Mafia leader said to escape police dragnet in Mexico

There's a very dramatic story in today's El Universal that describes how one of the most-wanted men in Mexico escaped arrest last week.

On May 7, federal police had one of the heads of the so-called Sinaloa cartel cornered on a highway outside Cuernavaca, El Universal reports. But Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias El Barbas, was being protected by a team of bodyguards that included at least four former military men.

Two federal policemen were killed in the shootout that followed. Beltran Leyva's bodyguards employed 11 assault rifles and a grenade launcher, according to El Universal.

Nine of the cartel gunmen were detained. They later admitted that they had been guarding Beltran Leyva, El Universal says.

The operation was directed by Edgar Millan Gomez, the coordinator of anti-drug efforts for Mexico's federal police. Just hours later, Millan Gomez was assassinated in his home by gunmen who had been contracted by Beltran Leyva some days earlier, police said. Millan Gomez was likely killed in revenge for several operations against the Sinaloa cartel, according to police.

Posted by Héctor Tobar in Mexico City

Comments

[eddie]

ha ha ha catching a drug dealer in mexico .is like trying to point out a single blade of grass in a field.what ever happend to that plane they caught on the runway with 127 verry large suitcases FULL of cocaine that had been parked next to a coast guard station.ha ha ha.the u.s a seizes billions of dollars a year in property and cash why in the hell would they want to stop it.ask your self this with all that seized money why are they cutting the budget for EVERYTHING accross the board.they just took 2oo millionj out of the school budget the last place they should cut anything the drug war is a joke