HERMOSILLO, Mexico - Eight people have been arrested for allegedly killing two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in ritual sacrifices by the cult of La Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, prosecutors said Friday.
Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for Sonora state prosecutors, said the victims' blood was poured around an altar to the saint, which is depicted as a skeleton holding a scythe and clothed in flowing robes.
The slayings recalled the notorious "narco-satanicos'' killings of the 1980s, when 15 bodies, many of them with signs of ritual sacrifice, were unearthed at a ranch outside the border city of Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
While Saint Death has become the focus of a cult among drug traffickers and criminals in Mexico in recent years, there have been no confirmed cases of human sacrifices in Mexico to the scary-looking saint, who is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Worshippers usually offer candy, cigarettes, and incense.
Larrinaga said the first of the victims was apparently killed in 2009, the second in 2010, and the latest earlier this month.