Mexican Military Taking Down Kingpins

Reported by: Farrah Fazal
Last Update: 10:54 am

REYNOSA, MEXICO - One after another, the Mexican Military is taking down the cartel bosses.

Soldiers arrested Gulf Cartel Leader Gilberto Barregan Balderas at his birthday party.

He was on the Drug Enforcement Agency's most wanted list.

In Guatemala, the military arrested Carmona Hernandrez who reported directly to a Zeta Cartel Kingpin.

The Godfather of the cartel in Acapulco Benjamin Flores Reyes is out of circulation, and the Zeta Plaza boss in San Fernando accused of killing Ice Agent Jaime Zapata was arrested a few months ago.

Sylvia Longmire, a former intelligence officer in the Air Force says arresting the cartel bosses has consequences.

"When they start losing people at the higher level, they become harder to replace. Those plaza bosses therefore there's always potential for violence in the interim of replacing leaders," she says.

Longmire says other cartels are now jockeying for control, and there's already been an increase in more violence in Northern Mexico.

The loss of the bosses is creating a whole new generation of cartels.

"You have all these smaller cartels and more cartels and more organized crime groups fighting for the drug trade," says Longmire.

She says the violence will continue as long as the kingpins come down.

http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Me ... FVGCg.cspx