U.S. officials have confirmed an alleged 14-year-old drug gang killer in Mexico is a U.S. citizen.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Alexander Featherstone said U.S. authorities have also confirmed his 19-year-old sister is an American citizen. He said embassy officials have visited both in prison.
He said Thursday the embassy "will continue to provide consular services to the boy and his sister" but provided no other details.
The boy and his sister were arrested last Thursday as they tried to board a plane to Tijuana in an airport near Cuernavaca south of Mexico City. A 23-year-old sister who drove them to the airport was also detained.
The siblings' mother was arrested in San Diego Wednesday and charged with entering the U.S. illegally.
A Mexican human rights group is worried the juvenile center holding the boy could come under attack. They’ve filed complaints on the boy's behalf.
The boy is in custody at the Independent Human Rights Commission in the Southern Mexican state of Morelos.
Director Jose Martinez said there are rumors that people in Mexico want Edgar dead, and he’s concerned that drug gang hitmen will attack the detention center and kill the boy and the other children.
Maritnez said drug gangs have killed innocent teenagers and massacred groups of young people at parties and rehab centers throughout Mexico.
Martinez said his group, and Morelos' human rights commission, have filed complaints against the Mexican army for parading the boy before cameras when they detained him.
The boy’s mother was arrested in her San Diego apartment on Monday night and charged on Wednesday with entering the U.S. illegally.
A federal judge in San Diego has set bail at $20,000 for the mother of an alleged child assassin accused of working for drug cartels in Mexico.
Yolanda Lugo Jimenez did not enter a plea Friday to charges of illegally re-entering the United States after being deported.
A public defender says Lugo is self-employed and earns about $300 a month.
The 43-year-old Mexican citizen was deported from San Diego in 1997 after pleading guilty to possessing rock cocaine.
