MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican soldiers have arrested a suspected leader of the violent Zetas drug gang in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun and blamed him for a deadly attack on a bar last month, the army said yesterday.
Soldiers captured Jose Angel Fernandez late last week and said he was in charge of trafficking and enforcement operations in Cancun and the surrounding state of Quintana Roo state.
The army said in a statement that Fernandez ordered the attack on a bar on Aug. 31 in Cancun that killed eight people because the bar declined to pay protection money.
The army blamed Fernandez for the sharp rise in extortions in the city, saying the Zetas were using that income to fight their war with rivals the Gulf cartel.
The army declined to say how Fernandez was captured but said he was caught with three other people, weapons, cash in dollars and pesos, cell phones, vehicles and a list of names of people on the Zeta payroll in Quintana Roo.
