Notorious Mexico drug lord Hector Beltran Leyva captured by soldiers
Severe blow to cartel and good news for politicians as soldiers swoop on man wanted in the US and at home, with large rewards for his capture
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 02 October, 2014, 8:57pm
UPDATED : Friday, 03 October, 2014, 12:28am
Reuters in Mexico City
Hector Beltran Leyva after his arrest on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
Notorious drug lord Hector Beltran Leyva has been caught by soldiers at a seafood restaurant in a picturesque Mexican town.
The government's announcement on Wednesday that it had snared the boss of the Beltran Leyva cartel is a big blow to a gang named after a group of brothers who became infamous for the bloody turf war they waged with their former ally, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Beltran Leyva was caught in San Miguel de Allende town, a three-hour drive northwest of Mexico City, and had been living in the nearby Queretaro city posing as a businessman dealing in art and real estate.
Beltran Leyva, 49, and an associate were carrying military-issue handguns, but like his adversary Guzman, he was arrested without a shot being fired. Guzman, who was the world's most wanted drug boss, was captured in Mexico in February.
Beltran Leyva shunned lavish living, passing himself off as a well-off businessman, said Tomas Zeron, director of criminal investigations at the attorney general's office.
"He kept his operations away from his home so as not to alter his discreet, low-key lifestyle, avoiding attracting the attention of neighbours or friends or the authorities," Zeron said.
Beltran Leyva now faces charges of trafficking cocaine from Mexico and South America to the United States and Europe.
His capture is a victory for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has sought to shift focus away from the violence that fighting the drug gangs has spawned in recent years and on to the economic reforms he has pushed through the parliament.
On his Twitter account, Pena Nieto touted the capture of Beltran Leyva, who had bounties on his head of US$5 million in the US and 30 million pesos (HK$17.3 million) in Mexico.
Beltran Leyva, who Zeron said was likely to have branched out into selling synthetic drugs, was the only one of the gang's brothers known to be involved in drug trafficking who was not dead or facing a long prison term.
When Mexican special forces arrested Alfredo Beltran Leyva in early 2008, the brothers reportedly believed Guzman had informed on their sibling, sparking a war with the boss of the Sinaloa cartel based in the northwestern state of the same name.
Over the next three years, the dispute spawned fresh brutality that overshadowed the 2006-2012 administration of then-president Felipe Calderon.
The Beltran Leyva gang has had a reputation as one of the most ruthless in the business.
When Hector's older brother Arturo was killed by soldiers in December 2009, the government honoured one of the young marines slain in the raid. The next day, gunmen swept into the family home and killed the marine's mother, sister, brother and an aunt.
