MEXICO CITY (May 24, 2012)--Police in a Mexico City suburb said Thursday they have arrested a mother and several relatives after the eyes of her 5-year-old son were gouged out in what appears to have been a drug-fueled ritual.

Spokesman Fernando Chavez said the boy was in serious condition at a local hospital.

Chavez says a total of seven people were detained at a house early Thursday after a resident flagged down a police car and told them what had happened.

The spokesman says the crime appears to have been part of a ritual, but is not related to the Santa Muerte or Saint Death cult.

Some followers of the cult are charged with sacrificing two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman in Mexico’s northern Sonora state.