2 arrested in Sonora highway killing of Tucson man

Two people were arrested over the weekend in connection with the Oct. 18 fatal shooting of Tucsonan Nick Quets, including one person whom witnesses say was directly involved in the attack, authorities in Sonora said Tuesday.

Quets, 31, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was killed while driving to Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, on Mexico’s Highway 2, near Altar.

A vehicle pulled up to Quets’ pickup truck and opened fire in a “direct attack,” according to the Sonora Attorney General’s Office. Before the shooting, an armed group had tried to stop the truck at a checkpoint and gunmen opened fire after the vehicle didn’t stop, Sonoran authorities have said.

The men arrested in Altar on Saturday, were identified only by their first names, Francisco Federico and José Aarón. They are considered “priority targets and generators of violence in the region,” according to a news release from the Sonora AG’s office.

Francisco Federico, who used the alias “Delta 6,” was a “participant” in the attack on Quets, witnesses told authorities. José Aarón, allegedly an accountant for the criminal group, had previously been arrested while in possession of more than 6 million pesos in cash — about $300,000 — and indicted, but a judge released him last year to await trial.

The pair is suspected of being aligned with a criminal cell known as “Los Deltas.” That groups has the support of Los Chapitos, the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, former Sinaloa Cartel leader, said a state official, speaking on background. The latter groups have been warring with the criminal group that used to control the Altar region.

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The men were found with weapons, ammunition, cash and methamphetamine, and will remain incarcerated pending trial, according to the Sonora AG office.

The arrests came as the Mexican Army and AMIC, the criminal investigative unit of the Sonora AG’s office, carried out “strategic searches” in the area near where Quets was killed, the AG’s office said.

While carrying out one of the searches in Altar, Sonoran law enforcement were attacked by two armed men traveling in a vehicle known to have been involved in the attack on Quets, the AG office said.

Security forces killed the armed men, identified only as Edward Dixon, a Honduran national, and Luis Antonio.

The leader of the criminal group that the detained subjects belonged to has not been apprehended yet, and the investigation continues, a Sonora AG spokesman said.

Highway 2 passes through a volatile region of northwest Sonora that been embroiled in territorial battles between warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel since last fall.

Two Arizona women were killed in an August shooting on the highway and a U.S. resident was killed there in December.