Asia-Pacific

Mexicans hope drug lord's arrest may turn tide

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-09-01 11:31

Beheadings, Torture

Officials say Valdez, as a leader of the Beltran Leyva cartel based in central Mexico, trafficked a tonne of cocaine each month and was responsible for "several dozen" murders.

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He is believed to be behind beheadings of rivals, the torture and mutilation of victims and the slaughter of the family of a marine who took part in the killing of his former boss Arturo Beltran Leyva in December.

But Valdez's operations were small compared to Mexico's top gangs -- the Sinaloa, Gulf and Juarez cartels -- that smuggle the majority of the 140 tonnes of cocaine the United Nations estimates that Mexico exports to the United States every year.

Neither is the arrest likely to end violence in border areas like Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, or in Mexico's wealthy northern city of Monterrey, which is being sucked into the drug war this year.

Valdez's arrest follows an operation in July that killed Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, No. 3 in the Sinaloa cartel.

While the government hopes the victories will weaken Mexican cartels, such operations have intensified bloodshed at least temporarily as subordinates battle for control of gangs believed to rake in up to $40 billion a year.

Valdez had been a top contender to head the Beltran Leyva cartel since its boss was killed by soldiers in December.

"The investigation has not been concluded ... and at this stage it is not clear who could replace him," Rosas said.

Born into a middle-class family, Valdez is said to have played American football at school and developed a taste for luxury before coming to Mexico to work in the drug trade.