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A man in Mexico has been arrested by police in connection to the brutal murder of the mayor of the city of Chilpancingo last month. The killing of Alejandro Arcos, whose beheaded body was found just days after he had been sworn in as mayor, caused shock and revulsion in the violence-wracked state of Guerrero.
Police on Tuesday detained Germán Reyes, who is the top security official in Chilpancingo, for his alleged role in the murder. He has denied any involvement in the crime and has said he is being used as a scapegoat.
Rights groups have long warned that local security forces in Mexico are being infiltrated by powerful criminal gangs, which bribe, blackmail and threaten local officials to make them compliant.
The brutal murder of Mayor Arcos within a week of him taking office on 1 October, and Tuesday's arrest of Reyes is seen by many in Chilpancingo as further evidence of attempts by local criminal groups to tighten their grip on the city and its authorities.
The fact that Reyes - a retired army captain who headed the office of the Guerrero state prosecutor for serious crimes before taking over as Chilpancingo's acting security chief - has been named as the main suspect in the mayor's murder has sent further shock waves through the city.
Much of the violence in Chilpancingo is blamed on a bloody turf battle between a criminal gang called Los Ardillos and rival local crime group Los Tlacos. Los Ardillos specialize in drug trafficking in the state of Guerrero but have reportedly been expanding into extortion and other lucrative criminal enterprises. Its members have also been trying to gain control of the city's security forces.
According to Mexico's security minister Omar García Harfuch, Mayor Arcos had travelled to an area controlled by Los Ardillos unaccompanied and without a security detail "for a meeting" when he was killed.
Prosecutors have so far provided little detail as to why they suspect Germán Reyes of involvement in the murder.
Reyes told a judge he "had no motive" to harm the mayor, saying that it was Mayor Arcos who had named him as the city's security chief.
Meanwhile, the federal government has deployed more than 12,000 soldiers and members of the National Guard to the state.
