Mexico arrests alleged hit man

SAN DIEGO – A suspected hit man who allegedly dumped more than 300 bodies in vats of lye at the behest of a top Tijuana crime boss has been arrested outside Ensenada in Baja California, according to the Mexican military.

The military said Santiago Meza Lopez, a 45-year-old from Sinaloa, was arrested after allegedly trying to flee from soldiers and federal agents on the Ensenada-Tijuana coastal highway.

Military authorities said Meza admitted being the body disposal expert for alleged crime boss Teodoro Garcia Simental, nicknamed El Teo, who narrowly escaped after soldiers on Thursday raided an upscale resort outside the Baja California port city 70 miles south of San Diego, according to one Mexican media report.

Meza was nicknamed “El Pozolero del Teo,” – the soup-maker for Teo, roughly translated. Soldiers also arrested Garcia’s cook and seized four automatic weapons and two grenades.

Garcia is believed to be battling the Arellano Felix drug cartel for control of the Tijuana area in a turf war that has claimed more than 500 lives since late September.