Mexican federal authorities arrested a local police chief in the border state of Chihuahua in connection with a cartel attack that killed nine U.S. citizens. The murdered women and children were part of a Mormon family residing in Mexico.

On Thursday, agents with a specialized organized crime unit from Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office arrested Fidel Alejandro Villegas Villegas — police chief from Janos, Chihuahua. While Mexico’s government has not released any statements in connection with the case, the police chief and two other men have been taken to Mexico City as part of the ongoing investigation, El Diario de Chihuahua reported.

As Breitbart Texas reported, in early November, several members of the Le Baron family were traveling from a small town in Sonora towards another town with the eventual intent of crossing into the U.S. as they made their way to a family event. It was during that trip that a group of cartel gunmen attacked them killing nine women and children and torching at least one of their vehicles. The family had been driving through a stretch of road in the mountainous area between the Mexican border states of Sonora and Chihuahua — just south of the New Mexico boot heel.

Following the attack, Mexican authorities blamed the mass murder on a turf war between the La Linea faction of the Juarez Cartel (Chihuahua) and factions of the Sinaloa Cartel that control Sonora, Breitbart Texas reported. Just before the attack, La Linea gunmen terrorized some towns in Sonora. They also set up a series of roadblocks in anticipation of a backlash. Mexican authorities have since claimed that gunmen mistook the U.S. family for a convoy of cartel gunmen. Family members dispute this claim as they push for authorities to designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.