A fugitive leader of a brutal Mexican cartel blamed for killing two American tourists who were kidnapped last year has been arrested at a luxury shopping mall.
José Alberto García Vilano, also known as “La Kena” and “Cyclone 19,” has been arrested in the state of Nuevo Leon, public security officials announced.
Mexico’s national arrest registry confirmed that García Vilano was arrested on Thursday, reported by authorities acting on a tip.
Without naming García Vilano, the navy department said the marines had arrested “one of the main leaders of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Tamaulipas,” who was also “one of the main targets of the Drug Enforcement Administration.”
Miguel Treviño, mayor of the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza García – considered one of the richest cities in Mexico – confirmed that García Vilano had been collared in a local mall.
José Alberto García Vilano, known as “La Kena” and “Cyclone 19,” the alleged leader of the Gulf drug cartel, has been arrested in Mexico. Fiscalía General de Justicia de la Ciudad de México
“Thanks to good intelligence, coordination and police monitoring, today an alleged criminal leader was arrested without a single shot,” Treviño wrote in X.
Prosecutors previously offered a reward equal to about $150,000 for the capture of the elusive kingpin. It is unclear whether it will be paid for the detention.
García Vilano allegedly heads one of the most powerful and violent factions in the Gulf cartel, known as the “Cyclones.”
Shaeed Woodard was killed by cartel members in March 2023. Facebook / Shaeed Woodard Zindell Brown was killed during a shootout in the border city of Matamoros. Family Handout Latavia McGee, who traveled to Mexico with three friends for stomach surgery, was kidnapped but survived. Facebook / Latavia âÃÂÃÂTayâÃÂàMcGee Eric James Williams was rescued with McGee from a storage shed a few days after their abduction. Family Distribution
The cartel has been linked to the fatal kidnapping in March 2023 of four US citizens, who crossed the southern border into the crime-ridden city of Matamoros so that one of them, Latavia McGee, could undergo stomach surgery.
The friends from South Carolina got lost and ran into a group of armed gang members, who opened fire on them and then forced them into the back of a truck, as seen in harrowing surveillance video.
Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard were the two US tourists killed in the attack; McGee and Eric Williams were rescued from the wood storage shed a few days later.
Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was killed in Matamoros, apparently by a stray bullet. Facebook/Areli Pablo Servando
A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed in the shooting, apparently by a stray bullet.
The Gulf drug cartel then handed over five of its members who were said to be responsible for the kidnapping to the police.
A letter claiming to be from “The Scorpions”, one of the cartel factions, condemned the violence, saying: “We have decided to hand over those directly involved and responsible for the event, who at all times acted under their own decisions .-making and lacking discipline.”
With Postal wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
