Leader of gang in Mexico's missing students case dies

A leader of a Mexican gang linked to the disappearance of 43 students died during a police operation Tuesday amid growing anger and protests over the missing young men's fate. Guerreros Unidos honcho Benjamin Mondragon apparently killed himself when federal police surrounded him in the central state of Morelos, a security spokesman told AFP.
"The information I have ... is that he preferred to commit suicide rather than give himself up," the spokesman for the National Security Commission, who declined to give his name, told AFP. Prosecutors will have to confirm whether Mondragon killed himself during the clash in the city of Jiutepec, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Mexico City, said the spokesman. The spokesman did not know if Mondragon, known as "El Benjamon," was involved in the case of the missing students in the southern state of Guerrero, where his gang is based.