Ground Report

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a statement late this week on the capture of the Mexican cartel honcho, Hector Beltran-Leyva: “One of the world’s biggest drug empires continues to crumble with the capture of Hector Beltran-Leyva in Mexico,” said DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “Much of the violence and lawlessness that has plagued Mexico can be traced to this criminal regime. Beltran-Leyva’s organization smuggled countless amounts of lethal and highly addictive drugs into the United States and other parts of the world, facilitating addiction, violence, and death.  DEA congratulates the Government of Mexico and the brave individuals who carried out this operation and we pledge our continued commitment to the relentless pursuit of global drug traffickers.” End Statement See video report: Mexico arrests drug lord Hector Beltran Leyva http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGSEQqCz87A Note: file information Beltrán Leyva was arrested by the Mexican Army on Wednesday, 1 October 2014, at about 2:30 PM inside a restaurant, Mario’s Fresh Seafood, in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, 10 blocks away from the city center. He was arrested in a lightning raid by federal Army special operations agents, while eating a late lunch with another man, businessman and local political activist German Goyenechea, an associate. The restaurant was empty of customers save for those two at the time; both were dressed casually but expensively, in jeans. According to official reports, not a single shot was fired during the operation, even though both men had pistols. Goyenechea is alleged by the federal criminal investigations chief, Tomas Zeron, to have served as the financial operator of the group, presumably laundering drug money. He has been listed as a member of a nonpartisan civic group known as Mexican Civic Parliament and Mexico’s Green Party. The U.S. Department of State was offering a reward of USD $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Héctor Beltrán Leyva, while the Mexican government offered a USD $2.1 million bounty reward (http://www.webcitation.org/6CAAa2xla).