Fugitive Former Mayor of Iguala, Mexico and Wife Found and Arrested Following Disappearance of 43 University Students

According to Reuters, police apprehended Jose Luis Abarca, former mayor of Iguala, and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda on Nov. 4.

The couple is suspected by the Mexican government to be the alleged criminal masterminds behind the abduction of 43 university students feared to have been murdered in September. Following the incident, the pair fled, and a massive manhunt began to capture the fugitives, igniting public outcry and controversy for President Enrique Pena Nieto, Yahoo! News reports.

Jose Ramon Salinas, a federal police spokesman, announced via Twitter that the two perpetrators were arrested and are being detained.

Mexican media reported that the pair was seized in Iztapalapa, located in the eastern district of Mexico City -- one of the most violent areas in the capital.

A government representative later confirmed that Abarca and Pineda were apprehended early Tuesday morning and were being interrogated by prosecutors. Officials said more information will be provided later on Tuesday, according to Mail Online.

According to news reports, last month the Mexican government declared that on the night of Friday, Sept. 26, Abarca and Pineda ordered local police to stop a multitude of roughly 80 student protesters from interfering with a political event. An altercation consequently resulted in the deaths of six people, including three students in the notorious Guerrero. The radical leftist student protesters attended an all-male Guerrero college and were studying to be teachers.

Investigators allege that local police relinquished the other youths to Guerreros Unidos, a drug gang based in the southwestern city of Iguala that many representatives suspect slayed the student protesters.

According to the Mexican government, Abarca's wife hails from a dynasty of high-profile drug traffickers. Also, in a testimony made public by the attorney general office, a detained racketeer fingered Pineda as the boss of Guerreros Unidos.

Although the remains of at least 38 bodies were discovered buried in the hills near Iguala and there have been several arrests, authorities remain uncertain on the cause of the students' untimely deaths.