Mexico killed a Knights Templar drug cartel leader: Reports

Mexican marines killed a leader of the Knights Templar drug cartel on Monday, three weeks after the cult-like gang’s top chief was gunned down, officials said.

Enrique “Kike” Plancarte was killed in the state of Queretaro in central Mexico, two government officials said on condition of anonymity.

“It was in a navy operation,” one of the officials told AFP, declining to give more details because the interior ministry will make an official announcement on Tuesday.

Plancarte, 43, was considered one of the top four leaders of the Knights Templar gang, which is based in the western state of Michoacan and has been under pressure from government and vigilante forces for several months.

Mexican media reported that Plancarte was killed by marines after resisting arrest near a football field in the town of Colon following an operation that involved around 150-200 troops.

The interior ministry said on Twitter that authorities were verifying Plancarte’s identity and that more information would be given on Tuesday.

Officials said this was standard procedure. The national daily Reforma said navy sources confirmed Plancarte was killed.

His death comes after Knights Templar founder Nazario Moreno, alias “El Chayo,” was killed by troops in Michoacan on March 9.

Moreno had been mistakenly reported killed in December 2010, leaving fellow leader Servando “La Tuta” Gomez as the public face of the cartel.

Gomez, a former school teacher, remains at large.

Plancarte’s uncle Dionicio, who was also a key leader of the gang, was detained in January.

Vigilante militias that formed a year ago to kick the cartel out of Michoacan towns had named Plancarte as one of the top Knights Templar leaders that they wanted to see taken down.

Mexican authorities had offered a $ 750,000 reward for information leading to his capture, with prosecutors accusing him of being one of the main traffickers of drugs to the United States. He was also on a US Treasury list of drug lords under sanctions.

The Knights Templar are considered major smugglers of crystal meth to the United States, but their business has expanded to include illegal mining of iron ore for export to China.

The gang held sway across Michoacan’s agricultural Tierra Caliente (Hot Country) region, but farmers began to take up arms in February 2013, fed up with the police’s inability or unwillingness to curb the cartel.

The vigilantes kicked the cartel out of some 20 towns and allied themselves with federal forces in January, but the so-called “self-defense” militias have faced trouble with the law.

Earlier Monday, authorities accused a vigilante leader of ordering the murder of a mayor who opposed the self-defense forces.

Enrique Hernandez Salcedo was among 19 people detained in connection with the murder of Tanhuato Mayor Gustavo Garibay Garcia.

It was the second arrest of a vigilante leader in recent weeks.

Earlier in March, authorities arrested one of the most high-profile self-defense leaders, Hipolito Mora, on charges of being behind the March 8 double murder of two fellow vigilantes.

Mora, a lime grower from the town of La Ruana, has declared his innocence.

gbv-jg/lth/dw

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/mexico/140401/mexico-kills-knights-templar-drug-cartel-leader

GlobalPost – Home

Mexico killed a Knights Templar drug cartel leader: Reports

Cartel leader"s capture may boost violence

The leader of Mexico’s most-feared drug cartel, the Zetas, is now in custody. Miguel Angel Trevino Morales was captured by Mexican marines. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

The capture Monday of Los Zetas leader Miguel Angel Trevino Morales may have dealt a major blow to the Mexican drug cartel, but experts say the take down won’t lead to a decline in gang violence in the near future — and will likely just set the stage for a bloody power struggle and turf war.

Trevino Morales, 40, and two companions were traveling between the border town of Nuevo Laredo and the state of Coahuila when Mexican Marines, in vehicles and a helicopter, began pursuing them around 3:45 a.m. Monday. They were captured without firing a single shot, the government said. 

Inside Trevino Morales’ car, authorities found $ 2 million, weapons and ammunition, according to Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez, spokesman for Mexico’s interior secretary. The Zetas leader and his alleged accomplices — a bodyguard and an accountant — were flown to Mexico City, where they will eventually be tried.

Trevino Morales is charged with ordering the kidnapping and killing of 265 migrants, along with numerous other charges of murder, torture and other crimes, according to the government spokesman.

Violence, including the discovery of 49 mutilated bodies near the U.S. border, is reaching new levels in the ongoing drug war in Mexico. NBC’s Mark Potter reports.

“This is the takedown of the most sadistic capo at least in the Americas,” said George Grayson, co-author of “The Executioner’s Men,” a book about the Zetas, and a professor of government at the College of William & Mary. “This is a resounding blow to a diabolical organization.” 

Yet others, who live in fear of the Zetas every day, weren’t so optimistic.

“This was a blow, but it’s only skin deep,” the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, a Roman Catholic priest who runs a migrant shelter in the state of Oaxaca and has spent much of the last decade living under death threats from the Zetas, told the Associated Press.

“The Zetas operate in almost 20 states of Mexico. They have a lot of public servants on their payroll, a lot of police.”

The Zetas forcibly recruit some migrants, kill those who won’t join and increasingly kidnap young girls, who are forced into prostitution at Zetas-run bars or are made to distribute Zetas drugs.

“We’re talking about human trafficking, organ trafficking, kidnappings, forced recruitment, everything,” Solalinde said.

Nevertheless, Trevino Morales’ capture was seen as a victory for the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto, who came into office in December 2012 promising to reduce the violence in Mexico. But his approach has been based more on intelligence information and has been less aggressive than that of former President Felipe Calderon. 

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City even congratulated the government and law enforcement officials for getting Trevino Morales, whom they characterized as “one of the most wanted criminal suspects in Mexico.”

“This is yet another advance by the people of Mexico in the dismantling of organized crime,” the statement released Monday read. 

But the kingpin’s capture may simply result in more violence in the near future, as rivals move to make a play for his area of influence and internal foes fight over the cartel’s top position.

“To be sure, Miguel Trevino may have been the final stitch that held what was left of this disparate federation together,” wrote Steven Dudley, co-director of InSight, a joint initiative of American University and the Fundacion Ideas para la Paz that looks at organized crime in the Americas. “What comes next could be a spasm of violence as the group balkanizes.”

Mexico’s drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion

Trevino Morales’ brother, Alejandro “Omar” Trevino Morales,  is expected to succeed him, but Grayson believes his days might be numbered, as he is seen as a weaker figure. 

“The Zetas used to be a hierarchical organization, now they’re so fragmented, they’re like McDonald’s franchises,” Grayson said. They lack the savvy and leadership they had when [former leader Heriberto] Lazcano was around, he added.

The disruption of Zetas leadership could also cause other cartels to get more aggressive.

The Zetas and Sinaloa cartel — led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman — have been involved in a bloody turf war that sparked a rise in homicides in the north. So violence will likely rise if Sinaloa makes a play for more Zetas-controlled areas, Grayson said.

And not only will Trevino Morales’s capture lead to more violence, but, according to Michael Levine, author and former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, it does nothing to stem the Mexican drug war.

“It means zero in the scheme of things,” Levine said. “It’s not even a blow to the Zetas. You think there aren’t 15 guys ready to take his place or are already taking his place?”   

“You will see no difference,” he said, adding that the capture is nothing but “career points” and a feather in the cap for the Pena Nieto administration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Related stories:

• Leader of Mexico’s brutal Zetas drug cartel captured


• Mexico nabs high-ranking Zetas drug gang member ‘El Taliban’


• Mexico captures suspected son of most wanted drug lord ‘El Chapo’

Cartel leader"s capture may boost violence