CIUDAD VICTORIA: Mexican soldiers captured the purported leader of a Gulf Cartel faction in the northern border city of Matamoros, government officials said.
Renato Sales, Mexico’s national security commissioner, said at a news conference in Mexico City that Angel Eduardo Prado Rodriguez, alias “Ciclon 7,” was detained by soldiers before dawn without a shot fired. He said Prado Rodriguez was the last of 15 priority targets set by federal and state officials in a new security strategy for the border state of Tamaulipas.
Prado Rodriguez allegedly led the Ciclones, or Cyclones, faction of the Gulf Cartel that has been locked in a violent power struggle with the so-called Metros faction based in the border city of Reynosa.
Sales said he was captured in a house in Matamoros and about $20,000 in cash was seized along with five rifles and some drugs. He said Prado Rodriguez’s involvement in the cartel dated to at least 2005 when he worked as a bodyguard for the Cardenas Guillen family. He faces a variety of charges related to murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and fuel theft, Sales said.
Nora Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the Matamoros city government, said multiple military and police helicopters were flying above the city Friday. She said Mayor Leticia Salazar had requested increased federal and military security in case the arrest led to more violence.
The Gulf Cartel has fragmented into various competing factions in recent years, but together they control much of the drug and human trafficking along the border with the southernmost part of Texas.
Government data show that the number of homicides in the state is down from last year. Between January and August there were 393 killings recorded, compared to 464 during the same months of 2014.
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