Accused of being ‘slow and risk averse’ in recently revealed dispatches the Mexican authorities have detained a major drug lord and a fourteen year old assassin.
Mexican police have arrested Eduardo “El Profe” Valencia, an alleged leader of the Zetas drug gang in the state of Hidalgo.
Valencia is believed to head drug trafficking operations that stretch from Panama and the Dominican Republic to the US.
A regional police chief said the arrest was the first time a Zetas leader of Valencia’s stature had been taken into custody.
“This is the first time we found someone inside Los Zetas organisation who handled large amounts of drugs from Mexico to the US,” said Luis Cardenas at a presentation of the detainee in Mexico City.
Additionally, a teen believed to have been born in San Diego and may be a US citizen was captured along with his sister in connection with ‘four beheadings’.
The teenager told reporters that he had worked for a drug cartel since he was 11 and that he had participated in at least four decapitations.
The source said his sister was accused of getting rid of the bodies by dumping them on streets and motorways.
“I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat that if I didn’t, they would kill me,” said the boy.
Another teenage sister accompanied the two, but officials said she was not suspected of being involved in the cartels.
Gang violence
The attorney general for Morelos state said the siblings would be turned over to state authorities, who handle crimes committed by minors in Mexico.
The two were suspected of helping the South Pacific cartel headed by Hector Beltran Leyva, brother of Arturo Beltran Leyva, a top drug lord who was killed by Mexican marines in Cuernavaca a year ago.
It is estimated more than 31,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon took office, December 2006.
[photo Reuters]
