Mexico Re-Arrests Alleged Drug Cartel Leader Linked to Missing 43 Students

Mexican authorities have arrested a suspected drug cartel leader allegedly linked to the disappearance of 43 college students a decade ago, officials reported on Friday.

Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, also known as “El Gil,” is an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, accused of orchestrating the 2014 abduction and likely murder of students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college.

EKO HOT BLOG gathered that López Astudillo was first apprehended in September 2015 in Taxco, Guerrero, about 35 kilometers (21 miles) from Iguala, the town where the students disappeared.

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According to a federal security source, who requested anonymity, Lopez Astudillo was arrested again and transferred to Altiplano, a maximum-security prison in Mexico State, facing charges of “organized crime.” The investigation may extend further, the source added.

Gildardo Lopez Astudillo

In September 2014, the 43 students were en route to a political protest in Mexico City when they were allegedly kidnapped by the cartel, with the involvement of corrupt police officers. The exact details of their disappearance remain unclear, but a government truth commission labeled it a “state crime,” implicating the military either directly or through negligence.

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Several arrests have been made, including military personnel and a former attorney general who led a controversial investigation into the incident. However, only a few of the students’ remains have been identified.

Lopez Astudillo was previously released in 2019 after a judge ruled that evidence against him had been obtained unlawfully. His recent arrest comes as families of the missing students prepare demonstrations to mark the anniversary of their disappearance.

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