Man Held in Mexico Slayings

Mexican authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest in Los Angeles of a man suspected of taking part in the murder of 19 people near Ensenada last year.

Mexico will seek to extradite Manuel Escalante, named in an arrest warrant last year as a suspect in the Sept. 17, 1998, mass shooting and for unspecified kidnapping charges, according to a statement by the Mexican attorney general’s office.

Escalante is the fourth person arrested in the case. All allegedly were members of a Baja California drug-trafficking ring that authorities say carried out the predawn massacre of three families, including eight children, at a ranch in El Sauzal. The others were arrested last November on suspicion of murder, organized crime, and drug and firearms offenses.

The ring--whose alleged leader, Arturo Martinez Gonzalez, is still at large--was said to have worked for Tijuana’s Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Police have said the gang attacked the family compound to settle a drug feud with one of the owners, Fermin Castro, whom they characterized as a minor player in Baja California drug trafficking.