Football star ‘part of kidnap gang’

Mexican police have arrested former international football goalkeeper Omar Ortiz on suspicion of working for a gang of kidnappers.

Ortiz, 35, admitted helping to pick out two wealthy victims for the kidnappers, said Jorge Domene, security spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon.

The gang, who said they belonged to a drug cartel, sought an average of 1 million pesos (£47,000) per victim, of which Ortiz received a cut of more than 100,000 pesos, the state government said.

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Masked soldiers paraded Ortiz and three other suspects in the state capital of Monterrey, a city that has increasingly come under attack by organised crime. Mr Domene said the gang operated by selecting victims at social gatherings, who were then snatched and ransomed.

Nuevo Leon attorney general Adrian de la Garza said the suspected kidnappers were captured on 5 January and noted that the gang’s leader, who is still at large, told them they were working for the Gulf Cartel.

Ortiz’s gang is suspected of over 20 kidnappings, among them the 2011 abduction of the husband of Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi, Mr Domene said. Kidnapping is punishable by a prison term of up to 50 years.

After Ortiz disappeared earlier this week, Mexican media was awash with speculation that the football star, who is serving a ban for a taking steroids, was himself a kidnap victim.

Between 2007 and 2010, kidnappings in Mexico leapt by nearly 200 per cent from 438 to 1,284, according to government data.

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