Only 16 bad guys left on most-wanted list

Posted by DD for Borderland Beat from material from Milenio and Mexico News Daily 

Ismael El Mayo Zambada still free

 
 Based      on a report by the Attorney General of the Republic, 106  offenders, all drug traffickers, they were located in 4 1/2 years,   Fourteen of those were shot and killed by the Federal forces and the report said the other 92 were behind bars. 

Los Zetas has been hit the hardest by Peña Nieto’s strategy: 44 of its highest ranking members have been apprehended and five have been killed.     Arrests that most stand out against Los Zetas are the brothers Miguel Ángel and Oscar Omar Trevino Morales, the Z-40 and the Z-42, respectively, considered the supreme leaders of the cartel. 

Of the 16 remaining free out of the original 122 "most wanted" by the federal Government, only two names are public:    Ismael El Mayo Zambada and Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leaders of the  Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, respectively.  

The biggest hit against the Sinaloa Cartel was the arrest on two occasions of founder and leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, extradited earlier this year to the United States.

Twenty more of its members have also been arrested or killed, including one of its most violent chieftains, Gonzalo Inzunza Inzunza, who was slain on December 2013 in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, the case that led  the DEA to deliver it's first decorated purple heart to two Mexican, agents of the Federal Police, who were seriously injured in the clash.   

Four members of the Gulf Cartel have also been arrested since 2012, while Galdino Mellado Cruz was shot dead during a confrontation. Mellado, a former member of the Mexican Army, was an early member of Los Zetas, known for recruiting former soldiers.

Five members of the Beltrán Leyva Organization have also been apprehended or killed, including Juan Francisco “H2” Patrón Sánchez and Daniel Isaac “H9” Silva Gárate, who according to PGR were the leaders of the organization.

The Juarez cartel lost its leader Vicente Carrillo, the Viceroy, brother of the deceased capo Amado Carrillo, the Lord of heaven; also captured his brother Esteban Alberto Carrillo, the Ugly Betty, as well as five other operators.   

Nazario “El Chayo” Moreno González, leader and founder of one of the most violent organizations, Los Caballeros Templarios, and of La Familia Michoacana was killed in March 2014, while his second-in-command, Servando “La Tuta” Gómez Martínez, was arrested by the Federal Police.

The government has refused over the years to release the names on the list of 122 "most wanted" because it claimed that much of the list should remain classified “so as not to compromise ongoing operations and investigation by national security personnel as well as joint operations with international organizations.”

Government officials also believe that releasing the information could reveal the depth of the intelligence gathered thus far and perhaps help cartels and capos take measures in response, such as plastic surgery. It could also prompt violence between cartels if rival gangs don’t know the hierarchy of their competitors.

The report stated that the government had achieved a 87% success in achieving the goal set forth in EPN's  strategy arresting 122 leaders of organized crime or gangs announced in 2012 shortly after his election. 

However those success numbers are somewhat misleading in that over the intervening years the list had shrunk to 30 "priority targets".   Big names that were removed from the list are Sinaloa cartel under boss Juan Jose Esparragoza, alias “El Azul,” Juarez cartel leader Juan Pablo Ledezma, Knights Templar leader Ignacio Renteria Andrade and La Linea boss Juan Pablo Guijarrillo Fragozam.

Of the 16 remaining free out of the original 122 "most wanted" by the federal Government, only two names are public:    Ismael El Mayo Zambada and Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leaders of the  Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, respectively.  

The report did not include any mention of new leaders that might be a priority due to realignment of cartels and the formation of new cartels or gangs.

As the most-wanted list dwindles, however, criminal violence has been on the rise, particularly in the form of homicides related to organized crime.