Originally published Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 4:58 PM

Mexican cartel founder gets 35 year sentence

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY —
A judge in Mexico has sentenced a founding member of the Zetas drug cartel to 35 years in prison on organized crime and kidnapping counts.

Zetas lieutenant Jaime Gonzalez Duran was known as "The Hummer" before he was arrested in the northern city of Reynosa in 2008.

Prosecutors had called the army deserter one of Mexico's most dangerous criminal suspects.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement Thursday that Gonzalez Duran had previously been sentenced to 16 1/2 years for money laundering and another 21 years for weapons possession.

At the time of his arrest, authorities found a cache of 540 rifles, 165 grenades, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and 14 sticks of TNT in Reynosa believed to have been linked to him.

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