A relative of Mexican soccer star Alan Pulido has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the kidnapping of the player last weekend.
Police said Osvaldo Velazquez Garcia, 29, is married to Pulido’s cousin.
Pulido, 24, who played for Mexico in the 2014 World Cup, was kidnapped after he left a party in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas on Saturday, May 28.
According to authorities, the soccer star was taken to a house and left alone with one of the kidnappers. Pulido was able to overpower his captor, grabbed his cellphone and then called an emergency number. He was rescued within minutes.
Some security experts interviewed by reporters have questioned the authenticity of the official story. They wondered how the kidnappers could be so incompetent as to leave a super fit sports person with his hands untied alone with a single captor.
A former player with Tigres of Monterrey, Pulido currently plies his trade with the Greek team Olympiacos.