Mexican marines detained one of the top leaders of the Gulf drug cartel, the gang that kidnapped four Americans and killed two of them in March 2023. The public safety department of the border state of Tamaulipas said the suspect was arrested in the neighbouring state of Nuevo Leon and identified him as \u201cLa Kena.\u201d That was the nickname the state previously listed on a Tamaulipas wanted poster for Jose Alberto Garcia Vilano in 2022. Mexico\u2019s national arrest registry said Garcia Vilano was taken into custody on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Mexico\u2019s Navy Department said in a statement that marines had detained a suspect it called \u201cone of the key leaders of one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Tamaulipas,\u201d adding he was \u201cone of the main targets of the Drug Enforcement Administration,\u201d but did not provide his name. Miguel Trevino, the mayor San Pedro Garza Garc\u00eda, located on the outskirts of Monterrey and considered one of Mexico\u2019s wealthiest communities, confirmed that Garc\u00eda Vilano was arrested at a local shopping mall.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Tamaulipas state prosecutors also identified Garc\u00eda Vilano by a second nickname, \u201cCyclone 19,\u201d and had offered a USD 150,000 reward for his arrest. The Cyclones are one of the most powerful and violent factions of the now-divided Gulf cartel. The kidnapping and killing of the Americans has been linked to another faction, known as \u201cThe Scorpions.\u201d The four Americans crossed into the border city of Matamoros from Texas in March so that one of them could have cosmetic surgery. They were fired on in downtown Matamoros and then loaded into a pickup truck.<\/p>\n
Americans Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard died in the attack; Eric Williams and Latavia McGee survived. Most of them had grown up together in the small town of Lake City, South Carolina. A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed, apparently by a stray bullet. The Gulf drug cartel turned over five men to police soon after the abduction. A letter claiming to be from the Scorpions faction condemned the violence and said the gang had turned over to authorities its own members who were responsible. A Mexican woman also died in the March 3 shootings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,\u201d according to the letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mexican marines detained one of the top leaders of the Gulf drug cartel, the gang that kidnapped four Americans and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":25503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[3878,1634,2867,8558,8553,8557,8554,8556,8551,587,8555,8552,6090,492],"class_list":["post-25502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-arrest","tag-deaths","tag-drug-cartels","tag-factions","tag-gulf-drug-cartel","tag-jose-alberto-garcia-vilano","tag-kidnapping-americans","tag-la-kena","tag-marines","tag-mexico","tag-state-of-tamaulipas","tag-traffickers","tag-victims","tag-violence"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}