Mes: agosto 2019

(AP) MEXICO CITY – Mexican officials say they have struck a major blow against a faction of the hyper-violent Zetas cartel, arresting one of the country’s most-wanted drug traffickers, Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as “El Taliban,” and placing him on display in a Thursday morning press conference. Velazquez Caballero allegedly has been fighting a bloody internal battle with top Zetas’ leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, and officials have said the split was behind a recent surge in massacres and shootouts, particularly in northern Mexico. Masked marines displayed the burly, handcuffed suspect alongside two alleged accomplices and a table of guns and other contraband seized during his arrest. Velazquez Caballero is the third alleged cartel leader to be taken into custody this month. All are accused of leading factions of the Gulf Cartel or Zetas, former allies now feuding over valuable smuggling territory along the U.S. border. The alleged heads of the two main factions of the Gulf group, Mario Cardenas Guillen and Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez, were also seized in Navy operations in northern Mexico. In the waning months of President Felipe Calderon’s presidency, the arrests add to the list of cartel figures taken out of action as part of his U.S.-backed strategy of removing the leadership of drug-smuggling organizations. Calderon and the Obama administration say the strategy is working, but many independent groups say it has helped fuel...