ANTONIO SIERRA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Edgar Jimenez Lugo, 14, says he worked as a $3,000-per-hit assassin for a drug cartel. He was arrested late Thursday. .
..MEXICO CITY - In a case that has shocked Mexicans, a 14-year-old youth told journalists Friday that he's a highly sought "boy assassin" who guns down and beheads people for a drug gang.
Soldiers arrested the boy, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, on Thursday night as he prepared to board a flight from Cuernavaca, a tourist destination south of the capital, to Tijuana, where he planned to cross the border to his mother's residence in the San Diego area.
The case highlights concern about the falling ages of foot soldiers in Mexico's ongoing drug violence, which has left more than 30,000 people dead since late 2006. The youth said he had been killing already for three years.
News reports said Jimenez was a U.S. citizen, although U.S. Embassy spokesman Alex Featherstone said, "We have not confirmed this boy's citizenship."
Security agents had been hunting for Jimenez since late October, when a video was posted on the Internet of the boy, holding an AK-47 assault weapon and posing with other gang members.
On the video, Jimenez casually says that he didn't care whether he and his fellow gunmen got the right targets.
Mexican soldiers arrest boy, 14, who says he's gang's hired gun
Edgar Jimenez Lugo, 14, says he worked as a $3,000-per-hit assassin for a drug cartel. He was arrested late Thursday. .
..MEXICO CITY - In a case that has shocked Mexicans, a 14-year-old youth told journalists Friday that he's a highly sought "boy assassin" who guns down and beheads people for a drug gang.
Soldiers arrested the boy, Edgar Jimenez Lugo, on Thursday night as he prepared to board a flight from Cuernavaca, a tourist destination south of the capital, to Tijuana, where he planned to cross the border to his mother's residence in the San Diego area.
The case highlights concern about the falling ages of foot soldiers in Mexico's ongoing drug violence, which has left more than 30,000 people dead since late 2006. The youth said he had been killing already for three years.
News reports said Jimenez was a U.S. citizen, although U.S. Embassy spokesman Alex Featherstone said, "We have not confirmed this boy's citizenship."
Security agents had been hunting for Jimenez since late October, when a video was posted on the Internet of the boy, holding an AK-47 assault weapon and posing with other gang members.
On the video, Jimenez casually says that he didn't care whether he and his fellow gunmen got the right targets.
Mexican soldiers arrest boy, 14, who says he's gang's hired gun