Mexican authorities arrest alleged crime figure 'El Botox' in killing of lime growers' leader

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities said Thursday that they arrested an alleged organized crime figure in the western state of Michoacan in connection with last October’s killing of an outspoken leader of the state’s lime growers.

Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said that authorities arrested César Alejandro “N,” alias “El Botox,” for allegedly extorting lime growers and for various homicides, including the killing of agricultural leader Bernardo Bravo.

A Michoacan state official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the suspect’s full name was César Alejandro Sepúlveda Arellano, leader of a group known as the White Trojans, or Blancos de Troya. The group is known to work with Los Viagras, a criminal organization allied with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

García Harfuch said there were 11 arrest orders for him for extortion and homicide. He has also been accused of attacking authorities with explosives.

Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said in a statement that his arrest represented "an overwhelming blow against extortion” in the state, which is Mexico’s largest producer of limes and avocados.

In October, the body of Bravo, president of the Apatzingan Valley Citrus Producers Association, was found in his vehicle on a road in the area.

Bravo had denounced “organized crime’s permanent commercial hijacking of any commercial activity.”

Two weeks after his killing, a gunman killed popular Uruapan Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo, another outspoken critic of the cartels’ control of Michoacan. The two homicides and the popular outcry that followed spurred the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum to send more troops to Michoacan.