According to the Daily Mail Reporter online, one of Mexico’s most wanted, “The Condor,” was killed February 26 in a gun battle with police in a busy Chihuahua street. Three alleged accomplices were also arrested and taken to Mexico City for questioning.
Luis Humberto Peralta Hernández, 44, was carrying false I.D., which delayed identification of the body, so his death was not immediately made public. Peralta Hernández, said to be a top Juarez cartel leader, had worked for the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office for nine years before resigning in 2009, during which time he is alleged to have been connected with almost 100 murders.
While the Gulf and Zetas cartels have gained the lion’s share of notoriety lately with the death of U.S. ICE agent Jaime Zapata, recent attention has turned to other drug cartels. The Daily Mail continued:;
Police blame a deadly battle between the Juarez cartel and its rivals from the Sinaloa cartel for much of the drug-related violence in Chihuahua State. They say the Juarez cartel is behind many of the recent gruesome executions and decapitations in Ciudad Juarez.
Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, is home base to the Juarez cartel — and has been labeled the world’s deadliest city.
On February 25 Fox News Latino reported that the Chihuahua Attorney General’s office (the same one for which “The Condor” had worked) issued a press release stating that Peralta Hernández was linked to at least 96 murders, and had been wanted for murder and organized crime for nearly five years.
Fox also reported he’d been arrested by the federal Attorney General’s office for the specialized investigation of organized crime (SIEDO) in 2008. Along with five other investigative police officers, Peralta Hernández was charged with homicide and organized crime, but was later released. The charges rested on four rifles seized (one of which had been assigned to Hernández), which were believed to have been used to commit the 96 murders. One year ago, the federal AG’s office included him on its most wanted list, with a five-million peso reward (about $412,000).
Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as “Lord of the Skies” because of his fleet of aircraft, founded the Juarez cartel in 1993. After his death in 1997, his brother, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, took charge, and is waging a brutal war with Sinoloa cartel member Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman for control of Juarez. In 2010 alone, there were more than 3,000 horrific, drug-related murders in the city. Though Guzman has battled Fuentes relentlessly for three years, Fuentes — who carries a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States — is holding his ground.
The gruesome lawlessness displayed at the border is escalating, and the gangsters show no discrimination when it comes to murdering civilians. But the recent murder of Agent Zapata has launched an immense law enforcement sweep targeting drug gangs across the United States, Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Brazil, with one DEA agent, Derek Maltz, promising cartel members that they should never "sleep easy":
Look to your left, look to your right, look behind you. If you are sleeping in your bed, you better be aware that we are tracking you.
Photo: Navy soldiers (marines) link arms with drug boss Sergio Antonio Mora Cortes, alias "El Toto," after his arrest in Mexico City, Monday Feb. 28, 2011: AP Images
