April 26 (UPI) — A Mexican rapper told authorities he got rid of the bodies of three missing students by dumping the remains in acid, officials said Thursday.
The film students disappeared last month after their vehicle broke down in Tonalá. Authorities believe the culprits posed as police and abducted them.
Christian Palma Gutierrez, known as QBA, said the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel had been paying him $160 a week. He will be charged with aggravated kidnapping, prosecutors said.
He also told police he was recruited for the cartel three months ago, and that it wasn’t the first time he’s used acid to dispose of human remains.
The Jalisco cartel formed around 2010 and has since expanded across Mexico.
Gutierrez is one of two suspects who’ve been arrested in the case. He has a YouTube channel of his music videos and nearly 125,000 subscribers. Five other suspects are still at large.
The three students were filming at a house in Tonalá before they were kidnapped March 19. The filming house was provided by the aunt of one of the students, but officials said it was owned by a cartel.
Mexican officials believe cartel members mistook the students — Javier Aceves, 25; Marco García, 20; and Daniel Díaz, 20 — for rival gang members.
Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who won two Oscars for his latest film, The Shape of Water, has been mourning the students — who came from his hometown.
“Words are not enough to understand the dimension of this madness,” he posted on Twitter. “Students are killed and dissolved in acid. The ‘why’ is unthinkable, the ‘how’ is terrifying.”
