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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Top Mexican drug cartel leader 'killed' |
| 2009-12-18 |
| The head of one of Mexico's top drug cartels has been killed by Mexican soldiers as drug-related violence has taken its toll on the Central American country. Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed Wednesday along with four other members of his gang in a battle with Mexican soldiers, the country's justice ministry said in a statement. The so-called "godfather" of the "Beltran Leyva brothers" cartel was killed "during an intense battle between presumed members of his organization and military personnel from the Marine infantry in Cuernavaca, close to Mexico City, the statement said. Three soldiers were injured by grenade fragments during the violence, it added. Earlier Wednesday, police in north Mexico discovered the bodies of at least six decapitated law enforcement officers killed in a suspected revenge attack by drug gangs. The severed heads of the agents were found in plastic bags in the town of Cuencame in the northern state of Durango, officials said. Despite a lack of evidence on the actual motive behind the killings, local authorities blame the country's infamous international drug cartels as the beheadings bear the signature of the criminal traffickers active in their northern strongholds. Officials maintain that Mexico's Gulf cartel carried out the carnage in revenge for the killing of 10 gang members last week. Meanwhile, another 12 people in the city of Tijuana were murdered earlier, four of whom were beheaded. The latest violence comes despite the government's deployment of thousands of Mexican soldiers in the area, which has prompted public anger over the troops' inability to contain the bloodshed. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Soldiers generally make lousy cops. Not trained for it. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-12-18 14:08 |
| #1 A new Godfather is annointed. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-12-18 07:24 |