Three men arrested over presumed murder of Australian surfers in Mexico

Authorities in the Mexican state of Sinaloa say they have arrested three men over the presumed murder of two Australian surfers. They allegedly shot the pair dead and set fire to their van after a robbery. Adam Coleman and Dean Lucas, both aged 33, were last seen late on 20 November when they got off a ferry from the Baja California peninsula at Topolobampo. They were travelling to Guadalajara from Edmonton in Canada to join Mr Coleman’s Mexican girlfriend and failed to arrive the following day as planned.

This is just a gang of five people who committed highway robberies. They don’t have links to drug cartels.

Chief state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez

According to prosecutors, the suspects have admitted stopping a van just after it passed a poll booth on the road south to Guadalajara, Mexico’s second biggest city. Mr Coleman apparently struggled with the thieves and one of them shot him, although he did not die straight away. The van was driven to a country road where both men were apparently killed and the vehicle set on fire. The burnt-out van was discovered on 21 November with two charred bodies inside. They have yet to be formally identified, although the van’s identification number matched one registered to Mr Coleman in Canada. Prosecutors say the suspects had rifles, a shotgun, pistols, 124 small bags of methamphetamine and jackets with police logos on them. The three men were detained on low-level drug-dealing and weapons charges but homicide charges are expected to follow soon.

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