Drug kingpin Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel was gunned down Thursday, July 29 in one of his Guadalajara houses during a pre-planned raid by the Mexican military.
Coronel’s death became the first time Guadalajara has hit national headlines due to drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006.
Coronel, reportedly the money-laundering expert of the Sinaloa Cartel, was killed after military intelligence received a tip as to his whereabouts.
Helicopters swarmed above the San Javier neighborhood of Zapopan, around the intersection of Acueducto and Paseo del Parque as soldiers closed in on Coronel’s residence.
After a shootout in which one soldier was killed and one injured, Coronel lay dead along with one of his nephews. The order had been to take him alive but circumstances necessitated a different kind of action once Coronel killed one soldier and injured another.
Coronel was born on February 1, 1954 in Veracruz, according to U.S. government information, although Mexican sources say his birthplace was Durango.
Coronel worked his way up the Sinaloa Cartel, making his name producing crystal meth in factories. His nickname “King of the Crystal” alludes to his drug-manufacturing past.
One of Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman’s closest confidents, Coronel had a five-million dollar reward from the U.S. government on his head as well as a 30-million-peso bounty offered by the Mexican government. In 2003, an arrest warrant was issued in Texas for Coronel on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute drugs to and within the United States.
Coronel’s body, along with that of his nephew, who was touted as Coronel’s potential successor, was picked up by his sister on Monday.
The two bodies were buried in an upper-class cemetery in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Coronel’s casket was bathed in gold.
The successful attack against the Sinaloa Cartel may help quell suggestions that President Felipe Calderon’s government isn’t going after the cartel as fiercely as some others.
As Guadalajara hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, Jalisco’s Governor Emilio Gonzalez came out in defense of the state Wednesday, insinuating that the United States is a more dangerous place to live or visit.
“In 2007 and 2008, there were 5.4 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants in Jalisco,” Gonzalez said at a conference in Puerto Vallarta. “In the United States, the figure was 5.6 for the same years.”
Continued the governor: “This tells us that Jalisco is safer than the United States.”
The rates from 2007 and 2008 say nothing about this year’s spike in murders in Jalisco and Gonzalez has recently admitted that narco-traffickers have infiltrated “everything,” sending a mixed message on the subject.
In his August 5 article entitled “Secreto a voces: narcos y autoridades en Jalisco,” Milenio journalist Ruben Martin alleges that a pact between state authorities and Coronel meant Guadalajara had been relatively quiet until late last year, when other cartels tried with renewed vigor to take the city.
After the military disrupted the pact by killing Coronel, Martin believes Guadalajara is likely to see increased violence in a new turf war among different drug cartels.
“Things in the country and in Jalisco are on a bad path but it’s even worse when the death of a capo causes more restlessness than tranquility,” wrote Martin.
Martin argued that it’s almost impossible to believe state police didn’t know Coronel was in Guadalajara and points to the fact that the Mexican military were tasked with capturing the drug lord.
In the week since Coronel’s death, there have been no major incidents in Guadalajara.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
