Mexico’s government said Sunday that it had detained several suspects in the slaying of several members of a fundamentalist Mormon sect with dual U.S.-Mexico citizenship.
An official with the office of Mexico’s attorney general told The New York Times that multiple suspects had been detained Sunday in an operation, though no other information was immediately available. The arrests followed the detention of another suspect in Mexico City earlier this month, according to the newspaper.
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Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not address the arrests Sunday at a public event celebrating his first year in office, but firmly stated that his government would not accept assistance from U.S. military forces on battling drug traffickers.
“We won’t accept any kind of intervention. We’re a free and sovereign country,” he said, according to the newspaper.
Nine members of the La Mora Mormom fundamentalist settlement in Sonora, Ariz., were killed by gunmen suspected to be working for a international drug cartel in early November while traveling to the Mexican state of Chihuahua for a wedding.
Their deaths caused widespread condemnation from U.S. lawmakers, including President TrumpDonald John TrumpPerry ends final day as Energy secretary Mexican officials detain suspects in massacre of members of Mormon sect READ: White House’s letter to Nadler saying it won’t participate in impeachment hearing MORE who threatened to take action over the killings.
“This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth. We merely await a call from your great new president!” Trump tweeted in response.