Arrest made in hunt for killers of Maria Villar Galaz

A SUSPECT has been arrested in the hunt for the killers of Maria Villar Galaz, the niece of the Spanish Football Federation president would was kidnapped and murdered in Mexico in early September.

Villar Galaz, who worked in the capital Mexico City for IBM, was snatched after she took a taxi on the night of September 13. The initial ransom demanded was reported to be €90,000 but, just hours after a first payment of €3,000 was made, the 39-year-old’s body was found in a small village roughly an hour away.

She was suffocated with a bag over her head and her body identified by the family on September 20. THe death shocked Spain which is unaccustomed to the daily violence rocking its former colonial territories.

There are thought to be in excess of 6,000 kidnappings each year in Mexico alone, more than one an hour, and the country remains riven by a narco war on multiple fronts.

Mexican police will shortly reveal more details on their suspect, who was almost certainly working with an organised criminal group.