Mexico seeking 6 additional suspects in capital bombing

Police are seeking six additional suspects in connection with an explosion that killed one person and was apparently intended for a police commander, Mexico City's top prosecutor said Wednesday.

Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Felix Cardenas also said the homemade bomb, which exploded Friday just two blocks from police headquarters, was made from acetone peroxide — a material available in the marketplace that is tricky to turn into a bomb.

"It is very susceptible to heat, friction and contact," Cardenas told the Televisa television network. Because of the material's instability, it is known as "Satan's mother," he said.

Cardenas would not say whether he thought that instability caused the bomb to explode prematurely, killing Juan Carlos Meza Campos, 44, as he carried it down the street.

An autopsy showed Meza was high on cocaine at the time, said Felipe Takajashi, director of the city's medical forensic services.

The blast also wounded Tania Vazquez, 22, who was captured on a surveillance video walking with Meza. She is still hospitalized and is being treated as a suspect.

Cardenas said authorities are looking for six more suspects, but he did not elaborate.

The preliminary investigation has led police to Vazquez's home neighborhood of Tepito, a rough area known for drug dealing and pirated goods, according to Cardenas.

Cardenas repeated previous claims that the intended target of the bomb was a Mexico City police official, but he told Televisa that authorities did not have enough information yet to determine which one.

A man who says he is Meza's brother told police Meza was divorced, struggled with money and alcohol problems and had difficulty keeping a job, the attorney general's office said in a statement. Jesus Alberto Meza Campos also said his brother was estranged from the rest of the family.

Investigators still have not identified a motive for the bombing. Cardenas said they are not ruling out links to organized crime, street dealers or leftist rebel groups.