Mexican federal police arrest drug kingpin Edgar Valdez Villareal
August 31st, 2010 - 7:54 pm ICT by BNO News
MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) — Mexican federal police on Monday afternoon arrested an alleged Texas-born drug gang kingpin who faces drug-trafficking charges in the United States, and that was known for brutal tactics against his enemies.
Federal police arrested Edgar Valdez Villarreal –”La Barbie” – in a residential area in the state of Mexico, which borders the capital of Mexico City, after a yearlong intelligence operation, officials said during a press conference on Tuesday morning.
Valdez, 37, was charged by a US district court in Atlanta for smuggling thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. between 2004 and 2006. U.S. authorities had offered a reward of up to $2m for information leading to Villareal’s arrest.
Valdez had worked for the Sinaloa cartel and the Beltran Leyva cartel, a drug organization in which Valdez had been battling for control after the killing of its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, in December, 2009 in Cuernavaca, near Mexico City.
The capture of Valdez, born in the border city of Laredo, Texas, is government’s latest victory against the drug cartels. Top drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal was killed on July 29, in a gun battle with the Mexican army in the central-western Jalisco state.
The success of both operations is not only an important victory for the war against drugs in Mexico, politically, it also legitimates Felipe Calderon’s actions.
Since 2006, the Mexican government has engaged in an extensive effort to combat drug-trafficking organizations who have been engaged in a vicious struggle with each other for control of trafficking routes.
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