Teen is sentenced for cartel killings

MEXICO CITY – The “boy killer” who for many became a symbol of the lawlessness and social deterioration of Mexican society because of the nation’s drug war was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for killing four people in Morelos state.

Edgar Jimenez Lugo, alias “El Ponchis,” was 14 years old when he was arrested by the Mexican army in December. The teenager admitted before news cameras at the time that he began killing at age 11 and that a cartel paid him $200 a week to do it. He claimed to have beheaded four of his victims.

Three years is the maximum sentence for underage criminals in Morelos state, said Juan Carlos Castro, a Juvenile Court spokesman. However, because of time already served, Jimenez will now spend two years and five months of his sentence behind bars, Castro said.

Jimenez was arrested Dec. 2, 2010, while attempting to board a flight to Tijuana from the city of Cuernavaca, presumably planning to escape to the U.S. after details of his alleged exploits began appearing in Mexican newspapers. He was born in San Diego but grew up in Jiutepec, a small town near Cuernavaca where he was “kind of forgotten,” his father, David Jimenez, said last year.

The case shook Mexico. Good schools and good jobs remain out of reach for many young people, leaving up to a million youths drawn to the easy money and dubious street glory of the drug trade.

The tale of “El Ponchis” was especially chilling. Jimenez was charged with four cartel-related executions – “I cut their throats,” he said – as well as carrying illegal weapons and trafficking in cocaine.