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THE MEXICAN NAVY said late last night that the leader of the Zetas, a powerful drug cartel implicated in a grisly string of mass killings, was apparently killed in a shootout near the US border.
The navy said in a statement that it was still awaiting final forensic results, but that the body appeared to be Heriberto Lazcano, aka “El Lazca,” the leader of the feared cartel made up of former commandos.
The shootout reportedly occurred in Coahuila, one of the border states that have been at the epicentre of Mexico’s vicious drug war, believed to have claimed some 60,000 lives since the launch of a military crackdown in 2006.
“Two suspected criminals were killed during an assault with grenades and firearms against naval personnel” on patrol Sunday in the small town of Progreso in the northern border state, the navy said in its statement.
It added that after the shootout troops recovered a grenade launcher, a tube used for firing rockets and 12 grenades.
Lazcano is one of the two main leaders of the divided cartel and one of Mexico’s most wanted men, with a $2.6 million reward for information leading to his capture. The United States has set the award at $5 million.
Mexican federal prosecutors have said Lazcano broke with the other leader, Miguel Trevino Morales, aka “Z-40″ — known for cruelly dispatching his enemies — leading to a schism in the cartel.
Earlier, Mexican authorities had announced the arrest of a Zetas commander allegedly linked to the massacre of 72 immigrants, the murder of an American and two massive jail breaks.
Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo was presented to the press by the Mexican navy along with five alleged accomplices. They were captured Saturday in Nuevo Laredo, a border city in the northern state of Tamaulipas.
Martinez was the “presumed intellectual author” of a massacre of 72 illegal immigrants whose bodies were found in San Fernando, Tamaulipas in August 2010, Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara said.
More than 60,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon put the military in charge of a campaign against organized crime.
US authorities say the Zetas are one of Mexico’s most powerful gangs alongside the Pacific region’s Sinaloa federation, led by fugitive billionaire Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Much of the northeast is in the clutches of the Zetas cartel, which was founded by former Mexican special forces soldiers who went rogue and are known for decapitating and dismembering their enemies.
The Zetas were originally hired as enforcers for the Gulf Cartel but turned on their employers and have fought them for control of lucrative drug routes to the United States.
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She got out easy enough but getting back into Trump’s America now might be a little tricker.
@winston smith: won’t be a problem, Trump likes grabbing pussys
@winston smith: President Trump has no problem with people entering USA in the proper legal manner and applying for a Visa.
@Steve Austin: is that why his travel bans have been so successful, bit like his businesses. Can you give me a Hell ya
@winston smith: I’ll take “what are feet for for 400 please”
@Steve Austin: is that why he signed an executive order preventing people who went through the proper channels from entering the US?
@Steve Austin: but people have a problem entering trumps America that’s why tourism is down bigly
I remember that Nat Geo Documentary about the cats and dogs that found their way home?
Homeward Bound I believe it was called.
@Brian Guilfoyle: he whisked it. simple.
There’s a voice that keeps on calling me……
@MARK O ‘LEARY:… until tomorrow I’ll just keep moving on
I hope she kept a catalogue of her travels..there is a film in it somewhere.
Cats, like all wool-bearing animals, instinctively travel North, where it’s warmer, and they won’t be so stuffy.
@Harry the Cat: I heard cats originate from a much warmer and dryer climate. North African/ Middle East type climate. They hate the cold and they hate water and the wet. They don’t have a woolly coat just a thin fur. They also get very confused when they see snow, some are scared, some go chasing after falling snow flakes. They’re not at home in the snow at all.
@Jack Bowden: ever heard of the snow leopard or the Siberian tiger?
@Harry the Cat: Canada is a lot colder than California. You got that in reverse mate.
@Robert Cullen: yeah I’m talking about the domesticated short hair cat.
@Harry the Cat: How is it warmer in the north you plum
@Shane, Harry lives in South Africa.
Well that’s about the same amount of time you’d spend waiting to see a gyno in Cork..and whole story about a cat but nothing about the mismanaged services maternity services in Cork.
Nothing about managers and consultants only working Monday to Friday ( because we all know, babies born over the weekend are a nuisance), nothing about their enormous salaries for this 9-5 job? nothing about overworked nurses trying to deal with the huge amount of babies to be born. Nope. Nothing.
@jenni: what the actual f?
@Damocles: Think it’s called reality on this small benighted island…..
@Kerry Blake: it’s a puff piece about a cat. Times and places.
That’s all well and good Jenni but it doesn’t explain how the cat got to Canada.
Ryan Air of course!
I’d hazard a guess she walked or possibly jumped into the back of a pick up truck for warmth
‘Adobted’ by another family that moved to Canada?
Somebody knows.
Ryan Air?
Probably walked
Cats are like that?
have your say