Former Cop Arrested for Mexican Journalist's Killing

MEXICO CITY- A 24-year-old former police officer was arrested over the weekend in connection with the killings of photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and four women in Mexico City last month, the Federal District Attorney's Office said.

"Police investigators managed today, Sunday, to arrest a person identified as Abraham Torres Tranquilino for his presumed role in the incidents mentioned," Federal District Attorney Rodolfo Rios said in a statement.

Torres, a Mexico City resident, worked for the Federal District Public Safety Secretariat and has a prior criminal record, Rios said.

The former officer was remanded to a court for torture and later convicted of abuse of authority, the DA said.

"He was sentenced to a term of four years and eight months in prison, winning his release on Oct. 29, 2012," Rios said.

Torres's photograph is not being released due to a request from the Federal District Human Rights Commission and prosecutors expect to determine the extent of his role in the slayings by Tuesday, Rios said.

A judge will determine what Torres's level of criminal responsibility is in the case, the DA said.

The bodies of Espinosa and the four women were found with gunshot wounds and signs of torture inside an apartment in the central Mexico City neighborhood of Narvarte on July 31.

Both Espinosa and human rights activist Nadia Vera, one of the female victims, had received threats in Veracruz.

The 31-year-old Espinosa, who was working for the Cuartoscuro photo agency and the Proceso newsweekly, had returned to Mexico City in June after eight years as a journalist in Xalapa, capital of the Gulf state of Veracruz.

Espinosa said he had been forced to flee due to death threats and harassment, friends and colleagues said.

A few days before he was killed, Espinosa expressed concern that he was being pursued by someone in the capital, Cuartoscuro director Pedro Valtierra told EFE last month.

A total of 102 journalists were murdered between 2000 and 2014 in Mexico, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for members of the media, the Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression, or FEADLE, said.