- Join the France 24 community here
- Log in
Latest update: 13/09/2010
- drug trafficking - Mexico - police
Suspected drug trafficker Sergio Villarreal arrested
Mexican authorities in the city of Puebla have arrested suspected drug trafficker Sergio Villarreal, known as "El Grande", who is believed to be a key member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, military sources said on Sunday.
AFP - Authorities have arrested one of Mexico's most wanted men, alleged drug trafficker Sergio Villarreal, who is said to work for the Beltran Leyva cartel, a military source told AFP on Sunday.
"Sergio Villarreal, 'El Grande,' was arrested with two other people in a non-violent operation in the (central) city of Puebla," the source said on condition of anonymity.
Mexican authorities had offered a reward of up to 30 million pesos (2.2 million dollars) for information leading to his arrest.
According to authorities, Villarreal was a key participant in a bloody struggle for the leadership of the Beltran Leyva cartel that began after former chief Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed last year.
Villarreal and Hector Beltran Leyva, Arturo's brother, were feuding with would-be cartel leaders including Edgar Valdez, also known as "La Barbie," who was captured by authorities on August 30.
"La Barbie," so-called for his fair complexion and light colored eyes, is accused by both Mexican and US authorities of drug trafficking and murders.
Villarreal is similarly accused by Mexican authorities of trafficking and carrying out murders for several of the country's brutal drug cartels, which have killed tens of thousands of people in bloody turf battles with each other and confrontations with Mexican authorities.
The leadership struggle within the Beltran Leyva cartel has left dozens of people dead, with authorities in cities including Acapulco and Cuernavaca discovering multiple bodies, some of them beheaded or mutilated.
Shortly after Edgar Valdez's detention, authorities discovered some 13 bodies of his suspected rivals buried in secret graves.
More than 28,000 people are believed to have been killed in drug cartel-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown.
Read more
‘Darth Vader’ demands free land from Ukrainian government
Browse all editions
React to the article
(2) Reactions
abuse of inasent people in mexico by drug cartels
im from laredo texas my family and I had to move out of the city ,in the northern area because of the vilont acts on the border especally becauce we lived about 2 miles from the river after my moms cousin's disaperents leaving two kids behineds and thats why we left laredo tx some times i watch the news it makes me sad some times wen i see inosent kids get killed cross fire they dont respect no body i wish i was super man and could helped people if i was living on mexico city and something happend to my kids i would go on a killing spree because drug dealers and cartels they dont diserve to live in side a jail or out side of it because they are a desiase especally when they hear mexacan mafia baleds on those songs you hear drug cartels like all big bosses from cartels about killings and drug distrabrution to the u.s. and how they make big money who they kill or who are they going to kill they need to stop singing those cartel baleds but some times they send people to see the singers if they do not do it they will kill them or family members same thing happens to stores but the maxican president is in much in fault nuevo laredo is a small city very por people live init ive seen people living houses made off fruit crate' most off the people dont have fod or money som times they dont have not even heaters i dont no how they gona pas winer som times they burn logs and put them on metall plates that,s how por they are and all the jobs around mexico they get paid 5 dll hr from 8.am to 11.pm thats like 60.00 a week u cant aford hardly anything sense the food prices in the us thats why teens and parents start working for cartels to suport their family sense they make little money a week thas why somany imigrantes come to the united states to work to send money to ther famaly noing they can bee deported some people take this the wrong way but we all are human we ned to help each other we live on the same world god gave us this world for a reson but not to fight each other
Police arrest of major cartel figures makes no difference
The arrest of thousands of small time dealers makes no difference. The arrest of tens of thousands of non violent users and addicts makes no difference(except as human beings as the raw material for making profits by the investors in the detestable "for profit" prisons that have taken over the traditional penal system in the USA).
It is despicable this killing of tens of thousands of people in Mexico for the sake of the US's war on drugs. It would not surprise me one bit that a significant number of howling US lawmakers and supporters of the war on drugs are making millions in laundered money because the very fact drugs are illegal accounts for the profit in illegal drugs to be so outrageously high $$$.
Any product or service that is driven into the illegal market place will cause outrageous amounts of violence and misery for a community or a country, or many countries. An illegal market has no rules. So the most effective way to "gain market share" is through ruthlessness and violence.
The only way to win the war on drugs is legalization. Take the market away from the thugs and killer gangs. The government should immediately manufacture, oversee safety of drug product, distribute, provide regular medical examinations to addicts, tax it, etc. The cartels, killer gangs, dealers will be out of business. They will not be able to compete with legal drugs' low price and cost. And then after awhile "drugs" can be shifted to a highly regulated private market with continued clinics for addicts. Then the violence and misery, for all intents and purposes will stop. Just as it did when the USA lifted the prohibition on alchohol in the 1930's
The public health issue of the legalization of demonized drugs is a "straw man argument". It is not even worth debating
dahszil
male
usa