MEXICO: Jose de Jesus Mendez, suspected leader of the notorious "La Familia" drugs cartel captured

Record ID: 303544

  • Title: MEXICO: Jose de Jesus Mendez, suspected leader of the notorious "La Familia" drugs cartel captured
  • Date: 23rd June 2011
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (JUNE 21, 2011) (REUTERS) FEDERAL SECURITY SPOKESMAN ALEJANDRO POIRE WALKING INTO NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FEDERAL SECURITY SPOKESMAN ALEJANDRO POIRE, SAYING "Today we have made the biggest hit against the drug cartel La Familia (The Family). The federal government has arrested its highest-ranking leader, Jesus Mendez Vargas, alias "El Chango" (The Monkey) during an operation in Aguascalientes by federal police. Until now no casualties have been reported or shootouts. With this arrest, what was left of the leadership within that criminal organization has been destroyed."
  • Embargoed: 8th July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico, Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Reuters ID: LVACZZGISS360251TW0369NEY6E1
  • Story Text: Mexican police captured the suspected leader of the cult-like La Familia (The Family) drug cartel on Tuesday (June 21) in the latest blow to the gang that was once one of Mexico's most notorious.
    Federal police captured Jose de Jesus Mendez, known by his nickname "El Chango", or The Monkey, in the central state of Aguascalientes around mid-morning at a highway checkpoint, said a spokesman for the Aguascalientes state attorney general's office, who declined to be named.
    "Today we have made the biggest hit against the drug cartel La Familia (The Family). The federal government has arrested it's highest-ranking leader, Jesus Mendez Vargas, alias "El Chango" (The Monkey) during an operation in Aguascalientes by federal police. Until now no casualties have been reported or shootouts. With this arrest, what was left of the leadership within that criminal organization has been destroyed," Federal Security Spokesman Alejandro Poire told a news conference.
    On Sept. 15, 2008, At least eight were killed and 100 wounded following a deadly grenade attack during Independence Day celebrations in Morelia.
    Until last year, La Familia was one of Mexico's most feared and most powerful cartels, but the death of its top boss Nazario Moreno, a self-styled spiritual kingpin known as "The Craziest One," has split the gang into factions. Rivals are now fighting over methamphetamine trafficking and marijuana fields across western Mexico.
    With a bounty of $2 million on his head in Mexico and wanted in the United States, Mendez is believed to have taken over the running of La Familia since Moreno's death along with another suspected kingpin, Servando "The Prof" Gomez.
    Moreno's capture is welcome news for President Felipe Calderon, who hails from Michoacan, La Familia's heartland in western Mexico. But the conservative leader is facing rising public anger at the horrifying violence that has killed around 40,000 people across Mexico since he launched his army-led crackdown in December 2006.
    Formed in the 1980s, La Familia has vowed to stop sales of the party methamphetamine drug "Ice" in Michoacan, saying it is destroying local communities. Instead, it exports all meth production to the United States Unlike other Mexican cartels, La Familia is run with a pseudo-religious philosophy preaching Bible scripture mixed with self-help slogans to prevent gang members from abusing drugs and to justify the grisly murders of rivals.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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