Cartel Boss 'La Tuta' Vows to Fight to the Death Instead of Surrendering Jo Tuckman - The Guardian
go to original October 30, 2014

Net may be closing on Knights Templar leader Servando Gómez, alias La Tuta, as he releases rambling online video message.

The fugitive leader of one of Mexico’s most violent and bizarre drug cartels has said that he regrets choosing a life of crime, but vowed that he would never let himself be taken alive.

“I have committed many crimes like an idiot, and I will have to pay for them when the time comes, but I don’t plan to do that on this earth,” said a man who identifies himself as Servando Gómez, alias La Tuta, in a 24-minute recording, posted on social media. “I am not going to give myself up. I am going to fight until the end.”

The Knights Templar cartel, or Caballeros Templarios, gained notoriety for its signature blend of extreme violence with faux medieval rituals and a rhetoric of social justice.

The cartel once trafficked large quantities of drugs and iron ore, while imposing a reign of terror throughout its main bastion in the Tierra Caliente, or Hot Lands, in the western state of Michoacán. The group was severely weakened after the rise of an armed vigilante movement in the region prompted federal forces to step up efforts against the Knights Templar.

With all the other major cartel leaders now dead or in prison, the recording, first posted on the internet late on Tuesday, appears to confirm reports that the circle is now closing in on La Tuta.

Read the rest at The Guardian

In May, Servando "la Tuta" Gomez told Guillermo Galdos he left teaching because it "wasn't satisfying". (Channel 4 News)

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