Arrest in Ensenada cockfight shooting

A suspect in Saturday’s violent attack during a cockfighting competition in Ensenada that left four dead — including a 16-year-old youth and an 11-year-old boy — has been taken into custody, law enforcement authorities announced on Thursday.

Joaquin Arizmendi Aviles, 24, was detained early Wednesday in the community of Maneadero. Officials with the Baja California Attorney General’s Office said that Arizmendi was caught carrying a bag with four weapons, three of them connected by ballistics tests to the attack: two AK-47 assault rifles and an AR-15.

Authorities said that Arizmendi confessed to driving the getaway vehicle, an Isuzu Rodeo, with seven passengers to the Poker palenque in Ensenada south of the port district at about 10 p.m. on Saturday. During the attack, six gunmen fired into the crowd of several hundred spectators who had gathered to watch and bet on the cockfight.

The assault was directed at only one of the victims, Carlos Arnoldo Verdugo Rodriguez, 34, authorities said. Verdugo had an agrochemical business and previously received threats, authorities have said, without disclosing the nature of the threats.

Baja California’s deputy attorney general for special investigations, Jose Maria Gonzalez Martinez, told reporters in Ensenada on Thursday that Arizmendi “did not know who he was working for. He only received instructions by phone,” to pick up the vehicle and drive the gunmen.

Arizmendi was to be paid once the job was done, Gonzalez said, adding that the assailants told Arizmendi that they “were going to collect a payment.”

The state is leading the investigation, which also involves federal and municipal officials. Gonzalez said that more arrests are expected in the case.

Arizmendi was described as a native of Tijuana who has been living in Ensenada for about a year. He is also under investigation in connection with a Jan. 2 homicide in Ensenada.

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com