Reply #2: Gang members, police officer arrested in filmmaker's slaying (6) [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Gang members, police officer arrested in filmmaker's slaying
updated 2 hours, 8 minutes ago

(CNN) -- Six men, including a police officer, are facing homicide charges in last week's killing of French filmmaker and photographer Christian Poveda in El Salvador, the attorney general's office said.

The suspect accused of ordering the slaying, Nelson Lazo Rivera, was already in prison, according to a statement Wednesday from the agency.

Officials gave no motive for the slaying and did not say why Lazo Rivera is incarcerated. El Diario de Hoy newspaper said he is in prison for several murders, including three slayings in 2003 known as the massacre of Samcap.

Poveda, 53, had recently finished a documentary about a violent street gang, part of the Mara 18 criminal group in El Salvador. He was found shot to death September 2 in the town of Tonacatepeque, about 10 miles northeast of the capital, San Salvador, authorities said.

Four of the suspects are members of the same Mara 18 gang that was the subject of Poveda's film, the attorney general's office said. Authorities identified them as Calixto Rigoberto Escobar (known as Toro), Jose Alejandro Melara (El Puma), Roberto Luis Romero (Tiger), and Miguel Angel Rosa (El Cholo).

National Civil Police Officer Juan Napoleon Espinoza also was arrested, the attorney general's office said. Officials did not say what his involvement in the crime may have been. But El Mundo, Diario Co Latino, El Faro and El Diario de Hoy newspapers said authorities believe the officer told gang members Poveda was giving information on the group to police.

According to El Diario de Hoy, police deputy director Mauricio Ramirez Landaverde said Espinoza was a Mara 18 member, who would drink with other members in his free time and also was involved in giving them weapons, ammunition and information.

More:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/10/elsalvador.poveda/index.html?iref=mpstoryview