MORELIA, Mexico – Carlos Rosales Mendoza, who founded the Familia Michoacana drug cartel and was a close associate of former Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was killed in western Mexico, officials said.
Rosales Mendoza’s body was found on Monday and he appears to have been tortured, prosecutors in the western state of Michoacan said.
The powerful drug trafficker’s body was discovered along with those of three other men, the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office said.
Mexican officials considered Rosales Mendoza a dangerous drug trafficker who had the ability to organize drug gangs and enjoyed the Gulf cartel’s support.
The bodies of Rosales Mendoza and the other three men were found on the Siglo XXI highway, which links Morelia, the capital of Michoacan, and the Pacific coast.
The bodies, which had gunshot wounds and showed signs of torture, were dumped in the parking lot of the toll plaza in Santa Casilda, a town outside the city of Gabriel Zamora.
Rosales Mendoza was arrested in October 2004 at his residence south of Morelia after the government said he organized an attack by more than 40 gunmen on Jan. 5 of that year on the prison in the city of Apatzingan, where 25 inmates, including five extremely dangerous hitmen, escaped.
The drug trafficker left prison in May 2014 and was arrested on gun charges in August, but he managed to post bail.
No comments:
Post a Comment