Notorious Mexico cartel leader El Azul who chopped up local mayor is arrested after directing

Posted by Martina Birk on Thursday, May 2, 2024

NOTORIOUS cartel leader El Azul who chopped up a mayor and has been blamed for fuelling a wave of ultra-violence has finally been captured by cops in Mexico.

Real name Adán Ochoa, the drug lord headed up the vicious Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel which has been locked in a bloody war with rivals the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

His arrest comes after Mexican security forces previously apprehended the gang's former boss Jose Antonio Yepez - known as “El Marro" - in August.

Ochoa's first act when he took over the cartel was reportedly to warn all his enemies they would be "eliminated".

State officials claim that El Azul - "The Blue" - is behind the vicious murder of Mayor Jesus Tinajero, reports Milenio.

Cartel killers dumped his dismembered remains in black bags along with a message which warned of further violence against local politicians.

Ochoa's reign over the cartel lasted just three months before he was captured in the Mexican city of Celaya.

As well as drugs and extortion, the cartel is believed to have made most of its money through stealing and selling crude oil.

The criminals have been blamed for explosions in crucial pipelines which in some cases have even caused fuel shortages.

War between Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel have made Guanajuato the most dangerous state in Mexico.

It has an average of 14 murders every 24 hours.

Newly installed president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador last year established wide-ranging reforms to tackle criminals engaged in fuel theives, such as El Azul.

Governor Diego Sinhue Rodríguez said: "I want to inform you that Adán -alias 'El Azul' - has been captured.

"He was the alleged leader of a criminal group that operates in the Laja - Bajío region."

Pictures show the cartel leader wearing a mask and flanked by two heavily armed Mexican soldiers.

Mexican cops remain hopeful that his arrest will deal a devastating blow to the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel

Authorities have arrested some 970 members of the gang since August, 2018, while holding 833 of their rivals the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.

However, some 9,862 people have been murdered in the same period.

And some 90 per cent of these homicides are linked to organised crime.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel is said to be being taken over by Juan Carlos Gonzalez, a ruthless gangster dubbed "the new El Chapo".

The cartel runs at least 35 states across Mexico and Puerto Rico with a bloody, iron first.

It operates with ruthless and brutal tactics, like hanging rival groups' bodies from bridges to intimidate them and setting their enemies' faces on fire.

Back in 2015 the group were rumoured to have killed a child and a man using sticks of dynamite - and filmed it, as per reports in Mexican newspaper Reforma.

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Next-in-line Gonzalez is already running military units El RR and El Grupo Delta, who're currently battling for territory in central Mexico against several of the country's other cartels.

His men have so far downed an army helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade and killed dozens of state officials - as well as exercising ruthless scare tactics.

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Mexican authorities estimate the gang oversaw a third of all drugs smuggled into the United States.

Europe and Asia are also being aggressively targeted as it forges links with other overseas organised crime. 

Mexico's Jalisco drug cartel pose with military-grade weapons in terrifying video

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