On Thursday, the federal Public Safety Department said that they have arrested a 14-year-old boy nicknamed ‘El Chapito’ for the killing of eight people near Mexico City on January 22. Earlier, another man was arrested for the killing, while seven were taken in on drug-related charges.
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Who is El Chapito?
‘El Chapito’ is the literal translation of ‘Little Chapo’- a reference to the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The 14-year-old boy who killed eight people was presumably a child killer, according to NBC News.
El Chapito rode up on a motorcycle and shot dead eight members of a family in the low-income suburb of Chimalhuacan, near Mexico City.
The victims were reportedly celebrating a birthday party at the time of their killing. Apart from the dead, five adults and two children were injured.
The motive of the killing has not been made public. However, such drug-related killings are common in Mexico. The rivalry among drug cartels and territorial wars often leads to violence in the form of kidnapping and contract killing. Often, people are killed for owing money.
Similar incidents of child killers in Mexico
Criminal gangs in Mexico are known to recruit children as young as 12 years old to carry out violent acts, including murder.
Back in 2010, a young boy of 14, who went by the moniker “El Ponchis,” was apprehended by soldiers. He said that he was abducted at the tender age of 11 and coerced into serving the Cartel of the South Pacific, which was a faction of the fragmented Beltran Leyva gang.
According to his confession, he had partaken in no less than four beheadings.
