Mexican 15-year-old sentenced to three years in jail
Edgar 'El Ponchis' Jimenez Lugo has received a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of beheading four people as an assassin for the South Pacific Cartel.
He has only just turned 15 years old, having begun his work with the criminal gang at the age of 11.
Jimenez was also convicted by a juvenile court of several kidnappings and other crimes and will now serve his time at a facility in Cuernavaca near Mexico City.
When asked by a reporter about the victims, the child explained that he "slit their throats", with his frankness causing disbelief in the country.
"His eyes are hardened and inscrutable. When he leans into the camera, sometimes wearing a children's T-shirt, his mouth twists into a snarl and his features tighten with disdain," noted Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker.
The journalist pointed out that the positive outcome of the trial of Jimenez is that the authorities are finally considering the role of children in the country's increasingly violent drug wars.
