SDP NOTICIAS (Mexico), DALLAS MORNING NEWS (USA)
MEXICO – Mexican Marines have captured Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, leader of the Zetas, one of the most brutal and feared cartel of the country.
Late Monday, the Mexican government confirmed the arrest earlier in the day of the man knows as “El Z-40.” Treviño Morales was nabbed near the Texan border town of Nuevo Laredo, and his security guard and treasurer were also captured, with $2 million in cash and weapons seized.
Over the past decade the Zetas – involved in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, piracy, prostitution and human trafficking – had become one of the most dangerous criminal organizations of the region. The announcement of the detention of its leader drew immediate reactions on both sides of the Texan border he had terrorized for years, the Dallas Morning News reports.
@EPN #Z40 #Zetas 1 for the good guys!! Great job let the #waterboarding begin! Hope he gets it worser then the #innocent people he murdered!
— Chris Vega (@TCB1st) July 16, 2013
The 40-year-old drug kingpin, who took control of the Zetas in 2012, is thought to have been responsible for the disappearance of 265 migrants – including 72 found dead – in northeastern Mexico in 2010, SDP Noticias reveals. During the last years seven arrest warrants had been issued against this man accused of various crimes, including killings, torture and money laundering.
The capture of Treviño Morales is seen as a major victory for President Enrique Peña Nieto, who was elected with a promise to reduce violence in the country.
The U.S, which issued a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest in 2010, congratulated the Mexican government’s action stating it was “another advance by the people of Mexico in the dismantling of organized crime.”
