Some lengthy prison terms have been handed down in two separate kidnapping and homicide cases.
José Ortíz Cuevas was sentenced to 283 years for his role in the 2010 kidnapping and murder of Italian restaurant owner Claudio Conti Bonetti of Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, along with five other cases of kidnapping.
Rubén Raúl Pérez Mijangos was ordered to serve 77 years for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Conti.
The two men, both members of the Zetas criminal organization, abducted Conti in June 2008 and demanded a ransom of 10 million pesos (about US $900,000 at the time).
The two were arrested a year later. Conti was killed and his body buried in a hidden grave.
Earlier this year, Rusbel “El Barbas” Ramírez Fuentes was sentenced to 48 years behind bars for his participation in crime.
In an even older case, a former member of a splinter group of the Tijuana Cartel was given a sentence of 114 years and six months for kidnapping and other charges.
José Gustavo Contreras López was the leader of the Black Commando organization, known for dissolving its victims’ bodies in acid.
Contreras was arrested in Tijuana in 2005 in a joint operation by the army, navy, the federal Attorney General, state police and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
