Drug lord ‘El Taliban’ held in Mexico

Mexican marines have arrested one of the country’s most-wanted drug traffickers, Ivan Velazquez Caballero, known as “El Taliban”.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Sep 2012, 18:02 BST

Officials put him on display in a Press conference yesterday.

Velazquez Caballero has allegedly been fighting a bloody internal battle with rival Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, and officials have said the split was behind a recent surge in killings, particularly in northern Mexico.

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Masked marines displayed the burly, handcuffed suspect alongside two alleged accomplices and a table of guns and other contraband seized during his arrest.

Velazquez Caballero is the third alleged cartel leader to be taken into custody this month. All are accused of leading factions of the Gulf Cartel or Zetas, former allies now feuding over valuable smuggling territory along the US border.

The alleged heads of the two main factions of the Gulf group, Maria Cardenas Guillen and Jorge Eduardo Costillo Sanchez, were also seized in Navy operations in northern Mexico.

The Zetas are one of Mexico’s two most powerful cartels. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, head of the other, Sinaloa, remains free.