A Mexican news blogger has been arrested for exposing a journalist for running a website that named and shamed drug criminals who was murdered this week.
Angel ‘N’, who runs the Facebook page ‘The News with Angel’ with nearly 120,000 followers, argued with photographer and journalist Margarito Martinez Esquivel in December after the latter photographed vehicles owned by the blogger.
During the row, which was filmed, Angel accused Martinez Esquivel of running the website ‘Tijuana en Guerra’ (‘Tijuana at War’), which exposes alleged drug traffickers.
The claim resulted in the journalist Martinez Esquivel being given police protection after he was threatened by criminals including a former police officer, according to the news site El Universal.
However, despite being under the protection programme, the journalist was murdered outside his home in the neighbourhood of Sanchez Taboada in the Mexican city of Tijuana on 17th January.
He had worked with local, national and international media, according to Cadena Noticias, which was one of the outlets he had contributed to.
Two days after the murder, Angel ‘N’ was arrested by police officers at the request of the Baja California Attorney General’s Office at around 1am.
The news blogger live-streamed the arrest on his platform, and the footage is going viral, with 375,000 views in one day.
Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Hiram Sanchez said Angel is under investigation for accusing the murdered journalist of running the crime website, possibly leading to his assassination, without providing any evidence.
During his arrest, the police also found an unspecified amount of cannabis in his home that was considered sufficient enough to charge him with drug dealing, according to El Universal.
Prosecutors said the investigation into Angel will run parallel with the investigation into the journalist’s murder.
