Thread: Mexican drug lord tied to death of ICE agent captured

Mexico arrests third-ranked Zetas cartel leader

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

MEXICO CITY — Mexican police have nabbed a top leader of the feared Zetas drug cartel, authorities said Monday.

Police arrested Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, who was wanted in the murder of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, on Sunday, the Public Safety office said.

Rejon Aguilar, the third-ranking cartel official and one of its founders, was arrested in Atizapan de Zaragoza, in Mexico state, the office added.

He was sought in connection with a February 14 attack in San Luis Potosi state that left the US agent, Jaime Zapata, dead and left his partner seriously wounded.

The news came after the southwestern US state of Texas warned Americans to avoid the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo over the July 4 independence day weekend, fearing that US citizens will be targeted.

Texas state and local police have "received credible intelligence from multiple sources that indicates the Zetas Cartel is planning to target US citizens who travel to Nuevo Laredo this weekend," the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.

Nuevo Laredo is located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas on the Rio Grande river, which serves as the international border, across from the Texas border city of Laredo.

Mexico's Zetas drug cartel is also accused of two mass killings in Mexico's northeastern state of Tamaulipas.

The Zetas was founded by Mexican army Special Forces deserters in the 1990s who were hired as hitmen for the powerful Gulf cartel.

The group later split from their employers, sparking bloody Mexican turf wars. They are strongest in eastern Mexico and the northern border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

The Zetas were among the first Mexican crime syndicates to use heavy weaponry and full-scale military tactics, reportedly amassing an arsenal that has included grenade launchers and even ground-to-air missiles.

Some 37,000 people have been killed in mainly drug-related feuds since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown four years ago involving some 50,000 troops and police reinforcements that has so far failed to stem the bloody tide of violence.

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Authorities: Mexican drug lord tied to death of ICE agent captured
By Rafael Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs Editor
July 4, 2011 -- Updated 1705 GMT (0105 HKT)

Zetas cartel founder Jesus Enrique Rejo Aguilar, left, and Pedro Ortega Herrera were arrested Sunday.

(CNN) -- Mexican authorities said Monday that they had arrested a Zetas drug cartel leader who was connected with the killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent this year.

Federal police captured Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, known as "El Mamito," Sunday, a top official with the agency said.

Rejon is suspected of being behind numerous deaths in northeastern Mexico, where the Zetas have been engaged in a turf battle with their former allies, the Gulf Cartel.

Rejon was a former member of the Mexican Army's elite forces who deserted in February 1999, according to Ramon E. Pequeno, anti-drug division chief of Mexico's federal police. The following month, he joined the group that founded the Zetas, Pequeno said.

He is also "connected to the attack against agents" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that killed Agent Jaime Zapata in February, a statement from Mexico's public safety secretary said.

Pequeno said Rejon was in charge of operations for the Zetas in the north central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi when the American agents were ambushed there.

"When [U.S. agent] Jaime Zapata was murdered on February 14, El Mamito was in San Luis Potosi, coordinating actions perpetrated by the Zetas," Pequeno said.

Zapata was killed and another agent injured when they were ambushed on a highway in San Luis Potosi as they traveled from Monterrey to Mexico City.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Rejon's arrest.

The two were traveling to Mexico City in an armored car with diplomatic plates. They were run off the road and attacked from two vehicles by gunmen who opened fire indiscriminately. It was the first time in 25 years that a U.S. law enforcement agent was killed while on duty in Mexico.

The incident prompted swift action by Mexican authorities and just eight days after the shooting, they announced the arrest of the presumed leader of a group of killers allegedly involved in Zapata's killing, which was apparently carried out by mistake.

Mexican authorities called Rejon "one of the leaders and founders of the Zetas criminal organization."

They said he was the third most powerful leader of the drug cartel, which was created by deserters of the Mexican Army's elite forces.

Rejon is also being investigated for the deaths of dozens of Central and South American migrants whose bodies where found in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas at a ranch just 100 miles south of the U.S. border.

Pequeno called Rejon's arrest "a triumph for the Mexican government."

"El Mamito's capture is emblematic because he was one of the original Zetas," he added.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/ameri ... co.arrest/

Good news!

Very good news now lets see what they do to him.

Mexico captures mastermind behind ICE agent slaying



July 04, 2011 10:16 PM

Valley Freedom Newspapers

Mexican authorities on Monday announced the capture of one of the top leaders in the Zetas drug cartel.

Jesus Enrique "El Mamito" Rejón Aguilar is accused of being the mastermind behind the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime J. Zapata, who was gunned down in February along a Mexican highway.

Rejón was arrested Sunday in the municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza, in the state of Mexico, according to a news release from Mexico’s Federal Police.

Rejón’s alleged involvement in Zapata’s death was published by Valley Freedom Newspapers five months ago, but this is the first time Mexican authorities have named him in relation to the case. U.S. authorities, on the other hand, have said that they always considered him the prime suspect.

On Feb. 18, Valley Freedom Newspapers published information from a communiqué allegedly sent by members of the Gulf Cartel and its allies, which called themselves Carteles Unidos. The communiqué accused several key members of the Zetas of being connected to several high-profile cases, including the death of Zapata.

The communiqué singled out Rejón as the man who ordered the attack that killed Zapata, a Brownsville native, and wounded ICE Special Agent Victor Avila, of El Paso.

At the time, a spokesman for Grupo Savant, a Washington, D.C.-based intelligence company, said the information in the communiqué was very likely accurate. Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border contacted Valley Freedom Newspapers at the time, seeking the communiqué and its sources.

Although Mexican authorities claimed to have captured those responsible in Zapata’s death — including Julian "El PiolÃ*n" Zapata Espinoza, Jose Manuel "Safado" Garcia Sota and others — questions remained about who had masterminded the alleged murder.

Soon after Zapata’s death, U.S. authorities carried out Operation Fallen Hero — an effort led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that led to the apprehension of 676 people with ties to the Zetas and other cartels.

At the time, several U.S. officials not authorized to speak about the case said the effort was meant to gather information on who ordered the attack.

"Information from the operation is going to be funneled toward finding suspects in the Jaime Zapata murder case," one of the officials said at the time.

"Any intelligence gathered will be forwarded to the U.S. Embassy to work with Mexican authorities in going after the killers," another U.S. official said at the time.

The effort to capture Rejón was based on intelligence gathered by Mexican authorities during various operations and was carried out without a shot being fired, according to the news release. Authorities also captured Pedro Ortega Herrera, 32, a Mexico City police officer who was in charge of Rejón’s security.

Rejón has been listed as one of Mexico’s most wanted, and the DEA has offered a $5 million reward for his capture.

According to Mexican authorities, Rejón joined the Mexican Army in 1993. Three years later, he joined the Mexican Special Forces, and then a year later, he became part of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office — known by its Spanish acronym, PGR. During his time at the PGR, he was stationed in Reynosa and Miguel Aleman, across the Rio Grande from Roma, and then was moved to Coahuila state.

In 1999, he left his post and openly became a member of the "Grupo de los 14," the original members of the Zetas. They served under Arturo "Z-1" Guzman Decena as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel until the groups split in early 2010, sparking a bloody rivalry in northern Mexico.

Rejón eventually became a trusted bodyguard of Osiel Cardenas Guillén, the former head of the Gulf Cartel, who is serving a 25-year prison term in the United States for various crimes.

Most recently, Rejón served as the Zeta in charge of the central and northern portions of Mexico.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/b ... aders.html