Teen drug cartel killer released to U.S. for questioning

A 17-year-old boy who became an infamous hitman for a Mexican drug cartel has been released to the U.S. for questioning by authorities.

The Associated Press reported that Edgar Jimenez Lugo was deported to San Antonio, Texas from Mexico following completion of a 3-year juvenile sentence for kidnapping and beheading four people in 2010. His victims' bodies were found hanging from a bridge in Cuernavaca, a popular vacation spot in the Mexican state of Morelos.

The teen was captured in 2010 while he and his sister were attempting to fly from Morelos to San Diego, California, where he was born. Authorities in Mexico have said that Jimenez Lugo was raised in Mexico by his grandfather, and that he was recruited by drug gangs when he was 11 years old. He later carried out the beheadings under threat of death by the South Pacific cartel, formerly led by Héctor Beltrán Leyva.

"Being able to say whether he's been rehabilitated, that would be risky," Morelos Interior Secretary Jorge Messeguer told the AP. "I wouldn't really dare say that, because obviously the crimes he committed were so severe."

WOAI-TV reported that two state troopers met Jimenez Lugo at the airport Tuesday afternoon and took him to an undisclosed location, where he will reportedly be questioned about his knowledge of the cartel's operations.

Watch WOAI's report on Jimenez Lugo's return to the U.S., aired on Tuesday, below.