Summary Juan Pablo Vazquez was arrested while selling drugs with a 25-year-old woman in Monterrey.
MONTERREY (AFP) - Mexican authorities arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of at least 79 killings in a city ravaged by drug cartel violence, officials said Thursday.
Juan Pablo Vazquez was arrested while selling drugs with a 25-year-old woman in Monterrey, capital of the northern state of Nuevo Leon.
Vazquez confessed to taking part directly in 45 homicides and is linked to another 34, said Jorge Domene, a spokesman for the state security forces.
Vazquez has been caught up in organized crime since the age of 15, first as an informant, then a drug dealer, then finally as a hit man.
Monterrey, Mexico's third largest city with a population of four million, became a battle ground for rival drug cartels in 2010.
More than 77,000 people have died in Mexico in drug related violence since 2006 as the cartels fought each other and federal army troops fought the drug gangs.
