Three held in slaying of Tijuana journalist
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050622-0...
By Sandra Dibble and Anna Cearley
June 22, 2005
TIJUANA ? A year after a newspaper editor was shot to death, three suspects linked to the Arellano Felix drug cartel are in federal custody in
connection with that shooting, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported yesterday.
But the two alleged masterminds of the killing June 22, 2004, of Francisco Ortz Franco, an editor for the Tijuana weekly Zeta, remain at large, the
New York-based committee reported after meeting in Mexico City with a top federal prosecutor.
Juan Manuel Martnez Ramos, a former Tijuana police officer, arrested in November 2004, is one of two suspects who allegedly had prior knowledge about
the planned shooting, according to the committee.
The other suspect, also an ex-Tijuana police officer, was identified yesterday as Alejandro Manuel Gomez Rubalcaba.
He was arrested in August 2004 in connection with an attempt to steal drugs from a rival group in Tijuana, according to a news release issued at the
time by federal authorities.
A third man, Juan Guillermo Mu?oz Sanoja, has been linked to the vehicle used during the crime, committee members said after meeting with Jose Luis
Santiago Vasconcelos, Mexico's top prosecutor for organized crime.
Vasconcelos linked the killing of Ortz Franco to the Arellano Felix cartel last August, suggesting that its members were retaliating for an article
published in Zeta under Ortz's byline. But until yesterday, no suspects had been named.
The prosecutor told the committee all three suspects are indirectly related to the crime and said they have been charged. He identified Jorge Brice?o
and Arturo Villareal Albarran as the masterminds of the crime. Neither has been captured.
Vasconcelos also told committee members that one of the suspected gunmen, Jorge Eduardo Ronquillo Delgado, was killed by fellow cartel members last
October.
Carlos Lauria, coordinator of the committee's Americas Program, said the information was new. The committee, which monitors conditions for reporters
worldwide, has been pressing authorities to solve the Ortz Franco slaying and those of other journalists killed in Mexico in recent months.
"It's showing some willingness to follow the investigation," Lauria said. "But for us, the crime would be solved by getting the masterminds."
The investigation into Ortiz Franco's killing led to the detention of 107 suspects, the committee reported after meeting with Vasconcelos, but most
were charged with other crimes.
The committee says four Mexican journalists have been killed in direct reprisal for their work in the past five years; five other killings also might
be related. The U.S.-Mexico border has become one of the most dangerous places in Latin America for journalists, the committee said.
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