Mexico special agents found dead after cartel kidnapping

Human remains found last week in Mexico are reportedly those of two special agents kidnapped by armed men earlier this month, Forensic experts say.


Octavio Martínez and Alfonso Hernández were members of Mexico's Criminal Investigation Agency, a unit created in 2013 to fight organized crime.

They went missing on February 5 while they were on leave attending a christening in Nayarit state, western Mexico. A week after they disappeared, a YouTube video emerged in which they were seen surrounded by armed men. In the video, they were forced at gunpoint to read a statement critical of their agency.

Mr Martínez, a 26-year-old lawyer, and Mr Hernández, a 28-year-old criminologist, had joined the agency less than a year ago. Their bodies were found in a car in the city of Xalisco. So far no one has been arrested in connection with their killing.
The armed men in the YouTube video are believed to be members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, although their identity has not been independently verified. Mexico's Attorney General Raul Cervantes recently declared it the nation's largest criminal organization and it has been blamed for a series of attacks on Mexican security forces and public officials.