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 News from Around the Americas | July 2007 
US Captures Suspected Mexican Drug Cartel Leader
 Reuters
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| | This photo provided Tuesday, July 17, 2007, by the McAllen Police Department shows Carlos Landin-Martinez. Landin-Martines is believed to be a high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel and was arrested after a Drug Enforcement Administration agent spotted him buying a watermelon at a local supermarket. (AP/McAllen Police Departmant) |
The United States has captured a suspected leader of Mexico's powerful Gulf drug cartel and one of the country's most wanted men, Carlos "El Puma" Landin, while he was shopping in Texas, the Drug Enforcement Administration reported.
Landin, a former Mexican police officer who is wanted on drug-smuggling charges in Mexico and the United States, crossed into McAllen, Texas, on Saturday, where DEA officers unexpectedly found him shopping for groceries.
"Landin was responsible for collecting taxes on drugs smuggled through (the Mexican border city of) Reynosa. He was number two in the Reynosa plaza," said DEA spokesman Will Glaspy.
The Gulf cartel, which relies on its armed wing, the Zetas, dominates smuggling routes into Texas via the Mexican border cities of Matamoros, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo.
The DEA has asked the judge holding Landin, who is in his 50s, not to release him on bail, Glaspy said. U.S. authorities will seek to put him in prison for up to 20 years, he added.
Landin was believed to be close to Osiel Cardenas, the alleged leader of Mexico's Gulf Cartel who was extradited from Mexico in January to face trial in Texas.
Mexico's Top Drug Traffickers
Reuters' Factbox
Here are some facts on Mexico's top drug traffickers:
* Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the alleged head of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel, who escaped from a top security prison in a laundry van in 2001. His nickname means "Shorty".
Guzman's cartel is famous for building elaborate tunnels to smuggle drugs under the U.S.-Mexico border. Police say he pays million dollar bribes to avoid capture and may have had plastic surgery. He is rumored to change cell phones after every conversation.
* Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the Sinaloa cartel's co-leader, has been a top trafficker for three decades and has never been captured. He is considered a sharp businessman and negotiator.
The U.S. government this year froze the U.S. assets of five Sinaloa companies, including a large dairy and a kindergarten chain, that it says launder Zambada's drugs money. It has offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
Police suspect Zambada has had plastic surgery. Despite his traditional low profile, several ballads glorifying his decades of criminal achievement have been written in recent months.
* Osiel Cardenas, the alleged leader of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, was extradited from Mexico in January to face trial in Texas. A former mechanic, he reportedly rose to lead the cartel by killing his superiors.
Cardenas set up an armed wing, the Zetas, with army deserters and used them to fight arch-rival El Chapo Guzman. Captured after a gun battle in 2003, he continued to lead his gang from a Mexican prison cell but his extradition triggered a power struggle inside the cartel.
* Benjamin Arellano Felix is the alleged mastermind of the Tijuana cartel, which once imported a third of all cocaine into the United States but has lost power in recent years as its top leaders were arrested or killed.
The cartel is led by the sprawling Arellano Felix family and is infamous for attacking rivals' children and slitting the throats of enemies. Benjamin Arellano Felix was arrested in 2002 but continued to control operations from inside Mexico's highest security prison. Washington wants him extradited.
* Ignacio "Don Nacho" Coronel is accused of running a string of "superlabs" churning out hundreds of pounds of crystal meth in central and northwest Mexico every day. He is known as the "King of Ice" and police say he is linked to the Sinaloa cartel. The U.S. State Department placed a $5 million price on Coronel's head.
(For more stories on the changing drug war, see Reuters' "The Changing Drug War") |
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