Mexican officials on Friday made the first high-level arrest in the infamous 2014 disappearance of 43 students, accusing a former attorney general of one of the worst human rights abuses in Mexico, which current officials have described as a “killing state,” Reuters reported.

Former Attorney General Jesus Murillo was arrested at his home in Mexico City on charges of enforced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in the kidnapping and disappearance of students and teachers in the state of Guerrero.

Murillo was taken to the attorney general’s office and will be transferred to a prison in Mexico City, authorities said.

Hours after the arrest, a judge issued 83 additional arrest warrants for soldiers, police officers, Guerrero officials and gang members in connection with the case, the attorney general’s office said.

During Murillo’s 2012-2015 tenure under then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, he oversaw the highly-criticized investigation into the September 26, 2014, disappearance of students at Ayotzinapa’s rural teacher training college.

The remains of only three students were found and identified, and questions have remained unanswered ever since.

International experts said the official investigation was riddled with errors and abuses, including the torture of witnesses. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018 promising to clarify what happened.

The López Obrador administration has sought to arrest another former official, Tomas Zeron, since 2020, including by asking Israel last year to extradite him.

Asked about the government’s initiative to review the investigation, Murillo said he was satisfied and ready to be heard, local media reported in 2020.

The arrest came a day after Mexico’s top human rights official, Alejandro Encinas, called the disappearance a “state crime” involving local, state and federal officials.

“What happened? The enforced disappearance of the boys that night by state authorities and criminal groups,” Encinas said at a news conference.

The top level of Peña Nieto’s administration orchestrated the cover-up, Encinas said.

Murillo took up the Ayotsinapa case in 2014 and called the government’s findings “historical truth”.

According to this version, a local drug gang mistook the students for members of a rival gang and killed them by burning the bodies in a pit.

The UN condemned arbitrary detentions and torture during the investigation.

“Historical truth” eventually became synonymous with corruption and impunity under the Peña Nieto regime as anger grew over the lack of answers.

Murillo, a former federal lawmaker and governor of Hidalgo state, resigned in 2015 amid mounting criticism of his handling of the case.

Vidulfo Rosales, the lawyer for the parents of Ayotzinapa students, called on the government to make more arrests.

“A lot more needs to be done before we think this case has been solved,” Rosales told Mexican television.