Mexican drug cartel leader Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villareal, a top kingpin and, one of the three leaders of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, was killed during a gunbattle with soldiers Thursday.
Nacho Coronel is considered as the founder of the country’s massive methamphetamine trade. He was killed during a gunfight near the city of Guadalajara. This is the biggest strike against the Sinaloa cartel which is led by Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman and this could mean more violence as factions fight for the cocaine and methamphetamine empire that the founder left behind.
Coronel was the No. 3 of the gang led by El Chapo who is also a Mexico’s most wanted drug lord. The major hit to one of the world’s most powerful drug cartel is the latest since President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against drug traffickers is late 2006.
Coronel, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head was believed to be the “forerunner in producing massive amounts of methamphetamine in clandestine laboratories in Mexico, then smuggling it into the U.S.” according to the FBI.
The 56-year-old Coronel, controlled meth and cocaine trafficking routes that was said to extend from Mexico’s Pacific Coast and inland up to Arizona.
An army raid was closing in one of Coronel’s safehouses in an upscale suburb of the Western City of Guadalajara, when the drug lord opened fire on soldiers.
“Nacho Coronel tried to escape and fired on military personnel, killing on soldier and wounding another,” Villegas said at a news conference in Mexico City. “Responding to the attacks, this Capo died.”
Coronel’s downfall came amid persistent allegations that Calderon’s administration appeared to be favouring the Sinaloa Cartel, or not hitting it as hard as other drug gangs.
The army operation happened as it challenges a long-held notion that the Mexican government officials were supporting the Sinaloa cartel to win the drug war.
After a month of intelligence work, the Mexican army zeroed in on Coronel at his mission in a ritzy suburb of Guadalajara.
“I absolutely believe that this will have an impact on… the Sinaloa federation’s capability to move their drugs, at least in the short term,” said Dave Gaddis, deputy chief of operations that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “They will require time to rebuild”
Category : World
A list of 33 wanted drug gang suspects was unveiled Friday by the Mexico government. A reward of $1.1 million were offered for each suspect. Three of the wanted drug gang suspect were allegedly tied to a cartel responsible for much of the bloodshed in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez. The top three of the list belong to a gang called La Linea which is tied to the gang Juarez cartel according to a security official in the northern state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez is located.
Spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office, Arturo Sandoval said that the five men were killed in a Ciudad Juarez shooting on Friday. The said five men who were killed were riding in a car when gunmen drove up beside them and opened fire at them, Sandoval said. Two of the five men were killed in the car and the other three tried to run into a restaurant but still gunned down in front of some panicked customers.
Each of the five wanted gang suspects on the list has a reward of $387,000 or 5 million pesos and the other twenty-five suspects had $232,000 or 3 million pesos bounties on their heads according to an official who is with the joint army and police operation charge of security in Chihuahua.
More than 4,300 people over the past three years was killed during a turf battle between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels that turned Ciudad Juarez into one of the world’s deadliest cities.
Government has issued a list of its most-wanted drug traffickers last year and also offered a reward of $2 million for each of the leaders of six major cartels in Mexico and $1 million each for their lieutenants. One of the several kingpins who was named last year in the list includes Arturo Beltran Leyva who is the head of the Beltran Leyva gang and was the highest-ranking drug trafficker brought down since President Felipe Calderon deployed ten thousands of soldiers and federal police across the country. He died in a gunbattle with the marines last December.