Mexican Police Nab Drug Kingpin Hector Beltran Leyva

In a joint operation, police and soldiers nabbed Beltran Leyva on Wednesday at a seafood restaurant in the central town of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato state, Criminal Investigations Agency director Tomas Zeron said

MEXICO CITY – Mexican police and soldiers have arrested suspected drug kingpin Hector Beltran Leyva, who is accused of running a drug network that for years smuggled vast amounts of cocaine from South America to the United States and Europe, authorities said.

In a joint operation, police and soldiers nabbed Beltran Leyva on Wednesday at a seafood restaurant in the central town of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato state, Criminal Investigations Agency director Tomas Zeron said.

Not a single shot was fired.

Unlike other Mexican drug lords, Beltran adopted a low-key lifestyle and avoided ostentatious displays of wealth such as fancy cars, pretending to be a normal businessman involved in real estate and art dealing.

But Zeron said that in fact the suspect headed up the so-called Beltran Leyva cartel, which he ran along with his brothers after the group split off from the notorious Sinaloa cartel in 2009.

Hector took over the organization after his brother and the cartel’s then-chief, Arturo, died in a shootout with Mexican marines in late 2009.

Zeron said Beltran was one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug barons and that the Mexican and U.S. governments had been offering rewards of $2.3 million and $5 million, respectively, for information leading to his capture.

Along with the narcotics charges, Beltran Leyva’s gang is accused of numerous counts of murder, kidnapping and torture carried out in central Mexico, and he is also wanted in the United States on arms and ammunition-smuggling charges.