Three men were arrested Thursday night on suspicion of murdering three teenagers, including two from San Diego, in a Tijuana neighborhood in November.
Alejandro, aka "El Orejas", Fabricio and Esteban Manuel were placed in custody, suspected of the killings, according to the General Attorney's Office of Baja California. The prosecutor would not give the suspects' last names.
The execution-style murders occurred Nov. 25, 2018. The victims from San Diego were Christopher Alexis Gomez, 17, a football player in his senior year at O'Farrell Charter High School, and Juan Suarez-Ojeda, 18, who graduated from Ingenuity Charter School on the shared Encanto campus in 2018. The third victim was identified as Angel Said Robles, 17, of Tijuana.
The three had gone together to a barbecue in Ensenada Nov. 23 and were supposed to return home that same night.
Authorities have not disclosed any indication of what might have led to the killings.
RELATED: Schools Offer Counseling After 2 San Diego Teens Murdered In Tijuana
The semi-clothed bodies of the three victims were found early on the morning of Nov. 25 in a complex of apartments in Lomas Verdes, according to the Attorney General’s Office. The bodies were found outside one of the buildings and initial police reports stated they had been shot in the head.
Jorge Alvarez, head of the Baja California Attorney General's Office in Tijuana, told the Union-Tribune that preliminary information indicated the two San Diegans were familiar with the neighborhood where they were killed.
"They did not live there but they came to visit family members. One of them apparently did so frequently," Alvarez told the newspaper.
Robles reportedly called his mother early Sunday and told her they were safe but had lost their cellphones.
Family members contacted Baja California authorities and frantically searched for the missing teenagers over the weekend. On the evening of Nov. 25, Tijuana police told the families about the three bodies found outside the Lomas Verdes apartment.
"When we have this type of incident, we work together with U.S. authorities," Alvarez told the Union-Tribune. "They help us and we help them."
