GUADALAJARA, Mexico, May 15 (UPI) -- The new tourism minister for the Mexican state of Jalisco was gunned down by a drug gang because he had supported a rival group, a prosecutor said.
At a news conference Tuesday, Luis Carlos Najera, the Jalisco state prosecutor, announced the arrest of four men charged with carrying out the hit on Jose De Jesus Gallegos Alvarez, the Houston Chronicle reported. Najera said the four had admitted the killing and said it had been ordered by the New Generation of Jalisco Cartel.
The four were identified as Juan Manuel "El Piojo" Gonzalez Martinez, Julio Andres "El Padrino" Vazquez, Jonathan "El John Perro" Garcia Garcia, also known as Roberto Garcia Quintero, and Carlos Ernesto "El Tilico" Munoz Morales.
"What they told us is that their bosses told them that Jesus Gallegos was in some way economically supporting a rival cartel and that for that reason he needed to be deprived of his life," Najera said, as quoted in a transcript of the news conference.
Gallegos lived for seven years before his death in a secluded mansion equipped with a moat near the upscale Houston suburb The Woodlands. He returned to Guadalajara in March to become state tourism director and was killed eight days later by gunmen who ambushed him as he drove home from work.
