12:00 AM CST on Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY – A Texas-born hitman is fighting the brother of a deceased drug lord for control of the Beltrán Leyva cartel, possibly the first time an American has risen to the very top ranks of Mexican gangs, authorities say.
Ramón Pequeño, head of the anti-narcotics division of Mexico’s federal police, said Tuesday that Texas-born Edgar Váldez Villarreal, nicknamed «La Barbie,» is battling Hector Beltrán Leyva for control of the Beltrán Leyva cartel.
«Right now it appears there is an internal dispute for control of the organization,» Pequeño said. «On one side is La Barbie, and on the other side is Hector Beltrán, the natural heir of the organization.»
Pequeño said the battle was unleashed when cartel leader Arturo Beltrán Leyva died in a shootout with Mexican marines in December.
A previous top drug lord, Juan García Abrego, was expelled to the United States in 1996 for purportedly being a U.S. citizen. But he appeared to have lived all his life in Mexico, and there are doubts about whether he was born in Texas, as one birth certificate states.
Váldez Villarreal was born in Laredo and has built a reputation as one of the most brutal enforcers employed by Mexican drug gangs.
Turf battles among Mexico’s drug gangs and attacks on law enforcement officers and civilians have killed about 17,900 people since President Felipe Calderón launched an offensive against the gangs when he took office in December 2006.
The battles have become so fierce in some regions – particularly along the border with Texas – that the U.S. government has cautioned its citizens to avoid unnecessary travel to some areas.
The U.S. Consulate in the northern city of Monterrey warned Americans to avoid traveling by road between Monterrey and the border cities of Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa, citing a «heightened risk of violence» on those highways.
The violence in that region is the result of another dispute between drug gangs. The Zetas – a gang of hitmen who once worked for the Gulf cartel – apparently have split with that organization, which reportedly has allied with the powerful Sinaloa cartel.
Calderón has dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers to fight the cartels, but he recently acknowledged that the offensive needs to include social programs as well.
On Tuesday, the government announced $52 million in funding for housing, day care and anti-poverty programs in Ciudad Juárez, another city on the border with Texas that has been wracked by violence.