Infamous Narco-Boss ‘El Taliban’ Captured by Mexican Naval Unit
Infamous Narco-Boss ‘El Taliban’ Captured by Mexican Naval Unit - Worldcrunch - All News Is Global
Mexican authorities have nabbed a one of the top drugpins from the infamous “Los Zetas” cartel, one of the criminal organizations at the center of the country’s macabre drug wars.
A special Naval unit captured the suspect, Iván Velázquez Caballero late Wednesday evening, Mexico’s El Economista reports. Caballero, who also goes by the names “El Taliban,” “Z-50” and “L-50,” is believed to be Los Zetas’ top operator in the north-central state of San Louis Potosi.
Mexico’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office had long included “El Taliban” on its most-wanted list, offering 30 million pesos ($2.4 million) for any information leading to his arrest.
Velázquez Caballero is believed to have had a recent falling out with other Los Zetas leaders, splitting off from fellow drug lords Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, aka “El Lazca,” and Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, “Z-40,” so that he could operate independently, according to the news wire agency OEM.
The arrest came on the same day that outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon pleaded before the UN General Assembly for help in tackling the drug wars, which in the past half dozen years have taken the lives of an estimated 60,000 Mexicans.
“I demand that the United Nations not only take part in, but that it lead, a discussion without prejudices … that could bring us all to solutions that have new and efficient focuses,” Calderon said.