The fugitive leader of a ruthless Mexican cartel accused of killing two kidnapped American tourists last year has been captured at an upscale shopping mall.
Jose Alberto García Vilano, also known as “La Quena” and “Cyclone 19,” was arrested in the state of Nuevo León, public security authorities announced.
Mexico's National Arrest Registry confirmed García Vilano was arrested on Thursday, reportedly after authorities acted on a tip.
Without mentioning García Vilano by name, the Navy Department announced that Marines had arrested “one of the key leaders of one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Tamaulipas,” who was a “drug agent.” He was also one of the Enforcement Bureau's main targets.
Miguel Treviño, the mayor of the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia, one of Mexico's wealthiest towns, confirmed that García-Villano had been collared at a local shopping center.
“Thanks to excellent intelligence, coordination and police surveillance, the alleged leader of the crime was arrested today without a single shot being fired,” Treviño wrote in X.
Prosecutors had previously offered a reward worth about $150,000 for the arrest of the elusive kingpin. It is unclear whether that amount will be paid after the arrest.
García Vilano is said to have led one of the Gulf Cartel's most powerful and violent factions, known as the “Cyclones.”
The cartel is tied to the deadly kidnapping of four American citizens in March 2023, and they sent one of them, Latavia McGee, south of the border to undergo surgery for a stomach lump. I crossed the street and entered the crime-prone city of Matamoros.
Friends from South Carolina got lost and encountered a group of armed gangsters who opened fire and forced them into the back of a truck, harrowing surveillance video shows.
Zindel Brown and Shade Woodard were killed in the attack. Maggie and Eric Williams were rescued from the wooden warehouse a few days later.
A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also believed to have been killed by a stray bullet in the shootout.
The Gulf Drug Cartel subsequently handed over five members to the police as perpetrators of the abduction.
A letter purporting to be from the Scorpions, a faction of the cartel, condemned the violence and said: -Lack of making and discipline. ”
with post wire
