By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : The leader of a kidnapping gang employed by drug traffickers in Mexico has been sentenced to 101 years and nine months in prison, officials have said.
Jose Alfredo Torres Contreras of the Los Linces gang from Jalisco state was also ordered to pay a fine of 1.04 million pesos ($87,000) for his involvement in organised crime, the Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.
Five other gang members got prison sentences ranging from 50 to 75 years, it said.
The gang was a special unit of the Los Zetas, a group of deserters from Mexico’s special forces who turned into hitmen, kidnapping enemies who threatened the organisation’s interests, the AG’s office said. The Los Linces gang had also killed some hostages.
Los Zetas, which was once the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel, went into the business on their own and now control several lucrative territories.