Mexico Says It Killed Top Cartel Leader Reported Dead in 2010 - Businessweek

Mexico gunned down a top drug cartel leader three years after he had been reported killed by the previous administration, the government said.

The army and marines tracked down Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, alias “El Chayo,” yesterday after local authorities reported he was still alive, Monte Alejandro Rubido, executive secretary of the National Public Security System said. The troops opened fire after Moreno refused to drop his weapon and confronted them, Rubido said at a press conference. Moreno’s fingerprints matched those in government files, officials said.

President Enrique Pena Nieto’s administration has captured or killed the heads of Mexico’s biggest cartels since taking office in December 2012, most recently arresting Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the most-wanted drug baron in the world. Contradicting reports of his death by former President Felipe Calderon, Rubido said Moreno was still operating as the top cartel leader in Michoacan state, where extortion threats have led thousands of Mexicans to take up weapons in the past year to fight off drug gangs.

Mexico “received many reports from both citizens and local authorities, as well as anonymous tips, that said Nazario Moreno wasn’t only alive, but continued to lead the criminal group in extortions, kidnappings” and drug trafficking, Rubido said.

Body not Recovered

Mexican security officials had reported that Moreno was killed in December 2010 amid battles between security officials and cartel members, though his body wasn’t recovered.

Moreno wrote guidelines that the members of the La Familia drug cartel had to follow, the government said in 2010 when he was reported dead. La Familia claimed to protect Mexicans, preaching against the use of methamphetamines in Mexico in favor of sending the drugs to the U.S., according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Alejandro Hope, who worked as a government intelligence officer when Moreno was reported dead, said the current administration will need to produce more evidence to convince the public that he was still alive after 2010.

Weeks after Moreno was reported dead three years ago, La Familia began rupturing and its offshoot, the Knights Templar, started gaining power, while Moreno’s associate Servando Gomez, alias “La Tuta,” was filmed confirming his death, Hope said.

‘Elaborate’ Hoax

“If this was a hoax, it was an extraordinarily elaborate hoax” to convince the public Moreno was dead, Hope, who is now a security analyst at the Mexican Competitive Institute, said by telephone yesterday.

Rubido said intelligence operations led federal forces to Moreno and also discovered a vehicle with communications equipment that he owned.

Pena Nieto deployed federal forces to Michoacan in January after vigilantes took over more than a dozen towns, kicking out local police they said were colluding with criminals. The government then signed an agreement with the armed brigades to allow them to register their weapons and form a temporary rural police brigade. In February, the groups agreed not to take over any more town halls, although last week they stormed the municipal building of Apatzingan.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nacha Cattan in Mexico City at ncattan@bloomberg.net; Christine Jenkins in Bogota at cjenkins28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Soliani at asoliani@bloomberg.net Andrew Davis, Rosalind Mathieson

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