Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Mexican police have arrested a man holding two hostages believed to be connected to the highway massacre.
The Ministerial Agency for Criminal Investigations said the suspect was arrested with several rifles, including large-caliber guns, and a stockpile of ammunition. He was found in the hills of Agua Prieta in the state of Sonora.
Two vehicles were seized in the Tuesday raid, a 2019 white Dodge RAM that had been reported stolen in Phoenix, and a 2011 GMC Yukon.
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The victims are part of the LeBaron family, which has owned a ranch in Mexico for decades.
Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda told CNN the family has a history of conflict with the drug cartels and may have been targeted. He didn't believe this was a case of mistaken identity.
"They had stood up to the drug cartels and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights," Castaneda said.
The driver of the first vehicle in the convoy was known as an activist who defended her family and the community against the cartels on the issue of water rights, Castaneda said.
Mexican authorities were aware of the feud and had 90 federal police stationed around the community since 2011 because of tensions between the family and the cartels. The security was scaled back under the governor but it's not clear how many were there Monday.
Miller said the "Cartels have taken too many of our family members" and those killed Monday were "not the first."
The family had been threatened recently on where they could travel, Miller said.
The attack on the family could be the work of a newly formed cartel, Los Jaguares, an offshoot of Guzman's Sinaloa cartel, Espejel said. U.S. officials have said a rival cartel, La Linea, could be to blame.
"These very cartels of Sinaloa, after the arrest of Guzman 'El Chapo' have suffered fragmentations," Espejel said. "They have been growing near the border with the United States and are heavily involved in trafficking of immigrants into the United States and drug trafficking."
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