Mexican police on Wednesday arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico’s 24 most-wanted drug traffickers.
Sauceda Gamboa appears on a list of 24 alleged drug traffickers published by prosecutors in March. Authorities have offered rewards of up to US$2.1 million for each suspect. Together with a list of 13 lower-ranking drug suspects, the group covers Mexico’s most powerful cartel operators.
With Sauceda Gamboa’s arrest at a home in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, authorities have arrested five of the 37 whose names appeared on the lists.
PHOTO: AP
Sauceda Gamboa, 44, was a former investigative police officer who played a founding role in the Gulf cartel starting in 1996, federal police said.
“Because of his violent character, he was assigned ... to fight off the [rival] Pacific cartel,” Assistant Public Safety Secretary General Javier del Real Magallanes said.
The Public Safety Department said the raid on the home was the result of intelligence work and tips.
In a reflection of the current swine flu epidemic sweeping Mexico, Sauceda Gamboa was wearing a surgical mask as he was paraded before reporters by police, who were also wearing the masks in addition to the black ski-masks they normally use to hide their identities.
Authorities said on Wednesday they also seized five rifles and more than 4,500 rounds of ammunition in the raid and detained a woman believed to be Sauceda Gamboa’s wife, along with another man.
Sauceda Gamboa helped the Gulf cartel move an average of 10 tonnes of cocaine and 30 tonnes of marijuana across the border each month, and briefly headed the gang, police said. However, they acknowledged his personal involvement in the operation had declined in recent years.
The Zetas are a violent drug gang based in the states along Mexico’s Gulf coast and have been involved in many of the killings that have taken more than 10,650 lives since 2006.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in