioner Renato Sales Heredia said at a news conference.

Mexican federal authorities made the arrest in coordination with the attorney general's office, the country's navy and the Center of National Investigation and Security, an intelligence-gathering agency.

How did the students go missing?

The mayor then turned the students over to a gang who killed them, burned their bodies in a landfill and tossed some their remains into a nearby river, Karam added.

Tomás Zerón de Lucio, the head of Mexico's Criminal Investigations Agency, said two months later that the incident was a case of mistaken identity.

He said the criminal group accused of executing the students thought they belonged to a rival gang, also operating around the city of Iguala where the students were last seen.

"We can conclude that the motivation was consistent (with the theory that) the students were identified by the criminals as members of an organized crime rival group that operated in the region. That was the reason why they were deprived of their freedom, initially, and then of their lives," Zerón de Lucio said in early 2015.

What was the role of the former chief?

Flores Vasquez helped protect city's police officers who were connected with the students' disappearance, authorities said.

He also colluded with the city's mayor to persecute and attack the students and ordered local police to stop them from attending the protest.

The former chief is being charged with organized crime and kidnapping, officials said Friday.

Some 130 others have been arrested in connection with the case, Sales Heredia, added. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Demonstrations marked the second anniversary of the students' disappearance last month

The former police chief of the Mexican city where 43 students disappeared in 2014 has been detained after two years on the run, officials say.

Felipe Flores was arrested in Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero, where the incident happened.

The government says the students were arrested by police before being handed over to a drugs cartel who killed them and incinerated their bodies.

But families and independent experts contest this claim.

The panel of experts, working for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said the account that the students had been burnt beyond identification at a rubbish dump was physically impossible.

Felipe Flores was police chief of Iguala when the incident took place on 26 September 2014, and his arrest may offer new clues as to what exactly happened then.

Attorney General Arely Gomez welcomed Felipe Flores' capture, writing on Twitter that it would allow investigators to get "a fundamental statement to clear up the events".

The case has tainted President Enrique Pena Nieto's image.

The missing 43 at a glance

Image copyright AP

Who are they?

The 43 were all students at an all-male teacher training college in the town of Aytozinapa, in south-western Guerrero state. The college has a history of left-wing activism and the students regularly took part in protests.

What happened to them?

They disappeared from the nearby town of Iguala on the evening of 26 September 2014 after a confrontation between municipal police and the students during which six people were killed.

Have any of them been found?

Independent forensic experts have matched charred bone fragments reportedly found at a rubbish dump near Iguala to Alexander Mora, one of the 43 missing students. They also say there is a high probability another set of remains could belong to Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz, another of the students. However, experts from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights say the chain of evidence was broken and they could not be sure the bone fragments had been found at the dump.

What is the government's version of events?

According to the official report, the students were seized by corrupt municipal police officers who handed them over to members of a local drugs gang. The drugs gang mistook the students for members of a rival gang, killed them and burned their bodies at the dump before throwing their ashes into a nearby stream.

Why do the families not believe the official report?

They think officials have failed to investigate the role soldiers from a nearby barracks may have played in the students' disappearance. The government has refused to let the soldiers, who were in the area at the time of the disappearance, be questioned by anyone but government prosecutors. The families also point to the report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which said that there was no evidence the bodies of the 43 were burned at the dump. </s> The entire police force of the town of Ocampo, situated in Mexico’s Guanajuato State, were arrested over the weekend by agents from the internal affairs (IA) department in connection to the murder of a mayoral candidate, The Independent reported on Monday.

READ MORE: Two Killed in Shooting at Mexico Top University

All 28 officers of Ocampo’s police force remain in detention, as the investigation into the death of Fernando Angeles Juarez continues, local media reported.

Authorities have not confirmed that their detention is indeed in connection to the mayoral candidate’s death – they’ve only said that the arrests were made as they look into “potential violations of the police code of conduct.”

On July 1, democratic proceedings to elect Mexico’s president for the next term, in addition to numerous other positions throughout the country at various levels of government, will take place.

Mr. Juarez was the local candidate for the leftwing Democratic Revolution Party, and in the aftermath of his death, the party warned that he had been assassinated and urged the Mexican government to ensure the protection of candidates in the upcoming elections.

The victim’s public security secretary has also been linked to his death, and after local police prevented federal agents from arresting him over the weekend, they returned with reinforcements and arrested the town’s entire police force, and launched an investigation.

Gangs have murdered dozens of activists and politicians in the run-up to the elections, making it the bloodiest in Mexico’s modern history.

READ MORE: Caravan of Migrants Reach US Border, Temporarily Rejected by Patrol </s> The entire police force in the Mexican town of Ocampo were disarmed and arrested for allegedly obstructing an investigation into the murder of the mayor ahead of country-wide elections on Sunday.

Fernando Angeles Juárez was killed on Thursday morning after three gunmen broke into the ranch where he lives just as he was preparing to start a day's campaigning, local media reported.

Over 120 politicians have been killed across Mexico since September, when campaigning began ahead of the country’s July 1 general elections. Voters are being ask to elect over 3,000 local officials, as well as a new president and a new legislature.

