The US government knew that a suspect fatally shot by Mexican marines was the head of the widely feared Zetas drug cartel well before the marines left the body unguarded in a small-town funeral home, where it was stolen in a pre-dawn raid by armed men, US officials said.
The US had independently verified the identity of Zeta founder and leader Heriberto Lazcano, killed in a shootout on Sunday last week in a northern Mexican town, before his body was stolen at about 1am on Monday, according to a US law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak to the press about the case.
The information throws into question the Mexican navy’s insistence that marines thought they had killed a common criminal and that was why they left his body unguarded at the funeral home where gunmen hijacked a hearse in the middle of night.
Rear Admiral Jose Luis Vergara, the navy’s chief spokesman, said last week that the identity was not confirmed through Mexico’s fingerprint database until after the body was gone.
The theft of the body was an embarrassing twist on one of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s biggest drug-war victories, the killing of perhaps the top capo to fall so far in Calderon’s focused attack on cartel leadership.
Twenty-five of the 37 most-wanted drug traffickers from a list issued in 2009 have now been caught or killed.
“We had it confirmed before he was stolen,” the US official said.
US authorities did not provide details on how they knew, only that they had confirmed evidence. They did not say whether they believed the Mexican navy also knew Lazcano’s identity soon after it carried out the operation that killed Lazcano and his driver. Mexican navy officials and the attorney-general’s office declined to comment on Saturday.
Mexican forces often work from intelligence provided by US law enforcement, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, on the location and movements of top drug lords. Both Mexican and US officials said the navy came upon Lazcano by accident before Sunday’s attack.
Lazcano, who was born in 1974, according to the US, or 1975, according to Mexican officials, was one of the most-wanted drug traffickers in Mexico and the US and hunted for years by both governments. He was a former member of the army special forces who went on to lead a band of assassins he originally called “The Company” for the Gulf Cartel, which dominated drug trafficking through Mexico’s northeastern border with Texas for years. They later became known as the Zetas, named for the radio code given to high officers. The two groups split in 2010, leading to an unprecedented escalation in drug violence in Mexico’s northeastern corridor.
Lazcano was personally responsible for hundreds of murders, according to the Mexican government, and led an organization responsible for some of the country’s most shocking atrocities and mass killings. Those include the deaths of 52 casino gamblers and workers in an extortion fire last year in the northern city of Monterrey and the slaughter of 72 migrants in the border state of Tamaulipas in 2010.
There was a US$5 million reward for him in the US and US$2.5 million in Mexico.
The Mexican navy did not announce publicly until last Monday night, more than 24 hours after the shootout, that it believed it had killed Lazcano.
They admitted the body had been stolen only after it leaked out in the local press on Tuesday.
An official said marines had accompanied the bodies of the slain drug gang members to a funeral home in nearby Sabinas, though it is unclear what time. The marines left before midnight.
A Coahuila state forensics expert was called to the funeral home in Sabinas to process the body around 11pm on Sunday according to a state police official who was not authorized to speak to the press. The expert finished taking fingerprints and photographs about 12:15am on Monday, and sent the information to the federal attorney general’s office, the police official said.
A short-time later, gunmen forced the funeral home owner to take the body by hearse to an unknown location. The owner could not be reached for comment this week. Stealing bodies of fallen accomplices has been described as part of the Zeta culture, in which soldiers do not leave their comrades behind.
Lazcano was believed to be a devout Catholic who wanted a proper burial. An elaborate mausoleum in his hometown in central Hidalgo state stands near a chapel that bears a bronze-colored plaque reading: “Donated by Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, Lord, hear my prayer.” The plaque also says the chapel was built in honor of Pope John Paul II.
‘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