The Mexican Navy announced the arrest of José Alberto García Vilano, alias
La Kena
or
Ciclón 19
.
The capo is the leader of Los Ciclones, one of the most violent factions of the Gulf Cartel and the group that was behind the kidnapping of four Americans last year in the border city of Matamoros.
The authorities offered a reward of 2.5 million pesos (about $150,000) to anyone who provided information that would facilitate his capture.
Considered one of the most dangerous men in Northeast Mexico and a priority object for the DEA, García Vilano was arrested while shopping in an exclusive shopping center in San Pedro Garza García, considered the richest municipality in Latin America.
La Kena appears handcuffed and escorted by a group of sailors and ministerial agents from the State of Nuevo León in the video of his arrest, recorded on Thursday from a suit store.
The capo, who ordered his subordinates to exercise absolute discretion to avoid attracting attention, was wearing an Adidas sweatshirt, black pants and white tennis shoes.
No distinctive feature stands out in the record of his capture.
“He served as one of the key leaders in one of the criminal organizations with the most presence in the State of Tamaulipas, and for which the Attorney General's Office of the aforementioned State offered a large reward,” said the Navy.
Despite the immense power he amassed in the border area of Matamoros and Brownsville, south of Texas, there is little public information about García Vilano.
The kidnapping of four African-American citizens and the murder of two of them last March put a target on his back.
The case strained relations between Mexico and the United States, and fueled the claims of the most conservative political sectors in Washington about the insecurity situation south of the border and the need for an intervention by the US Armed Forces against the Mexican cartels. .
The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, called the comments an affront to the country's sovereignty.
The diplomatic friction left in the background the rescue of two survivors, the FBI search operations in Tamaulipas and the announcement of the discovery of the victims in the middle of a morning conference by the governor, Américo Villarreal.
In March, the Tamaulipas Prosecutor's Office launched the poster with the reward to catch La Kena, wanted for the crime of kidnapping and as the leader of the hitmen who deprived the Americans of their freedom.
A month later, US media revealed that US security agencies spied on the Gulf Cartel and obtained recordings of internal discussions of the criminal group about possible arrests, the reaction of the authorities and advice from their lawyers to eliminate any information about the Americans to avoid being tracked.
Los Ciclones, a split from Los Escorpiones, the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, are one of the multiple criminal groups that dispute the territory of Tamaulipas, one of the hot spots of violence in Mexico.
“As La Kena nicknamed, if you want to find out around here in Matamoros you see me walking,” reads the lyrics of the corrido dedicated to the capo and performed by Luis R. Conríquez and Tony Aguirre.
“Nineteen on the spokes, for all the cyclone armored and embedded bands, is the tostón,” is added about its code name, Ciclón 19 or Comandante 19. The song, released last year, also refers to Los Escorpiones and control of the border strip.
“I am Escorpión 19, Matamoros the place, we protect the kingdom from all those treacherous, they will not be forgiven,” is heard in
Anillos de Oro
, another corrido related to the drug trafficker, in which his loyalty to the Cartel is discussed. Golfo and his leadership, despite being only 32 years old.
In the middle of last year, the Northeast Cartel (CDN) sent a message to López Obrador to offer a truce with the authorities and factions of the Gulf Cartel.
“I approve of anything that means putting aside or not using violence,” the president said on May 30, although he later pointed out that his words were misinterpreted and that he was not promoting a pact with the cartels, but rather an exhortation for them to They should lead humanely and lay down their weapons.
In June, in another video, alleged members of the CDN responded to the president and spoke of the need to put a stop to violence and promote a transitional justice law.
They also said that they had been in peace talks “with the CDG [Gulf Cartel] division in Matamoros” to sign the peace.
Despite the controversy surrounding the veracity of the recording and its content, the violence continued, as did efforts to find bosses like La Kena.
Ten months after the kidnapping, the arrest was made.
Subscribe here
to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in this country