Pubdate: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 Source: Wall Street Journal (US) Copyright: 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Contact: http://www.wsj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487 Authors: Jose de Cordoba And Nicholas Casey MEXICAN MARINES ARREST PRESUMED CARTEL OPERATOR MEXICO CITY -Mexican authorities said Sunday they had captured Sergio Villareal, an alleged top drug trafficking operative in Mexico, marking the latest high-profile capture in President Felipe Calderon's assault against the nation's crime organizations. Mr. Villareal, 40 years old, was arrested by special forces of the Mexican marines on Sunday about 50 miles from Mexico City, the public security ministry said in a press conference that evening. Known by nicknames like "El Grande" and "King Kong," Mr. Villareal was believed to be the second-in-command of the powerful Beltran Leyva Cartel whose leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva was killed in a fiery shootout with marines in December. Since then Mr. Villareal had been involved in a bloody war of succession which had left dozens dead in Cuernavaca and the resort town of Acapulco, authorities say. In a press conference Sunday, Alejandro Poire, the spokesman for the public security office said Sergio Villareal and two companions had been captured without resistance in an exclusive neighborhood in Puebla, Mexico. "This is a new and devastating blow by the federal government against organized crime," Mr. Poire said. The capture of Mr. Villareal, whose nickname "The Big One" was given due to his height and weight, follows by just two weeks the capture of Edgar Valdez Villareal, known as "La Barbie," who was once the top enforcer for the Beltran Leyva cartel. The Beltran Leyva cartel, once closely allied with Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking cartel, the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been decimated since its leaders broke with Mr. Guzman two years ago. The Sunday capture is the latest in a string of recent hits by the Mexican government against some of the biggest names in the drug trade, raising hopes that authorities are making gains in a conflict against drug-related violence that has claimed 28,000 lives so far. But that progress can be hard to discern. On Friday, 85 convicts, most of them linked to a drug cartel, made a mass escape from a prison in the border state of Tamaulipas. Once peaceful Monterrey, Mexico's business capital in the next door state of Nuevo Leon, has become a battleground for warring drug cartels, leading the U.S. State Department to oblige children of its diplomats to leave the city following a shootout in front of a school attended by many of them. In addition to Messrs. Beltran Leyva and Valdez Villreal, Ignacio Coronel, known as the "King of Crystal" for his alleged involvement the methamphetamines trade, was killed in a shootout in July with Mexican soldiers at a mansion near Guadalajara. If Mr. Valdez Villareal, captured in August, is cooperating with authorities in providing information on the drug trade, their arrests could be related. An attorney for Mr. Valdez Villareal has asked that his client be tried in a U.S. court. Mr. Villareal began his career as a Coahuila state policeman and then transferred to the office of Mexico's attorney general which sent him to the border city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. Nuevo Laredo, an important crossing point for drugs to the U.S., has been a battleground for competing drug cartels. Mexican intelligence documents say Mr. Villareal controlled a criminal organization in Durango state, and used "extreme violence with high social impact crimes which generate anxiety...in wide sectors of society." The documents also say that since 2003, Mr. Villareal has controlled distribution of drugs in local markets in Durango state. Mr. Villareal bought the cocaine in the southern state of Chiapas for about $700 a kilo, and resold it in local markets in Durango for about $1,300 a kilo, the documents say. Since 2007, Mr. Villareal has been investigated for the murder of at least six people, but the investigations have gone nowhere because they were being led by a senior prosecutor who was in Mr. Villareal's employ, according to the intelligence documents. Apart from the prosecutor, Mr. Villareal also maintained close relations with a senator as well as the mayor of at least one city in Durango, the documents say. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D