Members of the armed forces arrested five suspected of participating in the murder of photojournalist Margarito 4-4 Martínez on Friday morning in Tijuana, Secretary of Defense General Luis Cresencio Sandoval reported in a live conference.
The general said soldiers took drugs and firearms from the suspects.
"Among the seized weapons, there is a 40-caliber Smith and Wesson pistol and a 223-caliber AR 15 rifle. These weapons are of North American origin," the military officer said.
"As part of current investigations, we will find out if these weapons were involved in other crimes and whether these weapons were also the ones used in the journalist's death," the general said.
Sandoval González revealed that the arrests this Friday morning were based on intelligence work by an inter-institutional group, "a team formed on the president's instructions," Andrés Manuel López Obrador said
Photojournalist Margarito Martínez Esquivel was shot dead outside his home on Jan.17. This month, the Mexican government reported the arrest of three suspects in the murder of journalist Lurdes Luby Maldonado López, murdered on Jan. 23 in Tijuana.
The Secretary of Citizen Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, reported that between the night of Feb. 8 and the early morning of Feb. 9, the authorities detained three suspects identified in security videos from homes neighboring Lourdes Maldonado's house.
Maldonado López also died from a gunshot outside her home in Tijuana.
So far this year, five journalists have been murdered in Mexico.
On Thursday, a former public official was killed 15 days after he left the job to retake his work as a journalist.
