Mexican cartel handed over surfer murder suspects to police, report says

Jorge Ventura and Rich Johnson

14 minutes ago

(NewsNation) — The arrests of suspects in the killings of three surfers in Mexico last month reportedly came with help from an unlikely source: the Sinaloa drug cartel.

According to The Daily Beast, the people who tried to rob the surfers but ended up killing them were not part of the cartel, but simple robbers acting alone.

“We learned that the police were looking for the gringos and also started looking for those responsible. We called the authorities to let them know where to find them,” an anonymous cartel member told the website.

American Jack Carter Rhode and Australian brothers Callum and Jake Robinson were reported missing on April 27 during a surfing trip near Ensenada on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. A few days later, the police found their bodies, each of them shot in the head.

The Baja California Attorney General’s Office says it has charged Jesús Gerardo “N,” also known as “El Kekas,” with the crime of enforced disappearance.

According to the suspect’s girlfriend, he confessed to her that he killed the three men. Two other suspects were also arrested.

According to authorities, the three men were ambushed by “El Kekas” and his accomplices who wanted to steal their vehicle. When the suspects pulled out their weapons, the victims tried to defuse the situation, but the suspects eventually shot them, according to police.

The Daily Beast also quotes the cartel member as saying its leaders extradited the suspects because they didn’t want “unwanted attention” from Mexican authorities.