The Australian surfer murders case led Mexican authorities to arrest three men for the shooting of the pair of Australians traveling through a known drug cartel area, according to 7 News. The charred van that the Australians were driving was found last weekend with two unidentified bodies inside, feared to be that of childhood friends, Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman.
Lucas and Coleman, both 33, lived in Edmonton, Canada, but had driven to Mexico for a surfing trip, as previously reported by HNGN. Their van was found in the state of Sinaloa, an area known for a significant amount of drug-related gang crime. Fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who broke out of a maximum security prison in July, leads the drug cartel in Sinaloa.
Mexican authorities arrested Julio Cesar Muniz, leader of a local drug trafficking gang, Martin Rogelio Munoz and Sergio Simon Benitez, according to BBC.
The suspects have confessed to killing a long-haired tourist by shooting him in the face when he resisted their robbery attempt, said chief state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez. They confessed to killing the second tourist next, in Sinaloa on Nov. 21, before driving the vehicle to another location to set fire to it with the bodies inside, according to the Western Advocate.
"These people are part of a criminal group dedicated to vehicle thefts, drug dealing and with a history of committing murders," Higuera said.
Tens of thousands of Mexican nationals have been killed in the last 10 years of drug violence in Mexico, but authorities say attacks on foreign tourists are not that common.
