US knew dead Zeta leader’s ID before body stolen
Associated Press | October 13, 2012
MEXICO CITY – The U.S. government knew that a suspect fatally shot by Mexican marines was the head of the widely feared Zetas drug cartel well before the marines left the body unguarded in a small-town funeral home, where it was stolen in a pre-dawn raid by armed men, U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
The U.S. had independently verified the identity of Zeta founder and leader Heriberto Lazcano, killed in a shootout Sunday in a northern Mexican town, before his body was stolen at about 1 a.m. Monday, according to a U.S. law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak to the press about the case.
The information throws into question the Mexican navy’s insistence that marines thought they had killed a common criminal and that was why they left his body unguarded at the funeral home where gunmen hijacked a hearse in the middle of night. Rear Admiral Jose Luis Vergara, the navy’s chief spokesman, said last week that the identity wasn’t confirmed through Mexico’s fingerprint database until after the body was gone.
The theft of the body was an embarrassing twist on one of President Felipe Calderon’s biggest drug-war victories, the killing of perhaps the top capo to fall so far in Calderon’s focused attack on cartel leadership. Twenty-five of the 37 most-wanted drug traffickers from a list issued in 2009 have now been caught or killed.
“We had it confirmed before he was stolen,” the U.S. official told the AP.
U.S. authorities didn’t provide details on how they knew, only that they had confirmed evidence. They didn’t say whether they believed the Mexican navy also knew Lazcano’s identity soon after it carried out the operation that killed Lazcano and his driver. Mexican navy officials and the attorney-general’s office declined to comment on Saturday.
Mexican forces often work from intelligence provided by U.S. law enforcement, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, on the location and movements of top drug lords. Both Mexican and U.S. officials said the navy came upon Lazcano by accident before Sunday’s attack.
Lazcano, who was born in 1974, according to the U.S., or 1975, according to Mexican officials, was one of the most-wanted drug traffickers in Mexico and the U.S. and hunted for years by both governments. He was a former member of the army special forces who went on to lead a band of assassins he originally called “The Company” for the Gulf Cartel, which dominated drug trafficking through Mexico’s northeastern border with Texas for years. They later became known as the Zetas, named for the radio code given to high officers. The two groups split in 2010, leading to an unprecedented escalation in drug violence in Mexico’s northeastern corridor.
Read more at: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/oct/13/us-knew-dead-zeta-leaders-id-before-body-stolen/#ixzz29OKAd2Y1
Posted by Lora
on Oct 13 2012. Filed under News.
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