Mr Angeles Juárez was the third politician killed in the state of Michoacán in a week.

After his murder, Michoacán state forces went to Ocampo on Saturday with a warrant to arrest the town’s public security secretary Oscar González for questioning, but were forced to retreat when local police officers under his control fired shots into the air. </s> Image copyright Facebook/Rodriguez Image caption The 32-year-old was a mayor before successfully running for Congress

A newly elected Mexican Congresswoman, Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora, has been kidnapped at gunpoint on a highway in central Hidalgo state.

Two men shot at Ms Rodríguez's car, injuring an assistant and the driver and causing the vehicle to flip over.

The gunmen pulled Ms Rodríguez from the car and forced her into their vehicle.

The kidnapping comes little more than a month after the mayor of the town of Naupan was seized and killed in the same area.

Ms Rodríguez was elected on 1 July to represent eastern Veracruz state in the lower house of Congress for the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The 32-year-old was due to take up office on 1 September. The state she will represent is one of the most violent in Mexico.

Before running for Congress, Ms Rodríguez served as mayor of the town of Tihuatlán in Veracruz.

Her kidnapping happened as she was travelling along a highway in neighbouring Hidalgo, the same on which the mayor of Naupan, Genaro Negrete Urbano, had been kidnapped last month.

Mr Negrete's body was found earlier this month. He had been shot dead.

The motive for his killing is not known but local politicians often become targets for criminal gangs if they are seen to interfere with the gang's business.

The campaign for the 2018 general election saw a spike in violence against political candidates.

Members of Ms Rodríguez's party have demanded that she be released safe and sound. </s> Mexican authorities have arrested the alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel — long one of the country’s most powerful and notoriously brutal criminal groups.

Jose Maria Guizar Valencia, who is accused of overseeing an organization that traffics thousands of pounds of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States each year, was nabbed Thursday while entering a hotel in a fashionable neighborhood in Mexico City, authorities said Friday.

Mexican National Security Commissioner Renato Sales said in a statement that Guizar, 38, was captured without force.

In a nation gripped by escalating violence driven by warring criminal groups, Guizar was one of Mexico’s most-wanted men. The United States had offered a $5-million reward for his arrest and had formally requested his extradition. Sales said there are arrest warrants for Guizar in several U.S. states for crimes including arms smuggling, kidnapping and murder.

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His capture was celebrated by public officials from both sides of the border, with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson tweeting that Guizar’s arrest and other law enforcement efforts “make Mexico and the United States safer.”

But others reacted with caution, noting that in the past, Mexico’s “kingpin strategy” of targeting cartel leaders has not reduced violence, and in fact may have increased it.

In the decade since Mexico sent tens of thousands of soldiers into the streets to battle drug trafficking organizations so powerful they were often compared to multinational corporations, dozens of drug lords, including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, have been taken into custody or killed.

While the kingpin strategy may have stopped Mexico from being completely overtaken by drug cartels, it unleashed a wave of bloodshed as criminals fought for control of lucrative drug trafficking routes and extortion and fuel theft schemes. Mexico’s homicide rate is soaring. Last year it hit a 20-year high.

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“It must be said that as soon as a leader is arrested, another leader often appears,” security expert Ricardo Ravelo said in a radio interview Friday.

In the year since Guzman was extradited to face charges of murder and drug trafficking in the U.S., his Sinaloa cartel has weakened significantly, and is now battling an ascendant group called the Jalisco New Generation cartel in several states.

In other parts of the country, such as the seaside resort of Acapulco, the cartel system has collapsed completely, with historic levels of violence being driven by dozens of warring street gangs.

Authorities say Guizar, known by his Zetas code name “Z 43,” was born in Tulare, Calif. He first appeared on the radar of Mexican law enforcement officials in 1998, when he allegedly began trafficking drugs in the state of Michoacan.

The Zetas cartel he went on to lead evolved from a group of deserters from the Mexican Special Forces. The ex-soldiers were hired to serve as a security force for the Gulf cartel, but in 2010 broke with their former employer to start their own drug trafficking network.

Via street battles and gruesome tactics that included beheadings, videotaped assassinations and the hanging of mutilated bodies from bridges, the Zetas became the most powerful force in several states, including Tamaulipas, on the Texas border. Officials say the group’s reach extends down to Guatemala.

Perhaps the group’s most shocking exploit was the 2010 killing of 72 migrants in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando. Investigators said the migrants were shot to death after they refused to work for the cartel.

Experts say the group has weakened in recent years, and has begun to splinter into different factions.

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“They are very diminished compared to what they were at their height,” said security expert Alejandro Hope. Still, he said, “it’s an important arrest.”

Guizar’s capture in the country’s capital shocked many who have long viewed Mexico City as a haven from the drug war violence engulfing other parts of nation. But there have been signs that violence may be encroaching, including a large banner hung from one of the city’s main highways this week announcing the arrival of the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Law enforcement officials said they were investigating the banner to see if it is authentic.

Roma, the neighborhood where Guizar was arrested, is known as one of the nation’s trendiest, home to world-famous restaurants, expensive clothing stores and luxurious hotels.

