The BLO was one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels, which had effectively infiltrated the ranks of various Mexican government agencies and Mexico'sInterpol. Its last known leader,Héctor Beltrán Leyva, was arrested in October 2014, having had a multimillion-dollar bounty placed on him by the governments of both the United States and Mexico.[8][9][10] On August 11, 2011 the capture of one of the cartel's former top lieutenants,[11][12] called "the last Beltran-Leyva link of any importance",[11] prompted Mexican authorities to declare the cartel disbanded and extinct.[13][14]
Born in theSinaloan countryside in the 1960s, the Beltrán Leyva brothers—Arturo,Carlos,Alfredo, Mario Alberto andHéctor—worked closely with their cousin,Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the leader of the Cartel, during decades of smuggling.[15] Sensing a void in the rivalGulf Cartel afterOsiel Cárdenas' arrest on March 14, 2003, the organization began to move into Gulf Cartel territory. The gangs fought each other in northern Mexican cities, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, including some civilians, police and journalists.[16]
In 2004 and 2005, Arturo Beltrán Leyva led powerful groups of assassins to fight for trade routes in northeastern Mexico for the Cartel. Through the use of corruption or intimidation, the Beltrán Leyva Cartel was able to infiltrate Mexico's political,[17] judicial[18] and police institutions to feed classified information about anti-drug operations,[19][20] and even infiltrated theInterpol office in Mexico.[21]
During 2010, former Beltran Leyva cartel lieutenant Óscar Osvaldo García Montoya (a.k.a.El Compayito[22]) attempted to regroup some cartel remnants under a gang he calledLa Mano Con Ojos.[11] García Montoya was arrested on August 11, 2011;[11] the Attorney General of Mexico had placed a 5million pesos (US$400,000) bounty for his capture.[12] Mexican authorities stated that García Montoya was "the last Beltrán-Leyva link of any importance",[11] and that the cartel has been disbanded.[13][14]
Allied forces ofLos Zetas and Beltrán-Leyva remnants clashed on April 28, 2012 with gunmen of the organization in theChoix mountains. At least 32 armed men were confirmed dead. The renewed fighting in Sinaloa state between the BLO and the Cartel is supposedly sparked by the incursion of the Cartel and its allies inNuevo Laredo, traditionally the biggest Zeta stronghold.[23]
The last cartel leader,Héctor Beltrán Leyva, was captured on October 1, 2014 while eating at a popular restaurant in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. The U.S. was offering a reward of US$5million for information leading to his arrest.[8] while the Mexican government was offering a US$2.1million reward.[9][10]
The arrest of Beltrán Leyva Organization leaderAlfredo Beltrán Leyva (a.k.a.El Mochomo) ("The Desert Ant") on January 20, 2008,[24][25] was a huge blow to the organization, as he allegedly oversaw large-scale drug-smuggling operations and was a keymoney launderer for the cartel. In apparentrevenge for the arrest of his brother Alfredo, Arturo ordered the assassination of the commissioner of theFederal Police,Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez,[26] and other top federal officials in the Mexican capital.[27][28] One group of thesehit men was captured in aMexico City house with dozens ofassault rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, 30hand grenades, and bullet-proof jackets bearing the legend FEDA—the Spanish acronym for 'Special Forces of Arturo'.[26] Apparently, the Beltrán Leyva brothers blamed their partner and cousin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán for their brother's arrest,[29] and in retaliation ordered the assassination of Guzmán's son,[30] 22-year-old Édgar Guzmán López, which was carried out in a shopping center parking lot by at least 15 gunmen using assault rifles andgrenade launchers.[6][31]
The residual impact of Alfredo's arrest not only undermined long-term alliances, but resurrected animosities between rival cartel leaders Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán and Arturo's new allies, theJuárez Cartel, and provided the catalyst behind the bloodshed in Mexico's most-violent city:Ciudad Juárez.[32] The Beltrán Leyva brothers, and those loyalists who departed the Cartel with them, allied withLos Zetas, causing an escalation of conflict in strongholds shared uneasily by "old" leaders.
