Name Daniel Lopez | ||
Daniel arizmendi lopez
Daniel Arizmendi Lopez (born 22 July 1958) is a former Mexican kidnapper. In 1998 Susan Ferriss of the Cox News Service wrote that Arizmendi was "Mexico's most notorious suspected criminal".
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Biography
He was originally a police officer in Morelos. He began involvement in crime in the mid-1980s while he was a police officer. From 1996 until 1998 he was responsible for at least 18 kidnappings in Mexico. He often liked to sever the ears of his kidnapping victims. Because of this, he got the nickname "El Mochaorejas" ("The Ear Chopper"). He often sent the severed ears to the families of his victims. Officials from the police assisted him in his kidnappings. Through the ransom of his kidnappings he had collected over $40 million U.S. dollars.
On August 19, 1998 Mexican authorities announced his capture. He was captured in Naucalpan, Mexico State in Greater Mexico City. On the day of his arrest, he confessed to murdering four people. Inside Arizmendi's house police found an altar to Santa Muerte. Police authorities allowed Arizmendi to bring a figure of Santa Muerte to prison, resulting in widespread press attention. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, the Mexican attorney general, stated that information originating from plea bargains of gang members in prison and legal wiretaps were used in the capture.
Legacy
The character Daniel "La Voz" Sanchez in the 2004 film Man on Fire is based on Arizmendi Lopez, and the character Aurelio Sanchez is based on Aurelio Arizmendi Lopez, the brother of Daniel Arizmendi Lopez. Just like the real Arizmendi Lopez, "La Voz" believes in Santa Muerte. Kevin Freese of the Foreign Military Studies Office stated that "it appears that the allusion" of the fictional Sanchez brothers with the real Arizmendi brothers "escaped the comprehension of much of the audience."