U.S. police have arrested former Republican congressional candidate Solomon Peña, who ran for a seat in the House of Representatives in the November elections, for his alleged involvement in several shootings at the homes of Democratic leaders in the state of New Mexico.
Peña is accused of hiring and conspiring with four other men to attack the homes of two state legislators and two local officials between December and January, according to Albuquerque police, who were responsible for the operation that took place on Monday. All of the attacks ended without personal injury.
The former candidate would be the «mastermind» of this plot and even went to one of the homes attacked and «pulled the trigger on at least one of the weapons used,» explained police commander Kyle Hartsock. Pena’s gun did not work, but more than a dozen bullets were fired from another, according to CNN.
Peña clearly lost the electoral battle to Democrat Miguel Garcia, who accumulated more than 73 percent of the vote in the last legislative elections. After the elections, the defeated candidate contacted several authorities to provide them with documents allegedly justifying electoral fraud — there is no evidence of irregularities, in any case.
It was also then that Peña contacted the alleged hitmen, although the police do not know to what extent the material authors of the shootings were actually aware of the profile of the targets.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)