Mexican attorney general: Six suspects confess to raping Spanish tourists

Six suspects arrested and accused of raping a group of Spanish tourists in a Mexican resort city have confessed, a top official said Wednesday.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam declared the case "resolved," although one suspect remains at large.

"There are already six arrests, confessed, totally confessed the full story of what happened, and we need only to arrest one more person identified in this process," he said. "The case is solved."

The allegations last week grabbed headlines across Mexico and around the globe. Authorities said hooded gunmen stormed into a beach bungalow in the Pacific port of Acapulco and attacked a group of Spanish tourists, raping six women and tying up a group of men with cell phone cables and bikini straps.

Investigators have not yet determined whether the suspects arrested, one of whom is 16 years old and thus a minor, are part of a gang, Murillo Karam said. They also have not confirmed whether the suspects met the victims days before the attack, something local authorities had alleged.

One suspect was arrested Tuesday and five others were arrested Wednesday morning "after a very serious investigation," he said. All six have confessed, he said.

Authorities in Acapulco had announced the detention of several people over the weekend, but those arrests had nothing to do with the case, Murillo Karam said Wednesday.

The high-profile case in the resort city last week was a sharp reminder of significant security problems in a state that has seen violence surge even as homicide numbers in other hot spots across Mexico have started to dip. It drew renewed attention to topics that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto had steered out of the spotlight since he took office in December.