Winning the War on Drugs? Another Drug Cartel Boss Has Been Arrested Adam Lidgett - IBTimes
go to original February 2, 2016

A soldier keeps watch outside the house where five people were shot dead during an operation to recapture the world's top drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman at Jiquilpan Boulevard in Los Mochis, in Sinaloa state, Mexico. (Reuters)

Mexican authorities have arrested Francisco Javier Hernandez Garcia, the alleged leader of the once powerful Beltrán-Leyva drug cartel. He has been charged with drug trafficking in five states in Mexico, Agence France-Presse reported Monday.

Mexican authorities said Hernandez Garcia, 47, allegedly took over the operations of the cartel after Hector "The H" Beltran Leyva — one of the five brothers who founded the cartel — was arrested in 2014. He was arrested Saturday in a vehicle with suspected drugs and four guns.

He allegedly rose through the ranks of the cartel from the status of a bodyguard for the Beltrán-Leyva family in the 1990s. He came to the leader of the gang after Mexican authorities dismantled the leadership of the gang, which was once one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels.

The cartel’s power — which grew in the 2000s — fell sharply in 2009 when its boss Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed by authorities. The Beltrán-Leyva started as an offshoot to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, the leader of which, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, was arrested in January after escaping prison, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Read the rest at IBTimes

Related: As the US Seeks the Extradition of El Chapo, Mexico’s Drug Lords Become Increasingly Violent (News Limited)

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