Supply corridors for moving marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine from the Andes to the Arctic;
Capability to extort, launder money, run guns, smuggle humans, promote prostitution and carry out kidnappings;
Operations in Mexico City, Chiapas, Guerrero, Guanajuato, Mexico State, Morelos, Nuevo León, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Sonora, and Tamaulipas, as well as in the United States and Canada;
Access to some high-ranking public figures and Army personnel whom they bribed or intimidated.
Former suppliers
The Beltrán Leyva brothers'Colombian cocaine supplier, Ever Villafane Martínez, was arrested inMorelos in August 2008. After that, the organization pursued a relationship with Víctor and Darío Espinoza Valencia of Colombia'sNorte del Valle cartel.[29]
Alfredo Beltrán Leyva was captured on January 20, 2008,[25] and Arturo was killed by Mexican Marines in a shootout on December 16, 2009.[43] Two weeks following Arturo's death, on December 30, 2009, Carlos Beltrán Leyva was captured by the Mexican Federal Police inCuliacán, Sinaloa after showing authorities a fake driver's license of an alias he was living under.[6][44][45] Carlos was arrested on charges outstanding since 2008, including drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy,money laundering and illegal firearms.[6]
At the same time as federal police arrested Carlos, Beltrán Leyva associates who allegedly murdered four relatives—a mother, siblings and an aunt—of one of the marines involved in the shootout that killed Arturo, were also arrested by Mexican authorities, with a hitman allegedly confessing to the crimes.[6] The killings, allegedly in retaliation for Arturo's death, happened hours after the marine's funeral.[6] On April 22, 2010, cartel lieutenantGerardo Alvarez-Vazquez was captured on the outskirts ofMexico City; the U.S. had been offering a $2 million U.S. bounty for his arrest.[46]Edgar Valdez Villarreal, the leader ofLos Negros cartel enforcement, was arrested on August 30, 2010 outside Mexico City.[47] On January 18, 2011, José Jorge Balderas Garza, known as "JJ", the lieutenant and financial operator of the Valdez Villarreal faction, was captured. On September 12, 2010,Sergio Villarreal Barragán was arrested in the city ofPuebla, east of Mexico City.[48]Héctor Beltrán Leyva was captured by the Mexican Armed Forces on October 1, 2014.[49]
The August 11, 2011 arrest of Óscar Osvaldo García Montoya (a.k.a.El Compayito),[50] a cartel lieutenant, was called "the last Beltran-Leyva link of any importance".[11]
On April 16, 2014, the second-in-command, Arnoldo Villa Sánchez, was captured by Mexican authorities in theCondesa district in Mexico City.[51]
On October 1, 2014, Hector Beltran Leyva and business associate German Goyenechea, who had become the cartel's chief financier,[52] were both captured while eating at a popular restaurant inSan Miguel de Allende.[53]
On October 11, 2017, the U.S. Justice Department arrested Sajid Emilio Quintero Navidad, 36, at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. He was charged with money-laundering and drug-trafficking. Navidad, who also goes by the nameEl Cadete is the cousin of fugitive drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who is allegedly responsible for the killing of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.[54][55]
On July 4, 2019, Héctor Huerta Ríos, the leader of the Beltran-Leyva Cartel in Nuevo Leon who was previously arrested in 2009, was killed by a rival cartel after being shot while driving in Jalisco.[56] His wife, who was in the car with her husband and their two daughters, identified his body to police the next day.[56]
Following the death ofArturo Beltran Leyva on December 16, 2009, and the arrest ofEdgar Valdez Villarreal on August 30, 2010, the Beltran Leyva brothers lost much of their influence. The cartel then divided into separate independent groups:[citation needed]
La Oficina In Aguascalientes and Zacatecas. Believed to be run by Chapo Isidro current leader of the Beltran Leyva organization along with the Velasco family well known in the state of Aguascalientes
Los Charritos Most active hitsquad believed to have a heavy presence in the US (Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Las Vegas)
^Special agent Joseph M. Arabit, ed. (March 24, 2009)."Violence Along the Southwest Border""(PDF).Report by El Paso Division – U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice. pp. 10–11.Archived(PDF) from the original on May 31, 2009. RetrievedAugust 3, 2009.
