MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s navy captured a leader of the Zetas drug cartel, Raul Fernandez, President Felipe Calderon said yesterday via his Twitter account.
Fernandez, who is also known as “El Lucky” (The Lucky One), had a bounty of 15 million pesos ($1.09 million) on his head, operated in the Gulf state of Veracruz as well as the central state of Puebla and Oaxaca state in the south, Calderon said.
The Zetas, formed at the end of the 1990s by deserters from elite army forces, are believed to have been behind some of the bloodiest crimes against civilians in recent years including the arson attack on a casino in northern Mexico that killed 52 people in August.
Since sending in the army five years ago to crack down on cartel activity, Calderon has made a point of targeting top leaders. With Fernandez’s capture, Calderon said the government had accounted for 22 of Mexico’s 37 most-wanted drug lords.
