The attorney general of Quintana Roo revealed on Monday that a 42-year-old male suspect was arrested last Thursday in connection with the murder of the police chief in the Caribbean coast resort town of Tulum.

José Roberto Rodríguez Bautista, a Navy captain turned security chief, was shot in Tulum on March 21 and died in hospital on the morning of Saturday March 22.

Quintana Roo Attorney General Raciel López told a press conference that state and federal authorities arrested Alejandro “N,” alias “El Rayo,” in Veracruz city for his alleged involvement in the murder of the municipal security chief.

He said that the suspect is from Taxco, Guerrero, and is a member of a criminal group.

“He participated in the homicide of the municipal secretary of public security,” said López, who noted that authorities determined that after the Tulum shooting, the suspect fled to Tampico, Tamaulipas, before traveling to Veracruz.

Another gunmen, a Guatemalan national known as “El Chaparro,” “El Guatemalteco” and “El Kaibil,” was killed by a bodyguard after he allegedly fired the bullet that ultimately took the life of Rodríguez. “El Guatemalteco” and “El Rayo” were on a motorbike when they allegedly attacked the security minister.

The attorney general said that “El Rayo” acted on the instructions of a criminal leader from the northern state of Tamaulipas to kill Rodríguez.

He said that the criminal leader was angry about the work Rodríguez carried out while a member of the state police of Colima, including his participation in a search operation near the border with Jalisco.

López described the detained suspect as a “dangerous individual” who is linked to more than 100 murders perpetrated in the north of Mexico.

He said that “El Rayo” planned the murder with eight other sicarios, or hired assassins, including “El Guatemalteco.”

López said that the homicide was “very well planned,” explaining that Rodríguez and relevant social media accounts were monitored for approximately five months before the security minister was killed in order to determine things such as his day-to-day movements, the number of bodyguards he had and what public events he would be attending.

He also said that criminals attempted to murder the security minister on six different occasions.

“Due to various circumstances they didn’t achieve their objective,” López said.

After his arrest, Alejandro “N” was flown to Cancún, where a judge ordered he be placed in preventive detention on homicide charges.

If found guilty, he faces a sentence of up to 50 years in prison. López said that authorities are seeking to arrest those who allegedly collaborated with the detained suspect in the planning of the homicide in Tulum.

“In Quintana Roo, he who commits a crime of this nature will face the consequences,” he said.

With reports from López-Dóriga Digital, El Universal and Milenio