The local leader of the bloody violent Zetas drug cartel, Daniel Jesus Elizondo Ramirez dubbed “El Loco,” or the Crazy One, was captured after he ordered underlings to leave 49 mutilated bodies in a northern Mexico town square.
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According to the Associated Press, Ramirez allegedly got orders from Zetas leaders Miguel-Angel Trevino Morales and Heriberto Lazcano to dump the bodies in the town square of Cadereyta in the border state of Nuevo Leon.
According to Brig. Gen. Edgar Luis Villegas, El Loco apparently got nervous about dumping the hacked-up bodies in the town and instead dumped them on a highway outside Cadereyta. The bodies, with their heads, hands and feet hacked off, were found May 13.
A video posted later on a Mexican website that covers drug crimes showed gunmen in the dark dumping the bodies and unfurling a banner claiming responsibility for the killings signed by the Zetas, who are locked in a battle with the rival Gulf and Sinaloa cartels. Villegas said another suspect who is still at large made the videotape.
Elizondo Ramirez tried to escape arrest Friday by tossing a hand grenade at troops before they captured him in a suburb of the northern city of Monterrey, according to the general.
Ramirez is currently being held without charge at a special detention facility while prosecutors build their case against him. Ramirez confessed to killing members of the Gulf cartel and burning or burying their bodies in another area of Nuevo Leon.
According to Villegas, Ramirez also acknowledged accompanying Zetas second-in-command Miguel-Angel Trevino Morales to Guatemala in 2008 to assassinate a rival drug capo, Juan Jose “Juancho” Leon.
Hopefully this recent capture will thwart many of the violent drug killings that continue to ravage Mexico.
