Baja California State Police have made arrests in the case of five people murdered at a family party in Tijuana in January, which included the death of a popular San Ysidro middle school student.
Police arrested three people Friday, including a 24-year-old woman they said ordered the killings.
In a statement, police officials said that Martha Lizeth Osegueda Rodriguez, an alleged neighborhood drug dealer, ordered the murders in retaliation for the theft of some drugs.
On Jan. 28, masked gunmen stormed a child’s birthday party in Tijuana’s Tres de Octubre neighborhood, took five males into the kitchen, and executed them.
Among the victims was 13-year-old Ulysses Castrejon, whose parents were in a nearby room when he was killed.
Police say Osegueda worked for a criminal group with ties to the Sinaloa drug cartel.
The killings were the first flare-up of high-profile violence in several months in Tijuana. Drug-related murders have been on a steep decline over the last year.