Juan Carlos Silva, chief of the anti-drug division of the federal police, said in a radio interview that Guizar was about to walk into one such hotel Thursday. He was traveling without armed guards, likely in an effort to blend in, Silva said. Because of that, authorities were able to capture Guizar, he said.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum

Times researcher Scott Wilson and Cecilia Sanchez in The Times’ Mexico City bureau contributed to this report. </s> MEXICO CITY — State police have detained and disarmed the entire police force of a town in western Mexico where a mayoral candidate was killed on Thursday.

Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.

The Michoacán state police force said “all the officers of the Ocampo municipal police force were detained for [an] internal affairs investigation.”

In statements on its Twitter account Sunday, the state police department did not directly tie the detentions to the Thursday killing of Fernando Angeles Juarez, the mayoral candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. He was killed in Ocampo, Michoacán on Thursday.

Mexican soldiers guard the funeral of Ocampo municipality Mayor and candidate for the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Fernando Angeles, in Ocampo, Michoacan State, Mexico, on June 21, 2018.Raul Tinoco / AFP – Getty Images

Angeles Juárez’s is just one of at least 18 candidates killed so far in campaigns leading up to the July 1 elections. Just last week, another mayoral candidate was also gunned down last week in the conflict-ridden rural town of Aguililla in the western state of Michoacan.

Michoacán Gov. Silvano Aureoles vowed to catch those responsible for killing candidate Omar Gómez Lucatero.

Almost all of the 18 candidates killed across the country so far have been running for local posts in the July 1 elections, which will also decide the presidency, governorships and Congress. Other politicians who were considering a run have been killed before they could even register as candidates. The killings have particularly hit states like Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Ocampo, all 28 police officers, were detained after participating in a revolt when they prevented the arrest of the director of Public Security who will be investigated for his probable responsibility in the killing of the candidate Fernando Angeles Juarez.Ivan Villanueva / EPA

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said that in part, the level of violence against candidates can be explained by “simple mathematics:” There are far more elections being held simultaneously than ever before in Mexico. With more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts at stake, there are more than 15,000 candidates hitting the campaign trail.

“Secondly, this speaks to the changes in criminal groups,” Hope said, noting that drug cartels have expanded into extortion, fuel theft and other crimes. “With the evolution of crime, it becomes much more important to gain control over territory, over local governments.”

In crimes like fuel theft, for example, local police can be valuable allies to act as look outs or cover up for illegal pipeline taps and illicit fuel warehouses. And some gangs have even taken to extorting money from local governments by forcing them to sign inflated public works contracts.

Those concerns could lead the gangs to kill a candidate who rivals their favorite, or to kill candidates who refuse their demands.

Finally, Hope noted, “there has been a breakdown in the management of disputes,” largely in rural areas, where turf wars between rival gangs have heated up, even as the government has become over-extended and less able to intervene. </s> MEXICO CITY — State police have detained and disarmed the entire police force of a town in western Mexico where a mayoral candidate was killed on Thursday.

Video of the detention aired by local media showed uniformed officers hitting each other as gunshots go off in the background.

The Michoacán state police force said, "All the officers of the Ocampo municipal police force were detained for an internal affairs investigation."

In statements on its Twitter account Sunday, the state police department did not directly tie the detentions to the Thursday killing of Fernando Ángeles Juárez, the mayoral candidate for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. He was killed in Ocampo, Michoacán, on Thursday.

Ángeles Juárez is just one of at least 18 candidates killed so far in campaigns leading up to the July 1 elections. Just last week, another mayoral candidate was also gunned down in the conflict-ridden rural town of Aguililla in Michoacán.

Michoacán Gov. Silvano Aureoles vowed to catch those responsible for killing candidate Omar Gómez Lucatero.

Almost all of the 18 candidates killed across the country so far have been running for local posts in the July 1 elections, which will also decide the presidency, governorships and Congress. Other politicians who were considering a run have been killed before they could even register as candidates. The killings have particularly hit states like Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said that in part, the level of violence against candidates can be explained by “simple mathematics”: There are far more elections being held simultaneously than ever before in Mexico. With more than 3,400 local, state and federal posts at stake, there are more than 15,000 candidates hitting the campaign trail.

“Secondly, this speaks to the changes in criminal groups,” Hope said, noting that drug cartels have expanded into extortion, fuel theft and other crimes. “With the evolution of crime, it becomes much more important to gain control over territory, over local governments.”

In crimes like fuel theft, for example, local police can be valuable allies to act as lookouts or cover up for illegal pipeline taps and illicit fuel warehouses. And some gangs have even taken to extorting money from local governments by forcing them to sign inflated public works contracts.

Those concerns could lead the gangs to kill a candidate who rivals their favorite, or to kill candidates who refuse their demands.

Finally, Hope noted, “there has been a breakdown in the management of disputes,” largely in rural areas, where turf wars between rival gangs have heated up, even as the government has become overextended and less able to intervene.
After two years on the run, Mexican officials arrest the former police chief of a Mexican city, Felipe Flores, capturing him in Iguala in the southern state of Guerrero. The city is where 43 students disappeared in September 2014. The police arrested the students and then handed them over to a drug cartel who killed them and incinerated their bodies.