Mexican authorities exhumed a relative of drug kingpin Heriberto Lazcano on Monday and took DNA samples from the corpse to clear any doubt that they killed the Zetas leader.
Lazcano, one of Mexico’s most-wanted men, is believed to have been killed at a baseball field in the northern state of Coahuila on Oct. 7, but gunmen stole the cartel leader’s body from a funeral home hours later.
Mexican officials had identified Lazcano with pictures and fingerprints taken at the funeral home, but authorities announced last week that they had decided to exhume one of his parents’ bodies to put to rest any doubts.
Photo: Reuters
Forensic experts exhumed a body on Monday in San Francisco cemetery, south of the city of Pachuca in the central state of Hidalgo.
A source in the federal prosecutor’s office declined to say which relative had been exhumed.
“While the fingerprints and photos did not leave room for any doubts, the [identification] process is also being carried out with a DNA lab study,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Founded by military deserters, the Zetas are one of the most powerful gangs in a drug war that has claimed an estimated 60,000 lives in the past six years.
The state of Guerrero is one of the areas hardest hit by the violence. On Monday, officials in the popular resort town of Acapulco announced the discovery of 24 bodies in an unmarked grave there. Work on the site began last month.
Lazcano was accused of masterminding the arson attack on a casino last year in the northeastern city of Monterrey that left 52 dead.
He was also blamed for the killing of 72 migrants found with their hands tied in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, which borders the US, in August 2010.
One of two main leaders of the Zetas cartel, Lazcano had a US$2.6 million reward on his head. The US had set its award at US$5 million.
The Zetas are engaged in a brutal turf war with the Pacific region’s Sinaloa Cartel, led by fugitive billionaire Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, Mexico’s public enemy No. 1 and a billionaire criminal who escaped from a maximum security prison in 2001.
The new top Zeta, Miguel Angel Trevino, will have to consolidate his leadership position while at the same time facing a furious offensive from their western rivals.
Trevino, 40, an ex-police officer also known as “Z-40” or “El 40,” had been effectively running the Zetas for months, experts say.
Guzman launched an offensive against the Zetas earlier this year focused on Nuevo Laredo, a northern border town that is the transit point for 40 percent of all Mexico’s overland exports into the US.
The Zetas were founded by Mexican special forces soldiers who deserted and went to work for the Gulf Cartel as enforcers.
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