US authorities turned over a key suspect in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of 43 college students to their Mexican counterparts after he attempted to cross the border without proper documents.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute identified the man only by his first name, but a federal agent later confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday that he was Alejandro Tenescalco. The institute said he did not qualify for asylum in the United States.
Tenescalco, a former Mexican police officer, was caught trying to cross the border on December 20.
MEXICAN PROSECUTOR: SHANQUELLA ROBINSON MURDER INVESTIGATION CONTINUES, POTENTIAL ACCOMPLICES IDENTIFIED
Relatives and classmates of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa university students march in Mexico City on September 26, 2022, the anniversary of their disappearance in Iguala, Guerrero state. US authorities turned over a key suspect, Alejandro Tenescalco, in the 2014 disappearances, after the man was caught trying to cross the border on December 20, 2022 without proper documents.
(AP)
He was a police supervisor in Iguala, a city in the state of Guerrero where students from a rural teacher’s school were taken by municipal police. Mexican authorities have suggested that corrupt police officers turned the students over to a drug gang, who killed them and burned their bodies.
Alejandro Encinas, head of the government’s Truth Commission, has called Tenescalco “one of the main perpetrators” of the crime.
He faces kidnapping and racketeering charges. The Mexican government had offered $500,000 for his arrest.
The murder of the students sparked international outrage and became an example of endemic drug gang violence and corruption throughout Mexico.
The mother of the disappeared university student Adan Abarajan de la Cruz sits at the foot of the soldiers in front of a military base during a protest by the families of 43 disappeared students for the alleged responsibility of the army or the lack of response to the disappearance of the students in Iguala, Mexico.
(AP)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Investigations resulted in the arrest of three soldiers, including a now-retired general who was the army commander in the area when the kidnappings occurred. Likewise, the then federal attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, has been accused of inventing the original government story based on torture and tampering with evidence.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
