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Kidnap victim's mom led campaign to nab suspects

TOLUCA, Mexico - Another suspect has been arrested in the 2005 kidnapping and presumed killing of a Mexican businessman whose crusading mother led a high-profile campaign that helped crack open the case.

TOLUCA, Mexico - Another suspect has been arrested in the 2005 kidnapping and presumed killing of a Mexican businessman whose crusading mother led a high-profile campaign that helped crack open the case.

She said yesterday that Jacobo Tagle Dobin was the final person being sought in the case.

The prosecutor for Mexico state, Alfredo Castillo Cervantes, said police arrested Tagle on Friday but gave few details of how the capture came about. He said Tagle tried to bribe the arresting officers to let him go.

Tagle, 31, is one of several suspects who have been arrested and accused in the kidnapping of Hugo Alberto Wallace, a 36-year-old fumigation-company owner. He is presumed dead but his body has never been found.

His mother, Maria Isabel Miranda, said Tagle had agreed to take authorities to the place where her son's body presumably is located.

Prosecutors said Tagle confessed to Wallace's kidnapping and told authorities that the victims' body had been cut up before being disposed. During a news conference, where authorities presented Tagle to journalists, Miranda asked him if it was true that he had confessed. Tagle answered with a barely audible, "Yes."

It was the only thing he said during the news conference. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.

Miranda also asked authorities to remove Tagle's bulletproof vest so he could lift his shirt and show that he had not been beaten and forced to confess. With the bulletproof vest removed, Tagle lifted his sweater and a shirt to show he had no marks on his body. His face also did not have visible marks.

The case became widely known in Mexico because Miranda launched her own investigation as well as a public campaign for justice out of frustration with the lack of progress by police.

Her investigative work and ads she posted around Mexico City helped lead to the arrest of at five suspects before Tagle, including a woman who was found working as a bartender in Louisville, Kentucky.

Miranda said Tagle's arrest was entirely the work of Mexican authorities.

She added that the arrest of Tagle, believed to be the last suspect in the case, will not end her fight to bring attention to Mexico's violence.

"We cannot let our guard down," she said in Spanish.

Prosecutors said Tagle had used different names during the last five years and sometimes disguised himself with false teeth and sunglasses.

He was expected to be transferred to federal authorities to face kidnapping charges.