Mafia leader said to escape police dragnet in Mexico

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There’s a very dramatic story in today’s El Universal that describes how one of the most-wanted men in Mexico escaped arrest last week.

On May 7, federal police had one of the heads of the so-called Sinaloa cartel cornered on a highway outside Cuernavaca, El Universal reports. But Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias El Barbas, was being protected by a team of bodyguards that included at least four former military men.

Two federal policemen were killed in the shootout that followed. Beltran Leyva’s bodyguards employed 11 assault rifles and a grenade launcher, according to El Universal.

Nine of the cartel gunmen were detained. They later admitted that they had been guarding Beltran Leyva, El Universal says.

The operation was directed by Edgar Millan Gomez, the coordinator of anti-drug efforts for Mexico’s federal police. Just hours later, Millan Gomez was assassinated in his home by gunmen who had been contracted by Beltran Leyva some days earlier, police said. Millan Gomez was likely killed in revenge for several operations against the Sinaloa cartel, according to police.

Posted by Héctor Tobar in Mexico City