MEXICO: Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva buried quietly in family crypt

Record ID: 304240

  • Title: MEXICO: Mexican drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva buried quietly in family crypt
  • Date: 22nd December 2009
  • Summary: CULIACÁN, SINALOA, MÉXICO (DECEMBER 20, 2009) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FUNERAL HOME VARIOUS OF VEHICLE CARRYING BODY LEAVING FUNERAL HOME (2 SHOTS) SOLDIERS GUARDING STREET FUNERAL PROCESSION DRIVING THROUGH STREET VARIOUS OF ARMY VEHICLES FOLLOWING FUNERAL PROCESSION (2 SHOTS) CONVOY DRIVING THROUGH STREETS ENTRANCE TO CEMETERY VEHICLES ENTERING CEMETERY SOLDIERS GUARDING CEMETERY VEHICLE PARKED NEAR DRUG LORD BELTRAN LEYVA'S CRYPT IN CEMETERY MILITARY ON SITE RELATIVES OUTSIDE CRYPT CULIACÁN, SINALOA, MÉXICO (DECEMBER 19, 2009) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) VARIOUS OF FUNERAL VEHICLES ARRIVING AT AIRPORT SOLDIER FUNERAL VEHICLE CARRYING BODY OF ARTURO BELTRAN LEYVA LEAVING AIRPORT EXTERIOR OF FUNERAL HOME AT NIGHT SOLDIERS GUARDING FUNERAL HOME VARIOUS OF SECURITY OPERATION NEAR FUNERAL HOME
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Reuters ID: LVA1JPO12O6HACOQNEA83H6FWKIW
  • Story Text: One of Mexico's top drug lords, gunned down this week by security forces, was buried in a low-key ceremony at a family crypt in the northwestern city of Culiacan, deep inside Mexican drug trafficking territory.
    Mexican cartel leader Arturo Beltran Leyva was buried on Sunday (December 20) in his family's crypt in Culiacan, in the northwestern state of Sinalao.
    Amid heavy security, the funeral procession followed his body to the Humaya Gardens Cemetery where dozens of relatives, laid him to rest in a simple ceremony.
    Male relatives of Beltran Leyva, head of the eponymous cartel that splintered off from former allies in Sinaloa state, stayed away and the family shunned the ostentatious funerals typical of the drug cartel world in favour of a sombre burial with just a few dozen female mourners.
    Known as "The Boss of Bosses" or "The Beard," Beltran Leyva died in a hail of bullets on Wednesday (December 16) when elite navy forces swooped on a luxury condominium near Mexico City in the biggest victory of President Felipe Calderon's three-year drug war.
    One of Mexico's most-wanted drug bosses, Beltran Leyva smuggled tons of cocaine to the United States each year, laundered huge sums of money and is alleged to have ordered the murders of senior security officials after his brother, who worked with him, was arrested in early 2008.
    More than 16,000 people across the country have died in brutal turf wars that have escalated since Calderon deployed the army against drug cartels in late 2006. Many were butchered and their severed heads left on streets.
    Family members identified Beltran Leyva's bullet-pocked body after the shootout, which disfigured part of his face.
    Many in Culiacan, where residents turn a blind eye to the luxury SUVs and flamboyant mansions that signal drugs money, expected a raucous funeral would take place at Beltran Leyva's birthplace in the poppy and marijuana-growing Sinaloan hills that spawned Mexico's first drug traffickers.
    Instead, his bronze-coloured coffin was driven quietly to the cemetery accompanied by an army convoy and placed underground alongside his grandmother and other relatives.
    Mexico's drug cartel leaders live large, moving between dozens of secret luxury mansions where they hold lavish parties livened up with teenage beauty queens and live bands who praise their exploits in "narco corrido" ballads.
    After they die, their families pay homage to them with huge gaudy tombs, often topped with neon crosses and full of photos, plastic flowers, balloons, replica guns and model cars.
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