Mexico’s Gulf Cartel Drug Kingpin Captured in Texas By Laurel Brubaker Calkins Oct 22, 2014 9:27 AM CT2 Comments Email Print Speed Share
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
LinkedIn
Email Print
Save Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg
Drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico's International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2014. Close

Drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican... Read More
CloseOpen Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg Drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter by Mexican security forces at Mexico's International Airport in Mexico city, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2014.
The reputed head of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel drug trafficking ring was nabbed by federal agents during a shopping trip in south Texas in the latest in a series of arrests this year on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The capture of Juan Francisco Saenz-Tamez, 23, on Oct. 9 follows the arrest in February of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was the world’s most-wanted drug boss and the alleged head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Hector Beltran Leyva, who allegedly took over a third cartel that bears his family name after his brother, Arturo, was gunned down by Mexican forces in 2009, was captured in a seafood restaurant without a shot fired in the central tourist town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico’s Attorney General’s office said Oct. 1.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said in September that his administration’s security efforts have led to the capture or removal of 88 of the nation’s 122 most dangerous criminals. Drug-related violence in Mexico has left more than 70,000 dead since 2006, according to a count by Mexico City-based newspaper Milenio.

Pena Nieto says his administration has helped reduce homicides by about 29 percent this year from the same period in 2012, before he took office. Other crimes have gotten worse, with kidnappings up 21 percent last year.