- Title: MEXICO: Authorities present a drug lieutenant arrested in Monterrey
- Date: 11th June 2010
- Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
- Embargoed: 26th June 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mexico
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVA5D287YQ0A8TXG8AFALKLHOQCK
- Story Text: Authorities presented a drug lieutenant on Thursday (June 10) in Mexico City after his arrest in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.
Hector Raul Luna, known as "El Tory," led activities for Los Zetas cartel in the city. Another alleged drug trafficker, David Eduardo Fuentes Martinez, was arrested with him.
"Yesterday on June 9th, military personnel assigned to the seventh military zone, while undergoing routine operations in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, arrested Hector Raul Luna Luna, also known as El Tory, head of Los Zetas in the aforementioned city. David Eduardo Fuentes Martinez, also known as El Chile (the Chile) or El Mantequilla (Butter) was arrested with him," said Mexican Army General Edgar Luis Villegas.
Police said they also seized weapons, cartridges, drugs and mobile phones.
Authorities said Luna is accused of firing at soldiers and attacking the US consulate in the city.
"Raul Luna admitted that, under orders from Sigifredo Najera Talamantes-- also known as "El Canicon" (The Big Marble), who was detained by the Mexican army on March 20, 2009 in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila -- he participated in a grenade attack against the United States of Americas' consulate on October 12, 2008 in the city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Besides from executing six members of the Mexican army, he was the (criminal) author of the attack against the Public Security and Traffic Secretariat for Escobedo, Nuevo Leon, and the assassination attempt on Retired Brigadier General Hermelindo Lara Cruz, Public Security and Traffic Secretary for this municipality," added Villegas.
On Wednesday (June 09), gunmen blocked roads and streets with stolen vehicles to protest his arrest.
Drug violence is surging in the northern industrial city of Monterrey and in nearby Reynosa on the U.S border as the powerful Gulf cartel battles its former armed wing, the Zetas.
Black-clad enforcers from the Gulf cartel over the border from Texas are attacking the Zetas, who split away to try to form their own cartel earlier this year.
Made up of elite former soldiers who switched sides to join the Gulf cartel in the 1990s, the Zetas are charging their old bosses taxes to use their routes, provoking almost daily shootouts as the two gangs face off along the border. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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