MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico said yesterday it had captured a leader of the Knights Templar, a violent drug cartel that has created a major security problem for President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The attorney general’s office said security forces arrested Dionisio Loya Plancarte, known as “El Tio” (‘The Uncle’), a top member of the Knights Templar, which has clashed with vigilante groups in the western state of Michoacan this year.
He is the most senior member of the gang to be arrested.
The Knights emerged from a split in another cartel in Michoacan known as La Familia and have controlled large swaths of the restive mountainous state in recent years, extorting farmers and local businesses and diversifying away from drug trafficking to activities such as mining.
Plancarte is suspected of being the gang’s go-between with corrupt security and justice officials, the attorney general’s office said.
