Image copyright Reuters Image caption Demonstrations marked the second anniversary of the students' disappearance last month

The former police chief of the Mexican city where 43 students disappeared in 2014 has been detained after two years on the run, officials say.

Felipe Flores was arrested in Iguala, in the southern state of Guerrero, where the incident happened.

The government says the students were arrested by police before being handed over to a drugs cartel who killed them and incinerated their bodies.

But families and independent experts contest this claim.

The panel of experts, working for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said the account that the students had been burnt beyond identification at a rubbish dump was physically impossible.

Felipe Flores was police chief of Iguala when the incident took place on 26 September 2014, and his arrest may offer new clues as to what exactly happened then.

Attorney General Arely Gomez welcomed Felipe Flores' capture, writing on Twitter that it would allow investigators to get "a fundamental statement to clear up the events".

The case has tainted President Enrique Pena Nieto's image.

The missing 43 at a glance

Image copyright AP

Who are they?

The 43 were all students at an all-male teacher training college in the town of Aytozinapa, in south-western Guerrero state. The college has a history of left-wing activism and the students regularly took part in protests.

What happened to them?

They disappeared from the nearby town of Iguala on the evening of 26 September 2014 after a confrontation between municipal police and the students during which six people were killed.

Have any of them been found?

Independent forensic experts have matched charred bone fragments reportedly found at a rubbish dump near Iguala to Alexander Mora, one of the 43 missing students. They also say there is a high probability another set of remains could belong to Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz, another of the students. However, experts from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights say the chain of evidence was broken and they could not be sure the bone fragments had been found at the dump.

What is the government's version of events?

According to the official report, the students were seized by corrupt municipal police officers who handed them over to members of a local drugs gang. The drugs gang mistook the students for members of a rival gang, killed them and burned their bodies at the dump before throwing their ashes into a nearby stream.

Why do the families not believe the official report?

They think officials have failed to investigate the role soldiers from a nearby barracks may have played in the students' disappearance. The government has refused to let the soldiers, who were in the area at the time of the disappearance, be questioned by anyone but government prosecutors. The families also point to the report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which said that there was no evidence the bodies of the 43 were burned at the dump.</s>(CNN) One of the "probable masterminds" of the disappearance of 43 Mexican students was arrested Friday morning after being on the lam for more than two years , according to Mexican officials.

The announcement was made by Mexico's National Security Commission via Twitter.

"(We) have executed the arrest warrant against Felipe Flores, former Iguala police chief," the commission tweeted.

The attorney general offered a reward of up to $2.5 million pesos (about $134,392 dollars) last year for any information that led to his capture.

Felipe Flores Velázquez was captured as he was visiting his spouse in Guerrero, the state where the students went missing in 2014, National Security Commissioner Renato Sales Heredia said at a news conference.

Mexican federal authorities made the arrest in coordination with the attorney general's office, the country's navy and the Center of National Investigation and Security, an intelligence-gathering agency.

How did the students go missing?

The mayor then turned the students over to a gang who killed them, burned their bodies in a landfill and tossed some their remains into a nearby river, Karam added.

Tomás Zerón de Lucio, the head of Mexico's Criminal Investigations Agency, said two months later that the incident was a case of mistaken identity.

He said the criminal group accused of executing the students thought they belonged to a rival gang, also operating around the city of Iguala where the students were last seen.

"We can conclude that the motivation was consistent (with the theory that) the students were identified by the criminals as members of an organized crime rival group that operated in the region. That was the reason why they were deprived of their freedom, initially, and then of their lives," Zerón de Lucio said in early 2015.

What was the role of the former chief?

Flores Vasquez helped protect city's police officers who were connected with the students' disappearance, authorities said.

He also colluded with the city's mayor to persecute and attack the students and ordered local police to stop them from attending the protest.

The former chief is being charged with organized crime and kidnapping, officials said Friday.

Some 130 others have been arrested in connection with the case, Sales Heredia, added.</s>The former police chief of the Mexican city of Iguala -- where 43 students disappeared two years ago -- was arrested Friday in connection with the case, according to Mexico's National Security Commission's Twitter page.

Felipe Flores Vazquez, who had been sought since the students went missing, had been labeled as one of the "probable masterminds" of the disappearance by then-Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam.

Karam said in November 2014 that the students were abducted on orders of a local mayor, turned over to a gang who killed them, burned their bodies in a landfill and tossed the remains into a river.

Of the missing 43, authorities have been able to identify the remains of one.
After two years on the run, Mexican officials arrest the former police chief of a Mexican city, Felipe Flores, capturing him in Iguala in the southern state of Guerrero. The city is where 43 students disappeared in September 2014. The police arrested the students and then handed them over to a drug cartel who killed them and incinerated their bodies.